Practice question · Multiple choice
The Natufians built villages while still foraging, centuries before farming. Why does that sequence complicate the story that agriculture caused settlement?
Hints
- Ask which came first in the Levantine record.
- What makes tending a wild stand worth the labour?
Show the answer
D. Because sedentism came first, so farming cannot be its cause
Why
Reversing the order reverses the explanation. A group already living in one place year-round has a reason to tend the plants nearby, and a cost to walking away from them.
Practise The Mesolithic Transition
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on The Mesolithic Transition
- Order the post-glacial transition.
- Sort each item: Paleolithic strategy or Mesolithic strategy?
- What changed when the last glaciation ended around 11,700 years ago?
- Natufian settlements show sedentism centuries before any domesticated crop appears. Which standard sequence…
- Permanent settlement always required agriculture.
- Why does an immovable grinding mortar tell an archaeologist about intentions rather than about diet?
- Complete the account of the drowned world.