Charred wood remains in the natufian sequence of el-Wad terrace (Israel): New insights into the climatic, environmental and cultural changes at the end of the Pleistocene Valentina Caracuta a, b, * , Mina Weinstein-Evron c , Reuven Yeshurun c , Daniel Kaufman c , Alexander Tsatskin c , Elisabetta Boaretto a, b a Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, 76100 Rehovot, Israel b D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, 76100 Rehovot, Israel c Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel article info Article history: Received 17 July 2015 Received in revised form 19 October 2015 Accepted 22 October 2015 Available online xxx Keywords: Anthracology Radiocarbon D 13 C Palaeoclimate Palaeoenvironments Natufian abstract The major social and economic changes associated with the rise of a sedentary lifestyle and the gradual transition to food production in the southern Levant are often considered to have been triggered by climate changes at the end of the Pleistocene (~20,000e11,000 years BP). This explanation, however, is biased by the scarcity of high-resolution climate records directly associated with human activity and the lack of refined palaeoecological studies from multi-stratified sites in the area. Here, we present the results of an anthracological analysis, carried out on charcoals collected along a continuous column of archaeological sediments in the Natufian site of el-Wad Terrace (Mount Carmel, Israel). We also present the carbon isotopes analysis of 14 C-dated archaeological remains of Amygdalus sp. The analyses of charcoal shows the predominance of an oak forest including Quercus calliprinos and ithaburensis around the site during the Early Natufian building phase (~14,600e13,700 cal BP), and the values of D 13 C point to a high rainfall rate. This period is followed by a marked decrease in the local rainfall between ~13,700 and 12,000 cal BP). The reduction, culturally associated with the latest Early Natufian and the Late Natufian, is independently recorded by the speleothems of the region: Soreq Cave and Jerusalem Cave. This period incorporates an increase in drought tolerant species such as Amygdalus sp. Thermo-Mediterranean species, such as Olea europaea and Ceratonia siliqua, as well as Pistacia palaestina, which dominate the modern landscape, become established in the Holocene. We conclude that the Natufian settlement at el-Wad Terrace flourished in the context of oak forests, and subsequently occupation intensity decreased in concurrence to the drying trend. This shift does not correspond to the cultural typology (i.e. Early Natufian vs. Late Natufian). Human response to climate change at the terminal Pleistocene Levant was multifaceted and localized. Its understanding requires the analysis of records that are well-tied to human ecology and behavior. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The end of the Pleistocene was characterized by significant climate changes which, although global, impacted various human populations in different ways. This was a critical period in human cultural evolution including the appearance of the first sedentary communities in the southern Levant, foreshadowing the transition to agriculture. The interplay of environmental settings, as well as the level of social complexity and technological skills account for the specific responses of human populations to palae- oenvironmental changes. The Epipaleolithic archaeological record of the southern Levant, namely the Kebaran, Geometric Kebaran and especially the Natu- fian cultures (~20,000e11,500 years BP) has provided rich infor- mation concerning human adaptations to the terminal Pleistocene environmental setting at the threshold to agriculture. Major cli- matic changes are recorded in the local natural proxies e.g., spe- leothems (Bar-Matthews et al., 1997) and several studies have tried to investigate the possible connections between the climatic vari- ations and the cultural developments and changes in subsistence * Corresponding author. Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archae- ology and Anthropology, 76100 Rehovot, Israel. E-mail address: valentina.caracuta@weizmann.ac.il (V. Caracuta). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.034 0277-3791/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Quaternary Science Reviews 131 (2016) 20e32