The articulation of cultural processes and Late Quaternary environmental changes in Cisjordan.

Goring-Morris, A. Nigel; Belfer‐Cohen, Anna

doi:10.3406/paleo.1997.4653

Cited by 136 publications

(49 citation statements)

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“…In contrast to the Bølling-Allerød that was associated with unprecedented human sedentism in comparison with earlier periods, thinner site deposits and less investment in permanent architectural features reflect a reduction in site occupation intensity and an increase in population mobility coincident with the YD (12,13,15). The leading argument for the abandonment of a more or less sedentary lifestyle is an imbalance between human populations and their food resources related to a reduction in biomass production brought on by cool and dry conditions attributed to the YD (16,17).…”

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confidence: 86%

“…In the Mediterranean region of the Levant, the YD has been cited as a primary trigger for the transition to agriculture, a fundamental shift in human economic and social strategies that completely reconfigured human societies at the beginning of the Holocene (11)(12)(13). Clarifying regional impacts of the YD are essential for understanding the conditions that preceded this fundamental cultural change.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Hunted gazelles evidence cooling, but not drying, during the Younger Dryas in the southern Levant

Hartman

Bar‐Yosef

Brittingham

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The climatic downturn known globally as the Younger Dryas (YD; ∼12,900-11,500 BP) has frequently been cited as a prime mover of agricultural origins and has thus inspired enthusiastic debate over its local impact. This study presents seasonal climatic data from the southern Levant obtained from the sequential sampling of gazelle tooth carbonates from the Early and Late Natufian archaeological sites of Hayonim and Hilazon Tachtit Caves (western Galilee, Israel). Our results challenge the entrenched model that assumes that warm temperatures and high precipitation are synonymous with climatic amelioration and cold and wet conditions are combined in climatic downturns. Enamel carbon isotope values from teeth of human-hunted gazelle dating before and during the YD provide a proxy measure for water availability during plant growth. They reveal that although the YD was cooler, it was not drier than the preceding Bølling-Allerød. In addition, the magnitude of the seasonal curve constructed from oxygen isotopes is significantly dampened during the YD, indicating that cooling was most pronounced in the growing season. Cool temperatures likely affected the productivity of staple wild cereal resources. We hypothesize that human groups responded by shifting settlement strategies-increasing population mobility and perhaps moving to the warmer Jordan Valley where wild cereals were more productive and stable.paleoclimate | stable isotopes | δ 13 C | δ 18 O | Natufian

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confidence: 86%

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confidence: 99%

Hunted gazelles evidence cooling, but not drying, during the Younger Dryas in the southern Levant

Hartman

Bar‐Yosef

Brittingham

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Microliths dominate during the period and researchers use the temporal and spatial variability of these tools to divide the Late Pleistocene Epipaleolithic into separate cultures (Bar-Yosef, 1970, 1998Goring-Morris, 1998;Henry, 1989). The Early Epipaleolithic Kebaran (ca.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers explain this shift in subsistence and social organization as an adaptive response to a steady population increase during the preceding Geometric Kebaran when high population density and reduction in available territories made budding-off of daughter groups, practiced previously, no longer possible (Goring-Morris and Belfer-Cohen, 1998). The Late and Final Natufian witnessed additional changes in settlement and subsistence which involved reduced occupation density and a return to more mobile strategies while still exerting intense pressure on animal resources (Munro, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and performance of microlith implemented projectiles during the Middle and the Late Epipaleolithic of the Levant: experimental and archaeological evidence

