title: Nahal Ein Gev II, a Late Natufian Community at the Sea of Galilee.
abstract: The Natufian culture is of great importance as a starting point to investigate the dynamics of the transition to agriculture. Given its chronological position at the threshold of the Neolithic (ca. 12,000 years ago) and its geographic setting in the productive Jordan Valley, the site of Nahal Ein Gev II (NEG II) reveals aspects of the Late Natufian adaptations and its implications for the transition to agriculture. The size of the site, the thick archaeological deposits, invested architecture and multiple occupation sub-phases reveal a large, sedentary community at least on par with Early Natufian camps in the Mediterranean zone. Although the NEG II lithic tool kit completely lacks attributes typical of succeeding Pre Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) assemblages, the artistic style is more closely related to the early PPNA world, despite clear roots in Early Natufian tradition. The site does not conform to current perceptions of the Late Natufians as a largely mobile population coping with reduced resource productivity caused by the Younger Dryas. Instead, the faunal and architectural data suggest that the sedentary populations of the Early Natufian did not revert back to a nomadic way of life in the Late Natufian in the Jordan Valley. NEG II encapsulates cultural characteristics typical of both Natufian and PPNA traditions and thus bridges the crossroads between Late Paleolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Mount Scopus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel.
authors.forename: Leore
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grosman
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Unit 1176, 354 Mansfield Road, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269-1176, United States of America.
authors.forename: Natalie D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Munro
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Mount Scopus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel.
authors.forename: Itay
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Abadi
authors.affiliation: D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boaretto
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Mount Scopus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shaham
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Mount Scopus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Belfer-Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bar-Yosef
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D001154:Art; D002048:Burial; D003469:Culture; D004032:Diet; D017753:Ecosystem; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007597:Jordan; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012919:Social Behavior
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