Anthropologists confirm existence of specialized sheep-hunting camp in prehistoric Lebanon

NEWS RELEASE 22-JAN-2020

Early evidence of complex system of hunter-gatherer practices just before domestication

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

TORONTO, ON - Anthropologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) have confirmed the existence more than 10,000 years ago of a hunting camp in what is now northeastern Lebanon - one that straddles the period marking the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural settlements at the onset of the last stone age.

Analysis of decades-old data collected from Nachcharini Cave high in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range that forms the modern-day border between Lebanon and Syria, shows the site was a short-term hunting camp that served as a temporary outpost to emerging and more substantial villages elsewhere in the region, and that sheep were the primary game.

The finding confirms the hypothesis of retired U of T archaeologist Bruce Schroeder, who excavated the site on several occasions beginning in 1972, but who had to discontinue his work when the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975.

"The site represents the best evidence of a special-purpose camp - not a village or settlement - in the region," said Stephen Rhodes, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T and lead author of a study published today in PLOS ONE. "The cave was a contemporary of larger settlements further south in the Jordan Valley, and is the first site of its kind to show the predominance of sheep among the animals hunted by its temporary inhabitants."

More:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/uot-ace012220.php