NATUFIAN STRAT EGY SHIFTS: EV I DENCES FROM ... asian Pre his tory, 7 (1): 7–27. NATUFIAN STRAT EGY SHIFTS: EV I DENCES FROM WADI MATAHA 2, PETRA, JOR DAN Aubrey Baadsgaard1, Mi

Eur asian Pre his tory, 7 (1): 7–27.

NATUFIAN STRAT EGY SHIFTS: EV I DENCES FROMWADI MATAHA 2, PETRA, JOR DAN

Aubrey Baadsgaard1, Mi chael Chazan2, Linda Scott Cummings3 and Joel C. Janetski4

1 Near East Sec tion, Mu seum of An thro pol ogy and Ar chae ol ogy, Uni ver sity of Penn syl va nia, Phil a del phia,PA 19104, [email protected]

2 De part ment of An thro pol ogy, Uni ver sity of To ronto, To ronto, ONT M5S 2S2, [email protected] Paleo Re search In sti tute, Golden, Col o rado, 80401, [email protected]

4 De part ment of An thro pol ogy, Brigham Young Uni ver sity, Provo, UT 84602, [email protected]

Ab stractEx ca va tions at Wadi Mataha 2 in the Petra Ba sin of south ern Jor dan has yielded ev i dence of a shift in Natufian strat e -

gies from a ra di at ing (early) to a cir cu lat ing (late) pat tern de spite min i mal ev i dence for cli ma tic stress due to the on set ofthe Youn ger Dryas. Ev i dences brought to bear on this is sue in clude pol len, starches from Late Natufian pes tles, chippedstone, and ver te brate fau nal re mains. Starches rep re sent ing Triticum, Hordeum, and Aegilops, were ob served in four of the five sam ples. Fau nal data sug gest sta bil ity in diet breadth de spite a richer as sem blage in the Late Natufian.

Key words: Epipaleolithic, Natufian, res i den tial mo bil ity, paleoclimate, Youn ger Dryas.

IN TRO DUC TION

The Natufian pe riod marks the shift fromsim ple, highly mo bile for ag ing to com plex, evenset tled, for ag ing in the Lev ant of South west Asia(var i ous, but see Bar-Yosef, 2001; Bar-Yosef andMeadow, 1995; Gor ing-Mor ris and Belfer-Co -hen, 1998; Grosman, 2003; Munro, 2004 for dis -cus sions). Pop u la tion growth, in creas ing so cialcom plex ity, in ten si fi ca tion of se lected plantfoods, spe cial ized hunt ing of ga zelles, high in -vest ment ar chi tec ture, and pro lif er a tion of craftsare among the hall marks of this pre cur sor to theNeo lithic that flour ished be tween 11,000 and8,000 BC. Natufian sub sis tence and the tran si tionto plant and an i mal do mes ti ca tion has gar neredmuch at ten tion in the past (e.g., Bar-Yosef andMeadow, 1995; Bar-Yosef, 1998; Byrd, 1989;Munro, 2004; Valla, 1995, to name a few). Thede vel op ment of set tled vil lage so ci et ies in theLev ant was pre ceded by a con trac tion in the sizeand den sity of set tle ments dur ing the Late Natu-fian pe riod. The ap par ent cor re la tion be tween the

Late Natufian and the cli ma tic stress of the Youn -ger Dryas has been ad vanced as an ex pla na tionfor both the col lapse of the Early Natufian net -work of large sites with per ma nent ar chi tec ture aswell as the florescence of vil lages dur ing the sub -se quent Pre-Pot tery Neo lithic A (PPNA) (e.g.,Bar-Yosef and Meadow, 1995; Bar-Yosef, 1998;Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Co hen, 2002; Grosman,2003; see Munro, 2003 for a dif fer ing view andad di tional ref er ences). The im pact of the Youn ger Dryas would have been var ied across the het er o -ge neous land scape of the Lev ant, and it is clearthat in some ar eas this was ac tu ally a pe riod of cli -ma tic ame lio ra tion due to at ten u a tion of the rainshadow ef fect as a re sult of lower tem per a tures(Baruch and Gor ing-Mor ris, 1997; Vaks et al.,2003).

In any case, un der stand ing the na ture of hu -man ad ap ta tions dur ing the Late Natufian in theLev ant is crit i cal to un der stand ing the emer genceof ag ri cul ture. In this pa per we pres ent data fromex ca va tions and anal y ses at Wadi Mataha 2 insouth ern Jor dan and their im pli ca tions for strat -

8 A. Baadsgaard et al.

Fig. 1. Map of the Lev ant show ing the lo ca tion of Wadi Mataha and se lected Natufian sites

egy and sub sis tence tra jec to ries from the Geo met -ric Kebaran into the Late Natufian. We fo cus onmul ti ple lines of ev i dence rel e vant to ex ploi ta tionof bo tan i cal re sources dur ing the Late Natufian.Taken to gether these data al low a dis cus sion ofLate Natufian re gional ad ap ta tions and some ten -ta tive ideas about how these ad ap ta tions dif feredfrom pre ced ing pe ri ods.

SITE DE SCRIP TION

Wadi Mataha 2 is a multi-com po nent, Epipa-leolithic site in the north ern Petra Ba sin (Fig. 1).Three en vi ron men tal zones are found in closeprox im ity: the for ested lime stone high lands to theeast, the shrubby Irano-Turani an steppe in thearea sur round ing the site, and the desert low landsof the Wadi Araba to the south (Kirkbride, 1985).The land scape ad ja cent to the site is rough, bro -ken ter rain in ter me di ate be tween the city of Petraand gen tler, hilly up lands to the east that still con -tain ves tiges of oak – pis ta chio wood lands. Hu -man oc cu pa tions at Wadi Mataha 2 lie at the topof and down a steep ta lus slope at the south edgeof Maghur al Mataha, a large sand stone mono lith.El e va tion is about 950 m. The site slope is lit teredwith sand stone rub ble, chipped stone de bris andtools, and oc ca sional bone erod ing into a sec ond -ary drain age of the site’s name sake, Wadi Ma-taha, a ma jor drain age flow ing into Petra proper1.2 km to the south. The site size can be di videdbe tween the up per slope and the mid dle and lower slope with the for mer con tain ing a Geo met ric Ke-baran oc cu pa tion over lain by Late Natufian ma te -rial and mea sur ing roughly 50 m2 in size. Themid dle and lower slope is ex clu sively EarlyNatufian and is larger, mea sur ing about 135 m2.

In tact fea tures are pres ent in both the up per andlower ar eas.

Site ageAb so lute dates have been elu sive at Wadi

Mataha as char coal has been non-ex is tent andbone col la gen is pres ent in only very min utequan ti ties. Two AMS dates on humic ac ids fromburned an i mal bone from the Up per Slope place aGeo met ric Kebaran oc cu pa tion at 14,140 ± 130BP and the Late Natufian at 11,200 ± 50 BP (Ta -ble 1). The lat ter places the Late Natufian oc cu pa -tion at the on set of the Youn ger Dryas (Hughen etal., 2000). Ad di tional humic acid dates place theEarly Natufian oc cu pa tion be tween 12,025 ± 30BP and 11,600 ± 25 BP.

