Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) denotes the first stage of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, in early Levantine and Anatolian Neolithic culture, dating to c. 12,000 – c. 10,800 years ago, that is, 10,000–8800 BCE. Archaeological remains are located in the Levantine and Upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent.
Jarmo is a prehistoric archeological site located in modern Iraq on the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. It lies at an altitude of 800 m above sea-level in a belt of oak and pistachio woodlands in the Adhaim River watershed. Excavations revealed that Jarmo was an agricultural community dating back to 7090 BC. It was broadly contemporary with such other important Neolithic sites such as Jericho in the Southern Levant and Çatalhöyük in Anatolia.
Mureybet is a tell, or ancient settlement mound, located on the west bank of the Euphrates in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria. The site was excavated between 1964 and 1974 and has since disappeared under the rising waters of Lake Assad. Mureybet was occupied between 10,200 and 8,000 BC and is the eponymous type site for the Mureybetian culture, a subdivision of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA). In its early stages, Mureybet was a small village occupied by hunter-gatherers. Hunting was important and crops were first gathered and later cultivated, but they remained wild. During its final stages, domesticated animals were also present at the site.
Çayönü Tepesi is a Neolithic settlement in southeastern Turkey which prospered from circa 8,630 to 6,800 BC. It is located in Diyarbakır Province forty kilometres north-west of Diyarbakır, at the foot of the Taurus mountains. It lies near the Boğazçay, a tributary of the upper Tigris River and the Bestakot, an intermittent stream. It is an early example of agriculture.
The Samarra culture is a Late Neolithic archaeological culture of northern Mesopotamia, roughly dated to between 5500 and 4800 BCE. It partially overlaps with Hassuna and early Ubaid. Samarran material culture was first recognized during excavations by German Archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld at the site of Samarra. Other sites where Samarran material has been found include Tell Shemshara, Tell es-Sawwan, and Yarim Tepe.
Telul eth-Thalathat is an archaeological site located 40 miles (64 km) west of Mosul and just east of Tal Afar in Nineveh Province (Iraq).
Avi Gopher is an Israeli archaeologist. He is a professor at the University of Tel Aviv.
Munhata is an archaeological site 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) south of Lake Tiberias, Israel on the north bank and near the outlet of Nahal Tavor on a terrace 215 metres (705 ft) below sea level.
Tell Halula is a large, prehistoric, neolithic tell, about 8 hectares (860,000 sq ft) in size, located around 105 kilometres (65 mi) east of Aleppo and 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of Manbij in the Raqqa Governorate of Syria.
Nemrik 9 is an early Neolithic archeological site in the Dohuk Governorate in the north of modern-day Iraq.
Qermez Dere is an early Neolithic settlement in the northwestern edges of Tal Afar in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. This archaeological site was discovered in the 1980s during a rescue operation. It covers an area of about 100 metres (330 ft) x 60 metres (200 ft) and forms a 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall tell. The buildings were made of primitive Mudbricks, which is not a perennial material, and are mostly destroyed, however archaeologists have excavated a one-room structure in good shape. The room's corners are rounded, showing the care that went into its construction. Also vestiges of non-structural clay columns have been found, suggesting primitive instances of furniture.
The prehistory of Mesopotamia is the period between the Paleolithic and the emergence of writing in the area of the Fertile Crescent around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as surrounding areas such as the Zagros foothills, southeastern Anatolia, and northwestern Syria.
Kharaysin is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site (PPN) located in the village of Quneya, at the Zarqa River valley, Jordan. This site was discovered in 1984 by Hanbury-Tenison and colleagues during the Jerash Region Survey. The site was allocated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B because of the analysis of archaeological artefacts recovered on the surface.
Bestansur is a Neolithic tell, or archaeological settlement mound, located in Sulaimaniyah province, Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq in the western Zagros foothills. The site is located on the edge of the Shahrizor Plain, 30 km to the south-east of Sulaimaniyah. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.
Tell Kashashok is an archaeological site in the Khabur River Valley, of Northern Syria. The site is dated by pottery finds to the latter neolithic era, and early Dynastic era. The site was excavated by the Directorate General of Antiquities of Syria in 1987 and 1988. The Early Dynastic era includes a destruction layer, and an early adoption of cuneiform. It may have been known in antiquity as Kiš. A few clay numerical tablets from the EB III were found.
Dalma culture was a prehistoric archaeological culture of north-western Iran dating to early fifth millennium B.C. Later, it spread into the central Zagros region and elsewhere in adjacent areas. Its widespread ceramic remains were excavated in central and northern valleys of the Zagros Mountains in north-western Iran. Dalma assemblages were initially discovered by the excavations carried out at Dalma Tepe and Hasanlu Tepe in south-western parts of Lake Urmia, in the valley of Solduz.
Tell Rashid is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Diyala Governorate, Iraq. The site lies in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, some 12 km (7.5 mi) south of Tell Abada, another Ubaid period site. It measures 54 by 30 m and extends 2.5 m above the surrounding plain. Tell Rashid was excavated for a single season in 1978 under the direction of Sabah Abboud Jasim as part of the archaeological salvage work being done for the construction of the Hemrin Dam. The excavation trench reached a depth of 5 m, at which point virgin soil was reached. Four different occupation levels were recognised, all dating to the Ubaid period.
Tell Abada is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Diyala Governorate (Iraq). Abada was excavated as part of the archaeological salvage operation to excavate sites that would be flooded by the reservoir of the Hamrin Dam. Excavations revealed occupation levels dating to the Ubaid 1-3 periods. The site is important because it was one of the few where an Ubaid period settlement could be excavated in its entirety.
Osmantəpə is an early Neolithic settlement near Kükü village, in the Shahbuz District of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.
M'lefaat is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Upper Mesopotamia that was occupied during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A.
