Natufian Geometric Kebaran
A and B/Harifian
Natufian Hallan Çemi
Phase Epi-Palaeolithic ,
As the glaciers in the higher latitudes melted with the warming climate, precipitation declined, causing the lakes and springs in the lower latitudes to dry up. As a consequence, vegetation and animal and human life retreated to refuge areas along perennial rivers and spring outlets emerging from water- bearing rocks fed by rains falling on more humid terrain. Sedentary epi- Palaeolithic settlements bear witness to mankind’s first steps to live year-round in one place. The gradual desiccation of the Near East during this period likely ushered in the so-called agricultural revolution of the Neolithic period, with the first attempts at artificially growing crops outside their natural habitat, and also at domesticating animals.
Yet, artificial seeding and planting, and even animal domestication, could not compensate for the reduced supply of natural food and commodities. The warmer and drier the climate became, the more random was the availability of water and the greater the fluctuations in the food supply. To overcome this instability, agricultural settlements were established near perennial sources of water. With the ability to water the land, and thus modify the natural environment to suit its needs, human society was freed of the constraints imposed by the warmer climate.
G. Barker, O.H. Creighton, D. Gilbertson., C. Hunt, S. McLaren., D. Mattingly, D.C. Thomas, “The Wadi Faynan Project, Southern Jordan: a preliminary report on geomorphology and landscape archaeology”Levant29:19–4 (1997).
3.1.1
Humble Beginnings
All scientific evidence about the origin of man points unequivocally to Africa as the home of the hominids that were to become the ancestors of man4and some of our closest relatives still survive on this continent. The details of the evolution of groups of primates into hominids and their descendants’ diffusion to other continents are clearly beyond the scope of this work. It is, however, important for us to emphasize the fact that this entire process was interwoven with profound tectonic and climatic changes which repeatedly affected the environment. Plate tectonics in eastern Africa some ten million years ago or more created a developing rift between the African and the Arabian shield, the Syro-African Rift Valley accompanied with the uplift and aridification of eastern Africa starting around eight million years ago.5Early primates living in the equatorial zone on both sides of the valley probably had already used stones and sticks as tools and had, for a relatively long time, developed a basic intelligence. Some six to seven million years ago, the incessantly changing climates and environments forced several species of forest dwelling hominids to adapt to live in a very wide range of surroundings which included open grasslands, in particular in the area to the east of the slowly forming Rift Valley.
Research on ancient variations of the lakes which had formed on the bottom of the Rift Valley showed alterations between extreme high and low water levels reflecting sharp climatic fluctuations ca. 3 million years ago. Unfortunately, the strong erosion destroyed a large amount of deposits at a crucial time when speciation of the very early hominids began and the brain of some began to show signs of growth and complexity.6
Some species of hominids had developed for a long time a taste for meat, first by scavenging and then by active hunting. After some more millions of years the brains of some groups grew further, whether gradually or by leaps and bounds is disputed. Safety from predators was found in numbers and the groups’ sizes began to grow, favoring social intercourse and the development of verbal communication7starting a new branch on the tree, or perhaps better bush of life. The fossilized bones of several species of these early hominids have been found all over southern and eastern Africa.
Some 2.5 million years ago, their descendents whom, for the time being, we callHomo habilisandergasterstarted to make tools from pebbles of hard but
4R.E. Leaky, R. Lewin,Origins, Dutton, New York (1977).
5P. Sepulchre, G. Ramstein, F. Fluteau, M. Schuster, J.-J. Tiercelin, and M. Brunet, “Tectonic Uplift and Eastern Africa Aridification”Science313:1419–1423 (2006).
6M.H. Trauth, M.A. Maslin, A. Deino and M.R. Strecker, “Late Cenozoic Moisture History of East Africa”Science309/5743:2051–2053 (2005).
M. Maslin, M. Trauth, and B. Christensen “A Changing Climate for Human Evolution”Geotimes September (2005).
7A.S. Issar with R.G. Colodny in their bookFrom Primeval Chaos to Infinite Intelligence(Aldershot, UK, Avebury, 1995) investigated the evolution of intelligence from the most primitive to the most evolved forms of life. A philosophical conceptual model is suggested which sees an ever-ascending evolution of complexity and thus intelligence along the dimensions of Space-Time-Information.
Adding an explanation for the process of emerging evolution to the Darwinian model of adaptation.
brittle rocks, most probably for the primary purpose of crushing and splitting the bones of dead animals. Initially, they simply smashed the rocks and selected suitable pieces. Later hominids produced tools not by simply smashing rocks, but by deliberately hammering the edge of a stone, creating a sharp, sinusoidal cutting edge. After tool making, discovering how to harness fire was the next most important step in human development, and one that paved the way for all later technological advances. The ability to create fire at will allowed the descendants of a tropical animal to warm themselves in harsher climates, offer protection against predators and improve their nutrition. Food prepared by broiling or cooking allows a higher energy output which is crucial for brain growth.
