Editing Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

{{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]].

==Settlements==
[[File:Climate and Post-Glacial expansion in the Near East.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Evolution of temperatures in the Post-Glacial period according to Greenland ice cores. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic corresponds to the period of warming of the [[Holocene]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zalloua |first1=Pierre A. |last2=Matisoo-Smith |first2=Elizabeth |date=6 January 2017 |title=Mapping Post-Glacial expansions: The Peopling of Southwest Asia |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=7 |pages=40338 |bibcode=2017NatSR...740338P |doi=10.1038/srep40338 |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=5216412 |pmid=28059138}}</ref>]]
[[File:Calibrated Carbon 14 dates for Gesher as of 2013.jpg|thumb|Calibrated Carbon 14 dates for [[Gesher (archaeological site)|Gesher]], the earliest known Neolithic site as of 2013.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shukurov |first1=Anvar |last2=Sarson |first2=Graeme R. |last3=Gangal |first3=Kavita |date=7 May 2014 |title=The Near-Eastern Roots of the Neolithic in South Asia |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=9 |issue=5 |pages=Appendix S1 |bibcode=2014PLoSO...995714G |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0095714 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4012948 |pmid=24806472 |doi-access=free}}</ref>]]
[[File:Reliefs of animals, Göbekli Tepe Layer III, circa 9000 BCE.jpg|thumb|Reliefs of animals, Göbekli Tepe Layer III (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A), {{circa|9000&nbsp;BCE}}.]]
PPNA archaeological sites are much larger than those of the preceding Natufian hunter-gatherer culture, and contain traces of communal structures, such as the famous [[Tower of Jericho]]. PPNA settlements are characterized by round, semi-subterranean houses with stone foundations and [[terrazzo]]-floors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fujii |first=Sumio |date=2024-03-25 |title=Settlement Pattern and Periodization of the Jordanian Badia Early PPNB: A Fresh Approach to the PPNA/PPNB Transition Issue in the Southern Levant |url=https://journals.openedition.org/paleorient/3582 |journal=Paléorient. Revue pluridisciplinaire de préhistoire et de protohistoire de l'Asie du Sud-Ouest et de l'Asie centrale |volume=49-2 |language=en |issue=49–2 |pages=109–134 |doi=10.4000/paleorient.3582 |issn=0153-9345|doi-access=free }}</ref> The upper walls were constructed of unbaked clay [[mudbrick]]s with plano-convex cross-sections. The [[hearth]]s were small and covered with cobbles. Heated rocks were used in cooking, which led to an accumulation of fire-cracked rock in the buildings, and almost every settlement contained storage bins made of either stones or mud-brick.

As of 2013, [[Gesher (archaeological site)|Gesher]], modern Israel, became the earliest known of all known Neolithic sites (PPNA), with a calibrated [[Carbon 14]] date of 10,459 BCE ± 348 years, analysis suggesting that it may have been the starting point of a [[Neolithic Revolution]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last1=Shukurov |first1=Anvar |last2=Sarson |first2=Graeme R. |last3=Gangal |first3=Kavita |date=7 May 2014 |title=The Near-Eastern Roots of the Neolithic in South Asia |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=9 |issue=5 |pages=e95714 |bibcode=2014PLoSO...995714G |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0095714 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4012948 |pmid=24806472 |doi-access=free}}</ref> A contemporary site is [[Mureybet]] in modern [[Syria]].<ref name="auto"/>

One of the most notable PPNA settlements is [[Jericho]], thought to be the world's first town ({{c.|9,000}} BCE).<ref name="gates2003">{{Cite book |last=Gates |first=Charles |title="Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Aegean Cities", Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-415-01895-1 |page=18 |quote=Jericho, in the Jordan River Valley in the West Bank, inhabited from {{circa|9000&nbsp;BC}} to the present day, offers important evidence for the earliest permanent settlements in the Near East.}}</ref> The PPNA town contained a population of up to 2–3000 people and was protected by a massive stone wall and tower. There is much debate over the function of the wall, for there is no evidence of any serious warfare at this time.<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=59}}</ref> One possibility is the wall was built to protect the salt resources of Jericho.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9043547/Jericho "Jericho"], [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref> It has also been proposed that the tower caught the shadow of the largest nearby mountain on [[summer solstice]] in order to create a sense of power in support of whatever hierarchy ruled the town's inhabitants.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Liran |first1=Roy |last2=Barkai |first2=Ran |date=March 2011 |title=Casting a shadow on Neolithic Jericho |url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/barkai327/ |publisher=Antiquitey Journal, Volume 85, Issue 327}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200" heights="200" perrow="4">
File:Ziko.jpg|The [[Tower of Jericho]] was built at the end of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, {{circa|8000&nbsp;BCE}}.
File:Jericho Statue.png|Ancestor Statue, [[Jericho]], from {{circa|9000}} years ago. [[Rockefeller Museum]], [[Jerusalem]].
File:Urfa man.jpg|The [[Urfa Man]] {{circa|9000&nbsp;BCE}}.<ref name="RJC">{{Cite book |last1=Chacon |first1=Richard J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhT1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 |title=Feast, Famine or Fighting?: Multiple Pathways to Social Complexity |last2=Mendoza |first2=Rubén G. |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3319484020 |pages=120 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Klaus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3yUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT291 |title=Premier temple. Göbekli tepe (Le): Göbelki Tepe |date=2015 |publisher=CNRS Editions |isbn=978-2271081872 |page=291 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="AC">{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1koDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT66 |title=Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and the Discovery of Eden |date=2014 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1591438359 |page=66 |language=en}}</ref> [[Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum]].
File:Plastered Skull from the Levant.jpg|Human [[Plastered human skulls|plastered head]] from the Levant during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic phases.
</gallery>

