View source for Pre-Pottery Neolithic

{{Short description|Earlier part of the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox archaeological culture
|name        = Pre-Pottery Neolithic
|map         = Fertile crescent Neolithic B circa 7500 BC.jpg
|mapalt      =
|mapcaption= The [[Fertile Crescent]], {{Circa|7500 BCE}} (PPNB), with main Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites (black squares for pre-agricultural sites). The area of [[Mesopotamia]] proper was not yet settled by humans.
|mapsize=300
|altnames    =
|horizon     =
|region      = [[Fertile Crescent]]
|period      = [[Neolithic]]
|dates       = {{circa}} 10000 – 6500 BCE<ref name="MC" />
|typesite    = [[Jericho]]
|majorsites  =
|extra       =
|precededby  = [[Epipalaeolithic Near East]]<br />([[Kebaran]] culture, [[Natufian culture]])<br />[[Khiamian]]
|followedby  = [[Pottery Neolithic]]. [[Halaf culture]], [[Neolithic Greece]], [[Faiyum A culture]]
}}
[[File:Centres of origin and spread of agriculture.svg|thumb|upright=1.38|Map of the world showing approximate centers of the [[Neolithic Revolution]] and spread of agriculture in prehistory: the [[Fertile Crescent]] (11,000 BP), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9,000 BP) and the New Guinea Highlands (9,000–6,000 BP), Central Mexico (5,000–4,000 BP), Northern South America (5,000–4,000 BP), sub-Saharan Africa (5,000–4,000 BP, exact location unknown), eastern North America (4,000–3,000 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>]]

The '''Pre-Pottery Neolithic''' ('''PPN''') represents the early [[Neolithic in the Near East]], dating to {{c.|12,000|8,500|lk=on}} years ago, (10000 – 6500 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=978-1-351-80289-5 |page=197 |language=en}}</ref><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><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><ref name="auto">Richard, Suzanne ''Near Eastern archaeology'' Eisenbrauns; illustrated edition (1 Aug 2004) {{ISBN|978-1-57506-083-5}} p.244 [https://books.google.com/books?id=khR0apPid8gC&pg=PA244]</ref> It succeeds the [[Natufian culture]] of the [[Epipalaeolithic Near East]] (also called [[Mesolithic]]), as the [[domestication]] of plants and animals was in its formative stages, having possibly been induced 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 centred on 6200 BCE that lasted several hundred years. It is succeeded by the [[Pottery Neolithic]].

==Chronology==
{{Prehistoric Southwest Asia timeline}}

===Pre-Pottery Neolithic A===
{{Main|Pre-Pottery Neolithic A}}

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is divided into [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] ('''PPNA''' 10000–8800 BCE) and the following [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] ('''PPNB''' 8800–6500 BCE).<ref name="MC" /><ref name="auto" /> These were originally defined by [[Kathleen Kenyon]] in the [[type site]] of [[Jericho]] (Palestine). The Pre-Pottery Neolithic precedes the ceramic Neolithic ([[Yarmukian culture]], 6400 – 6200 BCE). At [[Ayn Ghazal (archaeological site)|'Ain Ghazal]], in Jordan, the culture continued a few more centuries as the so-called Pre-Pottery Neolithic C culture.

Around 11000 years ago (9000 BCE), during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), the "world's first town", [[Jericho]], appeared in the [[Levant]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mithen |first1=Steven |title=After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000 - 5000 BC |date=8 December 2011 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-78022-259-2 |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uaxg_QDSsrQC&pg=PT81 |language=en}}</ref> although the adequacy of this title has since been challenged.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Liverani |first1=Mario |title=Imagining Babylon: The Modern Story of an Ancient City |date=11 July 2016 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-1-61451-458-9 |page=213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZFdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 |language=en}}</ref>

<gallery widths="170" heights="170">
File:Gobeklitepe animal sculpture, circa 9000 BCE.jpg|Sculpture of a predatory animal, [[Göbekli Tepe]], circa 9000 BCE
File:Urfa man.jpg|[[Urfa Man]], {{Circa|9000 BCE}}. [[Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum]].
</gallery>

=== Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ===
{{Main|Pre-Pottery Neolithic B}}

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is divided into [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (10000 – 8800 BCE) and the following [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (8800 – 6500 BCE).<ref name="MC" /><ref name="auto" /> PPNB differed from PPNA in showing greater use of domesticated animals, a different set of tools, and new architectural styles.