The circumstances of the success, spread and dispersion of the members of this new primate species beyond southern and eastern Africa over an ever far-ranging territory are not known. A combination of intelligence and so- cial structure probably enabled them to seek refuge in new places when the environmental conditions in their native habitat deteriorated. There is little doubt that they were simply following the footsteps of the herds of herbiv- orous animals and their predators, gradually entering northern Africa. The huge landmass of the northern part of the African continent has seen many dramatic climate changes, with alternating intervals of extreme desiccation and of humidity, during which plants, animals and humans colonized these areas. Whereas during the humid phases the plants, animals, and humans colonized these areas, in dry periods the vegetation decreased or disappeared forcing the animals and the humans out of the region. While most animals and humans flooded back south, others were pushed further north and finally left the continent over land bridges.8The Near East was then, and still is the most accessible land bridge between Africa and the rest of the world. There were probably other, less important and intermittent, escape routes, one of which was today’s Straits of Gibraltar leading to the Iberian Peninsula. There is little doubt that around two million years ago or even earlier a trickle of small groups or families of ancient toolmakers, scavengers and gatherers be- gan to wander into Asia and then Europe, constituting the first exodus from Africa.
One can assume that the Near Eastern bridge, which enabled migration to the neighboring continents, conditioned the evolution that followed. At present the border zone between the Near East and Africa is desert; however, it is hard to imagine that the early Homo habilis or the slightly more evolved Homo ergasteror evenHomo erectuswith their still rudimentary intelligence, simple social organization, and equipped with primitive stone tools could traverse this barrier unless the climate was more favorable and the desert more hospitable than now. They could have migrated northward along the Nile Valley or along the coast of Egypt and from there to the Sinai and Arabian Peninsula and the Negev Desert, all of which appeared very different at various times. At that time the topography of the Near East in general and the Negev and Sinai in
8M. Schuster, P. Duringer, J-F. Ghienne, P. Vignaud, H. Mackaye, A. Likius and M. Brunet. “The Age of the Sahara Desert”Science311:821 (2006).
particular was quite unlike that of today. The Syrian-African rift system is now a dramatic cleft in the earth’s crust, with the world’s lowest point on land at the Dead Sea, some 450mbelow sea level. The rift stretches southward from the mountains of the Anti-Taurus in eastern Anatolia, first as the Valley of the Orontes, then as the Lebanese Beq’a, the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, the Arava Valley, the Red Sea, and eventually reaching deep into eastern and southern Africa. When the first humans probably arrived more than two million years ago, the rift was not yet fully developed and was composed of a series of basins reaching from eastern Africa to the foothills of the Anti-Taurus.9For example, part of the drainage of the Negev highlands flowed not to the developing Rift Valley but through a series of intermountain valleys to the Mediterranean Sea.10 Sediments found in the basins of the Rift Valley were once deposited in freshwater lakes of Lower Quaternary age, indicating that the climate was more humid. This meant that more routes were passable, especially during glacial periods when the sea retreated and the coastal areas widened. These areas drained the surface and subsurface flow of floodwater coming from the highlands, which got more precipitation. These paleo-topographical and climate conditions favored the existence of a shallow groundwater table in the coastal regions and intermountain basins. As a consequence, the deserts, and especially their coastal areas, were dotted with swamps of brackish and fresh water, supporting sub-tropical vegetation. Such swamps are found in these regions today at oases along the Rift Valley and at the proximity of the sea.
Thus, theoretically, humans could have traveled quite easily over territories that are now deserts.
Investigations in the Negev Desert – an important steppingstone in this bridge – show that this was, in fact, the case. H. Ginat found deposits from one of these ancient lakes in the riverbed of Nahal Zihor in the Central Negev.
(Plate 7) Field evidence and hydrological calculations showed that during the lake’s existence, precipitation ranged from 200 to 400mmper annum, whereas today it is about 50mm. About half of the lake’s water came from floods, while the other half was replenished from the high groundwater table in the gravel underlying the riverbeds and from water-bearing limestone layers in the bedrock below the western end of the lake. The relative light isotopic composition of the freshwater chalks deposited in the center of the ancient lake suggests that most of its water was fresh while sediments of the water close to the shore have a heavier isotopic composition indicating evaporation and brackishness. The relatively heavy carbon isotopic composition of the sediments and the pollen assemblage in the sediments show that the local vegetation was composed mainly of grasses, scrubs and some trees showing that at that time the Negev was a semi-arid steppe dotted with oases around lakes and springs. The spring travertines found at the vicinity of the lakes as well as along the fault lines bordering the Arava valley tell us also about
9M. Petraglia, “Early prehistory in the Farasa Island and the Southern Red Sea”Abstracts – Seminar for Arabian Sudies(2006).
