Mureybet village shifted from Natufian hunter-gatherers to PPNA cultivators of cereals and PPNB domesticators of sheep and goats.
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Mureybet occupied from 10200 to 8000 BC across Natufian to PPNB phases. Phase IA featured Natufian hearths with barley and rye gathering plus gazelle and equid hunting. Khiamian phases IB-IIB introduced round houses and increased cereal processing with sickle blades. Mureybetian phases IIIA-IIIB showed rectangular multi-room buildings and cultivated wild barley, rye, and einkorn. Equid and aurochs hunting dominated over gazelle in phase III. Earliest clay tokens for counting appeared in phase III amid cereal boom. PPNB phase IVB had mud rectangular structures and domesticated sheep, goats, and possibly cattle. Flint tools evolved from Natufian burins to Mureybetian arrowheads to PPNB Byblos types. Bone tools and baskets inferred from use-wear in later phases. Anthropomorphic figurines mostly depicted women in Mureybetian phase. Site flooded by Euphrates Lake in 1976 after excavations. Climate during occupation was colder, more humid Younger Dryas with open forest steppe. Fish remained important through Khiamian despite mammal shifts. No domesticated cereals in sparse IVA sample. Dogs present indirectly via nearby sites. Hide processing used bone and stone tools. Obsidian rare, flint local.

Agriculture Antiquity Ecology Evolution Science

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