THE IMPACTS OF THE YOUNGER DRYAS PERIOD ON PLANT AND ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF THE ANCIENT NATUFIAN CULTURE AND THE ECONOMY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY EGEMEN FERAH IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN SETTLEMENT ARCHAEOLOGY DECEMBER 2009 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Sencer AYATA Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Numan TUNA Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Assist. Prof. Dr. Evangelia PİŞKİN Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assist. Prof. Dr. Jan K. BERTRAM (METU, SA) Assist. Prof. Dr. Evangelia PİŞKİN (METU, SA) Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Selim ERDAL (HU, ANTH) ii I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : EGEMEN FERAH Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE IMPACTS OF THE YOUNGER DRYAS PERIOD ON PLANT AND ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF THE ANCIENT NATUFIAN CULTURE AND THE ECONOMY Ferah, Egemen M.S., Department of Settlement Archaeology Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Evangelia PİŞKİN December 2009, 237 pages This masters thesis investigates the environmental/climatic change that is thought to have brought about the economic shift and transition from Palaeolithic economic system of hunting gathering to Neolithic economic system of agriculture and domestication period around 11.000-10.000 years ago. This study uses the collected animal and plant data of the Natufian culture in the Levant region from the previous zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical literature anlyses. It shows a significant mathematical difference in the zooarchaeological assemblage measures between the Early and Late Natufian sites by calculating Economic value parameters of the Early and the Late Natufian sites, a comparison analysis was made in terms of percentage frequencies of animals site by site and between early-late periods. The result shows a significant animal food supply decrease and change-shift shown during the Younger Dryas climatic crisis times of the whole Late Natufian period sites total and early to late site by site individually, compared to whole Early Natufian period sites. It shows there is a possibility that some big-base camp Late Natufian occupation sites were better able to create coping mechanisms against food crisis/food shortage and more successfully than other Late Natufian sites during the iv climatic food crisis period. It shows supporting with the animal-plant data and changes in the human bones, burial practices, human teeth, diet changes and anthropological studies evidence, a big social-economic-cultural change and a huge food crisis was highly possible and humans highly possibly lived an economic crisis and an highly connected-related social-cultural crisis during the Younger Dryas in the Late Natufian times human societies. Keywords: Younger-Dryas, Epipalaeolithic, Levant, Natufian, zooarchaeology. v ÖZ GENÇ KURULUK DÖNEMİNİN ANTİK NATUFYAN KÜLTÜRÜNDEKİ BİTKİSEL VE HAYVANSAL BESİN KAYNAKLARINA OLAN ETKİSİ VE EKONOMİ Ferah, Egemen M.S. (Yükseklisans), Yerleşim Arkeolojisi Bölümü Tez danışmanı: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Evangelia PİŞKİN Aralık 2009, 237 sayfa Bu tez, günümüzden yaklaşık 11.000-10.000 yıl önce Paleolitik donem (Eski Taş Devri) avcı toplayıcı ekonomik sisteminden Neolitik dönem (Yeni Taş Devri) tarım ve hayvancılık ekonomik sistemine gecişe neden olduğu düşünülen çevresel ve iklimsel degişikliği incelemektedir. Bu çalışma daha önceki arkeozoolojik ve arkeobotanik çalışmalarda elde edilmiş Levantin bölgesindeki (kıyı ve karasal İsrail - batı Ürdün - Filistin - güney Lübnan ve güneybatı Suriye bölgesi) Natufyan kültürünün hayvan ve bitki bulgularını kullanmaktadır. Çalışma, erken ve geç dönem Natufyan yerleşimleri arasındaki Ekonomik değer ölçücülerinin hesaplanması ve hayvanların yüzde sıklığı yolları kullanılarak, farklı yerleşimler birbirleri arasında ve erken-geç dönemler toplamında bir karşılaştıma analizi arkeozoolojik ölçümlerde kayda değer matematiksel bir fark göstermektedir. Çalışmanın sonucu, geç Natufyan döneminin Genç Kuruluk iklimsel krizi dönemlerinde, erken-geç dönem yerleşimler kendi aralarında ve tüm erken-geç dönem toplamı karşılaştırıldığında hayvansal besin kaynağında kayda değer bir azalma ve değişim-geçiş göstermektedir. Sonuçlar, geç Natufyan'da büyük temel yerleşim yerlerinin besin krizi/besin