The so-called Natufian culture inhabited what is now the Middle East between approximately 14,000 and 11,500 years ago. This period is commonly split into two subperiods, Early Natufian (14,000 to 13,000 years ago) and Late Natufian (13,000 to 11,500). The Natufians were hunter-gatherers who relied primarily on gazelle, although they also cultivated some cereal grains. During the early period at least, they lived year-round in villages in built stone houses. Like all human beings, their way of life depended on the climate. Around 13,000 years ago, their climate began to change, becoming colder and drier, a period known as the Younger Dryas.

We know that times were hard in the increasingly arid landscapes of the Younger Dryas, but quite how hard remains unclear. The droughts certainly caused many ponds and rivers to disappear completely and the larger lakes to shrink in size. The people who lived in the south, in today’s deserts of the Negev and the Sinai, were most likely hit the hardest. They returned to a completely transient hunter-gatherer way of life, moving from place to place. Survival required improved hunting weapons: game (animals hunted for food) had become scarce, and consequently, success had become essential when a kill was possible. And so we see the invention of the Harif point, a new kind of arrowhead.

Further north, the impact of the Younger Dryas may have been less severe. Yet survival still required more than just a return to the ancient mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle, especially as there were now many more people needing food than had been the case during earlier periods, when the Natufians lived in permanent dwellings. One response was to hunt a much wider range of animals than before, and hence we find in Late Natufian settlements the bones of many small-game species as well as larger, ever-present gazelle.

Another response to the changing climate was to continue, and perhaps expand the cultivation of plants. Wild cereals were particularly hard hit by the Younger Dryas owing to a decrease in the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. This diminution, carefully documented from air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice, inhibited their photosynthesis and markedly reduced their yields. Consequently, whatever cultivation practices had begun during the Early Natufian period—weeding, transplanting, watering, pest control—may now have become essential to secure sufficient food. And these may have created the first domesticated strains.

This appears to be what happened at the village of Abu Hureyra just before its abandonment. When the archaeologist Gordon Hillman studied the cereal grains from the site, he found a few grains of rye from plants that had undergone the transition into domestic forms. When dated, they were shown to lie between 11,000 and 10,500 B.C.—the oldest domesticated cereal grain from anywhere in the world. Along with these grains, Hillman found seeds from the weeds that typically grow in cultivated soil. And so it appears that, as the availability of wild plant foods declined due to the onset of the Younger Dryas, the Abu Hureyra people invested an ever greater amount of time and effort in caring for the wild rye and by doing so unintentionally transformed it into a domestic crop. But even this could not support the village—it was abandoned as people were forced to return to a mobile lifestyle, perhaps carrying pouches of cereal grain. The domesticated rye of Abu Hureyra reverted to its wild state.

The geographical range of the Late Natufians also changed. With their increased interest in plant cultivation, the Late Natufians drifted away from the depleted woodlands where their forebears once flourished. They were drawn to the alluvial soils (soils deposited by rivers) of the valleys, not only those of the River Jordan, but also those found by the great rivers of the Mesopotamian plain and in the vicinity of lakes and rivers throughout the Middle East. Large expanses of these rich, fertile soils became available as the rivers and lakes struck during the Younger Dryas Wild, but cultivated, cereals grew well in such soil, especially when close to the meager springs, ponds, and streams that survived the arid conditions.

所谓的纳图夫文化发生在大约14,000至11,500年前，也就是现在的中东地区。这个时期通常分为两个亚纪，即初期的纳图夫（14,000至13,000年前）和后期的纳图夫（13,000至11,500年前）。 纳图夫人主要从事采集狩猎瞪羚，但是他们也还会种植了一些谷物。至少在初期，他们全年住在建有石屋的村庄里。像当时的人一样，他们的生活方式取决于气候。大约13000年前，他们居住的地区气候发生了变化，变得更冷，更干燥，这个时期被称为新仙女木期。 我们知道，新仙女木期的地貌变得越来越干旱，生活变得很艰难，但我们不清楚的是多么艰难。干旱导致许多池塘和河流完全消失，湖泊大量萎缩。住在南方的人，也就是在现在的内盖夫和西奈半岛的沙漠中，最有可能遭受冲击。他们暂时回归到了一个完全依赖于采集狩猎的生活方式，从一个地方迁徙到另一个地方。生存需要改进的狩猎武器：游戏（狩猎动物以获取食物）已经变得稀缺，因此，当死亡可能会发生时，成功至关重要。所以我们见证了Harif的发明，这是一种新型的箭头。 在更北部，新仙女木期的影响可能并不是很严重。然而，生存不仅仅需要回归古代的移动式狩猎采集生活方式，特别是早些时候，更多的人需要的是食物，而先前那只是纳图夫人的永久住所。应对气候变化的一种反应是扩大狩猎动物的范围，因此我们在纳图夫晚期定居点发现了许多小骨骼猎物物种，以及体积更大的，始终存在的瞪羚。 应对气候变化的另一种反应是继续扩大植物的种植面积。由于大气中二氧化碳（CO2）浓度的降低，野生谷类食品在新仙女木期遭受到了尤为严重打击。浓度的降低详细地记载在南极原冰层的气泡中，会抑制它们的光合作用，并导致产量大大减少。因此，无论在早期的纳图夫时期开始种植什么 - 除草，移栽，浇水，防虫 - 现已成为保证充足供应食物的必要条件。这可以培育了第一个驯化菌株。 这似乎发生在胡赖拉村遭到遗弃前。当考古学家戈登·希尔曼在当地对谷物进行研究时，他发现了几粒黑麦谷物，这些谷物已转变成了家庭作物。到了公元前11000年到公元前10500年，这些谷物被认定为世界上最古老的家养谷物。除了这些谷物之外，希尔曼还发现了在耕种土壤中生长的杂草种子。因此，由于新仙女木期的出现，野生植物食品的供应减少，因此胡赖拉人投入更多的时间和精力来照顾野生黑麦，并在无意中将其转化为家养作物。但即使这样也无法支撑起这个村庄 - 当人们被迫回归流动的生活方式时，它可能会被遗弃，也许还会带着谷物袋。胡赖拉人培育的黑麦作物又恢复了野生状态。 纳图夫后期的地理分布也发生了变化。由于他们对植物种植感兴趣，后期的纳图夫人逐渐离开了贫瘠的林地，这曾是他们的祖先兴旺繁荣的地方。他们来到了山谷的冲积土地带（河流沉积的土壤），这里不仅是约旦河的土地，还是美索不达米亚平原的大河和整个中东的湖泊和河流附近的那些土壤。随着新仙女木野生时期的河流和湖泊的涌现，出现了大面积丰富肥沃的土壤，但在耕种时，谷物在此类土壤中生长良好，特别是在干旱时期，靠近微薄的泉水，池塘和溪流地方的谷物都幸存了下来。