Natufian Culture in the Levant

And those who came before and after

13050–9550 BCE (15,000–11,500 BP, a 3,500 year period): Natufian culture was a Late Epipaleolithic archaeological culture of a hunter-gatherer form of civilization in the Levant that was displaced by agrarian pastoral cultures, a different form of civilization. They were preceded by the Kebaran culture (18,000 to 10,500 BCE) who used the bow and arrow, and had dogs, who were preceded by the Levantine Aurignacian culture (35,000–29,000 BP) who were preceded by the Emiran culture who were preceded by the Ahmarian culture (46,000–42,000 BP) who were preceded by the Boker Tachtit culture (50,000 BP) who as ‘Man the Hunter’ expansionists had come out of Africa to replace the Neanderthals (60,000 BP) in the area who had replaced the first Homo sapiens sapiens in the area (90,000 BP) who had replaced the Mousterians (160,000 to 40,000 BP) who evolved from Homo sapiens (heidelbergensis) from whose African branch H. sapiens sapiens evolved about 350,000 to 400,000 BP. H. s. heidelbergensis occupied the Levant 700,000 years ago after evolving from Homo erectus ergaster in Africa about 1.3 million years ago. H. s. heidelbergensis, on leaving Africa, displaced H. erectus, the first hominin in the Levant, who had come to the Levant about 2 million years ago.

In chronological order:

1. We evolved from Homo erectus ergaster, the African form of H. erectus (the first hominin to leave Africa 2 million years ago), about 1.3 million years ago to become Homo sapiens (aka H. sapiens heidelbergensis).
2. As H. sapiens (heidelbergensis) we left Africa slowly about 700k years ago as adaptive K-strategists to gradually displace H. erectus in the Levant.
3. While H. sapiens adapted in Europe to become H. sapiens neanderthalensis and in Asia to become H. sapiens. denisova, we evolved from the East African population of Heidelbergensis (Homo sapiens) about 375k years ago to become a subspecies, H. sapiens sapiens, the last hominin standing.
4. As H. s. sapiens we had slowly left Africa about 150k years ago and were living in the Levant about 90k years ago as adaptive K-strategists who had displaced H. sapiens neanderthalensis in the Levant.
5. H. sapiens neanderthalensis, as adaptive K-strategists, pushed H. s. sapiens back out of the Levant about 60k years ago.
6. An expansionist form of H. s. sapiens evolved in East Africa 60k to 50k years ago to rapidly spread to the Levant about 50k years ago (and globally) as a technology and culturally enabled aggressive invasive species to displace H. s. neanderthalensis in the Levant, elsewhere, and all other hominins on the planet (and many other forms of megafauna) including the non-expansionist forms of Homo sapiens sapiens with the exception of the last true humans, the San, Hadza, and Pygmy in Africa.
7. Based on behavioral differences, we expansionist moderns could be considered a new subspecies, H. sapiens insapient who has prospered greatly for a time (50k+ years), but expansion is only for a time (likely ending this century in a Great Selection).
8. Among early agrarian/pastoral expansionists who had displaced Man the Hunter expansionists in the Levant about 11k years ago (on their way back to Africa from the Fertile Crescent region), the to-the-north-and-west Indo-European cattle expansion began 7k-9k years ago, reaching the Levant about 3.5k years ago while the Austronesian/Polynesian expansion, beginning about 5k years ago, completed the taking of the planet, ending in Zealandia bout 500 years ago while the Indo-Europeans were taking the planet from prior takers (expansionists).

Pick any region on the planet and the prehistory will not differ in kind from that of the Levant. Hominins left Africa about two million years ago, and Homo sapiens 120k to 185k years ago. All hominins and H. sapiens out of Africa were replaced/displaced by the second out of Africa wave of H. sapiens starting 50k to 60k years ago. They were aggressive (successful) expansionists. All modern humans outside of Africa are descended from a small population of expansionists who left Africa by crossing the Red Sea to spread east to Australia, and north through the Levant to Europe and Asia, and on to the Americas. The east spreading group eventually occupied the Pacific islands (Polynesian expansion). The north then west spreading population meet the east spreading population in 1021 CE when Indo-Europeans sailed across the Atlantic to build a settlement on Newfoundland occupied by those who had spread across Asia and the Americas.