GEO MET RIC KEBARAN

Given the Late Natufian fo cus of this pa per,the Geo met ric Kebaran pres ence at the site is de -scribed only briefly here. The Geo met ric Kebaran lev els lay di rectly be low the Late Natufian in Test Area 2 in the up per slope (Fig. 2). In ad di tion toar ti fact-and bone-rich mid den, this level con -tained hu man re mains of an in fant and an adult(Stock et al., 2005).

EARLY NATUFIAN OC CU PA TIONS

Two stone fea tures (Struc tures 1 and 2) dom i -nate the Early Natufian area; both are ter rac ingwalls with ar ti fact-rich fill be hind and, in the caseof the lower wall (Struc ture 2), clear ev i dence ofres i den tial ac tiv i ties on a flat tened area in front orthe downslope side. Struc ture 1 stretches nearlysix me ters from the west to east and is about a 90

Natufian strat egy shifts 9

Ta ble 1Ra dio car bon dates from Wadi Mataha 2

Lab No. Ma te rial Pro veni ence BP date 2 Sigma Cal i brated BP Soft ware

CAMS-55897 Burned boneStra tum IV (F12) , Late Natufian

Mid den11,200 ± 50 BP 12,994 - 13,211 BP CalPal

UCIAMS-24863 Burned boneRoast ing Pit (F158), Oc cu pa tion

Zone A, Early Natufian11,600 ± 25 BP 13,371 - 13583 BP CalPal

UCIAMS-24864 Burned bonePit (F182), Oc cu pa tion Zone A,

Early Natufian12,025 ± 30 BP 13,806 - 14,200 BP CalPal

CAMS-55899 Burned boneStra tum I (F17), Geo met ric Gebaran

Mid den14,140 ± 130 BP 17,125 - 17,651 BP CalPal

cm in max i mum height (Fig. 2). The wall abutssand stone bed rock on the east end. All but a fewstones were bur ied at the on set of ex ca va tion. Itap pears that the wall was re mod eled at least once

re sult ing in a ma sonry arc. No clear “floor” waspres ent; rather the rubbly fill sim ply ceased above ster ile sands. Struc ture 2, roughly par al lel to anddownslope from Struc ture 1, curves up and across


Fig. 2. Plan of Wadi Mataha 2 show ing ter rac ing walls in Test Area 1 or mid dle slope

the slope for just over 5 m. As with Struc ture 1,this wall is some what sin u ous, per haps due tosome downslope slip page. The max i mum heightof the wall is just over 1.2 m. This fea ture wascom pletely bur ied with no ev i dence of its pres -ence vis i ble on the sur face. A se ries of amor phous roast ing pits are pres ent in an oc cu pa tion zone atthe same level as the basal stone course of Struc -ture 2. Be low these fea tures are ster ile sands. This oc cu pa tion zone is rich in ar ti facts and fau nalbone and rel a tively free of rub ble.

LATE NATUFIAN OC CU PA TION

Late Natufian oc cu pa tions are re stricted tothe up per slope at the base of a short sand stonecliff (Fig. 3). Late Natufian fea tures in clude a

roast ing area with dark mid den and abun dantchunky sand stone cob bles (Fig. 4). Stratigraphi-cally be low (but still Late Natufian) and slightlydownslope from the roast ing fea ture was a patchysur face of flat stones upon which lay sev eral C.ibex horn cores and do mes tic items in clud ing pes -tles and chipped stone tools. The sur face ap pearscir cum scribed by an arc ing align ment of sand -stone boul ders. Sed i ments are dark and con tainsmall, steeply backed lunates with bi po lar re touch and crude notches and denticulates. On the east -ern edge of the ex ca va tions, sed i ments have beendis turbed by col lu vial de bris de riv ing from thecliff above. This ac tiv ity de pos ited sand stonecob bles and red, sandy sed i ments, mix ing a richLate Natufian bone and lithic as sem blage withsome Nabatean pot tery and mod ern de bris.


Fig. 3. Plan of Test Area 2 or up per slope show ing mor tar and pes tle lo ca tions

Bed rock mor tarsFive bed rock mor tars as well as three cup

mor tars are pres ent on a sand stone bed rock shelfabut ting the east edge of the ex ca vated area (were fer to these man made fea tures as bed rock mor -tars but ac knowl edge in trigu ing dis cus sions ofother pos si ble func tions by Nadel et al. (2008)based on find ings at Raqefet Cave. Eitam (2008)re fers to these in stal la tions as “Ob long con i calmor tars” which term could ap ply to the deep mor -tars here. The pro posal by Grosman andGoren-Inbar (2007) that such fea tures were usedto quarry lime stone or chert is not rel e vant in thiscon text as the bed rock mor tars are cut into sand -stone). The bed rock mor tars are roughly par al lelsided for much of their length but taper to arounded point at the bot toms. Depths range from30 to 72 cm. Two (Mor tars 1 and 2) ex hibit flut -ing from in tense grind ing or pound ing ac tiv ity us -ing stone pes tles (Fig. 5). Deep mor tar open ingsare oval mea sur ing be tween 15 to 25 cm in di am e -ter. The cup mor tars are shal low (6 to 10 cm deep) and more bowl-like in pro file; cup mor tar open ing di am e ters are 10 to 15 cm. Cup mor tar in te ri ors

are char ac ter ized by mul ti ple pick marks, pre sum -ably from man u fac ture. None of the cup mor tarsshowed clear ev i dence of use such as smooth in te -rior or abra sions.

All of the mor tars ex cept Mor tar 5 were vis i -ble and ex posed at the time we be gan site ex ca va -tions mak ing fill con tam i na tion likely. Nev er the -less, sev eral con tained some sed i ment, es pe ciallyMor tars 1 and 5. Mor tar 1 proved to be the deep -est (72 cm) and yielded the most ar ti facts. Themor tar was largely filled with sed i ments whichcon tained flint debitage, a hammerstone wedgedin the hole at 35 cm be low sur face. Be low thehammerstone were sev eral small pieces ofDentalium, a Nerite bead, a few bone frag ments,and ad di tional stones tightly wedged in the ta -pered por tion of the hole. The sides and bot tom of the mor tar were quite smooth, and pick marks, sovis i ble in most of the oth ers, are largely wornaway. It is pos si ble this fea ture was an ex haustedmor tar and was sub se quently used as a cache pit.Mor tar 5, which was cov ered by a few cm of sed i -ment, con tained sandy fill, but a plas tic bag waspres ent 20 cm be low the top of the fea ture; how -


Fig. 4. Photo of roast ing area (F54) in Test Area 2

ever, a hammerstone and a flint chunk were pres -ent near the bot tom. The ob vi ous re cent na ture ofthis fill makes plac ing mean ing on the pres ence of ar ti facts a ten u ous prop o si tion. The pres ence ofstones in the bot tom of deep mor tars is not un -com mon ac cord ing to Eitam (2008).

