"It is important to stress the documented diachronic changes
in Natufian lifeways with explicit evidence for greater complexity during the early rather than the later phase. The Early Natufian displays a high degree of complexity and spatial organization, with large well-built structures that were surely occupied by units larger than nuclear families. Subsequently, there appears to have been a return to domicile by smaller social units in smaller structures. However, the bulk of the evidence for increasing mobility later on, during the Final Natufian, would appear to result from external factors, especially the deleterious effects of the rapid onset of the Younger Dryas... conditions in these peripheral settings deteriorated beyond a critical threshold and continued occupation of the area simply became untenable. There may have been no choice but to abandon the region and retreat to join communities elsewhere—whether in adjacent areas, in which the Final Natufians themselves were experiencing precarious conditions, or even farther afield."
"In the northern Levant, broadly contemporary with the
Late Natufian, a series of occupations have been described
around the edges of the piedmont zone. This 'Round-House
Horizon' continues in time through the equivalent of the
southern Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA). Adaptations in the north were based primarily on hunting and gathering of nuts and fruits. There have also been claims for some degree of management of wild boar. While there have been claims for the initial occupation of Cyprus during the Late Epipa- leolithic, the available evidence for pre-Pre-Pottery Neolithic occupation of the island to date remains equivocal and open to debate."
"The PPNA is a short-lived phenomenon with regard to both
what preceded it and what succeeded it—a mere 1,000 years (or ~ 40 generations). However, the scale of change for the PPNA in the southern Levant is of a lesser order of magnitude compared with the northern Levant, where there was a rapid increase in population and in the accompanying elements of social organization. The arid margins throughout the Levant were all but deserted during the course of the PPNA and were recolonized only during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB)."
"The southern PPNA displays numerous elements of continuity from the Natufian. It likely represents the amalgamation of Final Natufian populations in locally favorable settings. This includes the Harifian, which represents Final Natufian refugees from the arid margins retreating into the Mediterranean zone because of the cumulative effects of the dire events associated with the Younger Dryas. During the PPNA, conditions improved but appear to have been marked by torrential episodes (e.g., at Netiv Hag-dud and perhaps also at Jericho)."
Neolithization Processes in the Levant The Outer Envelope
Author(s): A. Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen
Source:
Current Anthropology,
Vol. 52, No. S4, The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New
Ideas (October 2011), pp. S195-S208
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research
Stable URL: [www.jstor.org]
Neolithization Processes in the Levant The Outer Envelope
Author(s): A. Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen
Source:
Current Anthropology,
Vol. 52, No. S4, The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New
Ideas (October 2011), pp. S195-S208
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research
Stable URL: [www.jstor.org]
in Natufian lifeways with explicit evidence for greater complexity during the early rather than the later phase. The Early Natufian displays a high degree of complexity and spatial organization, with large well-built structures that were surely occupied by units larger than nuclear families. Subsequently, there appears to have been a return to domicile by smaller social units in smaller structures. However, the bulk of the evidence for increasing mobility later on, during the Final Natufian, would appear to result from external factors, especially the deleterious effects of the rapid onset of the Younger Dryas... conditions in these peripheral settings deteriorated beyond a critical threshold and continued occupation of the area simply became untenable. There may have been no choice but to abandon the region and retreat to join communities elsewhere—whether in adjacent areas, in which the Final Natufians themselves were experiencing precarious conditions, or even farther afield."
"In the northern Levant, broadly contemporary with the
Late Natufian, a series of occupations have been described
around the edges of the piedmont zone. This 'Round-House
Horizon' continues in time through the equivalent of the
southern Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA). Adaptations in the north were based primarily on hunting and gathering of nuts and fruits. There have also been claims for some degree of management of wild boar. While there have been claims for the initial occupation of Cyprus during the Late Epipa- leolithic, the available evidence for pre-Pre-Pottery Neolithic occupation of the island to date remains equivocal and open to debate."
"The PPNA is a short-lived phenomenon with regard to both
what preceded it and what succeeded it—a mere 1,000 years (or ~ 40 generations). However, the scale of change for the PPNA in the southern Levant is of a lesser order of magnitude compared with the northern Levant, where there was a rapid increase in population and in the accompanying elements of social organization. The arid margins throughout the Levant were all but deserted during the course of the PPNA and were recolonized only during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB)."
"The southern PPNA displays numerous elements of continuity from the Natufian. It likely represents the amalgamation of Final Natufian populations in locally favorable settings. This includes the Harifian, which represents Final Natufian refugees from the arid margins retreating into the Mediterranean zone because of the cumulative effects of the dire events associated with the Younger Dryas. During the PPNA, conditions improved but appear to have been marked by torrential episodes (e.g., at Netiv Hag-dud and perhaps also at Jericho)."
Neolithization Processes in the Levant The Outer Envelope
Author(s): A. Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen
Source:
Current Anthropology,
Vol. 52, No. S4, The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New
Ideas (October 2011), pp. S195-S208
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research
Stable URL: [www.jstor.org]
Neolithization Processes in the Levant The Outer Envelope
Author(s): A. Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen
Source:
Current Anthropology,
Vol. 52, No. S4, The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New
Ideas (October 2011), pp. S195-S208
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research
Stable URL: [www.jstor.org]