10Z. Garfunkel and A. Horowitz, “The Upper Tertiary and Quaternary Morphology of the Negev”IJES 5:101–117 (1966).
Plate 7. The palaeo-lake deposits in Nahal-Zihor Negev (Courtesy H. Ginat) a more humid climate. The tools found along the shores of the ancient lakes are of Lower Palaeolithic age and are at least 750K years old. The dating of the travertines of the Arava by U-series ranges between around 300K to around 110K Years B.P. The Sr isotopeic ratios of the lacussstrine limestone and that of the travertines in the southern part of the Arava, is similar, which points to a common source of precipitation.11Our ancestral emigrants could find food and water at these sites where the concentrations of flint tools found along the shores of these lakes attest to their encampment in the region. The tools are of the same character, albeit slightly more evolved, as those found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and resmble those found at Ubaiduya, which will be discussed later on.
Issar and colleagues found a similar assemblage of tools further north in the Negev highlands. At present the area is a desert playa with an average annual precipitation of about 80 mm. The tools were found in layers of gravel inter- fingering with reddish clays and lacustrine silt layers, which indicate a shallow lake or marsh. When the ancient people camped along its shores, the marsh was part of a river system draining the Negev highlands to the Mediterranean Sea.
At present the upper part of this system is captured by the Dead Sea drainage system.
11H. Ginat, “Palaeogeography and Landscape Evolution of the Nahal Hiyyon and Nahal Zihor Basins”
GSI report19 (Hebrew with an English abstract) (1997).
Ginat, E. Zilberman and I. Saragusti, “Early Pleistocene Freshwater Lake Deposits in Nahal Zihor, Southern Negev, Israel”Quaternary Researchv. 59:445–458 (2003).
A. Livnat and J. Kronfeld, “Paleoclimatic implication of U-series dates for lake sediments and travertines in the Arava rift valley Israel”Quaternary Research24:164–172 (1985).
L. Enmar, “The travertines in the Northern and Central Arava” Stratigraphy Petrography and Geochemistry”GSI/1/99 (1999) (Hebrew with English Abstract).
The site richest Lower Palaeolithic tools in Cis-Jordan is Tell ‘Ubaidiya, located in the northern Jordan Valley a few miles south of the Sea of Galilee.
The age of the layers in which the tools were found – estimated on the basis of geological and faunal correlations – is Lower Pleistocene about 1.4 million years ago. The lithology and layers suggest a marsh or shallow lake and the abundance of fauna with northern affinities indicates a cold climate.12
An assemblage of Middle to Lower Middle Palaeolithic arterfacts was found on the other side of the Rift Valley in the Wadi Faynan area, southern Jordan.
In this alluvial basin the deposition of a complex assemblage of fluvial, slope and alluvial sediments was investigated. The unit in which the Palaeolithic tools were found (Dahalat Member) is calcreted at its base, the same as that observed at Sede Boker. To the opinion of the present authors this member was also deposited during a colder and more humid phase, namely environmental conditions which enabled hominids to live in an area, which today is arid.13
There are not enough data to precisely date the beginning of the cold period in the Near East that enabled hominids to start leaving Africa. A site containing very primitive tools of Oldowayan type was found in the Galilee, covered by a basalt flow dated to around 2.4 million years.14Another early find spot was
‘Erq el-Ahmar in the northern part of the Jordan Valley which may point to the probability that hominids left Africa already at theHomo ergasteror very earlyerectusstage, a contingency now confirmed by the finds of Dmanisi in Georgia. Here the oldest actual skeletal remains of severalhomo ergaster with very close relationship to their gracile African contemporaries was found in close proximity with Oldowayan tools just above and beneath a lava flow dated to 1.75 million years ago (Lordkapanitze 2005, pers. com.). Later finds of a heavy jaw confused the picture: Was this evidence of the variability within the genus ofhomoor another newer type arriving from Africa? The finds of the last seasons will throw more light on the problem.15
Issar’s research in the 1950s on the geology of Israel’s coastal plain, together with deep drillings, shows that two major sea regressions occurred during the Lower Pleistocene. At the time these investigations were carried out it was not possible to say whether these regressions were caused by tectonic lifting of the
12O. Bar-Yosef and N. Goren-Inbar “The Lithic Assemblages of ’Ubeidiya A Lower Palaeolithic Site in the Jordan Valley” in: HUJI – Institiute of ArchaeologyQedem34 (1993).
