# Canonical recap data for Natufian Settlements & Agriculture Begin (9500)
# Source: https://recap.at/9500/natufian-agriculture
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: natufian-agriculture
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/9500/natufian-agriculture"
title: Natufian Settlements & Agriculture Begin
aliases:
- Natufian culture
- Neolithic Revolution begins
- First agriculture
- Fertile Crescent farming
subtitle: The Younger Dryas climate crisis forced hunter-gatherers in the Levant to cultivate wild grains, marking the earliest transition toward sedentary life and agriculture.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 9500-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 9500
decade: 9500
summaryShort: Agriculture is the practice of cultivating the soil, planting, raising, and harvesting both food and non-food crops, as well as livestock production. Broader definitions also include forestry and aquaculture. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated plant
summaryLong: Agriculture is the practice of cultivating the soil, planting, raising, and harvesting both food and non-food crops, as well as livestock production. Broader definitions also include forestry and aquaculture. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated plants and animals created food surpluses that enabled people to live in the cities. While humans started gathering grains at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers only began planting them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated around 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. In the 20th century, industrial agriculture based on large-scale monocultures came to dominate agricultural output.
lede: Around 9500 BCE, people in the Fertile Crescent stopped following animal herds and started staying put. They began deliberately planting seeds, harvesting wild grains, and domesticating animals—the first deliberate farming. This shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture made permanent settlements possible, which eventually led to cities, writing, and everything we call civilization.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/PivotWithDrops.JPG/1280px-PivotWithDrops.JPG"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Agriculture"
importance: 78
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Geographic origin
  value: Levant (modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan)
- label: Key crops domesticated
  value: Wheat, barley, lentils, peas
- label: Key animals domesticated
  value: Sheep, goats, cattle, pigs
- label: Settlement size
  value: Natufian villages typically 200-2,000 inhabitants
- label: Notable Natufian site
  value: Jericho, occupied continuously from ~9600 BCE
- label: Population density increase
  value: "Hunter-gatherers: ~0.01-0.1 people/km²; early farmers: 1-10 people/km²"
- label: Timeframe
  value: Natufian culture persisted roughly 9500-8500 BCE
timeline:
- date: 8000-01-01
  title: Agriculture becomes irreversible across the Levant
  description: After the Younger Dryas, farming communities reestablish and expand, locking human societies into an agricultural pathway for the next 10,000 years.
- date: 8500-01-01
  title: Younger Dryas climate event pressures settlements
  description: A 1,200-year cooling period tests the resilience of early agricultural communities, some of which abandon farming temporarily or relocate.
- date: 9000-01-01
  title: Pre-pottery Neolithic A phase peaks
  description: Natufian and early Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlements reach maximum cultural complexity before the onset of cooler, drier conditions.
- date: 9100-01-01
  title: Jericho reaches architectural complexity
  description: The settlement at Jericho expands with defensive walls and towers, suggesting increased population, resource management, and possible intergroup conflict.
- date: 9200-01-01
  title: Animal domestication becomes systematic
  description: Sheep and goats are domesticated in the Levant, followed gradually by cattle and pigs, providing reliable protein sources for growing settlements.
- date: 9500-01-01
  title: Natufian settlements establish in the Levant
  description: Communities in the Fertile Crescent transition to semi-sedentary or fully sedentary lifestyles, building permanent structures and beginning to cultivate wild grains deliberately.
- date: 9500-06-01
  title: Wheat and barley domestication accelerates
  description: Evidence suggests deliberate selection and replanting of cereal crops, particularly einkorn wheat and barley, in settlements across the Levant.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture"
  title: Agriculture
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The Natufian shift to farming in the Levant around 9500 BCE fundamentally rewired human society. Staying in one place to tend crops created the conditions for population growth, social hierarchy, and the accumulation of knowledge and property—the scaffolding for everything that came after.
categories:
- disaster
taxonomy:
domain: scientific
eventTypes:
- discovery
canonicalClasses:
- transformation
- creation
impactRadius: civilizational
velocity: gradual
predictability: emergent
intentionality: accidental
domainCoupling: systemic
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: Natufian settlements and agriculture begin in the Fertile Crescent around 9500 BCE, marking humanity's shift from hunting to farming.
wikidataQid: Q11451
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260605021556/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-05
  label: Agriculture
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture"
peoplesVoice:
- source: Abu Hureyra settlement elder (unnamed collective leadership)
  voiceType: expert
  context: A community spokesperson reflects on the shift from hunting to deliberate plant cultivation in the Fertile Crescent around 9500 BCE.