Late Natufian Pes tlesSix pes tles ap pear to be of the ap pro pri ate

shape to have been used in the bed rock mor tars(Fig. 6). All are from sealed Late Natufian de pos -its. These pes tles are sub-rect an gu lar in pro fileand taper to the dis tal por tion where use wear isclearly ev i dent. All are sand stone. Two are verysim i lar in size: FS 1723 is com plete and mea sures23 cm long (max i mum di men sions in all cases) by 10.98 cm wide and 5.4 cm thick at the prox i malend, while FS 694 is nearly com plete, lack ingonly the dis tal por tion, and mea sures 10.85 cmwide by 5.33 cm thick. Three oth ers are morefrag mented with two (FS 1694 and FS 1494) splitlon gi tu di nally and one (FS 818) be ing a dis talend. FS 818 is dis tinct from the dis tal por tion ofFS 1723 in that it is more rounded while FS 1723

is more flat tened and chisel-like. The fi nal spec i -men, FS 1784, dif fers from the oth ers in that, al -though miss ing a por tion of the prox i mal end, ap -pears to have been used as-is. It mea sures 13.37cm long by 9.32 cm wide and 5.72 thick (at thedis tal end). The dis tal end of this pes tle dif fers yetagain in that the end is more blunt and flat ter withclear peck ing vis i ble. All pes tles roughly con form to the shape of the flutes in the deep mor tars, al -though FS 1784 seems un likely to have been usedin those fea tures given its shorter length. It mayhave been use ful for use in the shal low cup mor -tars. All pes tles are shaped by per cus sion and in -tense peck ing. These tools would have been quiteheavy to wield (e.g.,FS1723 weighs 2.7 kg), al -though ef fi cient for crush ing seeds or nuts.

BO TAN I CAL ANAL Y SESPol len data

The 19 pol len sam ples pro cessed to date pres -ent ten ta tive en vi ron men tal in sights for all threetime pe ri ods rep re sented at Wadi Mataha (Fig. 7).Pol len pres er va tion was par tic u larly poor, or de -


Fig. 5. Photo of mor tar with flutes

po si tion par tic u larly rapid, for the few Geo met ricKebaran sam ples, while pol len in the Early andLate Natufian sam ples was better pre served andmore abun dant.

The Early Natufian (and to a cer tain ex tentthe Late Natufian) pol len sig na ture is dom i natedby Liguliflorae pol len. Many of the plants in theLigulilforae (chic ory tribe of the sun flower fam -ily) re quire more mois ture than do other mem bersof the sun flower fam ily; there fore, re cov ery ofmoderately large to large quan ti ties of Liguliflo -rae pol len is of ten in ter preted to rep re sent an in -crease in mois ture (com pared to to day). The phe -nom e non of larger quan ti ties of Liguliflorae pol-len is not lim ited to this por tion of the Mid dleEast, as it is also ob served through out por tions ofNorth Amer ica dur ing ter mi nal Pleis to cene andearly Ho lo cene de pos its. The change in veg e ta -tion at this time is most likely re lated to a dif fer -ence in the tim ing of pre cip i ta tion and per hapsother im por tant pa ram e ters, such as the length of

the grow ing sea son, or bital pa ram e ters that arecol lec tively known as the “Milankovitch cy cle,”and fac tors that com bine to make the ter mi nalPleis to cene a much dif fer ent ex pe ri ence than theHo lo cene. This me sic sig na ture con tin ues through the Late Natufian sam ples. Re cov ery of mod er ateto mod er ately large quan ti ties of Caryophylla-ceae, Tidestromia-type, Cheno-am, Cucurbita-ceae, and Poaceae pol len prob a bly re flects patchyveg e ta tion in some ar eas of the site, as some ofthese plants might be grow ing as weeds in dis -turbed ar eas, and/or use or pro cess ing of some ofthese plants.

Ad di tional ev i dence of more me sic con di -tions in clude Arecaceae, Typha, and Prosopis(rep re sent ing palms, cat tails, and a rel a tive ofmes quite re spec tively) that prob a bly grew in thewa dis. Al though Prosopis is not part of the lo calveg e ta tion to day, the pol len re cord from WadiMataha in di cates that it was part of the ri par ianveg e ta tion com mu nity dur ing the Early and Late


Fig. 6. Late Natufian pes tles: a) FS 1784, b) FS 818, c) FS 1723, d) FS 694


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niar ne llop nr edom sa lle

w sa snoi ta pu cco naifutaN eta

L hguorht ci rte moe

G gn itne se rper mar g aid ne llo

P

Natufian Pe ri ods. In creases in Cheno-am pol lenin two of the sam ples from the Late Natufianmight re flect food pro cess ing ac tiv i ties, growth of weedy plants in these lo ca tions, or per haps re -sponse to in creas ingly sa line con di tions in speci-fic ar eas.

Of most im por tance was the re cov ery of Ce-realia pol len from the Geo met ric Kebaran andEarly Natufian lev els. It is also sig nif i cant that the fre quency of Poaceae pol len was el e vated in these sam ples, as it notes the pres ence of a rel a tivelylarge pop u la tion of grasses, the seeds of whichpo ten tially could have been col lected as food.

Starch dataRe cov ery of starch grain from Late Natufian

pes tles pro vides di rect ev i dence for ce real ex ploi -ta tion dur ing this time pe riod. Three of the pes tles(FS 1694, FS 1723, and FS 1784) came fromwithin and ad ja cent to an ashy de pres sion in theLate Natufian lev els in Test Area 2 (Fig. 3). There main ing three (FS 694, FS 1494, and FS 818)are from a con tact zone be tween the Late Natufian oc cu pa tion and the un der ly ing Geo met ric Keba-ran lev els. All, how ever, are within a few cen ti -me ters of each other in depth. Five of these pes tles (all ex cept FS 694) were washed for phytolithanal y sis with neg a tive re sults (Terry Ball, per -sonal com mu ni ca tion 2002). Those five sam pleswere then sub mit ted to Paleoresearch In sti tute,where ex am i na tion yielded ce real starch grainsfrom all five sam ples. Pes tle FS1494 ex hib itedonly two grains of starch (Ta ble 2), nei ther of

which rep re sents ce re als. Len tic u lar starch (Fig.8a), found in Triticum, Hordeum, and Aegilops,were ob served in four of the five sam ples, in di cat -ing that Pes tles FS 818, FS 1694, FS 1723, and FS 1784 were used for grind ing wheat or bar ley,prob a bly the wild pro gen i tors to the do mes ticwheat or bar ley. Pes tles FS 818 and FS 1784 bothyielded Hordeum-type starches, which ex hibitmore well-de fined or ob vi ous lamellae (con cen -tric rings) than do the starches that are lumped un -der the Triticum/Hordeum cat e gory (Figs 8b and8c rep re sent ing reg u lar light and cross-po lar il lu -mi na tion, re spec tively). These dis tinc tive lame-llae have been ob served on ap prox i mately 50 per -cent of the len tic u lar starches pres ent in Hordeumand are de scribed by Piperno et al. (2004:670) asbe ing di ag nos tic of Hordeum when com binedwith the len tic u lar shape. Starches that are not di -ag nos tic of wheat or bar ley, but are part of thewheat and bar ley starch as sem blages, as well asbe ing typ i cal of grass seeds were ob served in fourof the five sam ples (FS 818, 1494, 1494, and1484). Prob a ble Apiaceae (umbel fam ily) rootstarch was also ob served on Pes tle FS 1694.