kıtlığı durumlarına karşı diğer geç Natufyan dönemi yerleşimlerine göre kıyasla iklimsel besin krizi döneminde daha başarılı mücadele ve hayatta kalma yöntemleri geliştirmiş olma vi olasılığını göstermektedir. Çalışma, hayvan-bitki bulguları ve insan kemikleri, insan dişleri, yemek/yeme alışkanlıklarındaki değişimler ve antropolojik çalışmaların kanıtlarının da desteklemesiyle birlikte, geç Natufyan döneminin insan toplumlarının Genç Kuruluk iklimsel krizi dönemlerinde büyük bir sosyo-ekonomik-kültürel değişim ve büyük bir besin krizi ve bununla yüksek oranda ilişkili sosyokültürel bir krizi yaşadıklarını göstermektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Genç-Kuruluk, Epipaleolitik, Levantin, Natufyan, zooarkeoloji. vii To My Family… viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Evangelia Pişkin from our department for her guidance, advice, criticism, academic and technical - archaeozoological assistance, her great support and patience towards me, her encouragements and insight throughout my research and analysis, for her support, critism and help in my thesis writing, scientific research organization and my presentation techniques and skills, and for that she accepted me to work in the Anthropology (Bone) Laboratuary of the British Institute of Archaeology (BIA) that I learned so much things theoretically and practically about archaeozoological science and I had a useful experience in the archaezoological animal bone database, sorting and analysis. I would also like to thank head of our department Prof. Dr. Numan Tuna, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Burcu D. Erciyas, Assist. Prof. Dr. Jan Krzysztof Bertram (for their support, critism and help in my thesis writing, organization and my presentation techniques and skills) and Assist. Prof. Dr. Geoffrey D. Summers for their great support in the graduate (masters) conditional and the department must and elective courses and for their suggestions, support and comments in my thesis study. I would like to thank Prof. Dr.Yılmaz Selim Erdal from Hacettepe University Department of Anthropology for his guidance, advice, criticism, academic and technical - archaeozoological assistance, help and support in my thesis study methodology and my calculations, for his help, critism and support in my thesis writing, research organization techniques and skills, his great support and patience towards me, his encouragements and insight throughout my research and analysis, his suggestions, support and comments in my thesis study. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Münevver Tezer from the Department of Mathematics from the Middle East Technical University (M.E.T.U.) for her technical-academic-mathematical assistance, suggestions, support, comments, help and support in the formation and the control of my calculation methodology in my thesis study. I would also like to thank my family and my friends for their great support, suggestions and comments in my thesis study. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM............................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT............................................................................................................ .. iv ÖZ...............................................................................................................................vi DEDICATION.................................................................................................... .... viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................... .. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................................ .. .x LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION, AIMS OF RESEARCH AND RESEARCH BASIS OF THE THESIS................................................... .............................................. 1 1.1. Aims of the thesis…………………………………………………… .. 1 1.2. Introduction to Literature Review……………...…………………… .. 3 1.3. Past and Recent Theories of Agricultural Transition…..…………… .. 4 1.4. The Younger Dryas Theory……………………………….………… . 6 1.5. Methodology………………………………………………………… . 7 1.6. Limitations for Data Gathering…………..…………………………. .. 9 2. THE LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................... 10 2.1. An Introduction and the Pattern of the History of the Developments in the Agricultural Origins Research................................................... 10 2.2. The Pollen, Vegetation and other types