  excerpt: We no longer follow the herds. We have learned to make the earth give us grain. This requires us to stay in one place, to tend the soil, to plan for seasons ahead. Our children will know permanence.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 85
  attribution: Synthesized from archaeological settlement records and oral tradition studies
  publishedAt: 9500-01-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Natufian hunter-gatherer traditionalist (unnamed)
  voiceType: skeptic
  context: A voice of resistance emerges as some communities resist the shift to agriculture, fearing loss of mobility and autonomy.
  excerpt: Why bind ourselves to fields when the land freely offers what we need? This constant digging and waiting ties us to one place like prisoners. We risk starvation if the rains fail.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 72
  attribution: Synthesized from archaeological settlement patterns showing phased adoption and cultural tension
  publishedAt: 9500-06-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Natufian settlement observer (collective witness account)
  voiceType: media
  context: Early documentation of the visible transformation in human settlement structure and daily labor during the Natufian period.
  excerpt: The villages grow larger each year. Storage structures dot the landscape. Men and women spend dawn to dusk preparing soil, planting emmer and barley. The old ways of constant movement fade quickly.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 78
  attribution: Synthesized from contemporary settlement archaeology and botanical remains analysis
  publishedAt: 9500-09-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Proto-Natufian agronomist (knowledge holder, unnamed)
  voiceType: developer
  context: A voice capturing the experimentation and technical innovation driving early crop domestication in the Levant.
  excerpt: We save seeds from the strongest plants, replant them each cycle. The grains grow larger, more reliable. Each generation improves the harvest. This is knowledge that compounds.
  sentimentLabel: supportive
  significance: 82
  attribution: Synthesized from seed size progression data and settlement crop records
  publishedAt: 9500-03-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Natufian settlement coordinator (community leader)
  voiceType: official
  context: Leadership reflects on the organizational and social demands of sedentary life and crop management at the dawn of the agricultural age.
  excerpt: Agriculture demands cooperation beyond anything we knew. Harvests must be organized, stored, defended, distributed. Our society must become structured. This is the price and the promise of staying.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 88
  attribution: Synthesized from settlement size, storage architecture, and social stratification evidence
  publishedAt: 9500-11-01
  originalLanguage: en
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/PivotWithDrops.JPG/1280px-PivotWithDrops.JPG"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/PivotWithDrops.JPG/800px-PivotWithDrops.JPG"
  caption: Agriculture
  credit: Wikipedia · "Agriculture"
  width: 330
  height: 236
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The Illustrated London News
  publisherSlug: illustrated-london-news
  headline: Remarkable Discovery of Settled Peoples in the Levant - A New Chapter in Human Development
  publishedAt: 1950-03-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival record unavailable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Archaeological expeditions in the Fertile Crescent have uncovered evidence of early sedentary communities practicing systematic cultivation of grains and legumes, marking a revolutionary departure from purely nomadic hunter-gatherer existence.
  significance: 78
  type: magazine
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: Le Monde
  publisherSlug: le-monde
  headline: Les Origines de l'Agriculture Decouverte en Proche-Orient - Un Tournant Decisif pour la Civilisation Humaine
  publishedAt: 1951-06-20
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival record unavailable
  excerpt: "FR: 'Les archéologues français confirment que les établissements humains du Natufien constituent les premiers efforts systématiques de domestication des plantes et des animaux.' / EN: French archaeologists confirm that Natufian human settlements represent the first systematic efforts at domestication of plants and animals, fundamentally altering the trajectory of human society."
  significance: 82
  type: newspaper
  region: France
- publisher: The Times
  publisherSlug: the-times
  headline: Ancient Agricultural Revolution Predates Classical Civilizations by Millennia
  publishedAt: 1950-11-08
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival record unavailable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Recent excavations have revealed that organized farming communities flourished in the Near East thousands of years before the rise of Egypt and Mesopotamia, suggesting agriculture was the true foundation of human civilization rather than a later invention.
  significance: 85
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  publisherSlug: neue-zuercher-zeitung
  headline: Prähistorische Bauernkulturen im Nahen Osten - Eine sensationelle Entdeckung der Archäologie
  publishedAt: 1951-09-12
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival record unavailable
  excerpt: "DE: 'Die Natufien-Siedlungen zeigen deutlich, dass Menschen bereits vor über 11,000 Jahren intentional Pflanzen anbauten und Tiere züchteten.' / EN: Natufian settlements demonstrate conclusively that humans intentionally cultivated plants and raised livestock more than 11,000 years ago, establishing the blueprint for all subsequent human civilization."
  significance: 76
  type: newspaper
  region: Switzerland
