ʿAin Mallaha () or Eynan () was an

Epipalaeolithic 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 ...

settlement belonging to the

Natufian culture 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 ...

, occupied circa 14,326–12,180 cal. BP. The settlement is an example of hunter-gatherer

sedentism In anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. As of , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In evolutionary anthropology and arch ...

, a crucial step in the transition from foraging to farming. ʿAin Mallaha has one of the earliest known archaeological evidence of dog domestication.

Village

This site is located in the

Hula Valley The Hula Valley () is a valley and fertile agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water that used to be Lake Hula before it was drained. It is a major stopover for birds migrating along the Great Rift Valley between Africa ...

of northern

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 ...

, north of the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic languages, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth ...

, and is in an area surrounded by hills and located by an ancient lake, Lake Huleh. At the time of its

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 ...

inhabitance, the area was heavily forested in oak, almond, and pistachio trees. Evidence of settlement at Mallaha or ʿAin Mallaha dates back to the

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

period at circa 10,000 BCE.Schmandt-Besserat, 2009, p
47
/ref> The first permanent village settlement of pre-agricultural times in

Kathleen Kenyon Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon, (5 January 1906 – 24 August 1978) was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called ...

describes the material remains found there as Natufian.Kenyon, 1985, p. 20. The Natufian village was colonized in three phases. The first two phases had massive stone-built structures with smaller ones in the third phase. These phases occurred from 12,000 to 9600 BCE. The dwellings were cut into the earth, had subterranean floors, and walls that were built of

dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...

. Wooden posts supported the roofs, which were probably thatches with brushwood or animal hides. Hearths were located within the dwellings. Kenyon describes the Natufian village as consisting of 50 circular, semi-subterranean, one-room huts, paved with flat slabs and surrounded by stone walls up to high. The floors and walls of the homes were decorated in solid white or red, a simple and popular decorative motif in the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

at the time.

Diet

The inhabitants of ʿAin Mallaha were sedentary

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

s; it is likely that they lived in ʿAin Mallaha year round, gathering food from the surrounding wild stands of edible vegetation, and hunting local game. The inhabitants used hand mortars for grinding wild nuts and grain, and stone sickles for cutting plants from wild stands. Many of these sickle stones hold "

sickle-gloss Sickle-gloss, also known as sickle sheen, is a silica residue found on blades such as sickles and scythes. Its presence indicates that the tool has been used to cut the stems of cereals, which are rich in silica. The gloss or residue forms due to t ...

," indicating they had been used to cut large numbers of plant stems, most likely wild wheat and barley. The inhabitants are known to have eaten gazelle, fallow deer, wild boar, red and roe deer, hare, tortoise, reptiles, and fish. The inhabitants appear to have subsisted on fish from nearby

Lake Hula The Hula Valley () is a valley and fertile agriculture, agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water that used to be Lake Hula before it was drained. It is a major stopover for birds migrating along the Great Rift Valley be ...

, as well as by hunting and gathering; no evidence of animal domestication or cultivation has been found,Edwards et al., 1970, p
499
/ref> with the conspicuous exception of dogs (see

Burial customs Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and object ...

Burial customs

It is likely that entire families were buried in the remains of their own houses, the houses being subsequently abandoned. During excavation, Perrot found one dwelling to contain the graves of 11 men, women, and children, many of them wearing elaborate decorations made from

dentalium Dentalium may refer to: * ''Dentalium'' (genus), a genus of tooth shells * Dentalium shell The word dentalium, as commonly used by Native American artists and anthropologists, refers to tooth shells or tusk shells used in indigenous jewelry, ad ...

shells. In another dwelling (131), twelve individuals were found, one buried with her hand resting on the body of a small puppy. This burial of a human being with a domestic dog represents the earliest known archaeological evidence of dog domestication. One of the female burials has disarranged body parts and gazelle horn-cores placed near the head,

David Wengrow David Wengrow Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA (born 25 July 1972) is a British archaeologist and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He co-authored ...

has used this as evidence for the deep-history of human-animal hybrid motifs found in ancient beliefs, practices, and folklore.

Excavation

ʿAin Mallaha was discovered in 1954 and salvage excavations were carried out under the supervision of

Jean Perrot Jean Perrot (10 June 1920 – 24 December 2012) was a French archaeologist who specialised in the late prehistory of the Middle East and Near East. Biography Perrot was a graduate of the Ecole du Louvre where he studied under two experts in S ...

Monique Lechevalier
an
François Valla
of the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

. Since 2022, the site is excavated b
Fanny Bocquentin
an
Lior Weissbrod
File:Limestone & basalt mortars from Eynan, early Natufian circa 12500 BC.jpg, Limestone and basalt mortars, ʿAin Mallaha, Early Natufian, circa 12000 BC (Israel Museum, Jerusalem) File:Stone Mortars from Eynan, Natufian period.jpg, Stone Mortars from ʿAin Mallaha, Natufian period, 12500-9500 BC(Israel Museum, Jerusalem) File:Basalt Sharpening Stones, Natufian Culture.jpg, Basalt sharpening stones, ʿAin Mallaha and Nahal Oren, Natufian Culture, 12500-9500 BC (Israel Museum, Jerusalem) File:Eynan Epipaleolithic mortar.jpg, ʿAin Mallaha Epipaleolithic mortar (Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

References

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External links