The
Natufian culture was an
Epipaleolithic culture that existed from 12,500 to 9,500 BC in the
Levant, a region in the
Eastern Mediterranean. It was unusual in that it was
sedentary, or semi-sedentary, before the introduction of
agriculture. The Natufian communities are possibly the ancestors of the builders of the first
Neolithic settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world. There is some evidence for the deliberate cultivation of
cereals, specifically
rye, by the Natufian culture, at
Tell Abu Hureyra, the site of earliest evidence of agriculture in the world. Generally, though, Natufians made use of wild cereals. Animals hunted included
gazelles. According to
Christy G. Turner II, there is an archaeological and physical anthropological reason for a relationship between the modern
Semitic-speaking populations of the
Levant and the Natufians.