Northern Natufian at the Dederiyeh Cave - Yoshihiro Nishiaki - Yousef Kanjou

Описание: Northern Natufian at the Dederiyeh Cave, Northwest Syria
by Prof. Yoshihiro Nishiaki (University of Tokyo) and Dr. Yousef
Kanjou (University of Tübingen & Former Director of National Aleppo
Museum, DGAM, Syria)

Wednesday, 31st August 2022
13.00 CET (Rome, Paris, Berlin / GMT+2)
14.00 (Jerusalem, Athens / GMT+3)
07.00 (New York / GMT-4)

Abstract
The Natufian is one of the best-known cultural entities of the
Levantine Epipalaeolithic. Situated at the terminal Pleistocene, ca.
15,000 to 11,500 BCE, as well as its archaeological records showing a
(semi-) sedentary hunting-gathering way of life, it is generally
recognized as representing a prelude to the Neolithic food-production
socio-economy that appeared in the early Holocene. According to the
traditional view, the Natufian first emerged in the Southern Levant
and then expanded to the north in its late phase. However, the
discovery of the early Natufian in the Dederiyeh Cave in Northwest
Syria, located at the northern end of the Levant, has urged a review
of this interpretation. This talk presents a summary of the findings
from the excavations conducted between 1989 and 2010 at the Dederiyeh
Cave to characterize the Natufian phenomenon in the northern Levant,
which have been found to be not always the same as the Natufian to the
south. Although there are many unsolved problems, the case at the
Dederiyeh Cave, whether referred to as the Northern Natufian or a
northern variant of the Natufian, will serve as a reference for
interpreting the contemporaneous cultural entities identified in the
neighboring regions even further to the north and east, like Anatolia
and Zagros, which are more or less comparable but not included in the
Natufian.

Organisers: Dr. Artemis Georgiou (University of Cyprus) and Dr. Ianir
Milevski (Israel Antiquities Authority)