Earlier Neolithic

Contents:

7.1 The Earliest Neolithic, including the Sultanian

Bar-Yosef and Meadow (1995) suggest that the earliest Neolithic, predating the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, actually occurs in the flanks of the Taurus-Zagros mountains and northern Mesopotamia, but that it is represented by only a few sites. Examples include Qermez Dereh, which had a settlement of small oval semi-subterranean houses with wooden pillars and an industry which included Khiam and Nemik points. Another site is Nemik 9 dating to between 10,000 and 9200bp, containing an oval house with four pillars and dwellings with pebble floors. The industry at this site featured rhomboidal and leaf-shaped points. The better known site of Mureybet in the northern Levant dates to c.10,600-10,500bp: “Hence there is no evidence for synchronicity for the onset of the Neolithic between the northern and southern Levant” (Tchernov in Horwitz et al 1999).

However in a later paper, Bar-Yosef (1998) suggests that the earliest Neolithic farming communities were located within Mediterranean woodland in very narrow north-south belt of the Levantine corridor.

The Khiamian is considered to be one of the first signs of cultural change, beginning at around 10,500bp and lasting only several hundred years until c.10,300/10,100bp (Bar-Yosef 1998). It features an increasing number of microliths (mainly lunates) Khiam points, plain sickle blades, asphalt-hafted sickle blades, some microliths, a high frequency of perforators, and an absence of axe/adzes. The industry is similar to that at Mureybet IB in Syria.

Between 10,300 and 9,300bp Bar-Yosef (1998) describes a number of entities occupying different regions.

According to Bar-Yosef and Meadow (1995) the Khiamian is the Natufian-Sultanian transition in the southern Levant. The Sultanian is discussed in greater detail in 7.3

It should be noted that the southern Levant is the only area within the Near East that provides a well documented Neolithic sequence (Thernov in Horwitz 1999).

The datings for the PPNA and PPNB have been taken from Rosen (1997) - but please be aware that this is not the only scheme, and that as new C14 dates become available, these will be updated to conform to new schemes.