Natufian culture 54716 225308720 2008-07-13T00:39:49Z FinnWiki 3660796 iw {{Stone Age}} The '''Natufian culture''' ({{IPA2|natʏˈfjẽː}}) existed in the [[Mediterranean]] region of the [[Levant]]. It was a [[Mesolithic]] culture, but unusual in that it built stone architecture before the introduction of [[agriculture]]. The Natufian communities are possibly the ancestors of the builders of the first [[Neolithic]] settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world. There is no evidence for the deliberate cultivation of [[cereal]]s, but people at the time certainly made use of wild [[grass]]es. Animals hunted include the [[gazelle]]s.<ref name="Kottak2005">{{cite book |title=Window on Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Anthropology |last=Kottak |first=Conrad P. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2005 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=Boston |isbn=0072890282 |pages=155&ndash;156 }}</ref> The culture is a successor of [[Kebaran culture]]. ==Dating== [[Radiocarbon dating|Radiocarbon]] dates of 14,500–11,500 [[Before Present|BP]] place this culture just before the end of the [[Pleistocene]].<ref name="Munro2003">{{ cite journal | last = Munro | first = Natalie D. | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 2003 | month = | title = Small game, the Younger Dryas, and the transition to agriculture in the southern Levant | journal = Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte | volume = 12 | issue = | pages = 47&ndash;71 | id = | url = http://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/munro/assets/Mitteilungen.pdf | accessdate = | quote = }}</ref> The period is commonly split into two subperiods: [[Early Natufian]] (14,500–12,800 BP) and [[Late Natufian]] (12,800–11,500 BP). The Late Natufian most likely occurred in tandem with the [[Younger Dryas]]. ==Settlements== Settlements occur in the [[woodland]] belt where [[oak]] and [[pistachio]] were prevailing species. The underbrush of this open woodland was grass with high frequencies of grain. The high mountains of [[Lebanon]] and the [[Anti-Lebanon]], the [[steppe]] areas of the [[Negev]] desert in [[Israel]] and [[Sinai]], and the [[Syro-Arabian desert]] in the east put up only small Natufian living areas due to both their lower carrying capacity and the company of other groups of foragers who denuded this large region. The habitations of the Natufian are semi-subterranean, often with a dry-stone foundation. The superstructure was probably made of brushwood. No traces of [[mudbrick]]s have been found that became common in the following [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]], abbreviated PPN A. The round houses have a diameter between 3 and 6 meters, they contain a central round or subrectangular fireplace. In [[Ain Mallaha]] traces of [[posthole]]s have been identified. "Villages" can cover over 1,000 square meters. Smaller settlements have been interpreted by some researchers as camps. Traces of rebuilding in almost all excavated settlements seem to point to a frequent relocation. This then indicates a temporary abandonment of the settlement. Settlements have been estimated to house 100–150, but there are three categories: small, median, and large, ranging from 15 m sq. to 1,000 m sq. of people. There are no definite indications of storage facilities. ==Sedentism== A semi-sedentary life may have been made possible by abundant resources due to a favourable [[climate]] at the time, with a culture living from hunting, fishing and gathering, including the use of wild cereals. Tools were available for making use of cereals: [[stone tool|flint-bladed]] [[sickles]] for harvesting, and [[Mortar and pestle|mortars]], grinding stones, and storage pits. ==Lithics== The Natufian had a [[microlith]]ic industry, made on short [[blade]]s and bladelets. The [[microburin]]-technique was used. Geometric [[microliths]] include lunates, trapezes and triangles. There are [[backed blades]] as well. A special type of [[Retouch (lithics)|retouch]] (Helwan) is characteristic for the early Natufian. In the late Natufian, the Harif-point, a typical [[arrowhead]] made from a regular blade, became common in the [[Negev]]. Some scholars use it to define a separate culture, the [[Harifian]]. [[Sickle]] [[blade]]s made on blades appear for the first time. The characteristic [[sickle-gloss]] shows that they have been used to cut the [[silica]]-rich stems of cereals and form an indirect proof for incipient agriculture. Shaft straighteners made of [[ground stone]] indicate the practice of [[archery]]. There are heavy ground-stone bowl [[Mortar (bowl)|mortar]]s as well. ==Other finds== There was a rich bone industry, including [[harpoon]]s and fish-hooks. Stone and bone was worked into pendants and other ornaments. There are a few human figurines made of limestone (El-Wad, Ain Mallaha, Ain Sakhri), but the favourite subject of representative art seems to have been animals. Ostrich-shell containers that have been found in the [[Negev]]. ==Subsistence== The Natufian people lived by hunting and gathering. The preservation of plant remains is poor because of the soil conditions, but wild cereals, [[legume]]s, [[almond]]s, [[acorn]]s and [[pistachio]]s may have been collected. Animal bones show that [[gazelle]] (''Gazella gazella'' and ''Gazella subgutturosa'') were the main prey. Additionally [[deer]], wild [[cattle]] and [[wild boar]] were hunted in the [[steppe]] zone [[onager]]s and caprids (Ibex) as well. Water fowl and freshwater fish formed part of the diet in the [[Jordan River]] valley. Animal bones from Salibiya I (12,300&ndash;10,800 BP) have been interpreted as evidence for communal hunts with nets. ==Development of agriculture== According to one theory (described in 4 {{Fact|date=January 2008}}), it was a sudden change in [[climate]], the [[Younger Dryas]] event, that inspired the development of [[agriculture]]. The Younger Dryas was a 1,000-year-long interruption in the higher temperatures prevailing since the last [[ice age]], which produced a sudden drought in the Levant. This would have endangered the wild cereals, which could no longer compete with dryland scrub, but upon which the population had become dependent to sustain a relatively large sedentary population. By artificially clearing scrub and planting seeds obtained from elsewhere, they began to practice agriculture. ==Domesticated dog== It is at Natufian sites that the earliest archaeological evidence for the [[domestication]] of the [[dog]] is found. At the Natufian site of Ein Mallaha in Israel, dated to 12 000 BP, the remains of an elderly human and a four-to-five-month-old puppy were found buried together.