Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA for short) denotes the first stage in early Levantine Neolithic culture, dating around 9500 to 8500 BC.[1] Archaeological remains are located in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent. The culture is characterized by small circular mud brick dwellings, the cultivation of crops, the hunting of wild game, and unique burial customs in which bodies were buried below the floors of dwellings.[2] The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon in the type site of Jericho (Palestine). During this time, pottery was yet unknown. They precede the ceramic Neolithic (Yarmukian). PPNA succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic).
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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. The upper walls were constructed of unbaked clay mudbricks with plano-convex cross-sections. The hearths 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.
One of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho, thought to be the world's first town (c 8000 BC). The PPNA town contained a population of up to 2000-3000 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.[3] One possibility is the wall was built to protect the salt resources of Jericho.[4]
The extensive domestication of plants and animals and the rise of settlement happened at this time. This period occurred at the end of the Younger Dryas and was probably linked with the associated stabilization of climate and increased rainfall. There is evidence for the use of wheat, barley and legumes from carbonized seeds and their storage in granaries.[1]
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.[5] Skulls were often dug up and reburied, or mottled with clay and (presumably) displayed.
The lithic industry is based on blades struck from regular cores. Sickle-blades and arrowheads continue traditions from the late Natufian culture, transverse-blow axes and polished adzes appear for the first time.
The building of granaries arose early. These measured 3 X 3 metres on the outside, and had suspended floors that protected the grain from rodents and insects, and provided air circulation.[1] Granaries are positioned in places between other buildings early on 9500 BC. However beginning around 8500 BC, they were moved inside houses, and by 7500 BC storage occurred in special rooms.[1] This change might reflect changing systems of ownership and property as granaries shifted from a communal use and ownership to become under the control of households or individuals.[1]
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, at the same time, have been the single most important feature in increasing sedentism that required active community participation in new life-ways."[1]
With more sites becoming known, archaeologists have defined a number of regional variants:
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