Re cov ery of ce real pol len from all three timepe ri ods and starch from Late Natufian pes tlessug gests pos si ble ex ploi ta tion of wild ce real grasses through all time pe ri ods. In ad di tion, the pol -len re cord, com bined with this ev i dence for use of ce re als, in di cates a rel a tively open land scape inthe vi cin ity of Wade Mataha 2 through out theGeo met ric Kebaran and Natufian oc cu pa tions.


Fig. 8. Starch grains: a) len tic u lar starch, b) ce real starch, c) ce real starch cross po lar

CHIPPED STONE

Anal y sis of Natufian lithic as sem blages tends to fo cus on ty po logi cal cat e go ri za tion of re -touched tools and met ri cal anal y sis of debitage. A num ber of use wear stud ies have ex am ined thefunc tion of re touched tools (see An der son, 1991;Rich ter, 2007; Yamada, 2000 for re views of thislit er a ture). Use wear anal y sis of unretouchedflakes is rare. Rich ter (2007) in cluded unretou-ched flakes in his sam ple to de tect ‘back groundnoise’ and was sur prised to learn that use wear onthese pieces was very com mon (reach ing 50 per -cent of a sam ple of 18 flakes from Ain Rahub).How ever, the re cent pub li ca tion of a cache fromthe Early Natufian site of Wadi Hammeh that ap -pears to rep re sent a hunter/gath erer toolkit in -cludes thir teen lunates and ten re touched bladelets (the lat ter set into a sickle) ap par ently with out any unretouched flakes. The Wadi Hammeh dis cov -ery of fers sup port for a fo cus on re touched bla-delets in func tional stud ies of Natufian lithic tech- nology (Ed wards, 2007).

From a ty po logi cal per spec tive the Wadi Ma-taha as sem blage is un re mark able. Al though thety po logi cal anal y sis is still in pro cess, the gen eralout lines are clear. The Geo met ric Kebaran isdom i nated typologically by nar row obliquelytrun cated backed bladelets along with well-madeendscrapers on blades. Cores are well-or ga nizeduni di rec tional blade/bladelet cores. For the EarlyNatufian, di ag nos tic large Helwan re touchedlunates are com mon. Other ma jor tool types areHelwan re touched bladelets, notches, and

endscrapers. Cores tend to be amor phous bladeletcores. Typologically this as sem blage is very sim i -lar to the nearby Early Natufian site of Beidha(Byrd, 1989). The Late Natufian is char ac ter izedby the pres ence of lunates (mean length 17 mm,mean width 6 mm.) with uni po lar, bi po lar, andHelwan re touch. These mea sure ments fit wellwith the Late Natufian sites from the Negev, aswell as the late Natufian oc cu pa tion of Salibiya 1in the Jor dan Val ley (Belfer-Co hen and Grosman, 1997; Gor ing-Mor ris, 1997). How ever, the meanlength of lunates from the Late Natufian of WadiMataha is greater that the mean for the Fi nalNatufian at the sites of Mallaha in the Hula Val ley and Fazael IV in the Jor dan Val ley (Grossman etal., 1999; Valla et al., 2001). Other tool types in -clude backed bladelets, notches, endscrapers, andrare burins. Cores are undirectional bladelet coresof ten with mul ti ple plat forms.

Func tional anal y sis of the Late Natufian as -sem blage has turned out to be chal leng ing and there sults re ported here are based on a sin gle con text(FS 1465) within Fea ture 26, the patchy sur face of flat stones in the up per slope. How ever, these re -sults co here with more qual i ta tive ob ser va tionsmade on the as sem blage as a whole. The ap proach fol lowed in this anal y sis is to be gin by look ing atthe com plete as sem blage in terms of the tech nol -ogy of blank pro duc tion and the func tional qual i -ties of both re touched and unretouched flakes.From a func tional per spec tive the as sem blagebreaks down into four dis crete com po nents, eachof which was pro duced fol low ing a dis tinctmethod. The first type con sists of large flakes


Ta ble 2Starches re cov ered from pes tles

Starch typePes tle field spec i men num bers

FS 818 FS 1494 FS 1694 FS 1723 FS 1784

Triticum/Hordeum/Elymus 4 1 2 8

Hordeum-type (ob vi ous con cen tric rings) 1 1

Glob u lar starch w/hi lum, pos si bly grass seed 1 6 6

Grass seed starch 5 17

An gu lar starch (grass seed) 14 1 1 14

Apiaceae 1

Elon gated starch, un known or i gin 1 6

"Starburst" starch 4

To tal Starches 25 2 9 2 56

(max i mum di men sion 30 mm). These large flakesin clude a sim ple burin (n = 1), a steep endscraper(n = 1), notches (n = 2), and unretouched flakes(n = 7). Flakes di vide equally be tween cor ti cal(cortex 60 per cent; n = 4), par tially cor ti cal (n =3), and non-cor ti cal (n = 4). These tools pres entlarge ro bust work ing edges that could be used foras pects of butch ery or scrap ing. Three of theflakes in the sam ple have con ver gent edges. There is no ev i dence for re touch to shape the tools forhafting and the shape of the flakes tends to be ir -reg u lar. The sec ond com po nent con sists of piecesthat would nor mally be clas si fied as an gu lar de -bris. These are blocky pieces that were pro ducedby pur pose fully frac tur ing flakes or blocks ofchert. There is no ob vi ous func tional ex pla na tionfor this class, as the pieces do not of fer a clearwork ing edge. These pieces can be di vided into agroup of smaller pieces (max. dim. < 20 mm; n =

7) and larger pieces (max. dim. 25–46 mm; n = 5). One pos si bil ity is that the larger pieces wereblocks that could be used for cores; how ever, onepiece ap pears to have been re touched as a burin.

The third and dom i nant class in cludes flakesand blades with at least one straight cut ting edgewith an edge an gle ca pa ble of lon gi tu di nal cut ting (n = 139). This class of flakes can be fur ther sub -di vided into flakes and blades with one obliqueedge (of ten ei ther re touched or cor ti cal) (n = 11);par al lel or near par al lel straight edges (n = 60); anoff set point (n = 56), and ir reg u larly shaped flakes and blades (n = 11). Size of flakes and blades inthis class ranges from 3 to 56 mm. (mean 18mm.), and in cludes large nar row blades. The con -fig u ra tion of the cores in the sam ple in di cates thatvery small flakes were de sired endproducts. Thethree cores are ex ploited for uni di rec tional bla-delet pro duc tion. The two larger cores have two


Fig. 9. a) dor sal microfracture on edge of an unretouched flake (1465/169); b) ven tral microfracture on edge ofan unretouched flake (1465/206); c) striations on ven tral face of an unretouched flake (1465/168); d) striations onven tral face of an unretouched flake (1465/137), e) en vi ron men tal SEM GSE im age of striations on the edge of ablade with Helwan re touch. 105 × mag ni fi ca tion. Note microflaking and round ing of the egde; f: En vi ron men talSEM GSE im age of striations on the edge of a blade with Helwan re touch 240 × mag ni fi ca tion sprawdzicpowiêkszenia!!!!!

orthagonal work ing faces. The length of bladeletscars on these cores ranges from 46–28 mm. Athird core is a small sin gle py ram i dal core withbladelet scars rang ing from 15–20 mm. The smal- lest re touched piece is a mi cro-end scraper withlength = 7 mm. The fi nal com po nent con sists ofwaste prod ucts of knapping which in cludes 16pieces with a maximimum di men sion greater than 1 cm, and 36 pieces with a max i mum di men sionless than 1 cm. There is one burin spall that rejuvi- nated a re touched edge.

