At many PPN settlements across the Levant and Anatolia, burials were made within the settlement itself — beneath house floors, in courtyards, or in other domestic spaces.

This burial pattern, in which the dead remain physically present within the living space of the community, reflects a specific understanding of the relationship between the living and the dead that differs significantly from the later practice of placing cemeteries outside settlements.

Some PPN sites show evidence of skull cult practices: the removal of the skull from a buried body after the flesh had decomposed, followed by special treatment of the skull that included plastering and painting it to reconstruct facial features, or display of skulls in structured arrangements within the settlement.

This practice has been documented most extensively at sites in the Levant, including the famous plastered skulls of Ain Ghazal in modern Jordan and of Jericho.