The Late Natufian culture dynamics during the Younger Dryas event

Summary

The Natufian culture coincided with the Terminal Pleistocene, a period of climatic unpredictability. In the Southern Levant the Late Natufian phase corresponds to the global Younger Dryas event and directly precedes the abrupt transition to early Neolithic entities at the beginning of the Holocene climatic regime. The unique cultural dynamics of the Natufian, shifts in subsistence strategies and the environmental setting of various sites are the key for understanding the process of Neolitization. Yet, the effects of the Younger Dryas on the Late Natufian population remain poorly understood. Did the climatic event delay or halt the cultural processes that promoted the shift to agriculture? Did cultural dynamics maintain their course toward Neolithization in spite of the short-lived climatic deterioration? New perspectives on these questions are provided by new evidence from two very Late Natufian sites in Israel—the burial cave of Hilazon Tachtit, and the residential village of Nahal Ein Gev II.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Human adaptations to environmental change during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene - Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage