He added that the discovery provided a unique opportunity to learn more about the earliest permanent settlements in prehistoric Britain and how such sites developed at a time when new practices were being adopted.

BBC: Kingsmead Quarry dig unearths Neolithic settlement

With the comfort of permanent agricultural settlements came uncomfortable new scourges such as intestinal parasites, bad teeth and the fouling of the water supply.

ECONOMIST: Food in history

The scheme appears to break the Oslo agreements in that it unilaterally alters the status both of the city and of the settlements: issues that were explicitly put on hold pending the permanent-status negotiations.

ECONOMIST: Tampering with Jerusalem