The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA, around 9500 to 8500 BCE or later) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent.
It succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic).In it occurs the extensive domestication of plants and animals and the rise of settlement.
It occurs at the end of the Younger Dryas and is probably linked with the associated stabilization of climate and increased rainfall.The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon in the type site of Jericho (Palestine).
During this time, pottery was yet unknown.
They precede the ceramic Neolithic (Yarmukian).There is evidence for the use of wheat, barley and legumes from carbonized seeds and their storage in granaries.
