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78 - The Natufian Period in Syria

from Part VI: - Humans in the Levant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Yehouda Enzel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

The name Natufian had been used for decades after its recognition as a culture by D.A.E Garrod to define archaeological sites in Palestine/Israel. When M.C. Cauvin used this name to ascribe the basal levels of a northern Syrian site Tell Mureybet, a certain controversy was aroused. During the following decades, many archaeological sites reasonably attributed to the Natufian have been found all over Syria. This paper describes the results obtained in three main areas located in the Western Syrian fringe, in the north (the Middle Euphrates and the Afrin Valley), the center (the Bouqaia basin and the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains) and the south (the Hauran region). We show that local facies of Natufian technocomplexes display characteristics similar to the sites in the Natufian core area. The first expansion northward of the Natufian technocomplexes seems to take place during the warm and moist Bølling-Allerød in the Mediterranean forest zone. However, the more generalized occupation of the current Syria took place later, during the Younger Dryas, when Natufian groups are documented in the southern, central and northern areas of western Syria, as well as in Lebanon.
Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary of the Levant
Environments, Climate Change, and Humans
, pp. 709 - 714
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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