Which major developments in human behaviour might be witnessed in the Natufian in the Levant

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Which major developments in human behaviour might be witnessed in the Natufian in the Levant

(Apologies for halted English. However, all the information is correct and this essay received a mark of 66%)

         

 

1. Definitions. 2

1.a. Definition 1 2

1.b. Definition 2 2

        2. What did the behaviour develop from? 2

2.a. Early Kebaran (estimated 20.000 - 16.000 b.p.) 2

2.b. Geometric Kebaran (estimated 16.000 - 12.500 b.p.) 2

        3. The developments in the Natufian in the Levant. 2

3.a. Increase in population demands and increase in the production of food. 2

3.b. Tools and bones industries. 3

3.c. Changes from caves and short-time camps to base camps. 4

3.d. Architecture and structure of base camps. 4

3.e. Contacts between the sites and ´trade´. 4

3.f. How did they bury the dead? 4

        4. Conclusions. 5

        5. Bibliography. 5

         

The Natufian is a label for Levantine occupation between 12.500 and 10.000 b.p. (ca. 10.300 - 8500 b.c.), so it is at the end of the epi-paleolithic period (signified by the gathering of wild barley and wheat and by hunting) and at the beginning of the proto-neolithic period (where barley and wheat become domesticated).

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The Levant is the coastal plain along the Mediterranean: The western hills and mountains, and their steppe, the Rift system, incl. the Jordan River, continuing into the Jordanian-Syrian plateau.

         

 

I will shortly mention the subjects of the Kebaran lifestyle

        A suggestion has been made that the sea-level of today is higher, than at the time of Kebaran. At least very few sites have been found, and one of the largest is even 200 m. below sea-level. The sites are small, about 100 m2, and with very few hearts. Only two sites show the sign of building structures, and they have obviously been settled for longer periods. There have been findings of stone mortars and stone slabs for the barley - and it might have been a gathered barley. At one of the larger sites (Ohalo II) there have also been found signs on some trade going on to the area of Mesopotamia. Significant apart from Geometric Kebaran is that the microliths are not geometric.

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        There have been findings of some larger sites during this period (for example Jilat 6), which were placed right in the desert. They have some sort of stone foundation, which indicates further development in architecture and lifestyle. Seashelves have been found in Eastern Jordan, maybe used as personal decoration. The way of hunting seems still to be incompletely described, but there are some evidence of hunting after certain wild animals of the area of the site. People gathered step-plants for cultivation, either by cutting them by sickles or plucking by hand. Here the microliths are at first geometric and later ...

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