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Information about Pre Pottery Neolithic A

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (short PPNA, around 9000 BC) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent. It succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic) as the domestication of plants and animals was in its beginnings and triggered by the Younger Dryas.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon in the type site of Jericho (Palestinian Territories). During this time, pottery was yet unknown. They precede the ceramic Neolithic (Yarmukian).

10,200-9,200 BP (uncalibrated) in the climatic phase Dryas II (arid climate).

There is evidence for the use of wheat, barley and legumes from carbonized seeds, but whether these seeds were collected, planted or even brought into the settlements as part of animal dung used for fuel remains the subject of debate. Sickle-blades and grinding stones certainly indicate the use of cereals. Some scholars speak of an 'agriculture prédomestique'.

Settlements

The settlements consist of round semi-subterranean houses with stone foundations and terrazzo-floors. The superstructures were constructed of unbaked 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. Almost every settlement contains storage bins made either stones or mud-brick. The sites are much larger than in the preceding Natufian and contain traces of communal structures, like the famous wall of Jericho, possibly built against floods.

Lithics

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.

Regional variants

With more sites becoming known, the archaeologists have defined a number of regional variants:
  • 'Sultanien' in the Jordan River valley and southern Levant with the type site of Jerich. Other sites include Netiv Hagdud, El-Khiam, Hatoula and Nahal Oren.
  • 'Mureybetian' in the Northern Levant. Defined by the finds from Mureybet IIIA, IIIB, typical: Helwan points, sickle-blades with base amenagée or short stem and terminal retouch. Other sites include Sheyk Hasan and Jerf el-Ahmar.
  • 'Aswadien' in the Damascus Basin. Defined by finds from Tell Aswad IA. Typical: bipolar cores, big sickle blades, Aswad-points.
  • sites in 'Upper Mesopotamia' include Çayönü and Göbekli Tepe.

See also

Further reading

  • O. Bar-Yosef, The PPNA in the Levant – an overview. Paléorient 15/1, 1989, 57-63.
  • 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).
Neolithic[1] or "New" Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic era follows the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic
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The Levant (IPA: /lə'vænt/) is an imprecise geographical term historically referring to a large area in the Middle East south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by the northern
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Mesopotamia was a cradle of civilization geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq. Sumer in southern Mesopotamia is commonly regarded as the world's earliest civilization.
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Fertile Crescent is a historical crescent-shape region in the Middle East incorporating the Levant, Ancient Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt. The term "Fertile Crescent" was coined by University of Chicago archaeologist James Henry Breasted.
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The Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. It was an Epipalaeolithic culture, but unusual in that it established permanent settlements even before the introduction of agriculture.
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Domestication refers to the process whereby a population of animals or plants becomes accustomed to human provision and control. Humans have brought these populations under their care for a wide range of reasons: to produce food or valuable commodities (such as wool, cotton, or
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Younger Dryas stadial, named after the alpine / tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala, and also referred to as the Big Freeze,[1] was a brief (approximately 1300 ± 70 years [1] ) cold climate period following the Bölling/Allerød interstadial at
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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.
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Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon (5 January, 1906 – 24 August, 1978), important English archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent and excavator of a small area of Jericho in Israel from 1952 to 1958.
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type site (also known as a type-site or typesite) is a site that is considered the model of a particular archaeological culture. For example, the type site of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A culture is Jericho, in the West Bank, while the type site of the
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Jericho
أريحا יְרִיחו?
Near central Jericho

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Pottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. In everyday usage the term is taken to encompass a wide range of ceramics, including earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries.
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Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring isotope carbon-14 (14C) to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years.[1] Raw, i.e.
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H. vulgare

Binomial name
Hordeum vulgare
L.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an annual cereal grain, which serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in
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legume is a simple dry fruit which develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. A common name for this type of fruit is a "pod", although pod is also applied to a few other fruit types.
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For other meanings of seed, see seed (disambiguation).


SEED

General
KISA
1998

Cipher detail
Key size(s):| 128 bits

Block size(s):| 128 bits
Nested Feistel network
16

SEED
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Dung can refer to:
  • a synonym of manure (faeces); an example being cow dung.
  • Dung, a commune in the Doubs département of France

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sickle is a curved, hand-held agricultural tool typically used for harvesting grain crop. The inside of the curve is sharp, so that the user can swing the blade against the base of the crop, catching it in the curve and slicing it at the same time.
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Cereal crops or grains are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible grains or seeds (i.e., botanically a type of fruit called a caryopsis). Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore
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Terrazzo is a faux-marble flooring or countertopping material.

Production

Terrazzo workers create attractive walkways, floors, patios, and panels by exposing marble chips and other fine aggregates on the surface of finished concrete or epoxy-resin.
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mudbrick is an unfired brick made of clay.

In warm regions with little timber available to fuel a kiln, bricks were generally sun dried. This had the result that their useful lifespan is reduced to around thirty years.
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The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A(PPNA) wall of Jericho[1] dates to approximately 8000 B.C. [1] and is thought to be the first city wall ever built. It surrounded and protected a Neolithic settlement, the largest at the time, which contained anywhere from 400 to 2000
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In archaeology a blade is a type of stone tool created by striking a long narrow flake from a stone core.

Blades are defined as being flakes that are at least twice as long as they are wide and that have parallel or subparallel sides and at least two ridges on the dorsal
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sickle is a curved, hand-held agricultural tool typically used for harvesting grain crop. The inside of the curve is sharp, so that the user can swing the blade against the base of the crop, catching it in the curve and slicing it at the same time.
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arrowhead is point of an arrow, or a shape resembling such a point; as archaeological artifacts arrowheads are a subclass of projectile points. [1]

Arrowheads are found all over the world.
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The Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. It was an Epipalaeolithic culture, but unusual in that it established permanent settlements even before the introduction of agriculture.
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The axe or ax is an ancient and ubiquitous tool that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, harvest timber, as a weapon and a ceremonial or heraldic symbol.
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adze (pronounced ădz) serves for smoothing rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards towards their feet, clipping, chipping, and or cutting off a piece of wood, and walking backwards as they go, leaving
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River Jordan (Hebrew: נהר הירדן, nehar hayarden,
Arabic: نهر الأردنnahr al-urdun)




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