Editing Natufian culture (section)

== Material culture ==
[[File:Lovers 9000BC british museum.jpg|thumb|upright|The Ain Sakhri lovers, from Ain Sakhri, near Bethleem (British&nbsp;Museum:&nbsp;{{British-Museum-db|1958,1007.1|id=1358965}})]]

===Lithics===
The Natufian had a [[microlithic industry]] centered on short [[blade]]s and bladelets. The [[microburin technique]] was used. Geometric microliths include [[lunate]]s, trapezes, and triangles. There are backed blades as well. A special type of [[Retouch (lithics)|retouch]] ([[Helwan retouch]]) is characteristic for the early Natufian. In the late Natufian, the Harif-point, a typical [[arrowhead]] made from a regular blade, became common in the [[Negev]]. Some scholars{{who|date=March 2012}} use it to define a separate culture, the [[Harifian]].

[[Sickle]] blades also appear for the first time in the Natufian lithic industry. The characteristic [[sickle-gloss]] shows that they were used to cut the [[silica]]-rich stems of cereals, indirectly suggesting the existence of incipient agriculture. Shaft straighteners made of [[ground stone]] indicate the practice of [[archery]]. There are heavy ground-stone bowl [[Mortar (bowl)|mortar]]s as well.

=== Art ===
The ''[[Ain Sakhri lovers]]'', a carved stone object held at the [[British Museum]], is the oldest known depiction of a couple having sex. It was found in the Ain Sakhri cave in the [[Judean desert]].<ref name="BBC AinSak" />

===Burials===
[[File:El-Wad Homo25 in Rockefeller Museum.jpg|thumb|Natufian burial – Homo 25 from [[el-Wad Cave]], Mount Carmel, Israel (Rockefeller Museum)]]
Natufian [[grave goods]] are typically made of shell, teeth (of [[red deer]]), bones, and stone. There are pendants, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and belt-ornaments as well.

[[File:Israel Museum Stone Age.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Schematic human figure made of pebbles, from [[Eynan]], Early Natufian, 12,000 BC]]
In 2008, the 12,400–12,000 cal BC grave of an apparently significant Natufian female was discovered in a ceremonial pit in the [[Hilazon Tachtit]] cave in northern Israel.<ref name="GrosmanMunro2008">{{cite journal|last1=Grosman|first1=L.|last2=Munro|first2=N. D.|last3=Belfer-Cohen|first3=A.|title=A 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel)|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=105|issue=46|year=2008|pages=17665–17669|issn=0027-8424|doi=10.1073/pnas.0806030105|pmid=18981412|pmc=2584673|bibcode=2008PNAS..10517665G|doi-access=free}}</ref>  Media reports referred to this person as a "shaman".<ref name="NationalGeo2008" /> The burial contained the remains of at least three [[aurochs]] and 86 tortoises, all of which are thought to have been brought to the site during a funeral feast.  The body was surrounded by tortoise shells, the pelvis of a [[leopard]], forearm of a [[boar]], a wingtip of a [[golden eagle]], and skull of a [[beech marten]].<ref name="Burston" /><ref>{{Citation|last=Hogenboom|first=Melissa|title=Secrets of the world's oldest funeral feast|date=24 May 2016|url=http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160520-secrets-of-the-worlds-oldest-funeral-feast|series=earth|publisher=BBC|access-date=24 May 2016}}</ref>

=== Long-distance exchange ===
At Ain Mallaha (in Northern Israel), Anatolian [[obsidian]] and shellfish from the [[Nile]] valley have been found. The source of [[malachite]] beads is still unknown. [[Epipaleolithic]] Natufians carried [[parthenocarpic]] [[ficus|fig]]s from [[Africa]] to the southeastern corner of the [[Fertile Crescent]], {{Circa|10,000 BC}}.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kislev | first1 = ME | last2 = Hartmann | first2 = A | last3 = Bar-Yosef | first3 = O | year = 2006 | title = Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley | journal = Science | volume = 312 | issue = 5778| pages = 1372–1374 | doi=10.1126/science.1125910 | pmid=16741119| bibcode = 2006Sci...312.1372K | s2cid = 42150441 }}</ref>

===Other finds===
There was a rich [[bone industry]], including [[harpoon]]s and [[fish hook]]s. Stone and bone were worked into pendants and other ornaments. There are a few human figurines made of [[limestone]] (El-Wad, Ain Mallaha, Ain Sakhri), but the favorite subject of representative art seems to have been animals. Ostrich-shell containers have been found in the [[Negev]].

In 2018, the world's oldest brewery was found, with the residue of 13,000-year-old beer, in a prehistoric cave near [[Haifa]] in Israel when researchers were looking for clues into what plant foods the Natufian people were eating. This is 8,000 years earlier than experts previously thought beer was invented.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45534133|title='World's oldest brewery' found in a cave in Israel, say researchers|work=BBC|date=15 September 2018}}</ref>

A study published in 2019 shows an advanced knowledge of lime plaster production at a Natufian cemetery in Nahal Ein Gev II site in the Upper Jordan Valley dated to 12 thousand (calibrated) years before present [k cal BP]. Production of plaster of this quality was previously thought to have been achieved some 2,000 years later.<ref>{{cite journal|title='Lime plaster covering burials 12,000 years ago presents a technological leap forward at the end of the Palaeolithic|journal=Cambridge University Press|date=30 September 2019|doi=10.1017/ehs.2019.9|volume=1 | last1 = Friesem | first1 = David E. | last2 = Abadi | first2 = Itay | last3 = Shaham | first3 = Dana | last4 = Grosman | first4 = Leore|pages=e9 |pmid=37588409 |pmc=10427327 | doi-access = free }}</ref>