Editing Three-age system (section)

=== The Pre-pottery Neolithic of Garstang and Kenyon at Jericho ===
Even as Childe was developing this revolution theme the ground was sinking under him. Lubbock did not find any pottery associated with the Paleolithic, asserting of its to him last period, the Reindeer, "no fragments of metal or pottery have yet been found."<ref>{{harvnb|Lubbock|1865|p=323}}</ref> He did not generalize but others did not hesitate to do so. The next year, 1866, [[William Boyd Dawkins|Dawkins]] proclaimed of Neolithic people that "these invented the use of pottery...."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dawkins |first=W. Boyd |date=July 1866 |title=On the Habits and Conditions of the Two earliest known Races of Men |journal=Quarterly Journal of Science |volume=3 |page=344}}</ref> From then until the 1930s pottery was considered a [[sine qua non]] of the Neolithic. The term Pre-Pottery Age came into use in the late 19th century but it meant Paleolithic.

Meanwhile, the [[Palestine Exploration Fund]] founded in 1865 completing its survey of excavatable sites in Palestine in 1880 began excavating in 1890 at the site of ancient [[Lachish]] near [[Jerusalem]], the first of a series planned under the licensing system of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Under their auspices in 1908 [[Ernst Sellin]] and [[Carl Watzinger]] began excavation at Jericho ([[Tell es-Sultan]]) previously excavated for the first time by Sir [[Charles Warren]] in 1868. They discovered a Neolithic and Bronze Age city there. Subsequent excavations in the region by them and others turned up other walled cities that appear to have preceded the Bronze Age urbanization.

All excavation ceased for [[World War I]]. When it was over the Ottoman Empire was no longer a factor there. In 1919 the new [[Council for British Research in the Levant|British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem]] assumed archaeological operations in Palestine. [[John Garstang]] finally resumed excavation at Jericho 1930–1936. The renewed dig uncovered another 3000 years of prehistory that was in the Neolithic but did not make use of pottery. He called it the [[Pre-pottery Neolithic]], as opposed to the Pottery Neolithic, subsequently often called the Aceramic or Pre-ceramic and Ceramic Neolithic.

[[Kathleen Kenyon]] was a young photographer then with a natural talent for archaeology. Solving a number of dating problems she soon advanced to the forefront of British archaeology through skill and judgement. In [[World War II]] she served as a commander in the [[Red Cross]]. In 1952–1958 she took over operations at Jericho as the Director of the British School, verifying and expanding Garstang's work and conclusions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kenyon Institute |url=http://www.kenyon-institute.org.uk/history_bsaj.html |access-date=31 May 2011 |archive-date=25 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725051301/http://www.kenyon-institute.org.uk/history_bsaj.html |url-status=live}}</ref> There were two Pre-pottery Neolithic periods, she concluded, A and B. Moreover, the PPN had been discovered at most of the major Neolithic sites in the near East and Greece. By this time her personal stature in archaeology was at least equal to that of V. Gordon Childe. While the three-age system was being attributed to Childe in popular fame, Kenyon became gratuitously the discoverer of the PPN. More significantly the question of revolution or evolution of the Neolithic was increasingly being brought before the professional archaeologists.