Seasonal Exploitation of Migratory Waterfowl at Natufian el-Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel

Increased avian exploitation is a hallmark of broad-spectrum subsistence strategies in the Levantine Natufian culture (15,000–11,700 cal. BP). However, detailed publications of bird remains from the Natufian are scant, especially regarding the Early Natufian, and the available evidence shows high inter-site variability that begs explanation. In this study, we examine the avian remains from the Natufian sequence of el-Wad Terrace, a large hamlet overlooking the Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, to assess patterns of bird exploitation and their environmental context. Our results show that the majority of bird remains represent human activities, with negligible contributions from nonhuman predators and natural mortality. Waterbirds and game birds attest to butchery and consumption, while many of these taxa, along with some birds of prey, were also exploited for raw materials in bead production and for other cultural purposes. The Early Natufian stages differ little from one another and indicate consistent seasonal harvesting of a highly diverse waterfowl community, while in the Late Natufian, the proportion of game birds and birds of prey increased. This is the first evidence of exploitation of significant freshwater bodies that must have existed at some distance from the site, along the wider coastal plain of the terminal Pleistocene. Comparative analysis of a transect of Natufian sites in the southern Levant, from eastern Jordan to the Mediterranean shore, emphasizes differences in avian resource use between sites directly located on wetlands and sites that were not, indicating that local environmental conditions strongly shaped avian hunting strategies in the Natufian.