PPNA

Figure 14‑11. Satellite image of Jordan Valley from Dead Sea to Sea of Galilee.

The Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) and specifically the Pre-pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) (before there was pottery) period, began near the end of the Younger Dryas Ice Age. Life had been difficult during this ice age and drought. The surviving Natufian hunter-gatherers of the Younger Dryas had small settlements near springs at the edges of the Jordan Valley (Figure 14‑11) at Netiv Hagdud, Jericho, Dhra, Wadi Feynan, and Zahrat adh-Dhra (ZAD).[1] The first confirmed evidence of early farming was at ZAD at the southern end of the Dead Sea, which signified the beginning of the Neolithic Age. The Natufians at ZAD directed water from a nearby spring to their crops. They also began to domesticate (selectively keep seeds with favorable characteristics) grain crops and built granaries, saving the larger and more stable ears for the next season.

Archaeologists analyzed the skeletons at ZAD, and they found that one of the disadvantages of farming was injuries to shoulders and other body parts that were used in cultivation and other farm work. The fact that there were no art objects at ZAD indicates that their farming lifestyle was much busier than that of their hunter gatherer ancestors. Because ZAD was in an arid region, there was not much game. The farmers had to become more efficient hunters so they invented the bow and arrow. They built circular stone and mortar houses with thatched roofs. The roofs were burned each year to get rid of bugs. Like the earlier Natufians, they buried their dead under the huts; however, they developed the custom of unburying their dead and displaying the dried skulls. Why define agricultural periods based on pottery? Archaeologists refer to pottery because each culture produces a unique style of pottery, which can then be used to identify the culture and even interactions with other cultures. Pottery was the primary food storage container.

Figure 14‑12. Domesticated emmer wheat: Credit: USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN)

Radiocarbon dating is highly accurate in the last 20,000 years since the half-life of carbon 14 is 5,000 years. Radiocarbon dating of seeds (finding the date that the seed grew based on percentages of carbon isotopes) shows that agriculture (wheat) also began at approximately the same time in the Jordan Valley and in Chogha Golan, a site in Iran on the eastern side of the Fertile Crescent.[2] Communities first cultivated wild varieties of wheat, barley, and other crops and then bred for favorable traits for the next 2,000 years. The fact that the villages around the Fertile Crescent had approximately the same rate of progression toward domesticated varieties implies that there was sharing of seeds and technologies among these early agriculturalists.

In addition to taste, size, and edibility, crops must be easy to harvest. For example, rather than the seeds dispersing in the air, the heads of domesticated wheat and barley must remain together during harvesting. The domesticated stalk, “rachis,” that holds the spikelets is not as brittle as the wild variety. The spikelets also break off cleanly from the rachis during threshing in domesticated wheat and barley. Figure 14‑12 shows modern domesticated wheat with large seeds and a head that does not break apart when it is harvested. By the end of the PPNA, many villages in the Fertile Crescent were growing domesticated wheat and barley that had been developed by careful breeding.

PPNA settlements Jericho (Figure 14‑13) and Nativ Hagdud were established near springs on the west side of the Jordan Valley 11,600 years ago (9,600 BC). Jericho included 70 circular dwellings by 9,400 BC. Although Jericho is the oldest city in the world, it is not the oldest continuously occupied city in the world. By the end of the PPNA, Jericho covered 40,000 m² (10 acres). The PPNA community at Jericho vanished 9,200 BP (7,200 BC), and there were a few other periods when Jericho was uninhabited.

Figure 14‑13. Aerial view looking of Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho) looking toward Dead Sea. Library of Congress.

Estimates of the number of people in Jericho during the PPNA phase range from 200 to 3,000. The community developed grain storage to store their grain between harvests. They first constructed the granaries between buildings, but they later constructed the granaries within residences. This might indicate initial communal storage of grain and later personal storage. Storage facilities used suspended floors in order to facilitate air circulation and to prevent rodents from eating the grains. They plastered storage bins in order to protect the food from various biological and chemical agents.[3]

People associate Jericho with walls. Although not the same wall as the Biblical wall in the Book of Judges (probably number 14 in Figure 14‑14), the PPNA Jericho community built a massive wall (Figure 14‑16) from undressed stones, probably to protect their community and tower (Figure 14‑16) from Wadi el-Mafjar flash floods.[4] The wall was up to 2 meters thick and up to 5 meters high with a total circumference of 600 meters. There was also an 8-meter wide and 3-meter deep ditch around the wall. Archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon proposed that they used the Neolithic (rock) axes or picks (Figure 14‑15) as well as water and fire to break the rocks. The wall provides evidence that there was a relatively high level of social organization since the community would have needed to coordinate a large number of people to construct such a wall. Scientists aren’t sure why, but the PPNA community of Jericho vanished in 9,200 BP (7,200 BC). The mound of Jericho (Figure 14‑14) is called Tell es-Sultan or Tell-Jericho and is currently part of Palestine.

