Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T21:52:38.332Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

78 - The Natufian Period in Syria

from Part VI: - Humans in the Levant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Yehouda Enzel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

The name Natufian had been used for decades after its recognition as a culture by D.A.E Garrod to define archaeological sites in Palestine/Israel. When M.C. Cauvin used this name to ascribe the basal levels of a northern Syrian site Tell Mureybet, a certain controversy was aroused. During the following decades, many archaeological sites reasonably attributed to the Natufian have been found all over Syria. This paper describes the results obtained in three main areas located in the Western Syrian fringe, in the north (the Middle Euphrates and the Afrin Valley), the center (the Bouqaia basin and the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains) and the south (the Hauran region). We show that local facies of Natufian technocomplexes display characteristics similar to the sites in the Natufian core area. The first expansion northward of the Natufian technocomplexes seems to take place during the warm and moist Bølling-Allerød in the Mediterranean forest zone. However, the more generalized occupation of the current Syria took place later, during the Younger Dryas, when Natufian groups are documented in the southern, central and northern areas of western Syria, as well as in Lebanon.
Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary of the Levant
Environments, Climate Change, and Humans
, pp. 709 - 714
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbès, F. 2014. Bal'as: un autre scénario de la néolithisation du Proche-Orient. In La transition néolithique en Méditerranée. The Neolithic Transition in the Mediterranean, ed. Manen, C., Perrin, T. & Guilaine, J.. Toulouse: Errance-AEP, pp. 1325.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 1998. The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture. Evolutionary Anthropology 6: 159–77.Google Scholar
Boix, J. & Abdo, K. 2012. Les derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs et les premiers agriculteurs dans le Leja (Syrie du Sud): nouvelles dones. In Broadening Horizons 3. Conference of Young Researchers Working in the Ancient Near East, ed. Borrell Tena, F., Bouso García, M., Gómez Bach, A., Tornero Dacasa, C. & Vicente Campos, O.. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, pp. 3346.Google Scholar
Braemer, F. 2007. Atlas archéologique des sites pré- et protohistoriques de Syrie du Sud. Étude et sondages de la zone de Qarassa et travaux complémentaires à Labwe. Damascus: Fieldwork Report DGAM.Google Scholar
Cauvin, J. 1977. Les fouilles de Mureybet (1971–1974) et leur signification pour les origines de la sédentarisation au Proche-Orient. Annual of the American School of Oriental Research 44: 1948.Google Scholar
Cauvin, M.C. 1991. Du Natoufien au Levant nord? Jeyroud et Mureybet (Syrie). In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 295314.Google Scholar
Colledge, S. & Conolly, J. 2010. Reassessing the evidence for the cultivation of wild crops during the Younger Dryas at Tell Abu Hureyra, Syria. Environmental Archaeology 15: 124–38.Google Scholar
Conard, N.J., Bretzke, K., Deckers, K. et al. 2013. Natufian lifeways in the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. In Natufian Foragers in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 116.Google Scholar
Garrod, D.A.E. 1942. Excavation at the Cave of Shukba, Palestine 1928. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 8: 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González Urquijo, J., Armendariz, A., Rodríguez, A. et al. 2011. Arqueo-logía al oeste de Homs: sondeos en los yacimientos de Jeftelik (natufiense), Tell Marj (neolítico cerámico) y prospecciones de monumentos megalíticos. Campaña 2009. Informes y Trabajos del IPCE 5: 278–91.Google Scholar
Gourichon, L. & Helmer, D. 2008. Etude archéozoologique de Mureybet. In Tell Mureybet, un site néolithique dans le Moyen Euphrate syrien, ed. Ibáñez, J.J.. BAR International Series 1843. Lyon/Oxford: Maison de l'Orientet de la Méditerranée / Archeopress, pp. 115227.Google Scholar
Haïdar-Boustani, M., Ibáñez, J.J., Almaqdissi, M. et al. 2007. Prospections archéologiques à l'Ouest de la ville de Homs: rapport préliminaire campagne 2005. Tempora 1617: 938.Google Scholar
Hillgruber, K.F. 2013. The Natufian of southwestern Syria sites in the Damascus Province. In Natufian Foragers in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 2844.Google Scholar
Hillman, G.C., Hedges, R., Moore, A., Colledge, S. & Pettitt, P. 2001. New evidence of late glacial cereal cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates. The Holocene 11: 383–93.Google Scholar
Ibáñez, J.J. (ed.) 2008. Le site néolithique de Tell Mureybet (Syrie du Nord). En hommage à Jacques Cauvin, ed. Ibáñez, J.J.. BAR International Series 1843. Lyon/Oxford: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée / Archeopress.Google Scholar
Ibáñez, J.J., Terradas, X., Armendáriz, A. et al. 2013. Nouvelles données sur les architectures des sites natoufiens de Jeftelik et Qarassa 3 (Syrie centro-occidentale et du sud). In Du village néolithique à la ville syro-mésopotamienne, ed. Montero-Fenollós, J.L.. Coruña: Universidade da Coruña (Bibliotheca Euphratica 1), pp. 933.Google Scholar
Maréchal, C. 1991. Éléments de parure de la fin du Natoufien Mallaha niveau I, Jayroud 1, Jayroud 3, Jayroud 9, Abu Hureyra et Mureybet IA. In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 589612.Google Scholar
Moore, A.M.T. 1991. Abu Hureyra 1 and the antecedents of agriculture on the Middle Euphrates. In The Natufian Culture in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 277–94.Google Scholar
Moore, A.M.T., Hillman, G.C. & Legge, A.J. 2000. Village on the Euphrates. From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Napierala, H. 2012. The Palaeolithic Background of Early Food Producing Societies in the Fertile Crescent – Faunal Analysis. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Tübingen.Google Scholar
Nishiaki, Y., Muhesen, S. & Akazawa, T. 2011. Newly discovered Late Epipalaeolithic assemblages from Dederiyeh Cave, the northern Levant. In Studies in Technology, Environment, Production, and Society. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on PPN Chipped and Ground Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent (Manchester), ed. Healey, E., Campbell, S. & Maeda, O.. Berlin: ex oriente.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, A., Haïdar-Boustani, M., González Urquijo, J. et al. 2013. The Early Natufian site of Jeftelik (Homs Gap, Syria). In Natufian Foragers in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 6172.Google Scholar
Rust, A. 1950. Die Höhlenfunde von Jabrud (Syrien). Neumünster: Karl Wachholz.Google Scholar
Tanno, K., George, W., Muhesen, S. et al. 2013. Preliminary results from analyses of charred plant remains from a burnt Natufian building at Dederiyeh Cave in northwest Syria. In Natufian Foragers in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 83–7.Google Scholar
Terradas, X., Ibáñez, J.J., Braemer, F., Gourichon, L. & Teira, L.C. 2013a. The Natufian occupations of Qarassa 3 (Sweida, Southern Syria). In Natufian Foragers in the Levant, ed. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R.. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory, pp. 4560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terradas, X., Ibañez, J.J., Braemer, F. et al. 2013b. Natufian bedrock mortars at Qarassa 3: Preliminary results from an interdisciplinary methodology. In Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherers to Farming Societies in the Near East, ed. Borrell, F., Ibáñez, J.J. & Molist, M.. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, pp. 441–56.Google Scholar
Willcox, G. 2008. Nouvelles données archéobotaniques de Mureybet et la néolithisation du moyen Euphrate. In Le site néolithique de Tell Mureybet (Syrie du Nord), en hommage à Jacques Cauvin, ed. Ibañez, J., BAR International Series 1843(1). Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 103–14.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×