COMMENTARY Stone age bedding by the Sea of Galilee Frank Hole* Department of Anthropology, Box 8277, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8277 vidence by Nadel et al. (1), in a the Jordan River (see figure 5.90 of ref. recent issue of PNAS, of the 3 and figure 15 of ref. 4). world’s oldest bedding at the Another remarkable factor is that, site of Ohalo II on the edge of according to the radiocarbon dates, the Ethe Sea of Galilee is an example of the site was occupied during the Last Gla- serendipitous nature of archaeological cial Maximum (LGM), when climate discovery. During the 1980s and 1990s, indicators such as pollen and isotopic drought and pumping of water for do- composition of speleothems, as well as a mestic and agricultural needs resulted in greatly lowered permanent snow line, a serious drop of water level. The falling indicate that the Near East was cold and water level exposed 2,000-year-old boats arid (5, 6). Botanists have inferred that and the archaeological site Ohalo II, many plant species, including trees, were dated to 23,000 years ago (Fig. 1). vacant from much of the landscape and The site is noteworthy for three rea- were present only in small refugia where sons. First, it has preserved a wide water resources and enhanced solar range of plant material and organic warming due to topography and aspect traces of huts or shelters in which peo- created favorable conditions. Under ple lived. Second, the site was occupied these late glacial conditions, human toward the end of what must have been populations and the game on which they one of the most severe climatic episodes subsisted were restricted to the most in human history. Finally, direct evi- favorable locales. dence of bedding and, consequently, of Ohalo was in an environment with the layout of the domestic space was abundant terrestrial and aquatic re- recovered. Before the Neolithic period sources in a broader landscape that was (after 11,000 years ago), there is little relatively impoverished. Plant remains direct evidence of the human use of indicate spring and fall harvest, and plant resources, and information about birds, both migratory and local, as well adaptations and ways of life depend as fish, could be harvested in all sea- Fig. 1. Satellite image of the Eastern Mediterra- largely on stone artifacts and faunal re- sons. There seems little reason to doubt nean showing the Jordan Valley and the site of mains found in archaeological sites. that year-round use of the site would Ohalo II (false color Landsat Thematic Mapper Nadel et al. (1) mention the rare earlier have been possible (2). Nevertheless, it image). occurrences of normally perishable is hard to reconcile the apparent abun- material and thereby highlight the ex- dance of food resources with the appar- traordinary circumstances of the Ohalo ent very short-term occupation of the flection of a much broader flora. Al- discovery where rapid burial by a layer huts (7). though the Levant today is a biological of sand and water sealed the site from One of the major questions about the hot spot, some botanists maintain that disturbance. The burial must have been late Pleistocene and early Holocene in its floral diversity and, especially, the essentially instantaneous because wave the Levant is the climate and the re- proliferation of annual species are asso- action, exposure to wind and rain, and sources that could be used by humans. ciated with the Mediterranean climate so on would have dispersed and de- that features strong seasonal contrasts graded the plant material and outlines with mild wet winters and hot dry sum- of the huts. Chance good luck preserved Ohalo II provides the mers (8). Did such conditions exist at a unique site, raising the question of the end of the LGM? There is no indi- how many more such sites lie submerged oldest and best attested cation that they did across the region, around the lake. although relict stands may have per- The Sea of Galilee itself was newly evidence for preparing a sisted in favorable locales. Cores taken formed when Ohalo was settled and from the Sea of Galilee might inform on probably attracted many bands of hunt- living surface off the the local climate from the formation of ers and fishers. Throughout the Pleisto- the basin through the recent period and cene, the Levantine Rift, a structural ground itself. thereby add valuable evidence to the depression extending from the Red Sea few cores already known from other to the mountains of Southern Anatolia, lake basins. It should be noted, however, saw essentially continuous human occu- It is unusual to be able to acquire good that soil samples from the site did not pation. The central part of this