A Natufian demographic cycle at el-Wad Terrace, Israel: The rise and fall of the architectural compound

IF 0.9 2区历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeological Research in Asia Pub Date : 2025-01-28 DOI:10.1016/j.ara.2025.100599

Reuven Yeshurun , Elisabetta Boaretto , Ma’ayan Lev , Meir Orbach , Catherine Ujma , Sigal Lavy-Elbaz , Linda Amos , Mina Weinstein-Evron

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Abstract

The earliest appearance of permanent architecture in the Levant coincided with intensified diets, starting at ca. 15,000 years ago, with the Natufian Culture. High-resolution studies of intra-Natufian change are needed for testing the intertwined effects of the novel built environment, subsistence patterns, and population dynamics. The deep Early Natufian sequence of el-Wad Terrace (Mount Carmel, Israel), provides a high-resolution record (ca. 14.8–13.1 ka) that includes an initial phase with little architecture, followed by the intensive architectural phase with ten stratified building levels, in turn capped by more ephemeral habitation levels. Using the rich zooarchaeological samples from each stage, as well as the Late Natufian layer, we test how hunting patterns and bone depositional histories changed with the mode of habitation. All of the 20 stratified samples we studied likely attest to domestic activities, differing in scale but not in type. The initial habitation at the pre-architectural stage appears as very diversified, but with weaker evidence for resource depletion. The subsequent architectural stage presents the most intensive butchery patterns and sediment build-up, together with some shifts in hunting patterns, and large gazelle body-size that may signal some overhunting. The post-architectural stage displays more specialized or seasonal hunting patterns, alongside taphonomic evidence of more frequent abandonments. We suggest that these developments correspond to at least one full demographic cycle, whereby population growth had been mediated for several generations by flexible subsistence strategies, but eventually led to a Malthusian phase and settlement reorganization. Natufian hamlets were dynamic, at times not incorporating permanent architecture. The built spaces—and the habitation dynamics they reflect—are more clearly understood when compared with the non-architectural phases.

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以色列el-Wad Terrace的纳图夫人口周期：建筑大院的兴衰

黎凡特地区最早出现的永久性建筑与大约1.5万年前的纳图夫文化（natutian Culture）的强化饮食同时出现。需要对纳图夫内部的变化进行高分辨率的研究，以测试新型建筑环境、生存模式和人口动态的相互交织的影响。el-Wad Terrace （Mount Carmel, Israel）的早期纳图夫序列提供了一个高分辨率的记录（约14.8-13.1 ka），其中包括一个初始阶段，几乎没有建筑，随后是密集的建筑阶段，有十个分层的建筑层，依次是更短暂的居住层。利用来自每个阶段以及纳图夫晚期的丰富的动物考古样本，我们测试了狩猎模式和骨骼沉积历史是如何随着居住模式而变化的。我们研究的所有20个分层样本可能都证明了家庭活动，其规模不同，但类型相同。在前建筑阶段的最初居住似乎是非常多样化的，但资源枯竭的证据较弱。随后的建筑阶段呈现出最密集的屠杀模式和沉积物积聚，以及狩猎模式的一些变化，以及可能预示过度狩猎的大型瞪羚体型。后建筑阶段显示出更专业化或季节性的狩猎模式，以及更频繁的遗弃的地语学证据。我们认为，这些发展至少与一个完整的人口周期相对应，在这个周期中，几代人的人口增长由灵活的生存策略调节，但最终导致马尔萨斯阶段和聚落重组。纳图夫的村庄充满活力，有时没有固定的建筑。与非建筑阶段相比，建筑空间——以及它们所反映的居住动态——更容易理解。

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来源期刊

Archaeological Research in Asia ARCHAEOLOGY-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

13.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Archaeological Research in Asia presents high quality scholarly research conducted in between the Bosporus and the Pacific on a broad range of archaeological subjects of importance to audiences across Asia and around the world. The journal covers the traditional components of archaeology: placing events and patterns in time and space; analysis of past lifeways; and explanations for cultural processes and change. To this end, the publication will highlight theoretical and methodological advances in studying the past, present new data, and detail patterns that reshape our understanding of it. Archaeological Research in Asia publishes work on the full temporal range of archaeological inquiry from the earliest human presence in Asia with a special emphasis on time periods under-represented in other venues. Journal contributions are of three kinds: articles, case reports and short communications. Full length articles should present synthetic treatments, novel analyses, or theoretical approaches to unresolved issues. Case reports present basic data on subjects that are of broad interest because they represent key sites, sequences, and subjects that figure prominently, or should figure prominently, in how scholars both inside and outside Asia understand the archaeology of cultural and biological change through time. Short communications present new findings (e.g., radiocarbon dates) that are important to the extent that they reaffirm or change the way scholars in Asia and around the world think about Asian cultural or biological history.