Ancient Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic People in Southwest Asia

The Levant: Climate, Culture, and Early Sedentism

Geographical Focus: The Levant

• Today's lecture focuses on a specific region in Southwest Asia, highlighted by a red arrow on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea.
• This region is known as The Levant.
• Modern Countries and Regions within The Levant:
  • The Hatay province of South Central Turkey.
  • The western side of Syria.
  • Lebanon.
  • Israel.
  • Palestine.
  • The western portion of Jordan.
• Exclusion: While Cyprus is sometimes included in definitions of The Levant, it will not be discussed in this lecture.

Climate as a Driver of Cultural Change

• Events unfolding in The Levant are directly linked to climate, which profoundly influenced cultural changes.
• A visual figure (as described by the lecturer) illustrates this connection:
  • Upper half: Shows climate history over the last $20,000$ years.
  • Lower half: Depicts human history over roughly the last $20,000$ years specifically within The Levant.
    • Important Note: This figure focuses solely on agricultural history in The Levant, not globally.
• The discussion will begin with human history from the lower part of the figure, then transition to climate history.

Early Human History in The Levant: The Natufian Period

• Timeframe: Focusing on events roughly $20,000$ years ago to the present ($0$ years ago).
• Pivotal Development: Within The Levant, particularly in Lebanon, some foragers began to adopt a settled lifestyle.
• Sedentism: This refers to the process where people transition from a nomadic existence to living permanently in one place.
• The Natufian People:
  • Represent a key example of this early sedentism.
  • They continued to sustain themselves through traditional hunting and gathering methods.
  • Crucially, despite still being hunter-gatherers, they made the cultural shift to reside in a single, fixed location rather than constantly moving.