Nahal Oren is an archaeological site on the northern bank of the

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

of Nahal Oren (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

)/Wadi Fallah (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

) on

Mount Carmel Mount Carmel (; ), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias (; ), is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situat ...

, south of

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

.A.M.L. Moore, ''The Neolithic of the Levant'', Oxford University, 1978
/ref> The site comprises a cave and the small terrace in front of it, which steeply descends towards the wadi floor.A.M.L. Moore, ''The Neolithic of the Levant'', Oxford University, 1978. Chapter 2 (pp. 99-106)

/ref> The site was first excavated in 1941.

Kebaran The Kebaran culture, also known as the 'Early Near East Epipalaeolithic', is an archaeological culture of the Eastern Mediterranean dating to c. 23,000 to 15,000 Before Present (BP). Its type site is Kebara Cave, south of Haifa. The Kebaran wa ...

(

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...

Natufian The Natufian culture ( ) is an archaeological culture of the late Epipalaeolithic Near East in West Asia from 15–11,500 Before Present. The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentism, sedentary or semi-sedentary population even befor ...

(

Epipaleolithic In archaeology, the Epipalaeolithic or Epipaleolithic (sometimes Epi-paleolithic etc.) is a period occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during the Stone Age. Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are someti ...

) and

Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) denotes the first stage of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, in early Levantine and Anatolian Neolithic culture, dating to years ago, that is, 10,000–8800 BCE. Archaeological remains are located in the Levantine and U ...

and B (PPNA, PPNB) industries were found.

Upper Paleolithic

Grain

Wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

was recovered from the Nahal Oren site, but it was not certain whether it was cultivated or wild. Grain was relatively rare at the site in comparison with other food resources. The age of the emmer wheat grains found there is an indication that the cultivation of grain might have started as early as 16,000 years ago. In 1985 the three spikelets of cultivated emmer found in a Kebaran context in Wadi Oren were seen to be so early as to be considered an anomaly.

Neolithic village

A PPNA village of some 13 subcircular houses and other structures stood on four artificial, closely set terraces. The buildings were similar to those of PPNA Jericho. Only one human burial was discovered at the PPNA village site. There were no grave goods in the burial pit, and the skeleton was complete with the exception of the skull, which had been removed - an early example of a practice better known from the later Neolithic. The remains of the PPNB village are far more scarce, but seem to be in continuation of the PPNA phase.A.M.L. Moore, ''The Neolithic of the Levant'', Oxford University, 1978. Chapter 4 (pp. 218-221)

/ref> File:Skeletons from Nahal Oren.JPG, Skeletons from Nahal Oren (Miriam Moshe Stekelis, Stekelis Museum of Prehistory, Haifa) File:Basalt & Limestone Mortar & Pestle, Natufian Culture.jpg, Mortar and pestle from Nahal Oren, Natufian, 12500-9500 BC. File:Basalt Sharpening Stones, Natufian Culture.jpg, Basalt sharpening stones, Eynan ('Ain Mallaha) and Nahal Oren, Natufian Culture, 12500-9500 BC.

Domestication of gazelles and goats

During Neolithic occupation, the main source of food at the site appears to have been

gazelle A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . There are also seven species included in two further genera; '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third former subgenus, ' ...

s, and judging from the high incidence of immature gazelle bones, these animals were domesticated. The later shift to goat husbandry may have occurred because goats are less selective in their diets than gazelles, and can graze in areas where the gazelle would not fare well.

Repeated occupation

Nahal Oren was occupied repeatedly over thousands of years by culture after culture, which means that it was a preferred site for occupation, rather than an occasional one.

References

External links

Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Items found at Nahal Oren

{{Authority control 1941 archaeological discoveries Natufian sites Prehistoric sites in Israel Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Mount Carmel Kebaran culture Caves of Israel