This contribution describes the transformation that SW Asian societies underwent throughout the Neolithic Age (c. 10,000 BCE–5300 BCE), an epoch traditionally considered as revolutionary for the exploration of multiple strategies of subsistence and co-existence (among which sedentism is the most prominent but not the only one). The period is therefore outlined here with a specific focus on the social, economic and symbolic/religious traits, which, thanks to the increasing visibility of the archaeological record, suggest the challenges and stresses that ancient societies had to face in order to successfully adapt to a new relationship with (or understanding of) the surrounding environment.