The Natufians - world first farmers

The earliest agriculture originated from the Middle East - The Fertile Crescent to be more specific. It’s geographically from Israel to Iraq. It originate at that location because they discovered a huge family of plants, the grasses. This gave a vast supply of grain.

A tool invented by the Natufians was the sickle. Archeologist found traces of wild grass on them and therefore they think these tools were used to harvest and cut grass is big amounts.

Because of the ice age, the earth became more fertilizable that provided more resources. So the Natufians didn’t only adapt by making new tools – they also instead of travling around all the time now settled down in one place! They no longer had to “follow the food”, but could make food at one place!

In The Fertile Crescent around 1000 families lived in this area with approximately 25-50 people in each village. 

One person could now in 3 weeks harvest enough food for a family for an entire year.

Another advantage with grain compared to other food was that it did not decay and it last for decades if you kept it dry! You could now store your food for a longer time!

But they did not only live on cereals. They also lived on many animals like gazelle, goats, wolf, fox, crab, hare, cat and many birds.

So the Natufians had mortars to treat the grain, but what’s fascinating about their mortars is that they were  decorated. The mortars were not just lumps of clay; they had a form of structure and shape. They also had carvings and a sheer size – the size is another proof for their settling as bigger more complex things made out of rock is not easy to carry with you. They were more complex in a way that they had several holes that they mashed the seed in.

For storeage they first had leather bags. Later, they also stored their grain in a big circular building. They digges the walls 2 m down in the ground and stored the food there for many people (for many people shows a signs of cooperation and thinging in a more civilized way.

It’s hard to know socially how the the Natufians had it, but it is believed that they had a more giving than individual perspective in things (once again how they stored their food) because now they had small groups that relied on each other.

Tragically the Natufian way of life only lasted for 2 500 years. The glaciers came back and turned the fresh water to ice, the number of animals decreased and simply made the world colder and more dry. This was called The Younger Dryas and was an environmentally catastrophe.

The Younger Dryas forced the Natufian to make a change. Since the environment changed they had to abbandon their settlements. They separated into small groups and started to look for a new resettlement since the wild plant and food they once relied on weren’t there anymore.

But luckily they found a new place - a fertile plain called Lake Galilee in the Jordan valley. This becomes the test of human adaptation as they will attempt to survive here. When the Dryas eventually is over – their location is becoming warmer and perfect for farming. They’ve now invented a whole new way of life.

It’s hard to say if farming was easier than hunter gathering since this now made it easier for them to settle down, have larger families, storage food and have a more advanced civilization – but on the other hand archeological have found evidence of hard work. Knee and shoulder bones were now heavily deformed and they had strain injuries.

In this new location they believe that food such as nuts were hard to reach. There were wild nuts growing in the surrounding hills, and the Natufians were located around the water (the water was the main reason they decided to resettle there). However archeologists have found burnt seeds in their fireplaces. The seeds found burnt are though bigger than the natural varieties. Therefor the Natufians must have choosen and collected the best grains in shape, size, structure  and then planted them near where they lived. By doing this they made it much easier to harvest and build up population. The cereal are much more productive, however they are also more time counseling. This made their lives less carefree.

They also have an even larger kit of specialized tools (for their harvest process).

Remember, the most important to remember and learn from this post is that THEY NOW HAVE SETTLED DOWN! For reals. They now have small communities and more children. To explain why they have more children is simply because they now can afford to feed more people (and more people equals more help to harvest). Before hunter gatherers had to carry their kids wherever they went when they moved around all the time, so they simply could have no more kids than they could carry.

But more people demand a more organized structure – this is when leaders were born and needed! With socially institutions and large communities – the society now needed leaders to emerge control.

Some other special things with these people are they burials – their rituals and beliefs are now gone. But they had a ceremony. The dead bodies (often died by injury) were buried in the houses. They dug a hole in the ground and burried them under the fire place. It was a sacret place. They placed a huge stone on top of the body, added the treasures of daily life. The huds found a new meaning and were constanly repaired. 

They also made ornaments like beautiful necklaces made out of shell and carved teeth

To sum up: 

The Natufians simply made human progress possible! They change the way of life. They had everything they need in one place, food to rely on for a long period of time. In other words, there's a reason to stay at one place now. People now build shelters that would last for years.

They also took one step further in technology by:

Inventing the sickle for harvesting,

Used smooth stones for sling shot, three stones connected by cords, spire heads to hunt.

Gazell toe bones for ornaments

It lasted 10 000 BP to 8000 BCP after the Younger Dryas. 

There were now experimental gardens as the climate is warm again, which later develop full grade gardens.

This all happened because after the ice age there was a lot of water that sank into the ground and made the ground fertilizable. Because of this they developed e.g. tools so they could take advantage of these new resources and people now people choose agriculture!

Their lives changed as they instead of living a normadic or seminomadic life they settled for one place and started farming. More advanced houses and tools were made so they stayed at the same place. However not only did the material thing changed, but also our personalities and behaviors. We for example started to protect out ground more from enemies, we started to have people in charge (leaders) to have a functional society, hierarchy. If this wouldn’t have happened, one might assume that we still today would adapt ourselves to the surrounding instead of the opposite.

Some final Pros and Cons with what the Natufians did:

Pros: community size, leaders, private property (pottery, metals, textiles), control food supply practiced all over the world.

Cons: harder work (damaged bones) so they’re deformed by the labor they have to do, changed and damage the environment in the whole planet and lead to inequality and war.