A. Nigel Goring-Morris

Neolithization Processes in the Levant

The Near East is one of those unique places where the transition(s) from hunter-gatherers to farmers occurred locally, so it is possible to observe the whole sequence of these processes within the region as a whole. We discuss the archaeological evidence pertaining to those transformations within the Levant, presenting the particularistic local changes in settlement patterns and the character of the different communities juxtaposed with the landscapes and environmental background. The asynchronous developments clearly reflect the mosaic nature of the Levant in terms of specific local environmental conditions that influenced the scope and pace of Neolithization processes.

Becoming Farmers:: The Inside Story

Neolithization processes in the Levant differed from those in Europe. A major population growth was already occurring in the former at the onset of the Late Glacial Maximum. Population growth was not linear but rather reflected local circumstances, both external and internal. In addition to changing environmental conditions, the social implications of growth in community sizes within specific areas should be taken into account. The solutions and mechanisms that people devised during the transition to agriculture in order to counter the stresses stemming from those developments pertain to the tempo and scope of the changes as well as to endemic traditions.

For the First Time

The following comments relate to various aspects raised inthe short papers presented at the “State University of NewYork Conversation in the Discipline: The Origins of Agri-culture,” convened by M. N. Cohen in late 2007. As Cohen(2009, 591, in this issue) notes in his introduction, the con-versation focused on issues of “ancient health, paleopathology,paleonutrition, paleodemography, evolutionary theory, ge-netics, political prehistory, social organization, climatology,human behavioral ecology, archaeobotany, and Neolithic de-mographic transition theory.” Cohen (p. 594) concludes that“post-Pleistocene parallel movements toward agriculture rep-resent an imbalance of resources and demand, or (population)pressure, in the wider sense discussed.” This said, it seemsthat most of the papers approached the issue in general uni-versal terms, with little if any cross-reference to primary data,leading to a paradigmatic bias. This contrasts with the needfor “a contextualized and detailed exploration withinaspecificcultural, temporal, and geographical case study” (Kuijt 2009,642, in this issue). Indeed, we concur that the variability ofspecific paths to the “agricultural transition,” whether in pri-mary or in secondary centers, should be stressed. With regardto paleodemography, most papers here reflect the sentimentthat “until relatively recently, most good data on the effect ofthe transition to agriculture came from North American sites,and little was known about the consequences of the transitionfor much of Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America” (Gageand DeWitte 2009, 653, in this issue). At the same time it isinteresting that Gage and DeWitte (p. 654) state, “We do wantto point out that this scenario is based on assumptions thatare all questionable (at best).”Our personal approach relates mostly to primary archae-ological data, and, accordingly, the following discoursefocuseson the Near East, the area with which we are familiar. Thisrestricted but variable region is one of the primary (and per-haps the earliest) locales of agricultural origins. Here, theinitiation of a trajectory toward agriculture can be traced backto the earlier Epipaleolithic (ca. 22,000 cal. BP), some 12,000years before the emergence of definable domestication basedon morphological and genetic changes (e.g., Bar-Yosef 2001;Goring-Morris and Belfer-Cohen 1997; Weiss et al. 2008).Furthermore, a wide range of new and provocative data isemerging from the region. Indeed, evidence from Cyprus iscrucial in illustrating the complexity of human-plant-animalinteractions. Located just a short distance from the northernLevant, the island was systematically colonized in a directedmanner (“Go west, young man”) from at least the PrepotteryNeolithic A (PPNA; ca. 11,500–10,500 cal. BP), if not earlier.Colonists brought wild plant and animal species from themainland in sufficient quantities to thrive and form viableherds over the long term. This preceded the appearance offully fledged agricultural practices (with morphological do-mestication) observed both on the mainland and in Cyprusduring the Prepottery Neolithic B (PPNB), ca. 10,500–9/8,500cal. BP (e.g., Peltenburg and Wasse 2004; Vigne 2008; Vigneand Guilaine 2004). Moreover, some of the introduced specieswere never to be domesticated (e.g.,

Provisioning the Ritual Neolithic Site of Kfar HaHoresh, Israel at the Dawn of Animal Management