<ref name="Clutton-Brock1995">{{cite book |title=The domestic dog: its evolution, behaviour and interactions with people |last=Clutton-Brock |first=Juliet |authorlink= |coauthors= |editor=Serpell, James |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0521415292 |pages= |chapter=Origins of the dog: domestication and early history }}</ref> At another Natufian site at the cave of Hayonim, humans were found buried with two canids.<ref name="Clutton-Brock1995" /> ==Burials== Burials are located in the settlements, commonly in pits in abandoned houses but also in caves in [[Mount Carmel]] and the [[Judean Hills]]. The pits were backfilled with settlement refuse, which sometimes makes the identification of grave-goods difficult. Sometimes the graves were covered with limestone slabs. The inhumations are stretched on their backs or flexed, there is no predominant orientation. There are both single and multiple burials, especially in the early Natufian, and scattered human remains in the settlements that point to disturbed earlier graves. The rate of [[child mortality]] is rather high. It consisted of about one-third of the dead between ages five and seven. Skull removal was practiced in Hayonim cave, Nahal Oren and Ain Mallaha. Sometimes the skulls were decorated with shell beads (El-Wad). Grave goods consist mainly of personal ornaments, like beads made of shell, teeth (red deer), bones and stone. There are pendants, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and belt-ornaments as well. ==Long distance exchange== At Ain Mallaha (in [[Israel]]), Anatolian [[obsidian]] and shellfish from the [[Nile]]-valley have been found. The source of [[malachite]]-beads is still unknown. ==Sites== Natufian [[list of archaeological sites|sites]] include: * [[Tell Abu Hureyra]], [[Mureybat]], Yabrud III (Syria) * [[Hayonim Terrace]], [[Ein Mallaha (Eynan)]], [[Beidha]], [[Ein Gev]], [[Hayonim]] [[Nahal Oren]], Salibiya I (Israel) * [[Jericho]] (Israel) * Jiita III, Borj el-Barajné, Saaidé, Aamiq II (Lebanon) * El-Wad and [[Shuqba]]. ==See also== *[[Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures]] ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== * {{Citation |last=Balter |first=Michael |year=2005 |title=The Goddess and the Bull |location=New York |publisher=Free Press |isbn=0-7432-4360-9}} * {{citation |last=Bar-Yosef |first=Ofer |year=1998 |title=The Natufian Culture in the Levant, Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology |volume=6 |issue=5 |pages=159–177 |url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/anthropology/v1007/baryo.pdf |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::AID-EVAN4>3.0.CO;2-7}} * {{Citation |last=Bar-Yosef |first=Ofer |coauthors=Belfer-Cohen, Anna |year=1999 |title=Encoding information: unique Natufian objects from Hayonim Cave, Western Galilee, Israel |journal=Antiquity |volume=73 |pages=402–409}} * {{Citation |last=Bar-Yosef |first=Ofer |editor-last= Valla |editor-first=Francois R. |year=1992 |title=The Natufian Culture in the Levant |location=Ann Arbor |publisher=International Monographs in Prehistory |isbn=1879621037}} * {{Citation |last=Campana |first=Douglas V. |coauthors=Crabtree, Pam J. |year=1990 |title=Communal Hunting in the Natufian of the Southern Levant: The Social and Economic Implications |journal=Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=223–243}} * {{Citation |last=Clutton-Brock |first=Juliet |year=1999 |title=A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals |edition=2nd |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-63247-1}} * {{Citation |last=Dubreuil |first=Laure |date=2004 |title=Long-term trends in Natufian subsistence: a use-wear analysis of ground stone tools |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=31 |issue=11 |pages=1613–1629 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.04.003}} * {{Citation |url=http://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/munro/assets/Munro2004.pdf |last=Munro |first=Natalie D. |year=2004 |title=Zooarchaeological measures of hunting pressure and occupation intensity in the Natufian: Implications for agricultural origins |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=45 |month=August-October |doi=10.1086/422084 |pages=S5}} S6-S33. * {{Citation |last=Simmons |first=Alan H. |year=2007 |title=The Neolithic Revolution in the Near East: Transforming the Human Landscape |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-6}} == External links == *http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Natufian_Culture.html Epi-Palaeolithic (European Mesolithic) Natufian Culture of Israel (The History of the Ancient Near East)] * {{Citation |url=http://unix.temple.edu/~phansell/65online/lect8.htm |title=Cultural Complexity (Hierarchical Societies [Socio-Economic-Political Inequalities]) in Mesopotamia: An Outline}} [[Category:Archaeological cultures]] [[Category:Stone Age]] [[de:Natufien]] [[el:Νατούφιος πολιτισμός]] [[es:Natufiense]] [[fi:Natufin kulttuuri]] [[fr:Natoufien]] [[he:התרבות הנאטופית]] [[hu:Natúf-kultúra]] [[it:Cultura natufiana]] [[nl:Natufische cultuur]] [[no:Natufisk kultur]] [[pl:Kultura natufijska]] [[ru:Натуфийская культура]] [[sv:Natufisk kultur]]