Between the desert and the sown land: Negotiated interactions between hunter-gatherer and early farming communities at Nahal Efe (Negev, Israel) during the Middle PPNB

The archaeological record from Nahal Efe (north-eastern Negev Desert, Israel) provides new insights into the nature, directionality, and social depth of interactions between hunter-gatherer and early farming communities during the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (ca. 8000–7700 cal. BCE). Excavations conducted since 2015 have documented the largest and best-preserved hunter-gatherer settlement currently known in the Negev and Sinai deserts, characterized by substantial architecture, prolonged occupation, and a diverse material culture. Multiple strands of evidence indicate sustained and structured interregional interaction between the inhabitants of Nahal Efe, farming villages to the north and east, and highly mobile hunter-gatherer groups to the south. These include the use of pyrogenic lime plaster technology in domestic contexts, documented through mineralogical and microstructural analyses (infrared spectroscopy and thin-section microscopy); the circulation and on-site transformation of non-local green minerals, investigated in SEM-EDS analyses; the acquisition and diversified use of marine shells; and the transmission of bidirectional blade technology alongside the introduction of exogenous pink flint. Together, these datasets point to recurrent and multidirectional flows of materials, technical knowledge, and symbolic practices. Rather than representing marginal or conservative forager groups, the inhabitants of Nahal Efe emerge as active agents who selectively adopted, adapted, and recontextualized exogenous technologies and materials within locally meaningful practices. The site’s position at the interface of distinct ecological and cultural zones underscores its role as a key node of mediation and cultural brokerage, challenging dichotomous hunter-gatherer and farmer models and highlighting negotiated interaction and cultural entanglement as central processes shaping Neolithic trajectories in the Southern Levant.