Pre-Pottery Neolithic

Pre-Pottery Neolithic
Bjoertvedt · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Pre-Pottery Neolithic
Caption	Reconstruction of a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement at Jericho
Period	Neolithic
Dates	c. 10,000–6,500 BCE
Region	Levant, Anatolia, Zagros, Cyprus

Pre-Pottery Neolithic The Pre-Pottery Neolithic marks an early phase of the Neolithic in the Near East during which communities in the Levant, Anatolia, and the Zagros Mountains adopted sedentism, plant cultivation, and animal management prior to the widespread use of pottery. Archaeological research at sites such as Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), Çatalhöyük, Ain Ghazal, Göbekli Tepe, and Jerf el-Ahmar has reshaped debates about the origins of agriculture, craft specialization, and ritual. Excavations by teams associated with institutions like the British Museum, the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), and the Peabody Museum have produced stratified sequences that anchor radiocarbon dates and technological typologies.

Overview and Chronology

The chronology of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic is commonly divided into phases including the Natufian culture transition, Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), with regional variants evident in northern Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, and the Anatolian plateau. Early work by archaeologists such as Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) and V. Gordon Childe influenced periodization, while later projects by Ian Kuijt, Ofer Bar-Yosef, A. Nigel Goring-Morris, and Timberlake refined radiocarbon sequences at sites like Netiv Hagdud and Ain Ghazal. Chronometric frameworks incorporate calibration from labs including the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and the W.M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Facility.

Geographic Distribution and Sites

Core Pre-Pottery Neolithic evidence appears in the southern Levant around Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), Beidha, and Ain Mallaha, extends north to Çatalhöyük and Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia, and east into the Zagros Mountains at sites like Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein. Coastal expressions occurred on Cyprus and the Levantine coast at localities such as Byblos and Amioun. Survey and excavation projects led by teams from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism have mapped settlement hierarchies, while palaeoenvironmental studies tie site distributions to changes recorded in cores from the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, and the Euphrates River.

Subsistence and Economy

Subsistence shifted from hunting-gathering associated with the Natufian culture toward systematic cultivation of cereals such as einkorn and emmer and the management of caprines and cattle at sites like Ain Ghazal and Çatalhöyük. Evidence from flotation samples, stable isotope studies conducted in collaboration with laboratories such as the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and zooarchaeological analysis at Tell Abu Hureyra indicate mixed farming economies and selective herd composition. Exchange networks connected obsidian sources in Nemrut Dağı and Göllüdağ with obsidian workshops documented at Jerf el-Ahmar and Kfar HaHoresh, while long-distance contacts linked communities to raw material flows reaching Anshan and the Zagros Neolithic.

Technology and Material Culture

Material culture includes elaborated lithic industries with transverse arrowheads and bladelet production at sites like El Khiam and Tell Halula, architectural innovations including stone foundations and lime-plastered floors at Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), and symbolic artifacts such as anthropomorphic figurines found at Ain Ghazal and Tell Mureybet. Craft specializations encompassed bone working, shell bead production (with shells traced to Cyprus and the Red Sea), and early textile impressions preserved at Çatalhöyük. Recent research integrates methods from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and the Natural History Museum, London to analyze residues, use-wear, and microwear on tools from excavations by teams led by James Mellaart and Klaus Schmidt.

Social Organization and Settlement Patterns

Settlements ranged from seasonal hamlets documented in surveys of the Jordan Valley to nucleated villages with multiroom houses and public structures at Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), Ain Ghazal, and Çatalhöyük. Burial data and architectural scale suggest emerging social differentiation studied by scholars including Ian Hodder, Graeme Barker, and A. Bernard Knapp. Debates engage models proposed by proponents of communal ritual centers like Göbekli Tepe versus models emphasizing household autonomy drawn from work at Beidha and Wadi Faynan. Administrative analogues remain controversial, with comparison to later institutions such as those at Uruk used cautiously.

Mortuary Practices and Religion

Mortuary treatments included secondary burials, skull plastering and decoration at Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) and Ain Ghazal, and elaborate communal deposits at ritual locales like Göbekli Tepe. Iconography on stone pillars, anthropomorphic figurines, and carved stone vessels at Tell Brak have been interpreted in light of ritual behaviors studied by archaeologists including Tristan Carter and Maurice Sznycer. Interpretive frameworks draw on comparative data from the Natufian culture, the Halaf culture transition, and ethnographic analogies, while analyses from the British School at Rome and the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) assess symbolic landscapes and sacred architecture.

Legacy and Transition to Pottery Neolithic

The transition to the Pottery Neolithic involves continuity in settlement nucleation, agricultural practices, and craft traditions alongside the adoption of fired clay ceramics at sites such as Yiftahel and Hagoshrim. This shift is documented in stratigraphic sequences from excavations by teams including Kathleen Kenyon successors and researchers associated with the British Museum and the Israel Antiquities Authority. The legacy of Pre-Pottery Neolithic innovations influenced later developments in the Chalcolithic and the rise of complex societies in Mesopotamia and the Levantine Bronze Age, informing modern debates led by scholars at institutions like the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Cambridge.

Category:Neolithic cultures of Asia