Pre-Pottery Neolithic

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent, dating to c. 12,000 – c. 8,500  years ago, that is 10,000-6,500 BCE. 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.Sculpture of a predatory animal, Göbekli Tepe, circa 9000 BCUrfa Man, c. 9000 BC. Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum.Ancestor Statue, Jericho, c. 9000 BC (Replica). Israel Museum.Footed bowl in granite, Syria, end of 8th millennium BC.Jar in calcite alabaster, Syria, late 8th millennium BC.Green aragonite tripod vase Mid-Euphrates 6000 BCE Louvre Museum AO 28386Calcite tripod vase, mid-Euphrates, probably from Tell Buqras, 6000 BC, Louvre Museum AO 31551'Ain Ghazal Statues: closeup of one of the bicephalous statues, c.7000 BC.Ain Ghazal statue on show in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.Louvre Ain Ghazal statue, frontalModern distribution of the haplotypes of PPNB farmersGenetic distance between PPNB farmers and modern populationsAncient 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.farming, animal husbandrypottery, metallurgy, wheelcircular ditches, henges, megalithsNeolithic religion The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent, dating to c. 12,000 – c. 8,500  years ago, that is 10,000-6,500 BCE. 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. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is divided into Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA 10,000 – 8,800 BCE) and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB 8,800 – 6500 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. Around 9,000 BCE during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) the world's first town Jericho appeared in the Levant.