rift is paleoclimate and environmental infor- yield pollen (ref. 9, p. 16). the Dead Sea Valley, in which, during mation from the specific locale in which The article by Nadel et al. (1) focuses the final glacial period, Lake Lisan archaeological sites occur. Again, Ohalo on the use of plant material for bedding. stretched from south of the Dead Sea is an exception. The site has given an northward to the Sea of Galilee. Tec- excellent picture of the surrounding veg- tonic activity at the end of the last gla- etation, which, as Nadel et al. (1) note, See companion article on page 6821 in issue 17 of volume cial period created the Sea of Galilee is similar to that of today. What we do 101. (2) as well as the deep northern Dead not know, however, is whether this was *E-mail: [email protected]. Sea basin and left the two separated by a unique environmental niche or a re- © 2004 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0402102101 PNAS ͉ May 11, 2004 ͉ vol. 101 ͉ no. 19 ͉ 7207–7208 Downloaded by guest on September 27, 2021 Clearly, this is the oldest and best at- evidence that people preferred clean tions for the eventual adoption of agri- tested evidence for preparing a living bedding. culture. It is interesting that people at surface off the ground itself. It is not, The presence of wild wheat and bar- Ohalo possessed neither sickles for reap- however, particularly surprising when we ley, the latter in considerable abun- ing grain nor stones to grind or pound consider that all people known today dance, raises the question why it took it, both seemingly necessary for the effi- prefer to place even a thin mat between another 10,000 years for people to cient harvest and utilization of grain as themselves and the ground, and that develop agriculture. After the LGM, a staple. However, we must note that mammals, birds, and even fish prepare climate ameliorated and vegetation re- one reason the barley was preserved is ‘‘beds.’’ The most important thing, then, sponded. People followed the resources that it was charred. A modern, tradi- is not the fact that humans had devel- and were soon living in stone-founded tional practice is to harvest grain before oped new insights into comfort and the communities apparently continuing to it is fully ripe and to roast it in an open organization of dwelling space but that a harvest and process wild cereals. Abun- fire. The product, known in the region previously invisible but suspected part of dance of these resources may have as frikkeh, can then be pounded to groats. The advantage of this method is human adaptation was firmly in place, inhibited any interest in pursuing delib- that wild grain, which because of its namely the harvesting of what appears erate planting until the climatic reversal seed dispersal mechanism is hard to to have been an eclectic assortment of known as the Younger Dryas, after harvest when ripe, can be collected, plants. which cultivation of crops can be de- processed, and stored for future use. Studies of use-wear, the analysis of tected. Coincident with a greatly im- Moreover, the use of nearly ripe grain microscopic traces of wear on flint tools, proved climate in the early Holocene, provides a highly nutritious source of have previously suggested that later there was a rise in CO2 that some glucose at the end of a long, lean winter Natufian people were harvesting grasses botanists think was the fertilizer that season when fresh plant food would not at ground level with flint sickles (10, stimulated the growth of the economic be available. 11). The presence of Puccinellia stems in annuals and provided the solid subsis- Sites like Ohalo remind us of how the bedding that had apparently been tence base of agriculture (12, 13). How- much we miss in normal sites that have cut similarly suggests a much earlier use ever that scenario works out, it was the been exposed to the atmosphere and of this harvesting method when one early adaptation to plant foods as exem- bioturbation. At the same time, they might have supposed that mere uproot- plified at Ohalo that began to establish raise new questions and suggest new ing would have sufficed. Perhaps this is the social and technological precondi- avenues of exploration. 1. Nadel, D., Weiss, E., Simchoni, O., Tsatskin, A., Prehistory, BAR International Series, eds. Bintliff, 10. Unger-Hamilton, R. (1991) in The Natufian Cul- Danin, A. & Kislev, M. (2004) Proc. Natl. Acad. J. L. & van Zeist, W. (British Archaeological ture in the Levant, eds. Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F. R. Sci. USA 101, 6821–6826. Reports, Oxford), Vol. 133, pp. 277–321. (International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann 2.