New in Sights into Late Natufian Bed Rock Fea Tures (mor Tars and Cupmarks)

Ab stract It has been sug gested since the be gin ning of pre his toric re search in the Lev ant, that the Natufians used stone mor tars for the pro cess ing of ce re als and/or other veg e tal re sources, though di rect ev i dence is still lack ing. A re cent de tailed study of more than 100 bed rock mor tars and cupmarks in di cates that, a) they are found in many Late Natufian sites, re gard less of their size and eco log i cal set ting, b) the va ri ety of di men sions and types is wide, c) in some cases flint cores and stone ob jects were bur ied in them, d) some spec i mens seem to have been de lib er ately pierced through their bot tom, e) in some cases a stone was firmly lodged into the shaft, f) it seems that cer tain types could not have served for food pro cess ing, or at least do not of fer a con ve nient set ting for pro cess ing flo ral ma te rial, nor to ex tract the pro cessed sub stance from the shaft, and g) at least at one site these fea tures ap pear to be as so ci ated with hu man buri als. We sug gest that the new data re gard ing the Natufian pro duc tion and use of bed rock fea tures should not be viewed solely in the tech no log i cal and pro duc tion spheres. Rather, we ten ta tively pro pose that by the Late Natufian, the man u fac ture of some large/deep stone holes may have had an ad di tional so cial or even sym bolic role.