Abstract:

The continued and consistent presence of cemeteries observed in the Levantine Natufian (ca. 15,000–11,600 years cal BP) relates most probably to the fact that the Natufians were the first local society to adopt a sedentary existence, thus becoming partial to a plethora of changes and innovations that such a transformation implies. To enable people to share their living space and daily life with other non-kin group members for long spells of time, there was an urgent need for new regulatory cultural mechanisms and it is a given that funerary customs portray social aspects of the group involved. The Natufians practiced interment of the dead to an extent never known before, yet most of the studies pertaining to those burials furnish basic descriptions while the general socio-cultural context of the burials, and the relationship between the community`s living‑members and the dead has received less attention. As a rule, the burials were commonly treated within a clear dichotomy between living persons residing in the settlement and the dead. The latter were conceived as separated from the former, buried in cemeteries either in dedicated sites or in separate areas within the living settlement. The present study explores the behavioural and ideational aspects reflected in the Natufian burials, using as a case‑study the pit burials unearthed at the cemetery site of Hilazon Tachtit cave. Our findings indicate the existence of a complex procedure of accommodating the dead within the fabric of the Natufian social concepts.