The Natufian period in Syria

The name Natufian had been used for decades after its recognotion as a culture by Dorothy Garrod (1942) to define archaeological sites in Palestine/Israel. When M.C. Cauvin (1991) used this name to ascribe the basal levels of a northern Syrian site (Phase I a Tell Mureybet) in the early 1980s, some controversy was aroused. Over the following decades, many archaeological sites reasonably attributed to the Natufian have been found all over Syria. This chapter describes the results obtained in three main areas, all of them located in the western Syrian fringe, in the north (the Bouqaia basin and the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains), and the south (the Hauran region). The main characteristics of the Natufian technocomplexes in Syria are also cuccinctly discussed.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministries of Culture (IPCE) and of Economy and Competitiveness (grants HAR2011-29486, HAR2013-47480-P and HAR2010-21545-C02-01).Peer reviewe