<gallery widths="170" heights="170">
File:Jericho Statue.png|Head of a statue from [[Jericho]], from c. 9000 years ago (7000 BCE). On display at the [[Rockefeller Museum]], in [[Jerusalem]].
File:Footed bowl MET vs1985 356 20.jpg|Footed bowl in [[granite]], Syria, end of 8th Millennium BCE.
File:Jar MET VS1985 356 16.jpg|Jar in calcite alabaster, Syria, late 8th Millennium BCE.
File:Green aragonite tripod vase Mid-Euphrates 6000 BCE Louvre Museum AO 28386.jpg|Green [[aragonite]] tripod vase Mid-Euphrates 6000 BCE Louvre Museum AO 28386
File:Calcite tripod vase, mid-Euphrates probably from Tell Buqras, 6000 BCE, Louvre Museum AO 31551.jpg|[[Calcite]] tripod vase, mid-Euphrates, probably from Tell Buqras, 6000 BCE, Louvre Museum AO 31551
File:PPNB Plastered Head from Tell Aswad, 7000 BCE.jpg|PPNB plastered skull from [[Tell Aswad]], Syria, 7th Millennium BCE
</gallery>

=== Pre-Pottery Neolithic C ===
Work at the site of [[Ayn Ghazal (archaeological site)|'Ain Ghazal]] in Jordan has indicated a later Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period. [[Juris Zarins]] has proposed that a Circum Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex developed in the period from the climatic crisis of 6200 BCE, partly as a result of an increasing emphasis in PPNB cultures upon domesticated animals, and a fusion with [[Harifian]] hunter-gatherers in the Southern Levant, with affiliate connections with the cultures of [[Fayyum]] and the [[Eastern Desert]] of [[Egypt]]. Cultures practicing this lifestyle spread down the [[Red Sea]] shoreline and moved east from [[Syria]] into southern [[Iraq]].<ref>Zarins, Juris (1992) "Pastoral Nomadism in Arabia: Ethnoarchaeology and the Archaeological Record", in [[Ofer Bar-Yosef]] and A. Khazanov, eds. "Pastoralism in the Levant"</ref>

In [[Israel]], PPNC sites are rather rare.<ref name= NEAEHL>{{cite encyclopedia |last1= Garfinkel |first1= Yosef |author-link1= Yosef Garfinkel |last2= Dag |first2= Doron |last3= Stager |first3= Lawrence E. |author-link3= Lawrence E. Stager  |entry= Ashkelon: the Neolithic site in the Afridar neighborhood |encyclopedia= The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (NEAEHL) |year= 2008 |publisher=[[Israel Exploration Society]], [[Biblical Archaeology Society]]}}</ref> By 2008, only four sites had been clearly identified: [[Ashkelon]] (Afridar) and [['Atlit Yam]] on the coast, stratum II at [[Tel 'Ali]] one mile south of the [[Sea of Galilee]], and [[Ha-Gosherim]] in the north.<ref name= NEAEHL/>

<gallery widths="170" heights="170">
File:20100923 amman37.JPG|[[ʿAin Ghazal statues]]: closeup of one of the [[Polycephaly|bicephalous]] statues, {{Circa|6500 BCE}}.
File:Ain Ghazal statue.jpg|Ain Ghazal statue on show in the [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris.
File:Ain Ghazal statue frontal.jpg|Louvre Ain Ghazal statue, frontal
File:Two-headed statue from Ain Ghazal, Jordan Museum, Amman.jpg|Two-headed statue from the [[The Jordan Museum|Jordan Museum]]
</gallery>
{{clear}}

== Diffusion ==

=== Europe ===

==== Carbon 14 dating ====
{{Main|Neolithic Europe|Indus Valley civilisation}}
[[File:Map of the spread of Neolithic farming cultures in Europe.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Map of the spread of Neolithic farming cultures from the Near-East to Europe with dates (years BCE)]]

The spread of the [[Neolithic]] in Europe was first studied quantitatively in the 1970s, when a sufficient number of [[Radiocarbon dating|{{chem|14|C}} age determinations]] for early Neolithic sites had become available.<ref name="AS1" /> [[Ammerman]] and [[Cavalli-Sforza]] discovered a linear relationship between the age of an Early Neolithic site and its distance from the conventional source in the Near East ([[Jericho]]), thus demonstrating that, on average, the Neolithic spread at a constant speed of about 1&nbsp;km/yr.<ref name="AS1" /> More recent studies confirm these results and yield the speed of 0.6–1.3&nbsp;km/yr at 95% confidence level.<ref name="AS1">Original text from {{Cite journal |last1=Shukurov |first1=Anvar |last2=Sarson |first2=Graeme R. |last3=Gangal |first3=Kavita |date=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 |pmc=4012948 |pmid=24806472 |doi-access=free}} [[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50px]] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License].</ref>

