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“From the terraces of the Nile valley to the highlands of northern Iraq characteristic flints attest the presence of man as far back as the Early Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age, perhaps (but who can say?) two hundred thousand years ago. The succeeding Middle Paleolithic (richly witnessed by skeletal remains, especially in Palestine) and Late Paleolithic found man in his long cave-dwelling stage. He lived entirely by hunting and foraging. It was only as the last ice age ended (in warmer climes the last pluvial period) approximately in the ninth millennium B.C., and the rigors of climate abated, that man was able to take the first steps toward a food-producing economy: he learned that wild grains could be cultivated and animals herded for food. This transition began in the so-called Mesolithic Age (before ca. 8000 B.C.); the Natufian culture of Palestine (so called from caves in the Wadi en-Natuf where it was first discovered) is an illustration of it. Here we see man still living in caves, but having also begun to establish crude settlements for seasonal, and even for continuous, occupation. The earliest settlement at Jericho belongs to this period, and it was in existence by ca. 8000 B.C.), if not earlier still. Although Natufian man lived chiefly by hunting, foraging, and fishing, the presence of sickles, querns, mortars and pestles indicates that he had learned to harvest and prepare wild grains for food. The herding of certain animals seems also to have been practiced.”