It is widely agreed that a pivotal shift from wild animal hunting to herd animal management, at least of goats, began in the southern Levant by the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (10,000–9,500 cal. BP) when evidence of ritual activities flourished in the region. As our knowledge of this critical change grows, sites that represent different functions and multiple time periods are needed to refine the timing, pace and character of changing human-animal relationships within the geographically variable southern Levant. In particular, we investigate how a ritual site was provisioned with animals at the time when herd management first began in the region. We utilize fauna from the 2010–2012 excavations at the mortuary site of Kfar HaHoresh—the longest continuous Pre-Pottery Neolithic B faunal sequence in the south Levantine Mediterranean Hills (Early–Late periods, 10,600–8,700 cal. BP). We investigate the trade-off between wild and domestic progenitor taxa and classic demographic indicators of management to detect changes in hunted animal selection and control over herd animal movement and reproduction. We find that ungulate selection at Kfar HaHoresh differs from neighboring sites, although changes in dietary breadth, herd demographics and body-size data fit the regional pattern of emerging management. Notably, wild ungulates including aurochs and gazelle are preferentially selected to provision Kfar HaHoresh in the PPNB, despite evidence that goat management was underway in the Mediterranean Hills. The preference for wild animals at this important site likely reflects their symbolic significance in ritual and mortuary practice.

Local adoption of animal husbandry in the southern Levant: An isotopic perspective from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B funerary site of Kfar HaHoresh

Animal husbandry emerged as an important subsistence strategy at various tempos and trajectories across the southern Levant during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (ca. 8500–6500 cal bc). Here, we explore temporal variation in the emergence of animal management strategies, in particular those that alter the composition of the animal diet, west of the Jordan Valley, through carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic analyses of mountain gazelle, bezoar goat and aurochsen bone collagen from the funerary complex of Kfar HaHoresh. Analyses presented here show an extended range of carbon isotope values in the collagens of Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) goats relative to Middle PPNB goats, which are also enriched in 13C relative to contemporaneous gazelle. This shift may reflect a greater catchment from which morphologically wild goats derived or that some of the goats at Kfar HaHoresh were provided with some fodder. If the latter is the case, then the use of fodder by 7500 cal bc at Kfar HaHoresh is a relatively late development, emerging several hundred years after goat husbandry strategies emphasising a juvenile harvest and fodder provisioning that first came into use in the Mediterranean region of the southern Levant. There is a pronounced enrichment of nitrogen isotopes in Early PPNB aurochsen, ritually important animals derived from a unique feasting deposit, relative to that of gazelle and goats. Though this may reflect more specialised feeding behaviour in aurochsen compared to the other two bovid groups, an alternative interpretation is that the aurochsen ingested enriched 15N from manured pasture, following restriction of their movement by people. These isotopic data support the documented pattern of a delayed adoption of goat husbandry in the lower Galilee region and may point to differential developmental trajectories where some forms of animal management emerged out of ritual rather than subsistence needs.

Houses and Households: a Near Eastern Perspective

Neolithisation processes in the Levant were a unique phenomenon in comparison to other regions of the world. Such processes were of long duree and are reflected in numerous aspects of the human condition, including social and economic developments. These also comprised changes in the scale and nature of the physical surroundings as reflected in the architectural endeavours and traditions of late Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic groups. Such changes reflected the demands and constraints of the newly evolving modes of existence, namely increasing sedentism, demographic growth, plant cultivation, proto-agriculture and incipient herding. Differences are observed in the tempo, scale and direction of the aforementioned changes; these indicate independent trajectories of local traditions, stemming from the particular histories of various groups within the sub-regions of the Levant.

Aurochs bone deposits at Kfar HaHoresh and the southern Levant across the agricultural transition

Abstract Aurochs played a prominent role in mortuary and feasting practices during the Neolithic transition in south-west Asia, although evidence of these practices is diverse and regionally varied. This article considers a new concentration of aurochs bones from the southern Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Kfar HaHoresh, situating it in a regional context through a survey of aurochs remains from other sites. Analysis shows a change in the regional pattern once animal domestication began from an emphasis on feasting to small-scale practices. These results reveal a widely shared practice of symbolic cattle use that persisted over a long period, but shifted with the beginning of animal management across the region.