"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" –Natufian Cemeteries and Human Perceptions of Nature

Summary

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 between nature, the living and the dead. We explore this connection by investigating the burial locations of the Natufians, the last Palaeolithic culture in the southern Levant prior to the transition to early Neolithic entities. The unique cultural dynamics of the Natufian, shifts in subsistence strategies and the environmental setting of various sites are key for understanding the emergence of early agricultural communities. New insights into how this Natufian population perceived nature will be presented by investigating two very Late Natufian burial locations in Israel—Hilazon Tachtit cave in the western Galilee and Nahal Ein Gev II in the Jordan Valley, Israel.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Exploring Prehistoric Perceptions of "Nature": Can We Go Beyond Economic Human-Environment Interactions?

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15121