Natufian Hunter-Gatherers Fishing Strategies: The Early Appearance of the Fishhooks in the Near East and Their Significance

Danny Rosenberg, Rivka Chasan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Fish are a prominent source of nutrients, yet in the southern Levant, clear evidence for fishing was scarce before the historic periods. In the current paper, we present the evidence for Natufian (ca. 15,000–11,700 cal BP) fishing with an emphasis on fishhooks, representing one of the best examples of an artefact that reached its morphological optimum thousands of years ago and continued to be widely used today. While fishing using various techniques and implements was probably in use well before the Natufian, this innovation seems to represent a new technique, more restricted and controlled, for obtaining this food source.

Translated title of the contributionاستراتيجيات الصيد للصيادين النطوفيين: الظهور المبكر للخطافات في الشرق الأدنى وأهميتها
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)245-254
Number of pages10
JournalInternational Journal of Nautical Archaeology
Volume52
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

  • Epipalaeolithic
  • Natufian
  • fishhooks
  • fishing
  • hunter-gatherers
  • southern Levant

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oceanography
  • History
  • Archaeology
  • Paleontology

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