Mi cro scopic ex am i na tion has fo cused on thepieces with edges that could be uti lized for lon gi -tu di nal cut ting, as these are most rel e vant to theex ploi ta tion of plants (Fig. 9). Pieces were ex am -ined un der a bin oc u lar mi cro scope at a range ofmag ni fi ca tions to look for ev i dence of round ingof edges and par tic u larly for striations that wouldbe con sis tent with the use of the flakes in har vest -ing ce re als. Strongly de vel oped sickle gloss is ab -sent from the col lec tion. Ven tral striations arefound on 57 re touched and unretouched flakesand blades cov er ing the en tire size range in clud -ing lunates and backed bladelets. In ad di tion tothe pieces with ven tral striations 56 pieces werefound to have reg u lar microscars along an edgeon ei ther the ven tral or dor sal face (pieces withboth striations and microfracture were counted ashav ing striations). Striations were found on bothre touched and unretouched flakes and blades inall size classes. Ex am i na tion of striations un deren vi ron men tal SEM con firmed that they were infact al ter ations of the sur face of the flake formedby in ci sion and that there was pol ish for ma tionalong the tool edge and be tween the striations.One con cern dur ing anal y sis was the po ten tial tocon found use wear striations with fur rows pro -duced by hack les, or what has also been de scribed as lances (Cotterell and Kamminga, 1979). Thecon sis tent as so ci a tion of striations with roundededges and the lo cal iza tion of striations to a lim ited part of the edge in di cates that, al though such aner ror is pos si ble in par tic u lar cases, it does not af -fect the over all func tional ob ser va tions. How ever, fur ther work is needed on the for ma tion of stria-tions and the re la tion of striations to fea tures cre -ated by frac ture. Mi cro-scar ring was only identi-fied if there was a con tin u ous dis tri bu tion of fla-king scars along one face (ei ther ven tral or dor sal) of an edge.

The func tional qual i ties of the flakes com -bined with the use wear ev i dence strongly sug gest that lon gi tu di nal cut ting was a ma jor func tion ofLate Natufian stone tools at Wadi Mataha 2.Com bined with the other lines of ev i dence pre -sented here, ce real har vest ing would seem to bethe most ob vi ous func tion for these tools. Oneques tion that re quires fur ther re search is whysickle gloss did not de velop on these tools if theywere used to har vest ce re als. An der son (1991) at -trib utes the for ma tion of striations to prox im ity ofthe tool to the soil dur ing har vest ing while the in -ten sity of gloss is as so ci ated with the length or in -ten sity of use. In the an a lyzed con text debitage, in the sense of the waste prod ucts of lithic pro duc -tion, is ex ceed ingly rare. This sug gests that cura-ted tools, per haps com plete sick les made up ofmul ti ple flakes and blades, were brought on to the site. Us ing the Wadi Hammeh cache as a guide we might see the cores and an gu lar blocks as the rawma te rial that was car ried along for re tool ing.How ever, the re sults here point to a very dif fer enttech nol ogy for har vest ing than in di cated by theWadi Hammeh sickle as unretouched flakes arethe dom i nant type of sickle el e ment. The heavy-duty tool com po nent in di cates that other ac tiv i ties likely in volv ing an i mal butch ery and pro cess ingalso took place at the site.

TEM PO RAL TRENDS IN AN I MALEX PLOI TA TION

An i mal bones were a prin ci pal data set re cov -ered from the Wadi Mataha ex ca va tions, withsome 28,921 to tal bones re cov ered, 2,382 or 8.2per cent iden ti fi able from all lev els, in clud ing theGeo met ric Kebaran. Al though the fo cus of thispa per is the Late Natufian the Geo met ric Kebaranfauna are in cluded for com par a tive pur poses.Iden ti fied spec i mens in clude ungulates, car ni -vores, small mam mals and ro dents, rep tiles, and ava ri ety of birds (see Ta bles 3 and 4). As is typ i calof Epipaleolithic sites across the Lev ant, the bestrep re sented spe cies are ga zelle (Gazella spp.),land tor toise (Tes tudo gracea), wild goat/ibex(Capra spp.), hare (Lepus capensis), and par -tridge (Alectoris chukar). Caprines as the dom i -nant un gu late spe cies aligns Wadi Mataha withother Epipaleolithic sites in the steppe/desert re -gions of the Lev ant, whose cli ma tic and to pog ra -


phy are more suit able for caprine spe cies, the wild goat (Capra aegagrus) and the ibex (Capra ibex), and less fa vor able to for est dwell ing spe cies suchas the roe and red deer (Capreolus capreolus,Cervus elaphus) and the wild boar (Sus scrofa)(Henry, 1998; Byrd, 1989).

The ga zelle bones in the Wadi Mataha as sem -blage could be from one of three dif fer ent spe ciesof ga zelle that have in hab ited the south ern Lev -ant, the goitered ga zelle (Gazella subgutturosa),the moun tain ga zelle (Gazella gazella), and thedorcas ga zelle (Gazella dorcas). G. gazella is a


Ta ble 3NISP count of Wadi Mataha fauna

Taxon N % Taxon N %

Ungulates Rep tiles

Ass/Onager (Equus spp.) 29 1.2 Liz ard (Sauria/Agamidae) 11 0.5

Aurochs (Bos primigenius) 18 0.8 Snake (Columbridae) 4 0.2

Goat/Ibex (Capra spp.) 380 16.0 Land Tor toise (Tes tudo graeca) 420 17.6

Caprine (prob a bly Capra) 352 14.8 To tal 435 18.3

Sheep? (Ovis orientalis) 6 0.3 Aves

Ga zelle (Gazella spp.) 372 15.6 Fowlike Birds (Galliformes) 4 0.2

Caprine/Gazella 46 1.9 Par tridge (Alectoris chuckar) 103 4.3

Fal low Deer? (Dama mes o po ta mia) 2 >0.1 Di ur nal Birds of Prey (Falconiformes) 14 0.5

