Teleilat Ghassul (a few kilometres north east of the Dead Sea) is important in the archaeology of the southern Levant, offering as it does a possibility to draw together data from a number of sites that provide primary evidence for the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (c. 5000 - c. 3500 BC). The Australian excavations at the site in 1967-77 (J.B. Hennessy) and 1994-97 form the basis of this study and provide an opportunity not only for a thorough reappraisal of the data, but also its interpretation in the light of present knowledge of the period elsewhere, and up-to-date research strategies. The stratigraphic and ceramic sequences are structured and assessed, and the site set in its contemporary cultural and social contexts. The monograph concludes with a reappraisal of the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in the southern Levant.