Nahal Ein Gev II
נחל עין גב II · Ein Gev II · NEG II
Epipalaeolithic Late Natufian (12,500–11,700 BP)·Late Natufian (Levant)·🇮🇱 Northern District, Eastern Galilee, Jordan Valley escarpment above Sea of Galilee, Israel
About
About Nahal Ein Gev II
Late Natufian hamlet (c.12,500–11,700 cal BP) on an alluvial fan dropping to the Sea of Galilee, excavated by L. Grosman (Hebrew University, 2010–). Preserved curvilinear stone architecture, bedrock mortars with pistils, art objects (carved pebbles with geometric meanders and a small human figurine), and 200+ burials including unusual decorative grave goods. Provides Epipalaeolithic sedentary hunter-gatherer continuity on the lake margin immediately before PPNA Neolithisation, bridging Wadi Hammeh 27 and the Jordan Valley Natufian world.
Why it mattersFirst large horizontal Late Natufian exposure on Sea of Galilee shore; art and mortars prove complex symbolic and plant-processing before domestication.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Meander art — notation or shamanic?
Theories
- 01Natufian lake sedentism as direct precursor to PPNA villages
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 12,500 BP (Late Natufian)
- Period
- Epipalaeolithic Late Natufian (12,500–11,700 BP)
- Culture
- Late Natufian (Levant)
- Builders
- Natufian sedentary foragers
- Purpose
- Semi-sedentary fisher-forager village exploiting lake and oak woodland
- Abandoned
- c.11,700 BP (onset of Younger Dryas)
- Rediscovered
- 1970s Bar-Yosef surveys; excavated 2010– Grosman (HUJI)
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.12500 BP
Founding curvilinear houses on fan
c.12000 BP
Burial cluster with carved pebbles deposited
2010
Large-scale horizontal exposure begins
On the ground
Structures & features
32.7830° N · 35.6400° E · -10 m · 2 mapped features
Bedrock mortar field
mortar12 bedrock mortars in concentration with grinding slabs
32.7832° N · 35.6403° EMeander pebble cache
artPit with carved limestone pebbles showing meander motif
32.7828° N · 35.6398° E