==== Analysis of mitochondrial DNA ====
Since the original human expansions out of Africa 200,000 years ago, different prehistoric and historic migration events have taken place in Europe.<ref name="DT" /> Considering that the movement of the people implies a consequent movement of their genes, it is possible to estimate the impact of these migrations through the genetic analysis of human populations.<ref name="DT" /> Agricultural and husbandry practices originated 10,000 years ago in a region of the Near East known as the Fertile Crescent.<ref name="DT" /> According to the archaeological record this phenomenon, known as "Neolithic", rapidly expanded from these territories into Europe.<ref name="DT" /> However, whether this diffusion was accompanied or not by human migrations is greatly debated.<ref name="DT" /> [[Mitochondrial DNA]] –a type of maternally inherited DNA located in the cell cytoplasm- was recovered from the remains of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farmers in the Near East and then compared to available data from other Neolithic populations in Europe and also to modern populations from South-Eastern Europe and the Near East.<ref name="DT" /> The obtained results show that substantial human migrations were involved in the Neolithic spread and suggest that the first Neolithic farmers entered Europe following a maritime route through [[Cyprus]] and the [[Aegean Islands]].<ref name="DT">[[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50px]] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License] {{Cite journal |last1=Turbón |first1=Daniel |last2=Arroyo-Pardo |first2=Eduardo |date=5 June 2014 |title=Ancient DNA Analysis of 8000 B.C. Near Eastern Farmers Supports an Early Neolithic Pioneer Maritime Colonization of Mainland Europe through Cyprus and the Aegean Islands |journal=PLOS Genetics |language=en |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=e1004401 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004401 |issn=1553-7404 |pmc=4046922 |pmid=24901650 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Modern distribution of the haplotypes of PPNB farmers.jpg|Modern distribution of the haplotypes of PPNB farmers
File:Genetic distance between PPNB farmers and modern populations.jpg|Genetic distance between PPNB farmers and modern populations
File:Genetic matrilineal distances between European Neolithic Linear Pottery Culture populations (5,500–4,900 calibrated BC) and modern Western Eurasian populations.jpg|upright=1.3|Ancient European Neolithic farmers are genetically closest to modern Near-Eastern/ Anatolian populations: genetic matrilineal distances between European Neolithic [[Linear Pottery culture]] populations (5,500–4,900 calibrated BC) and modern Western Eurasian populations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=Alan |date=9 November 2010 |title=Ancient DNA from European Early Neolithic Farmers Reveals Their Near Eastern Affinities |journal=PLOS Biology |language=en |volume=8 |issue=11 |pages=e1000536 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000536 |issn=1545-7885 |pmc=2976717 |pmid=21085689 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
</gallery>

=== South Asia ===
{{multiple image
| align    = right
| caption_align = center
| direction =vertical
| header=Expansion to South Asia
| total_width=300
| image1   = Early Neolithic sites in the Near East and South Asia 10,000-3,800 BCE.jpg
| caption1 = Early Neolithic sites in the Near East and South Asia 10,000–3,800 BCE
| image2   = Establishment of Neolithic sites.jpg
| caption2 = Neolithic dispersal from the Near East to South Asia suggested by the time of establishment of Neolithic sites as a function of distance from [[Gesher (archaeological site)|Gesher]], Israel. The dispersal rate amounts to about 0.6&nbsp;km per year.<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=e95714 |bibcode=2014PLoSO...995714G |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0095714 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4012948 |pmid=24806472 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
| footer=
}}
The earliest Neolithic sites in South Asia are [[Bhirrana]] in Haryana, dated to 7570–6200 BCE,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Coningham |first1=Robin |title=The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE–200 CE |last2=Young |first2=Ruth |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] Cambridge World Archeology |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-316-41898-7 |page=111}}</ref> and [[Mehrgarh]], dated to between 6500 and 5500 BCE, in the [[Kacchi Plain|Kachi plain]] of [[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Baluchistan]], Pakistan; the site has evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats).

