Editing Neolithic (section)

==== Pre-Pottery Neolithic A ====
{{main|Pre-Pottery Neolithic A}}
[[File:Urfa man.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Urfa Man]] {{Circa|9000 BC}}.<ref name="RJC">{{cite book |last1=Chacon |first1=Richard J. |last2=Mendoza |first2=Rubén G. |title=Feast, Famine or Fighting?: Multiple Pathways to Social Complexity |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3319484020 |pages=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhT1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schmidt |first1=Klaus |title=Premier temple. Göbekli tepe (Le): Göbelki Tepe |date=2015 |publisher=CNRS Editions |isbn=978-2271081872 |page=291 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3yUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT291 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="AC">{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Andrew |title=Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and the Discovery of Eden |date=2014 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1591438359 |page=66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1koDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT66 |language=en}}</ref> [[Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum]].]]
The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) period began around 10,000&nbsp;BC in the [[Levant]].{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}} A temple area in southeastern Turkey at [[Göbekli Tepe]], dated to around 9500&nbsp;BC, may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, as evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity, and may be the oldest known human-made place of worship.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The World's First Temple |url=https://archive.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html |journal=[[Archaeology (magazine)|Archaeology]] |date=November 2008 |page=23 |last=Scham |first=Sandra |volume=61 |issue=6 |publisher=[[Archaeological Institute of America]]}}</ref> At least seven stone circles, covering {{convert|25|acre}}, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, and birds. Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000&nbsp;BC have been found in [[Palestine]], notably in [[Tell es-Sultan]] (ancient [[Jericho]]) and [[Gilgal I|Gilgal]] in the [[Jordan Valley (Middle East)|Jordan Valley]]; [[Israel]] (notably [[Ain Mallaha]], [[Nahal Oren, archeological site|Nahal Oren]], and [[Kfar HaHoresh]]); and in [[Byblos]], [[Lebanon]]. The start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the [[Tahunian]] and [[Heavy Neolithic]] periods to some degree.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming. In the proto-Neolithic [[Natufian]] cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour. [[Emmer wheat]] was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated ([[animal husbandry]] and [[selective breeding]]).{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

In 2006, remains of [[Ficus|figs]] were discovered in a house in Jericho dated to 9400&nbsp;BC. The figs are of a mutant variety that cannot be pollinated by insects, and therefore the trees can only reproduce from cuttings. This evidence suggests that figs were the first cultivated crop and mark the invention of the technology of farming. This occurred centuries before the first cultivation of grains.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Early Domesticated Fig in the Jordan Valley |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] |date=June 2, 2006 |doi=10.1126/science.1125910 |pmid=16741119 |volume=312 |issue=5778 |pages=1372–1374 |last1=Kislev |first1=Mordechai E. |last2=Hartmann |first2=Anat |last3=Bar-Yosef |first3=Ofer |author3-link=Ofer Bar-Yosef|bibcode=2006Sci...312.1372K |s2cid=42150441 }}</ref>

Settlements became more permanent, with circular houses, much like those of the Natufians, with single rooms. However, these houses were for the first time made of [[mudbrick]]. The settlement had a surrounding stone wall and perhaps a stone tower (as in Jericho). The wall served as protection from nearby groups, as protection from floods, or to keep animals penned. Some of the enclosures also suggest grain and meat storage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://virtualcopedia.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/neolithic-age/|title=Neolithic Age|date=7 August 2015}}</ref>