Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) denotes the first stage in early Levantine and
Anatolian Neolithic culture, dating around 8000 to 7000 BC. Archaeological remains are located in the
Levantine and upper
Mesopotamian region of the
Fertile Crescent. The time period is characterized by tiny circular mud brick dwellings, the cultivation of crops, the hunting of wild game, and unique burial customs in which bodies were buried below the floors of dwellings. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) were originally defined by
Kathleen Kenyon in the
type site of
Jericho (Palestine). During this time,
pottery was not yet in use. They precede the ceramic Neolithic (
Yarmukian). PPNA succeeds the
Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic (Mesolithic).