Geographical range | Fertile Crescent |
---|---|
Period | Neolithic |
Dates | circa 8,500 B.C.E. — circa 5,500 B.C.E. |
Type site | Jericho |
Preceded by | Natufian culture |
Followed by | Halaf culture, Neolithic Greece, Faiyum A culture |
farming, animal husbandry
pottery, metallurgy, wheel
circular ditches, henges, megaliths
Neolithic religion
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN, around 8500-5500 BCE) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent. It succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic) as the domestication of plants and animals was in its beginnings, possibly triggered by the Younger Dryas. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture came to an end around the time of the 8.2 kiloyear event, a cool spell lasting several hundred years centred on 6200 BCE.
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is divided into Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA 8500 BCE - 7600 BCE) and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB 7600 BCE - 6000 BCE). These were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon in the type site of Jericho (Palestine). The Pre-Pottery Neolithic precedes the ceramic Neolithic (Yarmukian). At 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan the culture continued a few more centuries as the so-called Pre-Pottery Neolithic C culture.