In the archaeological record of the Natufian period, from about 12,500 to 10,200 years ago, in the part of the Middle East known as the Levant - roughly east of the Mediterranean and north of the Arabian Peninsula - we see clear evidence of agricultural origins. The stone tools of the Natufians included many sickle-shaped cutting blades that show a pattern of wear characteristic of cereal harvesting. Also, querns (hand mills) and other stone tools used for processing grain occur in abundance at Natufian sites, and many such tools show signs of long, intensive use. Along with the sickle blades are many grinding stones, primarily mortars and pestles of limestone or basalt. There is also evidence that these heavy grinding stones were transported over long distances, more than 30 kilometers in some cases, and this is not something known to have been done by people of preceding periods. Fishhooks and weights for sinking fishing nets attest to the growing importance of fish in the diet in some areas. Stone vessels indicate an increased need for containers, but there is no evidence of Natufian clay working or pottery. Studies of the teeth of Natufians also strongly suggest that these people specialized in collecting cereals and may have been cultivating them and in the process of domesticating them, but they were also still hunter-foragers who intensively hunted gazelle and deer in more lush areas and wild goats and equids in more arid zones.

The Natufians had a different settlement pattern from that of their predecessors. Some of their base camps were far larger (over 1,000 square meters) than any of those belonging to earlier periods, and they may have lived in some of these camps for half the year or even more. In some of the camps, people made foundations and other architectural elements out of limestone blocks. Trade in shell, obsidian, and other commodities seems to have been on the rise, and anthropologists suspect that the exchange of perishables (such as skins, foodstuffs) and salt was also on the increase. With the growing importance of wild cereals in the diet, salt probably became for the first time a near necessity: people who eat a lot of meat get many essential salts from this diet, but diets based on cereals can be deficient in salts. Salt was probably also important as a food preservative in early villages.

As always, there is more to a major cultural change than simply a shift in economics. The Natufians made (and presumably wore) beads and pendants in many materials, including gemstones and marine shells that had to be imported, and it is possible that this ornamentation actually reflects a growing sense of ethnic identity and perhaps some differences in personal and group status. Cleverly carved figurines of animals, women, and other subjects occur in many sites, and Natufian period cave paintings have been found in Anatolia, Syria, and Iran. More than 400 Natufian burials have been found, most of them simple graves set in house floors. As archaeologist Belfer-Cohen notes, these burials may reflect an ancestor cult and a growing sense of community emotional ties and attachment to a particular place, and toward the end of the Natufian period, people in this area were making a strict separation between living quarters and burial grounds. In contrast with the Pleistocene cultures of the Levant, Natufian culture appears to have experienced considerable social change.

The question of why the Natufians differed from their predecessors in these and other ways and why they made these first steps toward farming as a way of life remains unclear. There were climate changes, of course, and growing aridity and rising population densities may have forced them to intensify the exploitation of cereals, which in turn might have stimulated the development of sickles and other tools and the permanent communities that make agriculture efficient. But precisely how these factors interacted with others at play is poorly understood.

Natufian Culture在大约12500年到10200年之前，纳图夫文明时期的考古记录中，我们可以看到农业起源的明确证据，纳图夫位于中东的一个被称为累范特的地区——大约在地中海东部，阿拉伯半岛的北部。纳图夫人的石器包含许多镰刀状的刀片，这些刀片显示出了收割谷物的磨耗特征。同时，手推石磨和其他被用来加工谷物的石器在纳图夫遗址中大量出现，并且很多这样的石器都显示出了长期、集约利用的痕迹。和镰状刀片一起出现的还有很多研磨石，它们主要是石灰石或玄武岩制成的研钵和杵。也有证据表明，这些沉重的研磨石是从很远的地方运过来的，某些情况下运输距离可能超过30公里，这不是目前已知的早期人类能做到的事情。用于使渔网下沉的鱼钩和砝码证明鱼类在一些地区的饮食结构中变得越来越重要。石头容器表明了人们对容器需求的增加，但是没有证据表明纳图夫人用黏土或陶土制作器皿。对纳图夫人牙齿的研究也强有力地表明这些人专门收集谷物并且可能会种植谷物，或正处于驯化作物的过程中，但是纳图夫人也仍然是狩猎者，他们会在一些植被更繁茂的地区集中猎杀羚羊和鹿，在较为干旱的地区猎杀野山羊和马。 纳图夫人有着和他们祖先不同的聚居模式。他们的一些营地要比以前的任何营地都大得多（超过1000平方米），而且他们有可能在一些营地住上超过半年，甚至是更长的时间。在一些营地里，人们用石灰石岩块搭建了地基和其他建筑构件。贝壳、黑曜石以及其他商品的贸易在不断增长，人类学家们猜测易腐食品的交换（例如兽皮和食物）以及盐的交换也在不断增长。随着野生谷物在日常饮食中的重要性日益增加，食盐可能第一次几乎成为一种必需品：吃很多肉的人可以从肉类中获取必要的盐分，但是以谷物为食的可能会导致盐分的缺乏。在早期的村庄里，盐可能是一种重要的食品防腐剂。 一如既往地，一个重大的文化变革不仅仅是由简单的经济的变化所造成的。纳图夫人用很多材料制作了（可能穿戴了）小珠子和垂饰，包括宝石和海里的贝壳，这些材料都需要进口才能获得，可能这些装饰品事实上反映了民族认同感的增强，或者反映了身份和族群地位上的一些不同。巧妙雕刻的动物、女人以及其他物品的塑像出现在了许多纳图夫遗址中，纳图夫时期的洞穴壁画曾在安纳托利亚、叙利亚和伊朗被发现。超过400座纳图夫人的墓葬被发现，其中大多数都是建在楼层里的简单的坟墓。据考古学家Belfer-Cohen记载，这些墓葬可能反映出了一种祖先崇拜，团队意识情感纽带的增强以及对特殊地区的一种依赖性，直到纳图夫时代后期，这里的人们才将生活区和墓葬区严格地区分开。与累范特的更新世文化相比，纳图夫文化好像经历了更大的社会变化。 关于为什么纳图夫人与他们的祖先有着这样或那样的不同，以及他们为什么身先士卒将农耕作为一种生活方式，至今仍然是个谜。当然，天气变化是一个原因，越来越严重的干旱以及人口密度的增长可能迫使他们加强对谷物的开发利用，这转而可能会促进镰刀、其他工具以及使农业变得高效化的永久群落的发展。但是人们还不清楚这些因素具体是什么时候与其他起作用的因素发生相互影响的。