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Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

 
Pre Pottery Neolithic A

 
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Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
 
 
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The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (short PPNA, around 9000 BC) represents the early Neolithic
Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
 in the Levant
Levant

The Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by the Arabian Desert, and on the west by the M...
ine and upper Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
n region of the Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often extended to Lower Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the Cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the History_of_writing#Bronze_Age_writing and Wheel#History....
. It succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic) as the domestication
Domestication

Domestication or taming refers to the process whereby a population of living things becomes accustomed to a controlled environment by other plants or animals through a process of Selective breeding....
 of plants and animals was in its beginnings and triggered by the Younger Dryas
Younger Dryas

The Younger Dryas stadial, named after the alpine/tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala, and also referred to as the Big Freeze, was a brief cold climate period following the B?lling/Aller?d Oscillation interstadial at the end of the Pleistocene between approximately 12,800 to 11,500 years Before Present, and preceding the Boreal of t...
.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B is a division of the Neolithic developed by Dame Kathleen Kenyon during her archaeological excavations at Jericho in the southern Levant region....
 were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon
Kathleen Kenyon

Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon , was a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She is best known for her excavations in Jericho in 1952-1958....
 in the type site
Type site

In archaeology a type site is a archaeological site that is considered the model of a particular archaeological culture. For example, the type site of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A culture is Jericho, in the West Bank, while the type site of the pre-celtic/Celt Bronze Age Hallstatt culture is the lakeside village of Hallstatt, Austria....
 of Jericho
Jericho

Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Arabs....
 (Palestinian Territories).






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The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (short PPNA, around 9000 BC) represents the early Neolithic
Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
 in the Levant
Levant

The Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by the Arabian Desert, and on the west by the M...
ine and upper Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
n region of the Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often extended to Lower Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the Cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the History_of_writing#Bronze_Age_writing and Wheel#History....
. It succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic) as the domestication
Domestication

Domestication or taming refers to the process whereby a population of living things becomes accustomed to a controlled environment by other plants or animals through a process of Selective breeding....
 of plants and animals was in its beginnings and triggered by the Younger Dryas
Younger Dryas

The Younger Dryas stadial, named after the alpine/tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala, and also referred to as the Big Freeze, was a brief cold climate period following the B?lling/Aller?d Oscillation interstadial at the end of the Pleistocene between approximately 12,800 to 11,500 years Before Present, and preceding the Boreal of t...
.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B is a division of the Neolithic developed by Dame Kathleen Kenyon during her archaeological excavations at Jericho in the southern Levant region....
 were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon
Kathleen Kenyon

Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon , was a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She is best known for her excavations in Jericho in 1952-1958....
 in the type site
Type site

In archaeology a type site is a archaeological site that is considered the model of a particular archaeological culture. For example, the type site of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A culture is Jericho, in the West Bank, while the type site of the pre-celtic/Celt Bronze Age Hallstatt culture is the lakeside village of Hallstatt, Austria....
 of Jericho
Jericho

Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Arabs....
 (Palestinian Territories). During this time, pottery
Pottery

Pottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries....
 was yet unknown. They precede the ceramic Neolithic (Yarmukian).

10,200-9,200 BP (uncalibrated
Radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon dating, or carbon dating, is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years....
) in the climatic phase Dryas II (arid climate).

There is evidence for the use of wheat
Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
, barley
Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
 and legume
Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
s from carbonized seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s, but whether these seeds were collected, planted or even brought into the settlements as part of animal dung
Dung

Dung may refer to:* Dung, animal feces* Dung, Doubs, a commune in the Doubs department in France* Mundungus Fletcher , a character in Harry Potter...
 used for fuel remains the subject of debate. Sickle
Sickle

A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a curved blade typically used for harvesting cereal crop or cutting grass for hay. The inside of the curve is sharp, so that the user can draw or swing the blade against the base of the crop, catching it in the curve and slicing it at the same time....
-blades and grinding stones certainly indicate the use of cereal
Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
s. Some scholars speak of an 'agriculture prédomestique'.

Settlements

El Khiam
The settlements consist of round semi-subterranean houses with stone foundations and terrazzo
Terrazzo

Terrazzo is a faux-marble flooring or countertopping material....
-floors. The superstructures were constructed of unbaked mudbrick
Mudbrick

A mudbrick is a firefree brick made of clay, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw.In warm regions with very little timber available to fuel a kiln, bricks were generally sun dried....
s with plano-convex cross-sections. The hearths were small and covered with cobbles. Heated rocks were used in cooking, which led to an accumulation of fire-cracked rock in the buildings. Almost every settlement contains storage bins made either stones or mud-brick. The sites are much larger than in the preceding Natufian and contain traces of communal structures, like the famous tower of Jericho, possibly built against floods. There is no relation to the biblical wall of Jericho that "came tumblin down."

