Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) is a division of the Neolithic developed by Dame Kathleen Kenyon during her archaeological excavations at Jericho in Palestine.

It differs from the earlier Pre-Pottery Neolithic A in that people living during this period began to introduce domesticated animals to supplement their earlier agrarian diet. The period is dated to between 9600 and 8000 BP.

Like the earlier PPNA people, the PPNB culture developed from the Earlier Natufian but shows evidence of a northerly origin, possibly indicating an influx from the region of north eastern Anatolia. The culture disappeared in the Minhatta and Yamoukian post-pottery neolitich cultures that succeeded it, although PPNB culture continued in the Amuq valley, where it influenced the later development of Ghassulian culture.

Work at the site of 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan has indicated a later Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period which lasted between 8200 and 7900 BP.

See also

*Pre-Pottery Neolithic A preceded PPNB
*History of pottery in the Southern Levant