Natufian Culture
The Natufian Culture, flourishing between approximately 11,000 and 9,000 B.C.E. in the region of Mesopotamia, represents a significant transitional phase between hunting and gathering and early agricultural practices. This culture emerged during a time of increasing moisture and warmer climates, which led to the proliferation of wild cereals, legumes, and various nut trees. Natufians were primarily sedentary, intensively gathering wild resources such as wheat and barley, and utilizing advanced tools like stone mortars, sickles, and bowls for processing food. Their diet was diverse, including game such as gazelle and ibex, along with fish and waterfowl, while the domestication of dogs was noted as their only cultivated animal. Archaeological findings reveal their settlements featured circular subterranean houses with storage facilities for surplus food. Artistic expressions in stone and bone reflect their culture, depicting abstract forms, human figures, and female representations. Burial practices indicate social stratification, with certain graves containing exotic items that suggest varying status among individuals, hinting at early forms of political organization. The Natufian Culture thus provides valuable insights into the development of settled life and the gradual shift towards agriculture in human history.
Natufian Culture
Related civilization: Prehistoric Mesopotamia.
Date: c. 11,000-8300 b.c.e.
Locale: Levant, particularly present-day southern Israel to southern Syria
Natufian Culture
Increasing moisture and a warmer climate between 11,000 and 9000 b.c.e. favored the expansion of wild cereals, legumes, and stands of nut trees in the Mesopotamia region. The Natufians, transitional between hunting, foraging, and incipient agricultural traditions, developed a technology and settlement pattern characteristic of later agrarians.
The sedentary Natufians intensively gathered wild wheat, barley, other vegetal foods, and nuts. They employed stationary and portable stone mortars as well as pestles, bowls, and sickles. Many Natufian stone tools had been developed by earlier cultures such as the Geometric Kebaran. Depending on locality, their diet included gazelle, ibex, other large and small game, fish, and waterfowl. Their only domesticate was the dog. It remains controversial whether the Natufians initiated cereal cultivation.
Early Natufian settlements on the Mediterranean coast had circular subterranean houses with storage pits for surplus vegetal foods. Later sites in the steppe and desert regions exhibit less substantial dwellings. Communities contained 150 to 250 individuals. Stone and bone art includes abstracts, human and animal motifs, and female figurines.
Substantial information has been obtained from burials placed beneath dwelling floors. Exotic grave goods and other paraphernalia suggest status distinctions. Incipient political centralization in the personage of a chief has been inferred from certain burials.
Bibliography
Bar-Yosef, O., and F. R. Valla, eds. The Natufian Culture in the Levant. Ann Arbor, Mich.: International Monographs in Prehistory, 1991.
Henry, Donald O. From Foraging to Agriculture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.