Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (short PPNA, around 9500 to 8500 BC^[1] or later) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent. It succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic).

In it occurred the extensive domestication of plants and animals and the rise of settlement. It occurred at the end of the Younger Dryas and was probably linked with the associated stabilization of climate and increased rainfall.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon in the type site of Jericho (Palestine). During this time, pottery was yet unknown. They precede the ceramic Neolithic (Yarmukian).

There is evidence for the use of wheat, barley and legumes from carbonized seeds and their storage in granaries.^[1]

Settlements

El Khiam point, schematic drawing

The settlements consist of round semi-subterranean houses with stone foundations and terrazzo-floors. The superstructures were constructed of unbaked mudbricks 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 of 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 8000 BC during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) the world's first town Jericho 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^{[citation needed]}. No battles were fought at Jericho. One possibility is the wall was built to protect the salt resources of Jericho.^[2].

Lithics

The lithic industry is based on blades struck from regular cores. Sickle-blades and arrowheads continue traditions from the late Natufian culture, transverse-blow axes and polished adzes appear for the first time.

Granaries

The building of granaries arose early and measured on the outside 3 X 3 m and had suspended floors that protected the grain form rodents and insects and provided air circulation.^[1] Granaries are positioned in places between other buildings early on 9500 BC. However beginning around 8500 BC, they were moved inside houses, and by 7500 BC storage occurred in special rooms.^[1] This change might reflect changing systems of ownership and property as granaries shifted from a communal use and ownership to become under the control of households or individuals.^[1]

It has been observed of these granaries that their "sophisticated storage systems with subfloor ventilation are a precocious development that precedes the emergence of almost all of the other elements of the Near Eastern Neolithic package—domestication, large scale sedentary communities, and the entrenchment of some degree of social differentiation." Moreover, "Building granaries may, at the same time, have been the single most important feature in increasing sedentism that required active community participation in new life-ways."^[1]

Regional variants

With more sites becoming known, the archaeologists have defined a number of regional variants:

• 'Sultanian' in the Jordan River valley and southern Levant with the type site of Jericho. Other sites include Netiv HaGdud, El-Khiam, Hatoula and Nahal Oren.
• 'Mureybetian' in the Northern Levant. Defined by the finds from Mureybet 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.
• 'Aswadian' 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 and Göbekli Tepe.

See also

• History of pottery in the Southern Levant
• Pre-Pottery Neolithic B succeeded this period.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Kuijt, I.; Finlayson, B. (Jun 2009). "Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley" (Free full text). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106 (27): 10966. doi:10.1073/pnas.0812764106. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 19549877. PMC 2700141. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=19549877. 
2. ^ "Jericho", Encyclopedia Britannica

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).