Natufian in the North: The Late Epipaleolithic cultural entity at Dederiyeh Cave, Northwest Syria - Persée

Paléorient, vol. 43.2, p. 7-24 © CNRS ÉDITIONS 2017 Manuscrit reçu le 15 février 2017, accepté le 9 juin 2017 Natufian in the North: The Late Epipaleolithic cultural entity at Dederiyeh Cave, Northwest Syria

Y. Nishiaki, M. Yoneda, Y. Kanjou and T. Akazawa

Introduction

The temporal and geographic variability of the Natufian cultural entity has been intensively studied, particularly with respect to the emergence and development of sedentism and food production, believed to have appeared among Late Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherer societies of the eastern Mediterranean (e. g., Bar-Yosef and Valla 1991 and 2013). The classic 1990s model holds that the Natufian originated from a homeland in the Southern Levant before it later expanded into neighboring regions, including the Northern Levant (Bar-Yosef 1998; Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen 1989; Belfer-Cohen 1991). This general interpretation was based on data available at the time, which indicated that numerous Natufian sites, including the oldest, were known from the Southern Levant, whereas just a few were known from the north of this area and dated to a period equivalent to the Late Natufian. The known northern sites, especially Abu Hureyra and Mureybet in the Middle Euphrates Valley (fig. 1), were considered unrelated to the emergence of the Natufian cultural entity because of their younger ages. Thus, it remained unclear whether, or not, the material evidence from those sites, which did not always match that found in the south, should be considered referable to the Natufian (Olszewski 1988; 1991 and 2000; Cauvin 1991; Moore 1991 and 2000; Boyd 2016).