Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

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Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) is a division of the Neolithic developed by Dame Kathleen Kenyon during her archaeological excavations at Jericho in the southern Levant region.

The culture of this period differs from that of the earlier Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period in that people living during this period began to introduce domesticated animals to supplement their earlier agrarian diet. In addition the flint tool kit of the period is new and quite disparate from that of the earlier period. One of its major elements is the naviform core. This is the first period in which architectural styles of the southern Levant became primarily rectilinear; earlier typical dwellings were circular, elliptical and occasionally even octagonal. Pyrotechnology was highly developed in this period. One of the main features of houses were the white plaster floors, made of lime produced from limestone. The period is dated to between ca. 9600 and ca. 8000 BP.

Like the earlier PPNA people, the PPNB culture developed from the Earlier Natufian but shows evidence of a northerly origin, possibly indicating an influx from the region of north eastern Anatolia. The culture disappeared in the Munhatta and Yamukian post-pottery Neolithic cultures that succeeded it, although PPNB culture continued in the Amuq valley, where it influenced the later development of Ghassulian culture.

Work at the site of 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan has indicated a later Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period which lasted between 8200 and 7900 BP.