What the significance of Natufian culture is?

The Natufian culture is a Late Epipaleolithic archaeological culture of the Levant, dating to around 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introduction of agriculture.

What is Natufian DNA?

A 2018 analysis of autosomal DNA using modern populations as a reference by Daniel Shriner in the journal Frontiers of Genetics found The Natufian sample to consist of 61.2% Arabian, 21.2% Northern African, 10.9% Western Asian, and 6.8% Omotic-related ancestry (related to the Omotic peoples of southern Ethiopia).

Who are the Natufian people?

The Natufian culture refers to most hunter-gatherers who lived in modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria approximately 11,500 to 15,000 years ago. They were among the first people to build permanent houses and cultivate edible plants.

What is the meaning of Natufian?

: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a food-gathering, cave-dwelling Mesolithic culture of ancient Palestine characterized by microliths, composite tools of microliths, small bare zoomorphic carvings in bone or stone, and the use of sickles suggesting some agriculture. Natufian. noun.

What are the features of Mesolithic culture?

The Mesolithic Age was a transitional phase between the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic Age. It has the characteristics of both the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic Age. The people of this age lived on hunting, fishing, and food gathering while at a later stage they also domesticated animals.

What do you understand by microliths?

Definition of microlith : a tiny blade tool especially of the Mesolithic usually in a geometric shape (such as that of a triangle) and often set in a bone or wooden haft.

Why is the Mesolithic Age is known as Microlithic age?

Mesolithic Age was a ancient cultural stage that existed between the Paleolithic Period with its chipped stone tools, and the Neolithic Period with its polished stone tools. It is also called Microlithic age as the tools used were chipped stone tools also known as microliths.

What was microliths used for?

A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The microliths were used in spear points and arrowheads.

Did Natufians grow their own food?

The Natufians just preceded the time span at which domesticated plants begin to appear in the archeological record, and the Yale archeologists believe they were the probable inventors of agriculture in the Near East.

What did the Natufians use for blades?

The Natufian had a microlithic industry centered on short blades and bladelets. The microburin technique was used. Geometric microliths include lunates, trapezes, and triangles. There are backed blades as well. A special type of retouch ( Helwan retouch) is characteristic for the early Natufian.

What was the sickle used for in ancient Egypt?

The characteristic sickle-gloss shows that they were used to cut the silica -rich stems of cereals, indirectly suggesting the existence of incipient agriculture. Shaft straighteners made of ground stone indicate the practice of archery.

What was unusual about the Natufian culture?

The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introduction of agriculture. The Natufian communities may be the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world.

What did the Epipaleolithic Natufians do?

Epipaleolithic Natufians carried parthenocarpic figs from Africa to the southeastern corner of the Fertile Crescent, c. 10,000 BC. There was a rich bone industry, including harpoons and fish hooks. Stone and bone were worked into pendants and other ornaments.