Editing Natufian culture (section)

===Development of agriculture===
{{further|Origins of agriculture in West Asia}}
A pita-like bread has been found from 12,500 BC attributed to Natufians. This bread is made of wild cereal seeds and papyrus cousin tubers, ground into flour.<ref>{{Citation |year=2018 |title=World's oldest bread found at prehistoric site in Jordan |journal=The Jerusalem Post |url=https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Worlds-oldest-bread-found-at-prehistoric-site-in-Jordan-562680 |access-date=16 July 2018 }}</ref>

According to one theory,<ref name=NationalGeo2008/> it was a sudden change in [[climate]], the [[Younger Dryas]] event ({{Circa|10,800}} to 9500 BC), which inspired the [[Origins of agriculture in West Asia|development of agriculture in the region]]. The Younger Dryas was a 1,000-year-long interruption in the higher temperatures prevailing since the [[Last Glacial Maximum]], which produced a sudden drought in the Levant.  This would have endangered the wild cereals, which could no longer compete with dryland scrub, but upon which the population had become dependent to sustain a relatively large sedentary population.  By artificially clearing scrub and planting seeds obtained from elsewhere, they began to practice agriculture. However, this theory of the origin of agriculture is controversial in the scientific community.<ref>{{Citation |last=Balter |first=Michael |year=2010 |title=Archaeology: The Tangled Roots of Agriculture |journal=Science |volume=327 |issue= 5964|pages=404–406 |doi=10.1126/science.327.5964.404 |pmid=20093449 }}</ref>

<gallery widths="180" heights="150" perrow="4">
File:Israel Museum Stone Age Artifact.jpg|Grinding tool from [[Gilgal I]], Natufian culture, 12,500–9500 BC
File:Basalt Sharpening Stones, Natufian Culture.jpg|Basalt sharpening stones, [[ʿAin Mallaha]] and [[Nahal Oren (archaeological site)|Nahal Oren]], Natufian Culture, 12,500–9500 BC
File:Bovine-Rib Dagger, Natufian Culture.jpg|Bovine-rib dagger, [[HaYonim Cave]], Natufian Culture, 12,500–9500 BC
File:Stone Mortars from Eynan, Natufian period.jpg|Stone mortars from ʿAin Mallaha, Natufian period, 12,500–9500 BC
File:Eynan Epipaleolithic mortar.jpg|Stone mortar from ʿAin Mallaha, Natufian period, 12,500–9500 BC
File:Limestone & basalt mortars from Eynan, early Natufian circa 12500 BC.jpg|Limestone and basalt mortars, ʿAin Mallaha, Early Natufian, {{Circa|12,000 BC}}
</gallery>