The Eastern Mediterranean, located at the meeting between the Mediterranean vegetation
of the Eurasian continent and the desert vegetation of the Saharan-Arabian desert belt, is …

The Paleolithic record of the Levant encompasses several key changes in human
population dynamics and human biological and cultural evolution. These processes are …

This paper presents a Levantine model for the origins of cultivation of various wild plants as
motivated by the vagaries of the climatic fluctuation of the Younger Dryas within the context …

Reductions in hunter-gatherer mobility during the Late Pleistocene influenced settlement
ecologies, altered human relations with animal communities, and played a pivotal role in …

It has long been speculated that increasing demands for cereals for the purposes of brewing
beer led to domestication in the Near Eastern Natufian cultures. While the question of …

Flowering plants possess mechanisms that stimulate positive emotional and social
responses in humans. It is difficult to establish when people started to use flowers in public …

Measuring subsistence intensification in the archaeofaunal record has provided strong
evidence for socioeconomic shifts related to sedentarization in the terminal Pleistocene …

Abstract The open-air Epipalaeolithic (Geometric Kebaran) site of Neve David (Mount
Carmel, Israel) has played an important role in reconstructing scenarios of sedentarization in …

Ritual practice plays crucial social roles in human societies by communicating information
about social status, calming tensions, and integrating communities. Although communication …

Abstract The Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian (~ 14,600− 11,500 cal BP) is a key period in the
prehistory of southwest Asia. Often described as a complex hunting and gathering society …