大家好，我是SK2实力养成班及J2TOEFL机经顾问 J2.
之前分享过考托福你不能不认识的两种“人”，讲到了Neanderthals 跟
Anasazi, 还没看过的同学请看这里：
https://reurl.cc/MZvRmp
今天来继续认识一个距今14000-11500年前的文明—Natufian.
Natufian 居住在Levant。Levant包含了现在的Israel, the Palestinian
territories, Lebanon, Jordan, and western Syria.
在托福中提到Natufian最特别的是，考古学家普遍认为要形成村庄或文明，
农业是必要的前提。但Natufian即使没进入到农业社会，过著采集狩猎的生
活，但还是保持定居的形式。
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.
并且出现很多发展，像是盖谷仓(granaries), 还发明石制镰刀(stone
scythes), 杵跟研钵(pestles and mortars)来磨(grind)谷物。
但在一万三千年前，气候变得又冷又干，进入一个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.
所以他们只好回到传统的游牧生活。（ancient mobile hunter-gatherer
lifestyle）而且也必须猎捕更多样的猎物得以生存，像是小型的动物。
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.
另外他们也似乎开始尝试种植黑麦。在Abu Hureyra这个遗址发现到当地黑
麦比野生的还要大，可能是驯化的证据，因为驯化无可避免的会让品质更
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.
甚至做了一切努力试着把黑麦种活，像是除杂草、移植、灌溉、除虫等等。
(weeding, transplanting, watering, pest control)
但终究养不活整个村庄，所以还是回到游牧方式，原本驯化的黑麦也变回野
生的状态。
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.
这个文明在托福中考过不少次，所以同学不妨先了解一下，更多文章请参考：
https://reurl.cc/g87ZjN
更多关键字：Neolithic Revolution
Cheers,
J2