A man buried in Jordan in the Neolithic era

Overview

The Jordan PPNB (7000–6000 BCE) represents a phase when farming lifeways were established across parts of the southern Levant. Sites in Jordan reflect organized village life and a technological focus on stone tools and construction practices suited to a largely pre-ceramic economy.

Region & Environment

Jordan spans varied settings, including the Jordan Rift Valley and surrounding uplands. Productive habitats and reliable water sources supported cultivation and herding, while land routes facilitated movement between valleys, highlands, and neighboring regions.

Historical Context

Within the Levant’s wider Pre-Pottery Neolithic developments, communities increasingly relied on cultivated plants and managed herds. This was not a single event but a long, regional transition from earlier foraging-centered patterns toward sustained village agriculture.

Populations & Lifeways

People lived in settlements where residents engaged in food production, storage, and craft activities. Household tasks likely included grinding and processing plants, managing livestock, and maintaining tools for hunting, herding, and daily work. Social organization is best inferred from settlement layout and building practices rather than written evidence.

Archaeology & Material Culture

PPNB assemblages are typically recognized through:

• Architecture: often involving rectilinear rooms and planned domestic spaces.
• Lithic technology: emphasis on carefully made stone tools, suitable for cutting, scraping, and processing materials.
• Evidence of cultivation/herding: indirect traces through associated toolkits and plant/animal remains where preserved.

Because this is the pre-pottery phase, pottery is absent; preservation may highlight stone tools, features connected to buildings, and organic remains when conditions allow.

Culture & Society

Cultural patterns are expressed through repeated building forms, shared technological approaches, and consistent strategies for making and using tools. Differences between sites suggest local adaptations to ecological conditions and variations in how communities organized labor and household production.

Legacy & Transition

Toward the end of the PPNB, changes in regional practices culminated in later pre-pottery and then pottery-bearing Neolithic phases. In Jordan, the transition is reflected archaeologically through evolving settlement features and shifting technological emphases as communities adapted to changing social and environmental conditions.