The causes of the disappearance of Late Chalcolithic society (Ghassulian) in the early fourth millennium bc remain obscure. This study identifies the collapse as the consequence of a change in the approach to metallurgy from cosmological fundament (Late Chalcolithic) to a practical craft (EB1). This endogenous transition accounts for the cultural recession characterizing the transitional period (EB1A) and the discontinuity in ritual practices. The new practical approach in metallurgy is firstly observed in the southern margin of the Ghassulian culture, which produced copper for distribution in the Nile valley rather than the southern Levant. Nevertheless, the Ghassulian cultural markers visible in the newly emerging areas of copper working (southern coastal plain, Nile valley) denote the survival of the old cosmological traditions among metalworkers of the EB1 culture. Their religious expression unveils the extension of the Ghassulian beliefs attached to metallurgy and their metamorphosis into the esoteric fundaments of the Bronze Age religions.

公元前四千年早期铜器时代晚期社会（加苏利安）消失的原因保持模糊。这项研究将崩塌确定为冶金方法从宇宙学基础（晚期铜石时代）转变为实用工艺（EB1）的结果。这种内生的转变解释了以过渡时期（EB1A）为特征的文化衰退和仪式实践的不连续性。冶金学的新实用方法首先在加苏利亚文化的南缘观察到，该文化生产的铜分布在尼罗河谷而不是黎凡特南部。尽管如此，在新兴的铜加工地区（南部沿海平原、尼罗河谷）可见的加苏利亚文化标志表明 EB1 文化的金属工人中古老的宇宙学传统仍然存在。