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Representing a transitional phase. Khiamian culture is part of the broader Natufian culture. And, it’s link to the neolithic period.

Dated to around 9700 or 8600 BC. It transitioned into pre-pottery neolithic a (PPNA). (1)

El Khiam has some of the oldest chert arrow heads, with lateral notches. (2) The ‘El Khiam points’

On the banks of the Dead sea. This stone technology may have been developed
It has helped connect sites from this period. Including: Azraq Jordan, Abu Madi Sinai, and Mureybet. Note that these tools were not just projectile points. They were also used multi purposefully. Such as for carving; as knifes or drills. (3)

Khiamian is placed in the continuity of the Natufian
During this period, it’s believed for the first time houses were built on the ground level itself. Not just half below ground as was previously done.

Some of this culture were still hunter-gatherers (4)
At sites such as Ohalo II, and in Anatolia. Experiments with wild grain processing may have been completed. 12900 years ago. (5)  Agriculture at the time would have been quite primitive.

At the end of the period the El Khiam point was still common. Microliths disappeared though. And, bifacial core knapped stone tools appeared. Such as axes and adzes.

The Khiamien also see changed in the symbolic aspects of culture
Small female statuettes, as well as by the burying of aurochs skulls. According to some.

The beginning of worship of Woman and the bull (6)

The largest and most embellished/decorated architecture at the end of this period were in the Northern Levant.

There was the communal gathering building of Jerf el-Ahmar. And, the monumental ceremonial complexes of Göbekli Tepe.

One of the significant aspects of the Khiamian culture is its transitional nature. It marks a period of change when people in the region were experimenting with new ways of subsistence, and gradually moving toward settled agriculture. This transition laid the foundation for the later Neolithic cultures, which were characterized by agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals.

The Khiamian culture provides valuable insight into cultural and technological developments that occurred in the Levant during the late epipaleolithic period. It is an important phase in the region’s prehistory, as it represents a crucial step in the transition from a primarily hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more sedentary, agriculture-based way of life.

Cite: 1) Belfer-Cohen, Anna; Goring-Morris, Nigel (2020-12-01). “From the Epipalaeolithic into the earliest Neolithic (PPNA) in the South Levant” (https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/DocumentaPraehistorica/article/view/47.3). Documenta Praehistorica. 47: 36–52. doi:10.4312/dp.47.3 (https://doi.org/10.4312%2Fdp.47.3). ISSN 1854-2492 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1854-2492).

2) C Calvet 2007. Zivilisationen – wie die Kultur nach Sumer kam. Munich. p. 126 (https://books.google.com/books?id=z65zihGNT6AC&dq=Khiamien+10.000&pg=PA126).

3) Abbès, Frédéric (2007). “Les débitages laminaires de la fin du PPNA (Jerf el Ahmar, Mureybet, Cheikh Hassan)” (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260086938).
Systèmes techniques et communautés du néolithique précéramique au Proche-Orient: 127–136.

4) K. Schmidt. 2008. Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. Das rätselhafte Heiligtum der Steinzeitjäger. Munich.

5) Turneya, C.S.M. and H. Brown. 2007. “Catastrophic early Holocene sea level rise, human
migration and the Neolithic transition in Europe.” Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 2036–2041.

6) J. Cauvin. 2000. The birth of the gods and the origins of agriculture. Cambridge. p.(https://books.google.com/books?id=4SV27pndh60C&q=The+birth+of+the+gods+and+the+origins+of+agriculture). Cf. C.

Bibliography: Garfinkel, Yosef; Dani, Nadel (1989). “The Sultanian flint assemblage from Gesher and its
implications for recognizing early Neolithic entities in the Levant” (https://www.jstor.org/s
table/41492369). Paléorient. 15 (2): 139–151. doi:10.3406/paleo.1989.4515 (https://doi.org/
10.3406%2Fpaleo.1989.4515). JSTOR 41492369 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41492369) – via JSTOR.

Bar-Yosef, Ofer (2001). “From sedentary foragers to village hierarchies: the emergence of social institutions” (https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/3759/110p001.pdf)
(PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. 110: 1–38.