Editing Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (section)

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{short description|Middle Eastern Neolithic culture about 12,000–10,800 years ago}}
{{redirect|PPNA|the Lithuanian political party|Dawn of Nemunas}}
{{Infobox archaeological culture
|name        = Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
|map         =[[File:Göbekli Tepe, Urfa.jpg|frameless|alt=|upright=1.3]]The ruins of [[Göbekli Tepe]], {{Circa|9,000 BCE}}
|mapalt      =
|altnames    =
|horizon     =
|region      = [[Near East]]
|period      = [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic]]
|dates       = {{c.|10,000|8,800}}&nbsp;BCE<ref name="MC" />
|typesite    = [[Jericho]]
|majorsites  = 
|extra       =
|precededby  = [[Khiamian]], [[Harifian]]
|followedby  = [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]], [[Neolithic Greece]], [[Faiyum A culture]]
}}
'''Pre-Pottery Neolithic A''' ('''PPNA''') denotes the first stage of the [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic]], in early [[Levant]]ine and [[Anatolia]]n [[Neolithic]] culture, dating to {{c.|12,000|10,800|lk=on}} years ago, that is, 10,000–8800 BCE.<ref name="MC">{{Cite book |last=Chazan |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3BQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA197 |title=World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways Through Time |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1351802895 |page=197 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="PNAS09" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ozkaya |first=Vecihi |date=June 2009 |title=Körtik Tepe, a new Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in south-eastern Anatolia |url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/ozkaya/ |publisher=Antiquitey Journal, Volume 83, Issue 320}}</ref> Archaeological remains are located in the [[Levant]]ine and [[Upper Mesopotamia]]n region of the [[Fertile Crescent]].

The time period is characterized by tiny circular mud-brick dwellings, the [[Origins of agriculture in West Asia|cultivation of crops]], the hunting of wild game, and unique burial customs in which bodies were buried below the floors of dwellings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mithen |first=Steven |title=After the ice: a global human history, 20,000–5,000 BC |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-01999-7 |edition=1st |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=63}}</ref>

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB) were originally defined by [[Kathleen Kenyon]] in the [[type site]] of [[Jericho]], [[State of Palestine]]. During this time, [[pottery]] was not yet in use. They precede the ceramic Neolithic [[Yarmukian culture]]. PPNA succeeds the [[Natufian culture]] of the [[Epipalaeolithic Near East]].