Science: Earliest Village?

Human history passed a critical transition when wandering hunters settled down in permanent villages. Archaeologists have reason to believe that this experiment in communal living was made for the first time in Iraq or Iran. Dr. Robert Braidwood of the University of Chicago has reported finding in northern Iraq a village so crude that it seems to be close to the ancient transition point.

Attracted by pottery fragments to a low mound with the native name of M'lefaat, the diggers found relatively recent remains in the upper layers of dirt. Farther down they found...