Early evidence (ca. 12,000 B.P.) for feasting at a burial cave in Israel

Edited by Henry T. Wright, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and approved July 30, 2010 (received for review February 13, 2010)
August 30, 2010
107 (35) 15362-15366

Abstract

Feasting is one of humanity's most universal and unique social behaviors. Although evidence for feasting is common in the early agricultural societies of the Neolithic, evidence in pre-Neolithic contexts is more elusive. We found clear evidence for feasting on wild cattle and tortoises at Hilazon Tachtit cave, a Late Epipaleolithic (12,000 calibrated years B.P.) burial site in Israel. This includes unusually high densities of butchered tortoise and wild cattle remains in two structures, the unique location of the feasting activity in a burial cave, and the manufacture of two structures for burial and related feasting activities. The results indicate that community members coalesced at Hilazon to engage in special rituals to commemorate the burial of the dead and that feasts were central elements in these important events. Feasts likely served important roles in the negotiation and solidification of social relationships, the integration of communities, and the mitigation of scalar stress. These and other social changes in the Natufian period mark significant changes in human social complexity that continued into the Neolithic period. Together, social and economic change signal the very beginning of the agricultural transition.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Anna Belfer-Cohen, Naama Goren-Inbar, Uzy Smilansky, Brian Hayden, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft; Mary Stiner, Rivka Rabinovich, Liora Horwitz, Austin Hill, and Hila Ashkenazi for various input; and Boaz Grosman, Peter Groszman, and Gideon Hartman for drafting the figures. Excavation at Hilazon Tachtit cave was financed by the Irene Levi-Sala Care Foundation and the National Geographic Foundation (L.G.). This research was conducted while L.G. was a research fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Israel (Rehovot, Israel). Faunal analysis was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BCS-0618937 (to N.D.M.).

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Information & Authors

Information

Published in

The cover image for PNAS Vol.107; No.35
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Vol. 107 | No. 35
August 31, 2010
PubMed: 20805510

Classifications

Submission history

Published online: August 30, 2010
Published in issue: August 31, 2010

Keywords

  1. Epipaleolithic
  2. Natufian culture
  3. origins of agriculture
  4. ritual
  5. social complexity

Acknowledgments

We thank Anna Belfer-Cohen, Naama Goren-Inbar, Uzy Smilansky, Brian Hayden, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft; Mary Stiner, Rivka Rabinovich, Liora Horwitz, Austin Hill, and Hila Ashkenazi for various input; and Boaz Grosman, Peter Groszman, and Gideon Hartman for drafting the figures. Excavation at Hilazon Tachtit cave was financed by the Irene Levi-Sala Care Foundation and the National Geographic Foundation (L.G.). This research was conducted while L.G. was a research fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Israel (Rehovot, Israel). Faunal analysis was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BCS-0618937 (to N.D.M.).

Notes

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

Authors

Affiliations

Natalie D. Munro1 [email protected]
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269; and
Leore Grosman
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel

Notes

1
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected].
Author contributions: N.D.M. and L.G. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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    Early evidence (ca. 12,000 B.P.) for feasting at a burial cave in Israel
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    • Vol. 107
    • No. 35
    • pp. 15307-15658

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