==Burial practices==

PPNA cultures are unique for their burial practices, and Kenyon (who excavated the PPNA level of Jericho) characterized them as "living with their dead". Kenyon found no fewer than 279 burials, below floors, under household foundations, and in between walls.<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=60}}</ref> In the PPNB period, skulls were often dug up and reburied, or mottled with clay and (presumably) displayed.

==Lithics==
The [[Lithic reduction|lithic industry]] is based on [[blade (archaeology)|blades]] struck from regular [[Lithic core|cores]]. [[Sickle]]-blades and [[arrowhead]]s continue traditions from the late [[Natufian culture]], transverse-blow [[axe]]s and polished [[adze]]s appear for the first time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dietrich |first1=Laura |last2=Götting-Martin |first2=Eva |last3=Hertzog |first3=Jasmine |last4=Schmitt-Kopplin |first4=Philippe |last5=McGovern |first5=Patrick E. |last6=Hall |first6=Gretchen R. |last7=Petersen |first7=W. Christian |last8=Zarnkow |first8=Martin |last9=Hutzler |first9=Mathias |last10=Jacob |first10=Fritz |last11=Ullman |first11=Christina |last12=Notroff |first12=Jens |last13=Ulbrich |first13=Marco |last14=Flöter |first14=Eckhard |last15=Heeb |first15=Julia |date=2020-12-01 |title=Investigating the function of Pre-Pottery Neolithic stone troughs from Göbekli Tepe – An integrated approach |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |volume=34 |pages=102618 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102618 |issn=2352-409X|doi-access=free |bibcode=2020JArSR..34j2618D }}</ref>

==Crop cultivation and granaries==
{{further|Origins of agriculture in West Asia}}
[[File:Centres of origin and spread of agriculture.svg|thumb|upright=2.0|Map of the world showing approximate centers of the [[Neolithic Revolution]] and the spread of agriculture in prehistory: the [[Fertile Crescent]] ({{c.|11,000}} BP), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins ({{c.|9,000|lk=no}} BP), the New Guinea Highlands ({{c.|9,000|6,000|lk=no}} BP), Central Mexico ({{c.|5,000|4,000|lk=no}} BP), Northern South America ({{c.|5,000|4,000|lk=no}} BP), sub-Saharan Africa ({{c.|5,000|4,000|lk=no}} BP, exact location unknown), eastern North America ({{c.|4,000|3,000|lk=no}} BP).<ref name="DiamondandBellwood2003">{{Cite journal |last1=Diamond |first1=J. |last2=Bellwood |first2=P. |year=2003 |title=Farmers and Their Languages: The First Expansions |journal=Science |volume=300 |issue=5619 |pages=597–603 |bibcode=2003Sci...300..597D |citeseerx=10.1.1.1013.4523 |doi=10.1126/science.1078208 |pmid=12714734 |s2cid=13350469}}</ref>]]
[[Sedentism]] of this time allowed for the [[Horticulture|cultivation]] of local grains, such as [[barley]] and [[Avena|wild oats]], and for storage in [[Granary|granaries]]. Sites such as [[Dhra′]] and [[Jericho]] retained a hunting lifestyle until the PPNB period, but granaries allowed for year-round occupation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Qu |first1=Yating |last2=Zhu |first2=Junxiao |last3=Yang |first3=Han |last4=Zhou |first4=Longlong |date=2023-05-17 |title=Food, cooking and potteries in the Neolithic Mijiaya site, Guanzhong area, North China, revealed by multidisciplinary approach |journal=Heritage Science |language=en |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=107 |doi=10.1186/s40494-023-00950-3 |issn=2050-7445 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