Bovid/Cervid 331 13.9 Hawks and Ea gles (Acciptridae) 4 0.2

To tal 1536 64.5 Buz zard (Buteo spp.) 15 0.6

Car ni vores Com mon Buz zard (Buteo buteo) 1 >0.1

Wolf/Dog (Canis sp.) 8 0.3 Long-Legged Buz zard (Buteo rufinis) 2 0.1

Cat (Felis sp.) 1 >0.1 Ea gle (Aquila spp.) 2 0.1

Fox (Vulpes sp.) 23 1.0 Honey Buz zard (Pernis apivorus) 1 >0.1

Mar bled Pole cat (Vormela peregusna) 2 >0.1 Sparrowhawk (Accipiter sp.) 2 >0.1

To tal 34 1.4 Os prey (Pandion haliaetus) 1 >0.1

Small Mam mals/Ro dents Grif fon Vul ture (Gyps fulvus) 1 >0.1

Hare (Lepus capensis) 70 2.9 Egytian Vul ture (Nephron percnopterus) 1 >0.1

Mole Rat (Spalax ehrenbergi) 11 0.5 Fal con/Kestral (Falcos spp.) 6 0.3

Jird (Meriones sp.) 15 0.6 Perch ing Birds (Passeriformes) 2 0.1

Vole (Microtus socialis) 10 0.4 Crow/Ra ven (Corvus mondula) 1 >0.1

Mouse (Mus sp.) 4 0.2 Star ling (Sturgis vulgaris) 1 >0.1

Ro dent (Rodentia) 16 0.7 Un iden ti fied Aves 90 3.8

To tal 126 5.3 To tal 251 10.5

Ta ble 4Pro por tion of dif fer ent an i mal types by tem po ral com po nent

G. Kebaran E. Natufian L. Natufian

N % N % N %

Ungulates 138 62.7 608 80.4 608 57.8

Car ni vores 3 1.4 13 1.7 16 1.5

Sm Mam mals/Ro dents 17 7.7 33 4.4 63 6.0

Rep tiles 42 19.1 56 7.4 220 20.9

Birds 20 9.1 46 6.1 144 13.7

To tal 220 100.0 756 100.0 1051 100.0

me dium sized, slen der built ga zelle gen er allyrang ing north of the 150 mm isoheyt, while thesmaller G. dorcas gen eral oc cu pies more arid re -gions to the south of this isoheyt (Tchernov et al.,1986/7). In the Paleolithic pe riod, the moun tainga zelle ranged as far as the Si nai and south ernNegev, un til the PPNB pe riod, when the dorcasga zelle in vaded the arid re gions of the south ernLev ant from North Af rica, lim it ing the range ofthe moun tain ga zelle to more Med i ter ra nean en vi -ron ments (Tchernov et al., 1986/7). Goitered ga -zelles, now ex tinct in much of the south ern Lev -ant, were hunted in desert/steppe ar eas by meansof drive in stal la tions and desert kites, both in thedis tant and more re cent past (Bar-Yosef, 1986).The iden ti fi ca tion of horn cores from the goiteredga zelle at Epipaleolithic sites in the Wadi Hasasites in di cates that Wadi Mataha 2 was prob a blyalso in its range (Clark et al., 1988:251). Of thesethree, only the goitered ga zelle was mi gra tory(Mar tin, 2000).

Dis tin guish ing be tween dif fer ent spe cies ofga zelle re lies on mea sure ments of size and on dif -fer ences on cra nial fea ture and horn cores(Tchernov et al., 1986/7). G. gazella horn coreshave a wide groove on the an te rior edge, whilehorn cores from G. dorcas lack an an te riorgroove, but have two grooves on the pos te riorsur face. The horn cores of G. gazella also ap pearel lip ti cal in cross sec tion. Those of the G. dorcasare more egg-shaped and have a wider pos te rioredge (Tchernov et al., 1986/7). At Wadi Mataha2, all ga zelle bones fall within the size range ofthe moun tain ga zelle (Gazella gazella) (af terHorowitz et al., 1990). In ad di tion, the horn coresfrom Wadi Mataha ap pear el lip ti cal in cross sec -tion and more closely re sem ble G. gazella.

The Wadi Mataha 2 fauna are use ful for ex -am in ing trends in an i mal ex ploi ta tion and pos si -ble changes in site func tion through time. Thenum ber of iden ti fied spec i mens is great est fromLate Natufian con texts (n = 1051), fol lowed byEarly Natufian lev els and fea tures (n = 756) andGeo met ric Kebaran (n = 220) pri mar ily due tolarger sam ples of the Natufian de pos its. A num ber of bones from lev els tran si tional be tween the Late Natufian and Geo met ric Kebaran com po nents inthe Up per Slope are prob a bly mostly from the ear -lier phase (n = 355), but are not used in this com -par a tive anal y sis.

When com par ing the pro por tions of iden ti -fied spec i mens be tween the dif fer ent tem po ralcom po nents, some trends in an i mal ex ploi ta tionpat terns are ap par ent (Ta ble 5). First, the EarlyNatufian com po nent has a higher per cent age ofungulates (80 per cent) com pared to the LateNatufian (near 60 per cent). Sec ond, the per cent of rep tiles, pri mar ily rep re sented by the land tor -toise, and birds re mains are low est in the EarlyNatufian (7 and 6 per cent re spec tively) com paredto a pro por tion of near 20 per cent for rep tiles inthe other two pe ri ods, and a sig nif i cantly higherpro por tion of birds in the Late Natufian (14 per -cent) with slightly higher per cent in the Geo met -ric Kebaran (9 per cent). Car ni vores are rep re -sented in small pro por tions in all pe ri ods, withsmall mam mals and ro dents also few, but slightlybetter rep re sented in the Geo met ric Kebaran andLate Natufian com po nents (Fig. 10).

To better gage the de gree of re li ance on largever sus small game be tween the three pe ri ods, therel a tive pro por tions of car ni vores, ungulates, andsmall game, which com bines the num bers ofbirds, rep tiles, and small mam mals, were com -


Ta ble 5Rel a tive rep re sen ta tion of dif fer ent un gu late spe cies by tem po ral com po nent

G. Kebaran E. Natufian L. Natufian

N % N % N %

Equid 4 3.5 17 3.6 7 1.5

Bos 2 1.8 4 0.9 12 2.6

Caprine 55 48.7 315 68.5 294 64.2

Ga zelle 52 46.0 124 27.0 145 31.7

To tal 113 460 458

pared to gether with a small game to un gu late ra tio cal cu lated us ing the for mula of the S small an i -mals/ S small an i mals + S ungulates In this in dex, val ues closer to one in di cate a greater ex ploi ta tion of small game, while num bers closer to zero ev i -dence a greater fo cus on ungulates. Car ni vores,ro dents other than hares, and rap tors were ex -cluded from the small game, since their use as afood re source can be dis puted. The re sults showthe high est small game to un gu late ra tio in theLate Natufian at 0.26, fol lowed by the Geo met ricKebaran at 0.23, and the Early Natufian show ingthe low est ra tio at 0.08. These ra tios make clearthe im por tance of small game in the Geo met ricKebaran and Late Natufian pe ri ods rel a tive to theEarly Natufian. While the Geo met ric Kebaranand Late Natufian pe ri ods both have sim i lar small game to un gu late ra tios, some dif fer ences are ap -par ent in the rel a tive pro por tions of small prey ex -ploited. Fol low ing Munro (2003) a small game in -dex was cal cu lated to gauge the rel a tive re li anceon dif fer ent types of small game pre sum ably usedpri mar ily as a food re source (tor toise, hare, andpar tridge, ex clud ing ro dents and rap tors). The in -dex, cal cu lated us ing S slow small game (tor -toise)/ S slow small game (tor toise) + S fastsmall game (hare and par tridge), mea sures the re -