Yaroshevich

Kaufman

Nuzhnyy³

et al. 2010

Journal of Archaeological Science

122

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The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. AbstractThe study comprises an experimentally based investigation of interaction between temporal change in the morphology of microlithic tools and transformations in projectile technology during the Late Pleistocene in the Levant. Archery experiments with differently designed arrows fitted with various types of microliths representing subsequent Epipaleolithic cultures of the Levant allowed analyzing performance abilities of the arrows, identifying projectile damage types characteristic of particular hafting modes, detecting factors influencing the frequency of projectile damage and estimating the frequency of projectile damage expected to be found in archaeological samples. The data obtained through the experiments applied in the analysis of the archaeological microliths from Geometric Kebaran and Natufian sites in Israel indicate different approaches to the design of projectiles fitted with microliths characteristic for these cultures. The shift in design, associated with such important economic and social transformations as transition to sedentary settlements and a broad-spectrum economy, may reflect a demand for light, flexible and efficient projectile weapons requiring low time and labor investment for preparation and retooling. The use of such efficient weapons in conditions of growing population density and restricted areas available for Natufian huntergatherers can be considered as one of the factors that could have affected the subsequent transition to food production that took place in the early Holocene.

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“…Certainly the apparent increased degree of sedentism in the Early Natufian period suggests that people were able to reduce seasonal food risks to the point where they could live in the same areas for 1 or more seasons of the year. There is, however, surprisingly little direct evidence for food storage (2,3). The strongest is from 'Ain Mallaha (4), where pits are often termed silos although their specific function is unclear.…”

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confidence: 99%

Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley

Kuijt

Finlayson²

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

201

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Food storage is a vital component in the economic and social package that comprises the Neolithic, contributing to plant domestication, increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and new social organizations. Recent excavations at Dhra' near the Dead Sea in Jordan provide strong evidence for sophisticated, purpose-built granaries in a predomestication context Ϸ11,300 -11,175 cal B.P., which support recent arguments for the deliberate cultivation of wild cereals at this time. Designed with suspended floors for air circulation and protection from rodents, they are located between residential structures that contain plant-processing instillations. The granaries represent a critical evolutionary shift in the relationship between people and plant foods, which precedes the emergence of domestication and large-scale sedentary communities by at least 1,000 years.Near East ͉ Neolithic ͉ forager-farmer transition N ew archaeological work at the PPNA (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A; Ϸ11,500-10,500 cal B.P.) site of Dhra', located next to the Dead Sea in Jordan, reveals clear evidence for large-scale storage in sophisticated, purpose-built granaries before the domestication of plants. Evidence for PPNA food storage illustrates a major transition in the economic and social organization of human communities. The transition from economic systems based on collecting and foraging of wild food resources before this point to cultivation and foraging of mixed wild and managed resources in the PPNA illustrates a major intensification of human-plant relationships.People in the PPNA were the first in the world to develop systematic large-scale food storage. In the Early Natufian period (Ϸ15,000/14,500-12,800 cal B.P.), people used a remarkably wide range of wild plants and animals, lived in relatively large well-made semisubterranean buildings for much of the year, and undoubtedly had a detailed knowledge of the seasonality and availability of these resources (1). Certainly the apparent increased degree of sedentism in the Early Natufian period suggests that people were able to reduce seasonal food risks to the point where they could live in the same areas for 1 or more seasons of the year. There is, however, surprisingly little direct evidence for food storage (2, 3). The strongest is from 'Ain Mallaha (4), where pits are often termed silos although their specific function is unclear. There is indirect evidence in the Natufian for plant food processing, including the presence of sickles, mortars, and pestles. Although Natufian people probably engaged in some form of low-level food storage, they also situated their settlements where they were able to use high-yield food resources from multiple natural ecotones in different seasons. With the onset of the climatic downturn of the Younger Dryas, people in the Late Natufian period (Ϸ12,800-11,500 cal B.P.) returned to more mobile economic and subsistence strategies. Late Natufian people abandoned earlier settlements, adopted new systems seasonal residential movement, and rarely built residential structu...

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The articulation of cultural processes and Late Quaternary environmental changes in Cisjordan.

Cited by 136 publications

References 1 publication

Hunted gazelles evidence cooling, but not drying, during the Younger Dryas in the southern Levant

Hunted gazelles evidence cooling, but not drying, during the Younger Dryas in the southern Levant

Design and performance of microlith implemented projectiles during the Middle and the Late Epipaleolithic of the Levant: experimental and archaeological evidence

Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley

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