The Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age) in Palestine was first fully examined by the British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod in her excavations of caves on the slopes of Mount Carmel in 1929–34. The finds showed that at that stage Palestine was culturally linked with Europe, and human remains were recovered showing that the inhabitants were of the same group as the Neanderthal inhabitants of Europe. The Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age) is best represented by a culture called Natufian, known from excavations at ʿAin Mallāha and Jericho. The Natufians lived in caves, as did their Paleolithic predecessors, but there is a possibility that they were experimenting in agriculture, for the importance to them of the collection of grain is shown by the artistic care that they lavished on the carving of the hafts of their sickles and in the provision of utensils for grinding. During the subsequent Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) humans gradually undertook the domestication of animals, the cultivation of crops, the production of pottery, and the building of towns (e.g., Jericho by 7000 bce).
