AG 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Tell Abu Hureyra, Natufian Culture, Niche Construction
10 Jun 2020
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Document Summary
Based on systematic decay of unstable isotopes of common chemical elements into more stable isotopes. Mobile and semi-sedentary populations exploiting many wild plants, animals, and fish. Ohalo (23,000 bp): settlement with 6 brush huts. 140+ species of plants (including weeds usually associated. Natufian (15-12 kya) with cultivation), 77 bird and 8 fish species. Example: abu hureyra (13-9 kya): greater settlement density. Oven + flatbread dating to 14, 400 bp: bread encourages cultivation shift to agriculture. Earliest evidence: dates to 13,700 bp and associated with natufian funerary rituals commemorating the dead. Natufians" production relied on species from seven different plant families including wheat, oats, barley, legumes. The evidence suggests that the natufians brewed their beer in three stages. First, they would have turned the starch from wheat or barley into malt by germinating the grains in water to be drained, dried and stored. The malt would then have been mashed and heated, before being left to ferment with airborne wild yeast.