This period of cultivation is considered "pre-[[domestication]]", but may have begun to develop plant species into the domesticated forms they are today. Deliberate, extended-period storage was made possible by the use of "suspended floors for air circulation and protection from rodents". This practice "precedes the emergence of domestication and large-scale sedentary communities by at least 1,000 years".<ref name="PNAS09">{{Cite journal |last1=Kuijt |first1=I. |last2=Finlayson |first2=B. |date=Jun 2009 |title=Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=106 |issue=27 |pages=10966–10970 |bibcode=2009PNAS..10610966K |doi=10.1073/pnas.0812764106 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=2700141 |pmid=19549877 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Granaries are positioned in places between other buildings early on {{c.|11,500}} BP, however, beginning around 10,500 BP, they were moved inside houses, and by 9,500 BP, storage occurred in special rooms.<ref name="PNAS09" /> This change might reflect changing systems of ownership and property as granaries shifted from communal use and ownership to become under the control of households or individuals.<ref name="PNAS09" />

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 [...] have been the most important feature in increasing sedentism that required active community participation in new life-ways".<ref name="PNAS09" />

==Regional variants==
{{anchor|Sultanian}}
[[File:Gobeklitepe animal sculpture, circa 9000 BCE.jpg|thumb|[[Göbekli Tepe]] animal sculpture, {{circa|9000&nbsp;BCE}}]]
With more sites becoming known, archaeologists have defined a number of regional variants of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A:
* ('''Aswadian''') in the Damascus Basin, defined by finds from [[Tell Aswad]] IA; typical: bipolar cores, big sickle blades, [[Aswad point]]s. The 'Aswadian' variant recently was abolished by the work of [[Danielle Stordeur]] in her initial report from further investigations in 2001–2006. The PPNB horizon was moved back at this site, to around 10,700 BP.<ref>{{Cite web |title=La Néolithisation du Proche-Orient |lang=fr |website=Archéorient Laboratory - [[Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée]] - Lyon |url=http://www.archeorient.mom.fr/FICHES/fiches_actuelles/STORDEUR.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721012137/http://www.archeorient.mom.fr/FICHES/fiches_actuelles/STORDEUR.html |archive-date=21 July 2011 |access-date=6 March 2011 |first=Daneille |last=Stordeur |publisher=CNRS - [[French National Centre for Scientific Research]] }}</ref>
* '''Mureybetian''' in the Northern Levant, defined by the finds from [[Mureybet]] IIIA, IIIB, typical: [[Helwan point]]s, sickle-blades with base amenagée or short stem and terminal retouch.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Young |first1=Theodore Cuyler Jr |title=The hilly flanks and beyond: essays on the prehistory of Southwestern Asia presented to Robert J. Braidwood, November l5, l982 |last2=Smith |first2=Philip E. L. |last3=Mortensen |first3=Peder |date=1983 |publisher=Oriental institute of the University of Chicago |isbn=978-0-918986-37-5 |series=Studies in ancient Oriental civilization |location=Chicago (Ill.) |pages=44–45 |language=fr}}</ref> Other sites include Sheyk Hasan and [[Jerf el Ahmar]].
* Sites in "[[Upper Mesopotamia]]" include [[Çayönü]] and [[Göbekli Tepe]], with the latter possibly being the oldest ritual complex yet discovered.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Curry |first=Andrew |date=November 2008 |title=Göbekli Tepe: The World's First Temple? |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/30706129.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216020356/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/30706129.html/ |archive-date=2008-12-16 |access-date=14 March 2009 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}} Directrice de la mission permanente El Kowm-Mureybet (Syrie) du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères – Recherches sur le Levant central/sud : Premiers résultats.</ref>
* Sites in [[central Anatolia]] that include the 'mother city' [[Çatalhöyük]] and the smaller, but older site, rivaling even Jericho in age, [[Aşıklı Höyük]].
* '''Sultanian''' in the [[Jordan River]] valley and southern Levant, with the type site of Jericho. Other sites include [[Netiv HaGdud]], [[Khiamian|El-Khiam]], Hatoula, and [[Nahal Oren, archeological site|Nahal Oren]].

==Relative chronology==
{{Near East Neolithic}}

==See also==
*[[Syro-Palestinian archaeology#Ceramics analysis|History of pottery in the Southern Levant]]
*[[Meltwater pulse 1B]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* 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).
* O. Bar-Yosef, The PPNA in the Levant – an overview. Paléorient 15/1, 1989, 57–63.

{{Neolithic Southwest Asia}}
{{Prehistoric Asia}}
{{Prehistoric technology| state=expanded}}

[[Category:Pre-Pottery Neolithic A| ]]
[[Category:Neolithic cultures of Asia]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures of the Near East]]
[[Category:10th-millennium BC establishments]]
[[Category:9th-millennium BC disestablishments]]
[[Category:Pre-Pottery Neolithic]]