Natufian communities in the Levant had permanent settlements of up to several hundred people as early as 13,000 B.C. while still being foragers rather than farmers, hunting gazelles and gathering wild rye, barley, and wheat.
Notes on verification
Well-supported by archaeological consensus across multiple independent academic and reference sources describing Natufian sedentism prior to agriculture. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.875 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- The Birth of Religion (seed:history_and_archaeology)
- https://www2.nau.edu/~gaud/bio301/content/neolth.htm (corroboration)
- https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub362/entry-6006.html (corroboration)