C8
Natufian
sedentary foragers in the terminal Pleistocene

Excavations at Dederiyeh cave in northern Syria revealed an economy at the terminal plesistocene of the Levant. Thanks to the existence of a burnt building, which contained plenty of carbonized plants, an economic reconstruction was possible for the Natufian, a major cultural entity of the Levantine late Epipalaeolithic. A preliminary analysis shows that a large part of the organic remains consisted of nuts, including pistachios and almonds. However, an important portion was derived from emmer and einkorn wheat. A Natufian origin of cereal cultivation has been posited with evidence from Tell Abu Hutreyra, the Middle Euphrates, where remains of rye were recovered, by which the exploitation of cereal is foreshadowed at this Natufian site. On the other hand, in Dederiyeh, emmer and einkorn wheat was exploited rather than rye, a cereal that had been abandoned for use in the following Neolithic period. Given that current data for reconstructing the development of the food production economy during the Natufian period is limited, the data from the Dederiyeh cave deserves further analysis, particularly in terms of a chronological perspective. (Yoshihro Nishiaki)

References

Nishiaki, Y. et al. (2011) Newly discovered Late Epipalaeolithic lithic assemblages from Dederiyeh Cave, the northern Levant. In: Healey , E. et al. (eds.) The State of the Stone, pp. 79–87. Berlin: ex oriente.

Tanno, K. et al. (2013) Preliminary results from analyses of charred plant remains from a burnt Natufian building at Dederiyeh Cave in Northwest Syria. In: Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F. (eds.) Natufian Foragers in the Levant, pp. 83–87. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory.