On the Mar Gins: Early Natufian in the Wadi

Ab stract Our un der stand ing of the Early Natufian pe riod pri mar ily is based on data from the west ern Lev ant, par tic u larly from Med i ter ra nean wood lands and coastal con texts. Sites here have pro duced a wealth of in for ma tion crit i cal to build ing an un der stand ing of Early Natufian com plex hunter-gath erer ad ap ta tions in clud ing their sub sis tence strat e gies. The ac cel er at ing pace of ar chae o log i cal re search in the east ern Lev ant, how ever, which was mainly char ac ter ized by a steppe con text, has be gun to yield ev i dence of Early Natufian groups whose sub sis tence (and other) strat e gies likely dif fered in im por tant ways from the Med i ter ra nean wood lands ad ap ta tions. These steppic Early Natufians seem to have shared more in com mon with their suc ces sors in the Late Natufian, and ar gu ably have more di rect rel e vance to the or i gins of ag ri cul ture, than do the sed en tary “vil lag ers” of the Early Natufian in the Med i ter ra nean wood lands.