At the end of the last Ice Age, around 13,000 BC, the climate became warmer and wetter in the Fertile Crescent. The largely nomadic population of this region began to take advantage of the local species of wheat and barley, and animals such as gazelle. The first farmers may have belonged to the so-called Natufian culture of the eastern Mediterranean. Whether the Natufians deliberately cultivated cereals rather than gathering wild varieties of grain is still debated. They buried their dead close to their houses with jewellery made of bone, shell, and stone. The Natufian sites were abandoned about 9500 BC.

Some of the first developments which resulted in the domestication of wild varieties of sheep and goats took place at permanent villages like Abu Hureyra in the valley of the River Euphrates in modern Syria. Abu Hureyra was founded by a group of hunters and gatherers who adopted agriculture around 9300 BC. The people lived in mud-brick houses, hunted gazelle, and grew a wide variety of plants. The examination of their skeletons has revealed deformities that have been associated with repetitive agricultural work, particularly the grinding of grain. Later inhabitants of Abu Hureyra herded sheep and goats. By 8500 BC farming settlements had appeared throughout the Fertile Crescent.