Editing History of the ancient Levant (section)

===Epi-Palaeolithic===
After the [[Late Glacial Maxima]], a new [[Epipaleolithic (Levant)|Epipaleolithic]] culture appears. The appearance of the [[Kebaran culture]], of [[microlithic culture|microlithic type]] implies a significant rupture in the cultural continuity of Levantine Upper Paleolithic. The Kebaran culture, with its use of microliths, is associated with the use of the bow and arrow and the domestication of the dog.<ref>Dayan, Tamar (1994), "Early Domesticated Dogs of the Near East" (Journal of Archaeological Science Volume 21, Issue 5, September 1994, Pages 633–640)</ref> Extending from 18,000 to 10,500&nbsp;BC, the Kebaran culture<ref>Ronen, Avram, "Climate, sea level, and culture in the Eastern Mediterranean 20 ky to the present" in Valentina Yanko-Hombach, Allan S. Gilbert, Nicolae Panin and Pavel M. Dolukhanov (2007), ''The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement'' (Springer)</ref> shows clear connections to the earlier microlithic cultures using the bow and arrow, and using grinding stones to harvest wild grains, that developed from the {{circa|24,000|17,000&nbsp;BC}} [[Halfan culture]] of [[Egypt]], that came from the still earlier [[Aterian]] tradition of the Sahara. Some linguists see this as the earliest arrival of [[Nostratic languages]] in the Middle East.

Kebaran culture was quite successful, and was ancestral to the later [[Natufian culture]] (12,500–9,500&nbsp;BC), which extended throughout the whole of the Levantine region. These people pioneered the first sedentary settlements, and may have supported themselves from fishing and the harvest of wild grains plentiful in the region at that time. {{As of|2018|7|post=,}} the oldest remains of bread were discovered {{circa|12,400&nbsp;BC}} at the archaeological site of Shubayqa 1, once home of the Natufian hunter-gatherers, roughly 4,000 years before the advent of agriculture.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Mejia|first=Paula|date=16 July 2018|title=Found: 14,400-Year-Old Flatbread Remains That Predate Agriculture|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/worlds-oldest-bread|url-status=live|department=Gastro Obscura|work=[[Atlas Obscura]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717191316/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/worlds-oldest-bread|archive-date=17 July 2018|access-date=17 July 2018}}</ref>

Natufian culture also demonstrates the earliest domestication of the [[dog]], and the assistance of this animal in hunting and guarding human settlements may have contributed to the successful spread of this culture. In the northern Syrian, eastern Anatolian region of the Levant, Natufian culture at [[Cayonu]] and [[Mureybet]] developed the first fully agricultural culture with the addition of wild grains, later being supplemented with domesticated sheep and goats, which were probably domesticated first by the [[Zarzian culture]] of Northern Iraq and Iran (which like the Natufian culture may have also developed from Kebaran).