Archaeological culture · c. 13,000–9500 BCE
Natufian culture
Hunter-gatherers of the Levant who were among the first people anywhere to live in villages all year round, before farming began. They built round stone-based huts, harvested wild cereals with sickles, buried their dead in their settlements and kept dogs.
The oldest known bread-like food, about 14,400 years old, comes from the Natufian site of Shubayqa 1 in Jordan, and people at Abu Hureyra may have begun cultivating rye.
See Natufian culture on the map in 13,000 BCE
- On the map
- 13,000–9500 BCE
How we know
No writing existed; everything comes from excavated sites, their tools and pottery, and radiocarbon dates.
Sites
- ʿAin Mallaha (Eynan) c. 12,400–10,200 BCE
- Raqefet Cave c. 12,000–9700 BCE (Natufian burials)
- Tell Abu Hureyra c. 11,300–5800 BCE