Seven thousand years ago, conditions at the site of Abu Hamid were favourable for the settlement of a group of cultivators for whom hunting held a meagre supporting role. The earliest village was a hollowed out shelter, dug more than one metre deep and covered with vegetation. Later on, round or oval houses were built upon the hollow, not quite as deep in the ground as before.

Then for generations, the settlement was frequented by nomadic shepherds only. Ash floors, hearths, post holes, ditches, plaster covered bowls were the marks of their passage. Nothing was constructed.

A bit before 4000 B.C., unbaked bricks were used in housing construction. By 3800 B.C., layouts had evolved to one large rectangular room, occasionally with an adjoining smaller room. Cooking was done in the open. The village spread over 6 hectares (about 15 acres) and opened out onto the fields. At certain periods of the year a part of the group would leave the village to move flocks to summer pastures on the highlands north of the River Jordan and to the Golan Heights. Trips were also made southwards to procure raw materials such as green rocks and copper ore in the Araba region. They may have gone for religious reasons equally, as the violin shaped statuettes and the zoomorphic vase, quite close to their style, were among objects found in a sanctuary in Gilat in the Negev Desert.