The Natufian culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population (90 settlements have been excavated) even before the introduction of agriculture. Natufians exploited wild cereals and hunted animals, and may have engaged in early low-intensity agriculture (planting of seeds). Archaeogenetic analysis has revealed derivation of later (Neolithic to Bronze Age) Levantines primarily from Natufians, besides substantial admixture from Chalcolithic Anatolians from the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. At the time, the region was woodlands. DNA analysis of Natufian skeletal remains (2016) found that the specimens were a mix of 50% Basal Eurasian ancestral component and 50% Western Eurasian Unknown Hunter Gatherer (UHG) population related to European Western Hunter-Gatherers.

By 8500–7500 BCE, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) culture developed out of the earlier local tradition of Natufian (dwelling in round houses), and building the first defensive site at Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho, guarding a valuable fresh water spring). This was replaced in 7500 BCE by Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), dwelling in square houses, coming from Northern Syria and the Euphrates bend. During the period of 8500–7500 BCE, another hunter-gatherer group, showing clear affinities with the cultures of Egypt, was in Sinai. This Harifian culture may have adopted the use of pottery from the Isnan culture and Helwan culture of Egypt (which lasted from 9000 to 4500 BCE), and subsequently fused with elements from the PPNB culture during the climatic crisis of 6000 BCE to form a Syro-Arabian pastoral technocomplex [goat herding], which saw the spread of the first Nomadic pastoralists in the Ancient Near East. These extended southwards along the Red Sea coast and penetrated the Arabian bifacial cultures, which became progressively more Neolithic and pastoral, and extending north and eastwards, to lay the foundations for the tent-dwelling Martu and Akkadian peoples of Mesopotamia. In the Amuq valley of Syria, PPNB culture seems to have survived, influencing further cultural developments further south. Nomadic elements fused with PPNB to form the Minhata Culture and Yarmukian Culture, which were to spread southwards, beginning the development of the classic mixed farming Mediterranean culture, and from 5600 BCE were associated with the Ghassulian culture of the region, the first Chalcolithic [copper age] culture of the Levant. This period also witnessed the development of megalithic structures, which continued into the Bronze Age.

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As an artful prelude to the next 11 millennia, watch This Land Is Mine (A brief history of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant; watch video, but scroll down first to see who the players are), an animated short by Nina Paley.

The first character to strut their stuff is ‘Early Man’, but from the above, with a focus on the Levant, the first three and a half minutes should feature competitive displacement, no slaughter implied, starting with Homo erectus, displaced by Heidelbergensis, then Neanderthal, then H. sapiens sapiens pre-expansionist form of us that displaced Neanderthal, who 60k years ago competitively displaces us.

But then about 50k years ago the expansionist, invasive species form of us spread out of Africa to and beyond the Levant to take it and the planet by conquest, typically involving killing the adult males and breeding the females whose offspring learn the conqueror’s language and expansionist (patriarchal) culture, and the expansion by conquest continues for 50k years within the Levant as competing groups kill adult males and breed the females (not shown in video) and worldwide until Planet A has been taken.

Beyond the Early Man character in the video, all of the characters contending are from the last 4k years of an area having a 2 million year history of hominin habitation, and so they should get only the last second of the video, or if their predecessors where given equal time, the video would be 21 hours long.

We expansionist humans, we Anthropocene humans, are time blind. We barely can notice the last 4k years of history in the Levant, while being blind to 99.8% of the regions human past. Welcome to the Anthropocene, which proximally started about 50k years ago.

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Originally published: Past Lives of Humans