Pre-Pottery Neolithic

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is a Near Eastern prehistoric period before pottery became widespread, marked by settled communities, farming, and permanent buildings.

Neolithic: The later part of the Stone Age, marked in many regions by farming, animal domestication, and settled life. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is an early regional phase within the broader Neolithic.
Agriculture: The cultivation of plants and raising of animals for human use. Cultivation and animal management helped sustain permanent communities.
Fertile Crescent: A crescent-shaped region of Southwest Asia where early farming and animal domestication developed. Much of the period's best-known evidence comes from this broad region.
Neolithic Revolution: The long transition in several world regions from foraging toward farming and animal domestication. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic forms a major early chapter in this transformation.
Origins of agriculture: The processes through which people began cultivating plants and managing animals in different regions. Researchers debate how climate, local choices, and population change drove farming's emergence.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A: An early phase of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the Levant, generally dated to the tenth and ninth millennia BCE. It captures the period's earliest transition toward permanent settlement and cultivation.
Domestication: The process through which human selection changes plants or animals across generations. Changes in crops and livestock accompanied the shift to food production.
Jericho: An ancient settlement near the Jordan River, with occupation extending back to the Epipaleolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Its early settlement layers and monumental works are central to accounts of the period.
Food storage: The preservation or keeping of food for use after its harvest or acquisition. Stored harvests supported year-round residence and altered household planning.
Younger Dryas: A period of abrupt cooling between about 12,900 and 11,700 years ago. Its climate shifts may have influenced subsistence choices before early farming expanded.

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