The Early Natufian Site of Hof Shahaf, Israel: Subsistence, Environment, and Settlement Dynamics

Abstract

The terminal Pleistocene Natufian Culture of the Levant is one of the best-documented cases of preagricultural sedentism in prehistory, thanks to the proliferation of durable architecture, burial grounds, and intensified socioeconomic practices. Hof Shahaf, located on the shore of Lake Kinneret in Israel, is a recently excavated Natufian site whose interpretation presents a conundrum. On the one hand, the site produced evidence of architecture, burial, and diverse subsistence practices, just like the rich and permanently occupied hamlets of this culture. On the other hand, it clearly diverged in the meager accumulation of artifacts (lithics and fauna) and an apparent absence of aquatic resource exploitation. Here, we aim to understand the nature of habitation at Hof Shahaf: whether it was a sedentary hamlet, an ephemeral residential camp, or a task-specific logistic locality. The latter two site types are not well documented in the Early Natufian of the Mediterranean climate zone. We provide a zooarchaeological and taphonomic account of the site, supplemented with lithic data, to investigate the paleoenvironment, subsistence, and site-occupation intensity, all against the backdrop of a specific setting (one of the lowest recorded lake stands). Our results indicate that the site primarily falls within a middle ground between classic sedentary hamlets and more specialized sites. It may have functioned as an ephemeral residential camp for foragers traveling to the Kinneret Basin for specific or seasonal tasks. Nevertheless, the site still held some significance, evidenced by the investment in building a large structure and burying the dead.