Editing Tell Abu Hureyra (section)

== Occupation history ==
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2021}}
=== First occupation ===
[[File:NatufianSpread.svg|thumb|Tell Abu Hureyra was at the northern end of the area of [[Natufian culture]] (12,000 to 9,500 BC), near [[Mureybet]].]]
The village of Abu Hureyra had two separate periods of occupation: An Epipalaeolithic settlement and a Neolithic settlement. The Epipaleolithic, or [[Natufian culture|Natufian]], settlement was established c. 13,500 [[Before Present|years ago]].<ref name="Moore2000">{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Andrew M. T. |title=Village on the Euphrates: From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra |author2=Hillman, Gordon C. |author3=Legge, Anthony J. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-19-510806-X |location=Oxford |pages=104 |author-link=Andrew M.T. Moore}}</ref> During the first settlement, the village consisted of small round huts, cut into the soft sandstone of the terrace. The roofs were supported with wooden posts, and roofed with brushwood and reeds.<ref name="Mithen" />{{RP|40-41}} Huts contained underground storage areas for food. The houses that they lived in were subterranean pit dwellings.<ref name="Hillman et al 2016"/> The inhabitants are probably most accurately described as "hunter-collectors", as they didn't only forage for immediate consumption, but built up stores for longterm food security. They settled down around their [[larder]] to protect it from animals and other humans. From the distribution of wild food plant remains found at Abu Hureyra it seems that they lived there year-round. The population was small, housing a few hundred people at most—but perhaps the largest collection of people permanently living in one place anywhere at that time.

The inhabitants of Abu Hureyra obtained food by hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild plants. [[Gazelle]] was hunted primarily during the summer, when vast herds passed by the village during their annual migration.<ref name=Mithen>{{cite book|last=Mithen|first=Steven|title=After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20000-5000 BC|year=2006|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=0-674-01570-3|edition=paperback|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/aftericeglobalhu00mith}}</ref>{{RP|41-42}} These would probably be hunted communally, as mass killings also required mass processing of meat, skin, and other parts of the animal. The huge amount of food obtained in a short period was a reason for settling down permanently: it was too heavy to carry and would need to be kept protected from weather and pests.

Other prey included large wild animals such as [[onager]], [[sheep]], and [[cattle]], and smaller animals such as [[hare]], [[fox]], and [[bird]]s, which were hunted throughout the year. Different plant species were collected, from three different eco-zones within walking distance (river, forest, and steppe). Plant foods were also harvested from "wild gardens" with species gathered including wild cereal grasses such as [[einkorn wheat]], [[emmer wheat]], and two varieties of [[rye]].<ref name="Mithen" />{{RP|41}} Several large stone tools for grinding grain were found at the site.

Abu Hureyra 1 had a variety of crops that made up the system. Their resources consisted of 41% ''Rumex'' and ''Polygonum'', 43% rye and [[einkorn]], and the remaining 16% lentils.<ref name=":0" />

=== Depopulation ===
After 1,300 years the hunter-gatherers of the first occupation mostly abandoned Abu Hureyra, probably because of the [[Younger Dryas]], an intense and relatively abrupt return to glacial climate conditions which lasted over 1,000 years,<ref name="Mithen" /> or because of the purported [[impact event]].<ref name="Abu Hureyra"/> The drought disrupted the migration of the gazelle and destroyed forageable plant food sources. The inhabitants might have moved to [[Mureybet]], less than 50&nbsp;km to the northeast on the other side of the Euphrates,<ref>Mithen, ''After the Ice'', p. 62: "It seems likely that those who abandoned Abu Hureyra simply crossed the river and began a new village at Mureybet"</ref> which expanded dramatically at this time.

=== Second occupation ===
{{See also|Pre-Pottery Neolithic A|Khiamian|Pre-Pottery Neolithic B}}
In comparison to Abu Hureyra 1, Abu Hureyra 2 had a different accumulation of resources, consisting of 25% ''Rumex''/''Polygonum'', 3.7% rye/einkorn, 29% barley, 23.5% [[emmer]], 9.4% wheat-free threshing, and 9.4% lentils.<ref name=":0" />[[File:Fertile crescent Neolithic B circa 7500 BC.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Fertile Crescent]] c. 7500 BC, with main [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic]] sites. Central and southern [[Mesopotamia]] lacked sufficient rainfall to be settled by humans yet.]]
[[File:Calibrated Carbon 14 dates for Abu Hureyra as of 2013.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Earliest calibrated Carbon 14 dates for Neolithic Abu Hureyra as of 2013. This is about 1,000 years after [[Gesher (archaeological site)|Gesher]].]]

It is from the early part of the Younger Dryas that the first indirect evidence of agriculture was detected in the excavations at Abu Hureyra, although the cereals themselves were still of the wild variety.<ref>{{cite book |contributor-last=Hillman |contributor-first= Gordon C. |date=2000 |contribution=Overview |first1=A.M.T. |last1=Moore |first2= G.C. |last2=Hillman |first3=A.J. |last3=Legge |title=Village on the Euphrates: From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages= 420–421<!--416-422-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bar-Yosef |first=Ofer |date=2002 |chapter=The Natufian culture and the early Neolithic: Social and economic trends in Southwestern Asia |editor1-first=P. |editor1-last=Bellwood |editor2-first=C. |editor2-last=Renfrew |title=Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis |series=McDonald Institute Monographs |publisher=University of Cambridge |location=Cambridge |pages=113–126}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bar-Yosef |first=Ofer |date=2002 |chapter=Natufian |editor1-first=B. |editor1-last=Fitzhugh |editor2-first=J. |editor2-last=Habu |title=Beyond Foraging and Collecting: Evolutionary Change in Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems |publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers |location=New York |pages=91–149}}</ref><ref>Dow, Olewiler and Reed 2005</ref> It was during the intentional sowing of cereals in more favourable refuges like Mureybet that these first farmers developed domesticated strains during the centuries of drought and cold of the Younger Dryas. When the climate abated about 9500 BCE they spread all over the Middle East with this new bio-technology, and Abu Hureyra grew to a large village eventually with several thousand people. The second occupation grew domesticated varieties of rye, wheat and barley, and kept sheep as livestock. The hunting of gazelle decreased sharply, probably due to [[overexploitation]] that eventually left them extinct in the Middle East. At Abu Hureyra they were replaced by meat from domesticated animals. The second occupation lasted for about 2,000 years.