When environment meets culture in the arid margin of the Southern Levant

Abstract

Research in the arid margins of the Southern Levant has revealed a series of cultural entities related to and interacting with analogues in the more mesic Mediterranean zone. These terminal Pleistocene (Epipalaeolithic) and early Holocene (Pre-Pottery Neolithic) foraging entities display clearly local traits reflecting restricted networking and adaptations at times when environmental conditions deteriorated, and the connections with contemporaneous cultural entities farther afield weakened, combined with connections with the wider pan-regional cultural entities. By examining the specific example of the short-lived Late Epipalaeolithic Harifian culture we attempt to illustrate the manner in which local social behaviours in the landscapes of the arid margins may have contributed to maximizing and prolonging cultural adaptations there especially during periods of variable, yet generally challenging environmental conditions during the Younger Dryas (YD), with a greater degree of isolation from the 'sown land'. Ultimately, a threshold was reached towards the end of the YD, and the Harifian adaptation ceased to be viable, so they had little choice but to abandon their former territories in the Negev and northern Sinai to more favourable environmental conditions, near and, perhaps, far. Speculatively, having to merge with different groups as conditions there were not improving and 'packing' was tight, may have contributed to the emergence of large-scale 'archaic' villages of the PPNA.