1 103 A The Natufian period @ Around 11,000-9000 BC many settlements of small round huts developed in the Levant, concentrated in areas where wild cereals grew. These could be stored, one harvest supplying a family's annual needs, along with hunted game. Permanent settlements made possible the accumulation of non-portable possessions like heavy querns (grindstones) for grinding grain.
# Natufian, Jericho quern
2 102 B The Pre-pottery Neolithic @ By 9000 settlements were beginning to appear in areas outside the natural range of wild cereals. Here the inhabitants grew cereals but still hunted wild animals. An outstanding settlement is Jericho, substantially built, with a massive wall and tower. Pottery was not at first made but by 7000 BC was becoming widespread.
# Pre-pottery Neolithic, Jericho tower
3 102 C The Zagros region @ Before 7000 BC, villages appeared in the Zagros mountains based on cereal agriculture, some with domestic goats, pigs and sheep, while at other sites hunting and gathering still continued. Stone sculptures and figures and vessels of unbaked clay were being made; later villagers began to fire their pottery.
# Zagros, Tepe Sarab Venus figurine
4 103 D Anatolia @ Settled villages began to appear in Anatolia after 8000 BC, their inhabitants keeping animals and cultivating plants. Some have quite elaborate buildings: one at «ayˆn¸ may have been a three-roomed shrine; others were perhaps community storerooms. «ayˆn¸ may have traded copper from a nearby source: unusually for the period it had many copper objects.