There is strong evidence for causal connections between the Near-Eastern Neolithic and that further east, up to the Indus Valley.<ref name="AS1-6" /> There are several lines of evidence that support the idea of a connection between the Neolithic in the Near East and in the Indian subcontinent.<ref name="AS1-6" /> The prehistoric site of Mehrgarh in Baluchistan (modern Pakistan) is the earliest Neolithic site in the north-west Indian subcontinent, dated as early as 8500 BCE.<ref name="AS1-6" /> Neolithic domesticated crops in Mehrgarh include more than barley and a small amount of wheat. There is good evidence for the local domestication of barley and the zebu cattle at Mehrgarh, but the wheat varieties are suggested to be of Near-Eastern origin, as the modern distribution of wild varieties of wheat is limited to Northern Levant and Southern Turkey.<ref name="AS1-6" /> A detailed satellite map study of a few archaeological sites in the Baluchistan and Khybar Pakhtunkhwa regions also suggests similarities in early phases of farming with sites in Western Asia.<ref name="AS1-6" /> Pottery prepared by sequential slab construction, circular fire pits filled with burnt pebbles, and large granaries are common to both Mehrgarh and many Mesopotamian sites.<ref name="AS1-6" /> The postures of the skeletal remains in graves at Mehrgarh bear a strong resemblance to those at Ali Kosh in the Zagros Mountains of southern Iran.<ref name="AS1-6" /> Despite their scarcity, the 14C and archaeological age determinations for early Neolithic sites in Southern Asia exhibit
remarkable continuity across the vast region from the Near East to the Indian Subcontinent, consistent with a systematic eastward spread at a speed of about 0.65&nbsp;km/yr.<ref name="AS1-6">[[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50px]] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License] {{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>

In South India, the Neolithic began by 6500&nbsp;BCE and lasted until around 1400&nbsp;BCE when the Megalithic transition period began. South Indian Neolithic is characterized by Ash mounds{{clarify|date=February 2019}} from 2500&nbsp;BCE in [[Karnataka]] region, expanded later to [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Asouti |first1=Eleni |title={{title case|TREES AND WOODLANDS OF SOUTH INDIA: ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES}} |last2=Fuller |first2=Dorian Q |year=2007}}</ref>

== Genetics ==
{{see also|Genetic history of the Middle East}}
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic was characterized by a contact and genetic continuum network between [[Anatolian hunter-gatherers]], [[Natufians]] and [[Iranian hunter-gatherers]], primarily along two clines. The PPN-associated ancestry Mesopotamian, represented by the two [[Nemrik 9]] specimens (PPNA) from present-day [[Iraq]] as well as the [[Mardin]] specimen from present day [[Turkey]], formed by the admixture of those three sources, and were positioned close to a central position between them, pointing to nearly equal amounts of derived ancestry components. These Mesopotamian samples displayed relative close affinities to the [[Aknashen]] Neolithic remains in Armenia and to a Neolithic sample from Azerbaijan as well as Iraq (Bestansur and Shandiar). The PPN-associated ancestry in Anatolian and Levant were primarily positioned along a cline between Anatolian hunter-gatherer and Natufian sources, with variable amounts of geneflow, but generally closer to Anatolian sources PPN-associated ancestry in Cyprus (PPNB) falls close to Anatolian remains.<ref name=":0" /> Ancient Levantines (i.e. inhabitants of [[Jordan]], [[Israel]], [[Syria]], [[Lebanon]]) and their descendants exhibit a decrease of ~8% local Neolithic ancestry, which is mostly [[Natufian culture|Natufian]]-like, every millennium, starting from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the [[Medieval]] period. It was replaced by [[Caucasus]]-related and [[Anatolia|Anatolian]]-related ancestries, from the north and west respectively. However, despite the decline in the Natufian component, this key ancestry source made an important contribution to peoples of later periods, continuing until the present.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Lazaridis |first1=Iosif |last2=Alpaslan-Roodenberg |first2=Songül |last3=Acar |first3=Ayşe |last4=Açıkkol |first4=Ayşen |display-authors=3 |date=2022 |title=Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia |journal=Science |volume=377 |issue=6609 |pages=982–987 |doi=10.1126/science.abq0762 |pmid=36007054 |pmc=9983685 |bibcode=2022Sci...377..982L }}</ref>

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

== See also ==
{{Neolithic}}
* [[Syro-Palestinian archaeology#Ceramics analysis|History of pottery in the Southern Levant]]
* [[Pre-history of the Southern Levant]]
*[[Proto-city]]

== 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).
* [[Ofer Bar-Yosef]], The PPNA in the Levant – an overview. Paléorient 15/1, 1989, 57–63.

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

[[Category:Pre-Pottery Neolithic| ]]
[[Category:Neolithic cultures of Asia]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures of the Near East]]
[[Category:Younger Dryas]]