Editing 9th millennium BC (section)

==Pottery and dating systems==
Beginning with China c.18,000 BC, [[pottery]] is believed to have been invented independently in various places – for example, at [[Ounjougou]] in central Mali (dated c.9400 BC). These early innovations were probably created accidentally by fires lit on [[clay]] soil.{{sfn|Chazan|2017|p=197}}<ref name="PNAS09">{{Cite journal |date=June 2009 |pages=10966–10970 |issn=0027-8424 |last1=Kuijt |first1=I. |last2=Finlayson |first2=B. |doi=10.1073/pnas.0812764106 |pmc=2700141 |pmid=19549877 |issue=27 |volume=106 |title=Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |bibcode=2009PNAS..10610966K|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/ozkaya/|title= Körtik Tepe, a new Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in south-eastern Anatolia |last=Ozkaya |first=Vecihi |date=June 2009|publisher=Antiquity Journal, Volume 83, Issue 320}}</ref>{{sfn|Richard|2004|p=244}} The [[potter's wheel]] had not yet been invented and, where pottery as such was made, it was still hand-built, often by means of [[Coiling (pottery)|coiling]], and [[Pit fired pottery|pit fired]].{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}}

The first chronological pottery system was the Early, Middle and Late Minoan framework devised in the early 20th century by Sir [[Arthur Evans]] for his [[Bronze Age]] findings at [[Knossos]] for the period c. 2800 BC to c. 1050 BC.{{sfn|Bury|Meiggs|1975|p=6}} Dame [[Kathleen Kenyon]] was the principal archaeologist at [[Tell es-Sultan]] (ancient Jericho) and she discovered that there was no pottery there.{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}<ref name="Dever">{{cite journal |last=Dever |first=William G. |title=Kathleen Kenyon (1906–1978): A Tribute |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=232 |publisher=American Schools of Oriental Research |pages=3–4 |year=1978|doi=10.1086/BASOR1356696 |s2cid=167007661 }}</ref> The vessels she found were made from stone and she reasonably surmised that others made from wood or vegetable fibres would have long since decayed.{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}<ref name="Dever"/> Using Evans' system as a benchmark, Kenyon divided the Near East Neolithic into phases called [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (PPNA), from c. 10,000 BC to c. 8800 BC; [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB), from c. 8800 BC to c. 6500 BC; and then [[Pottery Neolithic]] (PN), which had varied start-points from c. 6500 BC until the beginnings of the [[Bronze Age]] towards the end of the [[4th millennium BC|4th millennium]]. At the beginning of the 9th millennium, the Natufian culture co-existed with the PPNA which prevailed in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian areas of the Fertile Crescent.{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}}{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}