li ance on slow prey (land tor toise) with low cap -ture costs ver sus fast prey (birds and hares) withhigher cap ture costs, and thus pre sum ably lowernet en er getic gains rel a tive to ex pen di tures. There sults in di cate that the re li ance on slow prey (tor -toise) is great est in the Late Natufian (0.69) with a sim i lar, but slightly lower re li ance on them in theGeo met ric Kebaran (0.63), and an even lower useof slow game in the Early Natufian (0.58). Thesere sults par al lel the find ings of Munro (2003), who demontrates a sim i lar trend to wards a greater useof slow, small prey (tor toise) in Late Natufian oc -cu pa tions in the Med i ter ra nean core, com pared tothe Early Natufian, when tor toise con sump tionde clined sig nif i cantly from ear lier pe ri ods. Thedif fer ence be tween the Early and Late Natufian in the Wadi Mataha 2 as sem blage, how ever, is not as great and the Early Natufian in dex (0.58) is higher than any as sem blage re ported by Munro, sugge-sting changes in small game use were less dra-matic in the Petra Ba sin.

To in ves ti gate trends in large game ex ploi ta -tion through time, the rel a tive rep re sen ta tion ofun gu late spe cies was cal cu lated for each tem po ral com po nent. The re sults show that equids areslightly more abun dant in the ear lier pe ri ods (G.Kebaran and E. Natufian), while Bos in creases


Fig. 10. Rel a tive con tri bu tion of dif fer ent an i mal types by tem po ral com po nent

some what in the Late Natufian pe riod, al thoughthe num bers are few for both of these taxa in allpe ri ods. The great est dif fer ence in un gu late ra tiosis in the pro por tion of ga zelle to caprines. Ga -zelles and caprines are nearly equally rep re sentedin the Geo met ric Kebaran pe riod (46 to 49 per -cent re spec tively), but caprines in crease in thetwo Natufian phases to over 60 per cent while ga -zelles drop to around 30 per cent (Ta ble 4).

In terms of over all spe cies rich ness, the LateNatufian com po nent had the great est num ber ofspe cies rep re sented (26), fol lowed by the EarlyNatufian (16), and Geo met ric Kebaran (14), sug -gest ing an in crease in spe cies rich ness, per hapsre lated to re source in ten si fi ca tion through time.Most of the spe cies unique to the Late Natufiancom po nent, how ever, are from var i ous spe cies ofrap tors, which are not con sid ered taxa ex ploitedfor food, but rather ex ploited for their tal ons us -able as tools and or na ments. When ex clud ingthese spe cies and car ni vores (prob a bly not hunted for food ei ther) the rich ness of each com po nent isrel a tively even with twelve spe cies rep re sented inthe Late Natufian, and eleven each in the EarlyNatufian and Geo met ric Kebaran com po nents.The num ber of taxa from each com po nent, then,does not ap pear to clearly in di cate an ex pan sionof diet breath or re source in ten si fi ca tion throughtime.

The in crease in ungulates and harder-to-cap -ture hares and par tridges dur ing the EarlyNatufian com bined with a de cline in high-rankedbut slow-mov ing small game sug gests a de gree ofre source de pres sion in the vi cin ity of the site. Re -source de pres sion is a func tion of a cen tral placefor ag ing strat egy of ten re sult ing in high-rankedprey be ing hunted out in the ar eas around a moreper ma nently oc cu pied res i den tial base (var i ous,but see Broughton, 1999). As a con se quence ofre source de pres sion, hunt ers strike out on longdis tance for ays dur ing which they tar get high-ranked prey such as ungulates. This pat tern is well doc u mented in the Amer i can South west dur ingthe move to more sed en tary farm ing so ci et ies(Speth and Scott, 1989; Diehl and Wa ters, 2006).Here large to small game ra tios de cline be tween1200 BC and AD 150 when a mixed for ag ing andfarm ing strat egy was prac ticed. Those same ra tios in creased af ter AD 150 as so ci et ies in ten si fied ag -ri cul tural pur suits and in creased lo gis ti cal mo bil -

ity to cap ture pro tein. The emer gence of this pat -tern at Wadi Mataha 2 as well as else where in theMed i ter ra nean zone sug gests ad just ments to bothcli mate and de mo graphic changes

Taken to gether, the re sults of the fau nal anal -y sis from Wadi Mataha’s three tem po ral com po -nents sug gest four gen eral trends in an i mal ex -ploi ta tion through time:

1. Diet breadth re mained rel a tively sta blebased on the fau nal data alone.

2. Use of small, but high-ranked game de -clined in the Early Natufian rel a tive to ear lier andlater times.

3. More fre quent ex ploi ta tion of large game(ungulates) and small, but low-ranked game in the Early Natufian com pared to the Late Natufian.

4. Use of caprines rel a tive to ga zelles in -creased through time.

5. Set tle ment shifts from an early ra di at ing(cen tral place, low res i den tial, high lo gis ti cal mo -bil ity), in ten sive for ag ing strat egy to a later cir cu -lat ing (high res i den tial, low lo gis ti cal mo bil ity),ex ten sive for ag ing strat egy.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMESAND THE WORST OF TIMES

The pic ture that is be gin ning to emerge fromthe mul ti ple lines of ev i dence dis cussed herepoint to an ap par ent con tra dic tion in our un der -stand ing of paleoclimate and hu man ad ap ta tionsin the Late Natufian of Wadi Mataha 2. On theone hand there is bo tan i cal ev i dence from bothstarch grains and pol len sug gest ing con di tions inthe Late Natufian con tin ued to be moist and thatthe im me di ate vi cin ity of the site would have sup -ported a di ver sity of plants in clud ing ce re als. Inad di tion, the fau nal data re flect some sta bil ity indiet breadth from the Early to Late Natufian, al -though some shifts (de crease in caprines, for ex -am ple) mark changes in sub sis tence rel a tive to the Early Natufian. Low-ranked small game slightlyin crease (by four per cent) in the Late Natufianfrom the Early Natufian pri mar ily due to an in -creased use of par tridge as a food re source. How -ever, high-ranked small game, such as tor toises, is more abun dant in the Late Natufian, per haps sug -gest ing for ag ing was more ex ten sive than in ten -sive. Tor toises tend to be over ex ploited rel a tively quickly in ar eas of in ten sive for ag ing, such as oc -


curs dur ing pe ri ods of de creased res i den tial mo -bil ity. In con trast to cli ma tic mod els, the fau naldata sug gest fa vour able cli ma tic con di tions asspe cies pre fer ring more me sic con di tions, such asaurochs and ga zelle in crease slightly in the LateNatufian from the Early Natufian pe riod, and themore Med i ter ra nean-dwell ing mar bled pole catand mole rat ap pear ex clu sively in this level.

