Dissertation Research: Small Game Use and Human Economic and Demographic Change at the Transition to Agriculture in the Levant

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Under the direction of Dr. Mary Stiner, MS Natalie Munro will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The goal of her project is to understand the processes which led to the domestication of plants and animals in the Near East and to this end she will analyze small faunal remains recovered during the excavation of three archaeological sites. All are attributable to the Natufian culture (ca. 13,000 to 10,000 years ago). This is the time period which immediately preceded the appearance of agriculture and pastoralism in the region. The Natufians were the last people to subsist on hunted and gathered foods and many archaeologists believe that a detailed understanding of their subsistence practices will shed light on the major revolution which followed. Previous analyses by Stiner and Munro on Natufian material from the site of Hayonim cave has indicated a surprisingly heavy reliance on small animals, especially birds and hares, species which are difficult to hunt, which reproduce rapidly and therefore can withstand heavy predation pressure. This finding is unusual because Natufian peoples are generally viewed as subsistence specialists who depended heavily on gazelle for food. Munro postulates that the Natufian shift to small and less desirable small animals likely reflects pressure on and depletion of food resources, likely the result of human population increase. Were such the case, it would bolster "push" arguments which postulate that human societies where pushed to utilize a broad range of resources and develop effective techniques to obtain low ranked foods. Such a strategy would logically lead in the direction of domestication.MS Munro will analyze the remaining Natufian fauna from Hayonim Cave as well as from two other Natufian sites to determine whether the preliminary pattern is in fact correct. She will examine bones to ascertain which result from human activity and the extent to which the sample is biased by natural post depositional destruction. She will reconstruct butchering patterns and species specific mortality profiles. With the incorporation of published biological data she will be able to determine how humans utilized and relied on these species and how in turn these populations were affected. This project will not only contribute to understanding the "Neolithic Revolution" but also assist in training a promising young scientist.