Ecological and demographic changes that occurred toward the beginning of the seventh millennium BCE brought about the end of the Pre-pottery Neolithic B (PPNB below). These changes resulted in the abandonment of the flourishing settlement array of the Middle and Late PPNB and in its place smaller agricultural settlement entities were established. Numerous scholars have ascribed these changes to a transition phase called the “Pre-pottery Neolithic C” (PPNC). The demographic and economic changes connected to the abandonment had a significant impact on the material culture and particularly on the flint industry.

Research of the assemblages of the period following the PPNB has shown a sharp transition from the lithic tradition that consisted of mostly knapping cores for blade production to other lithic traditions for producing flakes, although the production of blades continued albeit not as intensely. The knapping was flexible and manifested itself in a transition from one technology to another while knapping the cores. The flexibility is also expressed by the frequency of the tools of the period, most of which are ad hoc. In addition to this, stylistic innovations in the design of the “fossil directeur” tools were observed, and new types of tools such as cortical knives, which were up until now rare, also appeared in the flint assemblages.

In contrast to the clear technological change that followed the PPNB, during the transition from the PPNC to the Pottery Neolithic period (PN) there was no dramatic change in the knapping technology and manufacture of flint tools, and despite the changes in the nature of the settlement and its economic base, a tradition of knapping flakes continued. What's more, the types of tools did not change and the tradition in which they are designed is identical to that of the previous phase. The slight changes that occurred were in the size of the arrowheads, which was reduced, and their frequency. The lithic analysis of the transition phase has therefore underscored the difference between the flint industry of the PPNB and those of the PPNC and PNA.

By relying on the aforementioned lithic analysis and on radiometric dates, we can state that the changes in the settlement model and the economic base, and the dramatic change in the technology of knapping, occurred at the beginning of the seventh millennium BCE, in the PPNC. The characteristics of the material culture of the sites of this period and the great similarity between these characteristics and those of sites from the beginning of the PNA do not justify defining the PPNC sites as “Pre-Pottery” sites with an independent lithic tradition. They should therefore be thought of as sites that herald the beginning of the Pottery Neolithic period.