The thesis deals with the change from the circular to a rectangular building during the Pre- Pottery Neolithic B period (PPNB) in the Levant and researches the possible influence of environmental conditions on this transition. The observed area comprises variable regions from northern Syria to central Jordan. Sites for the analysis were selected according to architectural and chronological criteria. The chosen chronological scope is delimited by final phases of late Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10 000-9500 BP) and by middle PPNB (9200-8500 BP) periods, with the early PPNB period as a key one, considered as a period of the commencement of rectangular buildings. Because of the high architectural variability across the northern and the southern Levant, besides the chronological scope also the architectural criteria must be extended. Therefore, circular, and rectangular building shapes were classified too. A database of Levantine sites was compiled, which enabled to compare distinct development of the ground plan within a diverse environment of the arid, steppe, and Mediterranean territories and revealed a relatively broad time scope of the change. In the process of evaluation, the main attention was paid to the variable environmental conditions of the northern and southern Levant: the individual...