Around 8,000 BCE during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent. It succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic as the domestication of plants and animals was in its beginnings and triggered by the Younger Dryas....
 (PPNA) the world's first town Jericho
Jericho

Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Arabs....
 appeared in the Levant and was surrounded by a stone wall and contained a population of 2000-3000 people and a massive stone tower. There is much debate over the function of the wall, for there is no evidence of any serious warfare at this time. No battles were fought at Jericho. One possibility is the wall was built to protect the salt resources of Jericho. .

Lithics

The lithic industry is based on blades
Blade (archaeology)

In archaeology a blade is a type of stone tool created by striking a long narrow lithic flake from a stone lithic core.Blades are defined as being flakes that are at least twice as long as they are wide and that have parallel or subparallel sides and at least two ridges on the dorsal side....
 struck from regular cores. Sickle
Sickle

A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a curved blade typically used for harvesting cereal crop or cutting grass for hay. The inside of the curve is sharp, so that the user can draw or swing the blade against the base of the crop, catching it in the curve and slicing it at the same time....
-blades and arrowhead
Arrowhead

An arrowhead is point of an arrow, or a shape resembling such a point; as archaeological artifacts arrowheads are a subclass of projectile points....
s continue traditions from the late Natufian culture
Natufian culture

The Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. It was a Mesolithic culture, but unusual in that it was sedentary, or semi-sedentary, before the introduction of agriculture....
, transverse-blow axe
Axe

The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for Millennium to shape, split and cut wood, harvest Lumber, as a weapon and a ceremony or Heraldry symbol....
s and polished adze
Adze

An adze or adz is a tool used for smoothing rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards towards their feet, chipping off pieces of wood, moving backwards as they go and leaving a relatively smooth surface behind....
s appear for the first time.

Regional variants

With more sites becoming known, the archaeologists have defined a number of regional variants:
  • 'Sultanien' in the Jordan River
    Jordan River

    The Jordan River is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers. It is 251 kilometers long....
     valley and southern Levant with the type site of Jerich. Other sites include Netiv HaGdud
    Netiv HaGdud

    Netiv HaGdud is a moshav and Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located in the Jordan Valley around twenty kilometres north of Jericho, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council....
    , El-Khiam, Hatoula and Nahal Oren.
  • 'Mureybetian' in the Northern Levant. Defined by the finds from Mureybet
    Mureybet

    Along the middle Euphrates in Syria, the site of Mureybet was occupied from the 12th to the 8th millennium BCE. It is one of the earliest known agriculture-based settlements, the domestication of plants, one of the forces that brought about the Neolithic Revolution, was traced in successive strata, making of Mureybet one of the reference site...
     IIIA, IIIB, typical: Helwan points, sickle-blades with base amenagée or short stem and terminal retouch. Other sites include Sheyk Hasan and Jerf el-Ahmar.
  • 'Aswadien' in the Damascus Basin. Defined by finds from Tell Aswad IA. Typical: bipolar cores, big sickle blades, Aswad-points.
  • sites in 'Upper Mesopotamia' include Çayönü
    Çayönü

    ?ay?n? is a Neolithic settlement in southern Turkey inhabited around 7200 to 6600 BC. It is located forty kilometres north-west of Diyarbakir, at the foot of the Taurus Mountains mountains....
     and Göbekli Tepe
    Göbekli Tepe

    G?bekli Tepe is a hilltop sanctuary built on the highest point of an elongated mountain ridge about 15km northeast of the town of Sanliurfa in southeastern Turkey....
    .


See also

  • History of pottery in the Southern Levant
    History of pottery in the Southern Levant

    The history of pottery in the Southern Levant describes the discovery and cultural development of pottery in the archaeological area of the Southern Levant, which includes the modern day polities of Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority administered areas of the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza strip....
  • Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
    Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

    Pre-Pottery Neolithic B is a division of the Neolithic developed by Dame Kathleen Kenyon during her archaeological excavations at Jericho in the southern Levant region....
     succeeded this period.


Further reading


  • O. Bar-Yosef, The PPNA in the Levant – an overview. Paléorient 15/1, 1989, 57-63.
  • J. Cauvin, Naissance des divinités, Naissance de l’agriculture. La révolution des symboles au Néolithique (CNRS 1994). Translation (T. Watkins) The birth of the gods and the origins of agriculture (Cambridge 2000).