大家好，我是SK2實力養成班及J2TOEFL機經顧問 J2.
之前分享過考托福你不能不認識的兩種「人」，講到了 Neanderthals 跟 Anasazi, 還沒看過的同學請看這裡：https://reurl.cc/MZvRmp
今天來繼續認識一個距今14000-11500年前的文明—Natufian.
Natufian 居住在Levant。Levant包含了現在的Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan, and western Syria.
在托福中提到Natufian最特別的是，考古學家普遍認為要形成村莊或文明，農業是必要的前提。但Natufian即使沒進入到農業社會，過著採集狩獵的生活，但還是保持定居的形式。
The Natufians were hunter-gatherers who subsisted on dozens of wild species, but they lived in permanent villages and devoted much of their time to the intensive gathering and processing of wild cereals such as rye, barley, and wheat.
並且出現很多發展，像是蓋穀倉(granaries), 還發明石製鐮刀(stone scythes), 杵跟研缽(pestles and mortars)來磨(grind)穀物。
但在一萬三千年前，氣候變得又冷又乾，進入一個叫新仙女木期的冰期。
Around 13,000 years ago, their climate began to change, becoming colder and drier, a period known as the Younger Dryas.
所以他們只好回到傳統的遊牧生活。（ancient mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle）而且也必須獵捕更多樣的獵物得以生存，像是小型的動物。
One response was to hunt a much wider range of animals than before, and hence we find in Late Natufian settlements that bones of many small-game species.
另外他們也似乎開始嘗試種植黑麥。在Abu Hureyra這個遺址發現到當地黑麥比野生的還要大，可能是馴化的證據，因為馴化無可避免的會讓品質更好。
The village of Abu Hureyra, in what is now northern Syria,seemingly tried to cultivate local stands of rye, perhaps replanting them. When the archaeologist Gordon Hillman studied the cereal grains from the site, he found that some were bigger than their wild equivalents—a possible sign of domestication, because cultivation inevitably increases qualities, such as fruit and seed size, that people find valuable.
甚至做了一切努力試著把黑麥種活，像是除雜草、移植、灌溉、除蟲等等。(weeding, transplanting, watering, pest control)
但終究養不活整個村莊，所以還是回到遊牧方式，原本馴化的黑麥也變回野生的狀態。
But even this could not support the village—it was abandoned as people were forced to return to a mobile lifestyle, perhaps carrying pouches of cereal grain. The domesticated rye of Abu Hureyra reverted to its wild state.
這個文明在托福中考過不少次，所以同學不妨先了解一下，更多文章請參考：
https://reurl.cc/g87ZjN
更多關鍵字：Neolithic Revolution
Cheers,
J2
