This project applies a high-resolution zooarchaeological approach to reconstruct the economic, social and ritual foundations of the forager-producer transition at the Terminal Pleistocene site of Nahal Ein Gev II in the Jordan Valley (Israel). Dr. Natalie Munro from the University of Connecticut will undertake zooarchaeological research in connection with the excavation of Nahal Ein Gev II, Israel by co-directors Prof. Ofer Bar-Yosef of Harvard University and Dr. Leore Grosman and Prof. Anna Belfer-Cohen of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Nahal Ein Gev II is a large Late Natufian village site occupied ca. 12,500-11,000 cal. BP and located about 2 km from the Sea of Galilee. The site's unusual temporal position at the very end of the Pleistocene, its geographic location in the productive Jordan Valley where farming communities first emerge in the region, and the large size and permanence of the village provide an ideal setting to investigate the interaction of human economy, community organization and ritual activity in the early stages of the unprecedented forager-producer transition.
Social theoretical approaches to agricultural origins increasingly diverge from economic explanations. Nevertheless, research increasingly shows that social, ritual and economic change are closely integrated across this long transition. Instead of searching for which came first, economic or social change, this research seeks to reconstruct and then integrate ecological, social and ritual conditions using the zooarchaeological record. The research focuses on six interrelated themes: environmental reconstruction, human foraging strategies, the meat diet, intra-community organization and the use of space, trash disposal practices, and ritual practice. Carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of gazelle tooth enamel carbonates will provide the environmental background to the site, while strontium isotopes taken from the same teeth will refine data on human hunting strategies, herd mobility and site seasonality. A detailed reconstruction of Terminal Pleistocene socioeconomics provides an essential foundation for understanding the rise of agricultural communities that followed.
This project aims to foster international collaboration through research exchanges involving faculty and students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and the University of Connecticut in the United States. Exchanges are designed to deepen long-standing research collaborations between Munro and the Israeli project directors and extend these to the next generation of American and Israeli scholars. The research will provide hands on zooarchaeological training for both Israeli and American students who will engage in comprehensive zooarchaeological analysis.
The transition from foraging to agricultural communities marks one of, if not the foremost transformation in human history. The impact of this change was felt in all dimensions of human life. This research seeks to document the basal conditions and the societal transformations that comprise this irreversible change at one well-positioned settlement in the Jordan Valley.