Figure 14‑14. Tell Es-Sultan. Pre-Pottery Neolithic tower at location 1. Credit. Deror_avi Used here per CC BY-SA 3.0.

There have been many speculations on the purpose of the PPNA Tower of Jericho (Figure 14‑15 and Figure 14‑16). The current most popular hypothesis is that the Tower of Jericho had some sort of symbolic significance, maybe as a unifying concept for the community, rather than as a structure for defense. The community fortified the wall by the tower several times (Figure 14‑16).

Figure 14‑15. Trihedral Neolithic axe. Museum of Lebanese prehistory. Credit: Paul Bedson. Public domain.

There have been many speculations on the purpose of the PPNA Tower of Jericho (Figure 14‑16 and Figure 14‑17). The current most popular hypothesis is that the Tower of Jericho had some sort of symbolic significance, maybe as a unifying concept for the community, rather than as a structure for defense. The community fortified the wall by the tower several times (Figure 14‑17).

Figure 14‑16. Tower of Jericho (PPNA) at Tell-es-Sultan mound (Tel Jericho). Credit: Reinhard Dietrich. Public domain.

Figure 14‑17. Neolithic wall around PPNA and PPNB Tower of Jericho. Credit: Joe Roe. Used here per CC BY-SA 4.0.

As with their Natufian ancestors, the inhabitants of Jericho buried their dead relatives under their houses. The difference was that they sometimes plastered their skulls (Figure 14‑18).

Figure 14‑18. Left. “Plastered skull found in Jericho (Tell es-Sultan), Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, c. 7200 BC. BM 12741-42. This skull had the lower jaw removed, and the face modelled with lime plaster, shell placed in eye sockets. Credit: Zunkir. Used here per CC BY-SA 4.0. Right. Plaster skull (PPNA, 9000 BC) on exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Credit Gary Todd. Public Domain.” Quote from Wikipedia. Note: I am not sure that the right skull is correctly labeled as PPNA.

There appears to have been a PPNA religious center at Gobleki Tepe (Figure 14‑19), which was near the Euphrates River. It is generally considered as the oldest known temple in the world. It might have been a cult of the dead, with carved animals protecting the dead.

Figure 14‑19. Gobleki Tepe at Sanliurfa, Turkey, near the Euphrates River. Credit: Teomancimit. Used here per CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ancient Jericho’s primary source of water was the Ain Sultan spring (a.k.a. Elisha’s spring). Unlike some of the other springs in the Jordan Valley, which stopped flowing during periods of drought or other hydrological changes, the Ain Sultan spring has never stopped flowing. Three sets of springs near Jericho all receive their water from a dolomite and limestone aquifer that extends from Jerusalem down to Jericho. A fracture delivers water from the aquifer to the Ain Sultan spring. Fault springs such as these produce copius amounts of water. The flow rate of Ain Sultan spring is 5.6 Mm³/year (2,800 gpm). The ancient mound of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) was uphill from the spring. Downhill from the spring were rich alluvial soils suitable for agriculture. The residents diverted the water from the spring and watered crops planted in the alluvial fan. This was possibly the first instance of irrigation in the world. Scientists have evaluated the behavior of the aquifer (Figure 14‑21) as the Dead Sea level (Lake Lisan) fluctuated (Figure 14‑20). At times, Lake Lisan covered the entire Jordan Valley, and at other times it was low and only covered part of the south end of the valley, such as the current extent of the Dead Sea.

Figure 14‑18. Different levels in historic Lake Lisan in the Jordan Valley (currently the Dead Sea). Credit. Levy, et al. (see next figure)

Figure 14‑19. “Two east-west hydrogeological cross sections for two levels of historic Lake Lisan.” Credit. Levy, Yehuda, Nigel A. Goring-Morris, Yoseph Yechieli, Avihu Burg, and Haim Gvirtzman. "Harnessing Paleohydrologic Modeling to Solve a Prehistoric Mystery." Scientific reports 9, no. 1 (2019): 1-9. Creative commons, www.nature.com

References

Recommended video, "Stories from the Stone Age" part 1. Available on Amazon Prime.

[1] Rosen, Arlene M., and Isabel Rivera-Collazo. "Climate change, adaptive cycles, and the persistence of foraging economies during the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the Levant." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 10 (2012): 3640-3645.

[2] Riehl, Simone, Mohsen Zeidi, and Nicholas J. Conard. "Emergence of agriculture in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains of Iran." Science 341, no. 6141 (2013): 65-67.

[3] Kuijt, Ian. “The Neolithic refrigerator on a Friday night: How many people are coming to dinner and just what should I do with the slimy veggies in the back of the fridge?” Environmental Archaeology, 20, no 4 (2015): 321-336.

[4] Bar-Yosef, Ofer. "The walls of Jericho: an alternative interpretation." Current Anthropology 27, no. 2 (1986): 157-162.

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Jericho Prepottery Neolothic A (8000 BC). Credit: Balage Baloch. Used by permission.

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