Pre-Pottery Neolithic
The Fertile Crescent, c. 7500 BCE (PPNB), with main Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites (black squares for pre-agricultural sites). The area of Mesopotamia proper was not yet settled by humans. | |
| Geographical range | Fertile Crescent |
|---|---|
| Period | Neolithic |
| Dates | c. 10000 – 6500 BCE |
| Type site | Jericho |
| Preceded by | Epipalaeolithic Near East (Kebaran culture, Natufian culture) Khiamian |
| Followed by | Pottery Neolithic. Halaf culture, Neolithic Greece, Faiyum A culture |
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) represents the early Neolithic in the Near East, dating to c. 12,000 – c. 8,500 years ago, (10000 – 6500 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.