How ever, there are mul ti ple lines of ev i dence that oc cu pants of Wadi Mataha shifted their useof the site rel a tive to the Early Natufian some timebe tween 11,600 and 11,200 rcybp. The por tion ofthe site oc cu pied is re duced, a pat tern con sis tentwith in creased res i den tial mo bil ity at this time(var i ous, but see Bar-Yosef, 2001; Grosman,2003; Munro, 2003). The in creased fre quency ofground stone tools points to the im por tance of low ranked ce re als, and the iden ti fi ca tion of ce realstarch grains on these tools con firm the as so ci a -tion be tween ground stone tools and ce real ex -ploi ta tion. The em pha sis on flakes with a sharpcut ting edge in the lithic as sem blage along withpre lim i nary use wear ev i dence con sis tent with the use of these tools for har vest ing plants of fers fur -ther sup port to the iden ti fi ca tion of ce real ex ploi -ta tion as a ma jor ac tiv ity in Late Natufian at WadiMataha 2.

Un for tu nately, we have no in for ma tion fromWadi Mataha 2 re gard ing the im por tance of ce re -als in the Early Natufian, and di rect ev i dence force real use is sparse in much of the Natufian re gion (Bar-Yosef and Meadow, 1995; Bar-Yosef, 2001; how ever, see Garrard, 1999 a re view of plant re -mains at Abu Hureyra and Mureybet, and Hill man et al., 2001 for ev i dence of early cul ti va tionthere). The changes in the Late Natufian mostlikely cor re spond to the cli ma tic shift to theYoun ger Dryas, a cli ma tic ep i sode known forcolder and drier con di tions be gin ning at about11,000 rcybp or slightly later (Bar-Yosef, 2001;Munro, 2003, 2004; Haynes, 2007), al thoughHill man et al. (2001:387) pres ent data from AbuHureyra that sug gests the on set of arid ity on theUp per Eu phra tes oc curred slightly ear lier than11,000 rcybp, and such may have been the case inthe south ern Lev ant as well (see Moore and Hill-man, 1992:489).

Taken to gether the ev i dence sug gests in -creased res i den tial mo bil ity char ac ter ized theLate Natufian oc cu pa tion at Wadi Mataha 2. This

change, which in volved shifts in both set tle mentand sub sis tence strat e gies, was a re sponse to theon set of in creased re gional cli ma tic stress. Thesechanges oc curred in spite of ap par ent rel a tive cli -ma tic sta bil ity in the close vi cin ity of the site, sug -gest ing the se ver ity of the im pact of the Youn gerDryas was great on the re gion as a whole re gard -less of lo cal con di tions (Rob in son et al., 2006).The ev i dence from Wadi Mataha 2 pro vides a de -tailed re cord of such en vi ron men tal im pacts evenfor peo ple liv ing in niches that did not ex pe ri encecat a strophic change in pre cip i ta tion or lo cal avail -abil ity of plant re sources.

One pos si ble ex pla na tion for the ap par entcon tra dic tion be tween in di ca tions of strat egyshifts and ap par ent stress de spite lo cal cli ma ticsta bil ity may be so cial. There is con sid er able ev i -dence for a wide spread so cial net work dur ing theNatufian. The trade in shell beads from the Med i -ter ra nean and the Red Sea tracks an in ten sive net -work of so cial in ter ac tion. There fore it is pos si blethat scale of ad ap ta tion was not to the lo cal izedset ting of a par tic u lar site but rather to the re gionas a whole. If this is the case, then the stress would be sys temic to the net work as a whole and wouldbe ap par ent even in ar eas of rel a tive cli ma tic sta -bil ity.

SUM MARY

The data from Wadi Mataha pro vides sup port for shifts in Natufian set tle ment and sub sis tenceseen broadly across the re gion. Spe cif i cally, theEarly Natufian oc cu pa tion here ap pears more sed -en tary with in vest ment in ter rac ing walls or res i -den tial fa cil i ties sug gest ing the site func tioned asa res i den tial base. Diet is fo cused on high-rankedga zelles and caprines sup ple mented with somesmall taxa such as hares and par tridge. As notedabove, the fau nal data re flect a greater em pha sison larger game and lower ranked small game inthe Early Natufian when com pared to the sub se -quent pe riod sug gest ing a cen tral place for ag ingstrat egy. There is min i mal ev i dence of plant use in the Early Natufian oc cu pa tion with the ex cep tionof a sin gle frag ment of a finely crafted groundstone bowl or mor tar.

The Late Natufian oc cu pa tion at WadiMataha 2, dated to the on set of this pe riod (Valla,1995; Grossman, 2003; Bar-Yosef, 2001), is more


re stricted in area than the Early Natufian, and ar -chi tec tural fea tures are ab sent here. These char ac -ter is tics are con sis tent with Late Natufian oc cu pa -tions else where (var i ous, but see Grossman, 2003; Kuijt, 2004; Nadel et al., 2008; Eitam, 2008), al -though house huts marked by boul ders and ter rac -ing walls are pres ent at a num ber of sites (seeMunro, 2003:58 for a sum mary). In vest ment inmod est site fa cil i ties, such as the bed rock mor tarsand cupmarks seen at Wadi Mataha 2, are like -wise com monly as so ci ated with Late Natufian(e.g.,Gor ing-Mor ris, 1997; see Nadel et al., 2008and Eitam, 2008 for ex ten sive dis cus sions ofthese in stal la tions). The bed rock mor tars, alongwith the sev eral heavy sand stone pes tles, and per -haps the roast ing area, are in di rect ev i dences forpro cess ing plant foods, while starch grains are di -rect ev i dence for ce real ex ploi ta tion. Eitam(2008), for ex am ple, makes a con vinc ing ar gu -ment that bed rock mor tars were used for pro cess -ing bar ley, a con clu sion re in forced by the starchev i dence from the pes tles Wadi Mataha 2 (seeabove). In vest ment in such fea tures could sug gest Late Natufian for ag ers in tended re turn vis its toWadi Mataha as part of a more cir cu lat ing pat tern. Al though the num ber of fau nal spe cies rep re -sented in this pe riod is greater than the EarlyNatufian, diet breadth is prob a bly not greateronce non-food items are re moved. The in crease in tor toises is a com mon fea ture of the Late Natufian (Munro, 2001, 2003) and sug gests an in crease insite catch ment con sis tent with a more ex ten sivefor ag ing strat egy.

The above site char ac ter is tics are typ i cal ofLate Natufian sites else where and have led mostto con clude that res i den tial mo bil ity in creased inthis pe riod while pop u la tion den sity de creased(Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Co hen, 1991; Bar-Yosef,2001; Grossman, 2003; Munro, 2003). It isthought that the more arid cli mate of the Youn gerDryas had a neg a tive im pact on ce real grasses inthe Med i ter ra nean zone gen er ally (var i ous, butsee Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Co hen, 2002; Bar-Yosef and Meadow, 1995; Munro, 2003); how -ever, it ap pears dif fi cult to ar gue for en vi ron men -tal stress based on the ar chae ol ogy of WadiMataha 2 since diet breadth (based on fau nal data) does not ap pear to in crease. In fact, based onsmall game taxa alone Munro (2003:63) has ar -gued that “for ag ing in ten sity de creased” dur ing

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