#pre-pottery neolithic

[stonedcymro]

Pillar 43, Göbekli Tepe

[historyfiles]

Minoans: excavations have shown that Minoan Crete was inhabited from the Neolithic period (by 6000 BC and perhaps even earlier), with arrivals possibly island-hopping their way from the western Anatolian coast of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B culture.

Kingdoms of the Eastern Mediterranean - Minoans

Coverage of the various historical cultures, rulers, and states of Europe

[random-thought-depository]

So, yeah, I just kind of assumed that in the Middle East pottery and agriculture started at around the same time, cause I knew early Neolithic hilly flanks agriculturalists were dependent on pulse crops like lentils and peas that nowadays are usually boiled, and they might have also made beer. Seriously, how did food preparation work in pre-pottery Neolithic agriculturalist communities? How do you make lentil soup and beer if you don't have pots?

I guess maybe in a basket or a wooden box? Apparently, you can make a basket waterproof by weaving it tightly enough! I guess they also might have created waterproof containers using techniques similar to traditional techniques for waterproofing barrels (which also involve steaming and charring)?

Apparently wooden bowls were still commonly used for eating in the Middle Ages, so I guess pre-pottery Neolithic people might have used those a lot. Don't know if Medieval people applied any sort of waterproofing to them, but I guess they worked well enough one way or another - a quick Google search suggests beeswax and walnut oil might work for waterproofing?

In East Asia they had lacquer, but I don't think Middle Eastern people would have had that.

Looking it up, apparently bottle gourds existed in the Old World, so maybe they had gourd containers! Don't know if the climate was suitable for them, but they seem to have an extensive range.

Also, I remember a PBS program once that talked about ancient Mesopotamians making woven basket rafts waterproofed with bitumen/tar, so maybe the same technique could be used to create waterproof containers, though that doesn't sound very safe to eat from!

Also, I guess waterskins could be used to store and distribute liquids, but I think they probably wouldn't be suitable for things like beer, cause I don't think they could really be cleaned.

[historyfiles]

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B: the PPNB marked the arrival of full agricultural domestication in the Fertile Crescent, a period which lasts longer than its predecessor and is divided by archaeologists into early, middle, and late phases.

Early Near Eastern Cultures - Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

Coverage of the early modern human archaeological cultures of the Near East

[historyfiles]

Mureybetian Culture: the Mureybetian appeared as a sub-phase or regional variant of the PPNA on the west bank of the Euphrates (in today's Raqqa governorate of northern Syria), on a settlement mound or tell which is known as Mureybet.

Early Near Eastern Cultures - Mureybetian

Coverage of the early modern human archaeological cultures of the Near East

[historyfiles]

Shepherd Culture: the Shepherd Neolithic style or industry of Lebanon could be a localised expression of the Natufian, providing a filler between that and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A.

Early Near Eastern Cultures - Shepherd Neolithic

Coverage of the early modern human archaeological cultures of the Near East

[historyfiles]

Pre-Pottery Neolithic A: under the PPNA, plants and animals continued to be wild-farmed rather than domesticated, but the difference was that some truly remarkable early stone constructions were now being erected, such as that of Gobekli Tepe, which hinted at new degrees of social complexity.

Early Near Eastern Cultures - Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

Coverage of the early modern human archaeological cultures of the Near East

[itsacon10]

Euphrates River, Tell Mureybet in the background, Syria, from a pre-flooding photograph.

Mureybet was occupied from Natufian culture (10,500 BCE) through Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8,000 BCE). The site was lost under Lake Assad in 1976.