Age assessment of Natufian remains from the land of Israel

The Natufian population of Israel was first described by Garrod in 1932, an d since then hundreds of skeletons have been discovered in archaeological e xcavations. Their culture is amply discussed in the literature as designati ng the transitional stage between extractive and productive subsistence eco nomics in the period ca. 13,000-10,000 years BP. The Natufians represent a local population with strong biologic ties to the more ancient Upper Paleol ithic inhabitants of the area. The scope of the present study is to review, on the basis of new skeletal material and new age-assessing methods, the a ge and sex tables attributed to this group, which usually indicate a mean a ge of death around 32 years. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.