Pre History - the archaeology of the ancient Near East · PreHistoryPodcast

Episode 16: Collapse? The end of the PPNB

·34 min·2 clips

The Near East did not simply collapse; after 7,000 cal BCE, its regions developed different personalities.

1. Pre History - the archaeology of the ancient Near East examines the PPNB's alleged collapse around 7,000 cal BCE and the transition toward the Pottery Neolithic. 2. Host Jane explains archaeological dating, settlement change, and material evidence across the Levant and Mesopotamia. 3. The episode's central claim is that "collapse" may describe regional fragmentation better than a single disaster affecting the entire Near East. 4. Earlier models proposed drought, mobile pastoralism, or resource depletion after large PPNB settlements disappeared and a supposed gap preceded pottery villages. 5. The 8.2 climate event occurred around 6,200 cal BCE, while pollen and stalagmite evidence does not show an exceptional drought around 7,000 cal BCE. 6. Charcoal and crop-isotope studies provide mixed evidence for deforestation, with some sites showing scarce large trees and others showing managed woodlands. 7. In the Southern Levant, the PPNC brought smaller and more dispersed villages, disappearing megasites, reduced obsidian exchange, coastal settlements, and early wells. 8. Kfar HaHoresh produced at least 23 PPNB pottery sherds, including pieces made with vegetal matter containing ruminant dung spherolites. 9. Northern Mesopotamia followed a different path, with burnished and painted pottery at Tel Sabi Abiyad from about 7,000 to 6,700 cal BCE and continued occupation at established sites. 10. Best suited to listeners interested in ancient Near Eastern archaeology and archaeological method.

As heard by us

A familiar collapse becomes a careful story of regional change, material evidence, and societies taking separate paths.

The PPNB Collapse is handled less as a clean endpoint than as a question worth staying with. Jane sets the period inside a longer shift: villages emerging from seasonal or year-round settlement, managed wild plants changing over time, and tighter control over food animals across…

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Why you'd press play

You want to know why the so-called PPNB Collapse may look less like disaster and more like local futures branching off.

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