Natufian (Other Keyword)
1-4 (4 Records)
A chief source of information on archaeological cultures is gathered from excavated cemeteries. Burial location and treatment provide insight into many aspects of the daily life, social organization, and ideology of past human populations. In particular, the location and organization of human interments can reveal how past cultures perceived their natural surroundings and their place within them. Through burial, an individual returns to the soil of their homeland symbolizing the connections...
Bedrock features and cupmarks-bearing boulders: An overview of a Natufian and PPNA phenomenon (2015)
The Natufian–Pre-Pottery Neolithic A transition (ca. 11,500 Cal BP years ago) in the southern Levant is evident in many aspects of the material remains, and reflects pronounced socio-economic changes. One of the most fundamental changes is documented for bedrock features such as mortars, basins and cupmarks. While during the Natufian we find bedrock features mainly in 'public' contexts near or within sites, it seems that during the following PPNA period these were also introduced into the...
Dung Use Before Animal Domestication in Southwest Asia: Evidence from Early Natufian Shubayqa 1 (Northeastern Jordan) (2017)
In southwest Asia the use of dung as fuel has so far only been attested at agricultural sites, which relied on the exploitation of domesticated plants and animals. In this presentation we report the first evidence for dung use by hunter-gatherers in southwest Asia 15,000 years ago. Charred dung remains were found inside two stone-made hearth structures at the late Epipalaeolithic Natufian site Shubayqa 1. This evidence suggests that dung was recurrently gathered and used as fuel. The macro- and...
Early Human Control over Ungulate Taxa in the southern Levant (2017)
An expanding catalog of faunal assemblages spanning the Late Epipaleolithic through Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) periods in the southern Levant points to growing human control over taxa that eventually become domesticated (wild goat, wild pig and wild cattle). This change in human-animal relationships occurs several centuries if not millennia before evidence for full-fledged management and domestication are visible in the archaeo-zoological record. We explore this shift by referencing data from...