O. Bar-Yosef, “Pleistocene connection between Africa and Southwest Asia an archaeological per- spective”The African Archaeological Review5:29–38 (1987).
E. Tchernov, “New Comments on the Biostratigraphy of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene of the Southern Levant” in:Late Quaternary Chronology and Palaeoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean, O. Bar-Yosef and R.S. Kra (eds.)Radiocarbon, University of Arizona, Tucson (1994).
13A. Issar, A. Karnieli, H.J. Bruins and I. Gilead, “The Quaternary Geology and Hydrology of Sede Zin, Negev, Israel”IJES33:34–42 (1984).
S. J McLaren, D.D. Gilbertson, J.P. Gratten, C.O. Hunt, G.A. T Duller, G. A Barker, “Quaternary palaeo- geomorphologic evolution of the Wadi Faynan area, southern Jordan.Palaeogeography, Palaeocli- matology, Palaeoecology205:131–154 (2004).
14A. Ronen, “The Yiron-gravel lithic assemblage artifacts older than 2.4 MY in Israel”Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt21:159–164 (1991).
15L.K. Gabunia, A.K. Vekua, “A Plio-Pleistocene hominid from Damnisi, East Georgia, Caucasus”, Nature. 373, 50–512 (1995).
Judaean mountains or resulted from global glaciation. Issar later correlated the second regression with the archaeological strata at Tell ‘Ubaidiya’. An inves- tigation of the samples of drillings in the off-shore area west to the southern part of the coastal plain of Israel by Adva avital. enabled to correlate between some of the glacial cycles, which occurred during the middle and upper Pleis- tocene and the transgression and regression mapped by Issar. From correlating Avital’s section west (about 0.5 to 2.5km) parallel to the coast line with that of Issar’s along the coast line, it seems that the ingression termend by Issar no. 4, characterized by the warm water foraminifer “Marginopra” now called Amphisorus, was found also by Avital and is corrlable to Interglacial Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 7 dated between 250K and 200K B.P. Thus the regres- sion following (Issar’s regression no. 4) is correlable with Glacial MIS 6, which occurred about 140K B.P. The following trangressions (termed by Issar Last Oscillation) are the interglacial 3 and 5 (a few terrestrial clay layers are relicts of glacial MIS 4 dated about 70K B.P.). The prominent regression representing the Last Glacial dated between 30K to 20K B.P. is found in the two sections by Issar along the shore and by Avital offshore. The transgression following this regression deposited the calcareous sandstone (local name Kurkar) ridge building the present shore cliff.16
Evidence of glacial periods during the Lower Pleistocene, as well as later stages is seen in analyses of oxygen 18/16 compositions of microfossil shells from core-hole samples from ocean floor sediments. Heavy composition marks a cold period, due to the process of glaciers capturing the light isotopes, while light isotopic composition shows that the glaciers melted, and the water cap- tured by them was released. The isotopic composition of the samples indicates that throughout the Pleistocene several global glacial events took place.17How- ever, it is premature to correlate the glacial and interglacial episodes revealed by these cores with migrations into Asia due to the scarcity of data. It is important to note, however, that the pollen assemblages in deep cores from the Hula and Dead Sea basins correlate with deep-sea cores, and during each cold period the ratio of tree pollen to other plant pollen shows a greater relative abundance of trees which means that during the cold periods the climate in the Near East was
16A. Issar, Palaeo 3 (1979).
A. Avital, A. Almogi-Labin, H. Binyamini, “Reconstruction of the stratigraphic section of the coastal aquifer in the southern continental shelf in the Upper Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene according to sediments and fauna from marine drillings in the Askalon region”,Abstract volume of symposium on Exploitation and Regenerating of the Coastal Aquifer– Israel Water Resources Organization and Water Commissioner, Israel. (in Hebrew) (2005).
17C. Emiliani, “Pleistocene Temperatures”Journal Geology63:538–178 (1955).
N.L. Shackleton, M.A. Hall, “Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Stratigraphy of Deep Sea Drilling Project Hole 552A: Plio-Pleistocene Glacial History” in:Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project 81, D.G. Roberts and D. Schnitcker (eds.), U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 599–609 (1984).
J. Van Donk, “18O Record of the Atlantic Ocean for the Entire Pleistocene Epoch” in:Investigation of Late Quaternary Palaeo-oceanography,. R.M. Cline and J.D. Hays (eds.),GSA. Memoires145:147–163 (1976).