Archaeology final

misconceptions of Neanderthals

• primitive

• barbaric

• no language

• hairy

• dumb

Boule

• said neanderthals are sub human

• used one sample w/ issues to represent whole species (misrepresented anatomy)

Neanderthals vs. humans

multiregional continuity or out of Africa replacement?

neanderthal traits

• brow ridge

• big nose

• retreating chin

• large teeth

• occipital bun

Shanidar Iraq

showed that neanderthals have social organization + skills

arrival of homosapien sapiens

• 200,000 years ago

• ability to speak

• symbolic thought

• Herto, Ethiopia

neanderthal + homosapien technology

• similar

• levallois (core + flakes)

• two subspecies had similar technology

big evolutionary picture of neanderthals

common ancestor splits into homosapien sapiens and homo neanderthalensis

they coexisted

Neanderthal identity

• speech system similar to homosapiens

• complex as any H-G

• fire, fishing, hunting

• same tech as H.S.S.

Hunter gatherers (H-G)

• people who collect food from naturally occuring resources

why study H-G?

understand past human behavior

H-G group size

• 25-150 people

• several families + extended families

• size can change depending on resources

H-G group structure

• fluid

• members change groups frequently

H-G leadership

• based on ability + experience

• situational (who has better experience in different aspects)

• egalitarian (equality)

H-G mobility

• frequent movers

• information exchange

• mating networks

• moved with seasons to exploit resources

Mousterian Debate

1. Lewis Binford: tech. variations reflect different tasks

2. Francois Bordes: tech variations reflect different Neanderthal groups

Ethnoarchaeology (Lewis Binford)

work among living groups

Foragers

• frequent moves to different resources

• daisy pattern

Cost and Benefit analysis

• move when one spot gets used up

• short move distances

Collectors

• move resources to people

• task groups

• multiple site types

Storage (collectors)

• delayed use of resources

• critical in some environments

Uniform environment?

foragers (equator)

patchy environment with seasonality?

collectors + storage! (arctic)

Beringia

• land bridge when sea level between Siberia and Alaska drops

• people can move from Asia to the Americas

Ice-free corridor

• south through north america

• allowed animals + humans to travel

Clovis culture

• 12,000 ya

• large game hunters

• highly mobile

• large territories

• low populations

• rapid expansion

• hunt to extinction

clovis points

• high quality material

Getting South - Coastal route

just inland off of coast then explore inside

Bradley-Stanford Model

• atlantic crossings?

• similarity of clovis + solutrean stone tools

• boat crossings

bioarchaeology

study of human biological components evident from archaeological record (human remains)

what can we learn from human remains?

1. demography

2. sex + age

3. social status

4. health (diet + disease)

burial analysis

• skeletal trauma suggests physical trauma or illness

• treatment of body in death suggests social status

  • resources placed in grave

Catalhoyuk

• early farming community

• women had pwr in community

• no distinction between diet for men and women

• people buried beneath their homes

kennewick man

• skeletal remains in DC

• first test of NAGPRA

• controversy

• did not seem to be N.A. but DNA said he is

• was returned to tribes in 2017 and reburied

NAGPRA

• 1990

• mandates repatriation of N.A. objects from institutions receiving national funding

• so that remains are handled with dignity and respect

Why did H-G start growing crops?

1. domestication

• humans interfere w/ other species till other species can’t live w/o humans

2. environmental change

3. megafauna extinctions

palynology

allows for “environmental” reconstruction

order from hunting to agriculture

upper paleolithic → Mesolithic → neolithic

post-pleistocene adaptation trends

• decreasing mobility

• intense exploitation of resources

• population growth

mesolithic model

less mobile + more people = more mouths to fee = less mobile …. = agriculture

Natural habitat hypothesis

food production started in a subtropical zone, where wild wheat and barley was most abundant

• domestication of food/plants is where they naturally occured

Population pressure

forced into agriculture because of growing populations; solved a problem

Oasis hypothesis

agriculture resulted from crowding around waterholes during drough

social hypothesis

some individuals promoted agriculture to gain prestige

social organization

rules + structures that govern relationships between individuals withing a group +btwn groups

Political organization

formal + information institutions that regulate society’s collective acts

levels of organization

1. band

2. tribe

3. chiefdom

bands

families, leadership by elders

tribes

clusters of bands linked by clans

chiefdoms

central authority (elite group or indvl)

what is state organization

• centralized social/political organization

• classes (hierarchically organized)

• long-distance networks

• division of labor

• craft specialization

theories on origins of state

1. urban revolution

2. fertile crescent

3. hydraulic irrigation

4. technology and trade

5. coercive

6. social approaches

Harrapan civilization

• cities

• writing

• long distance trade

• urban planning

• monumental public works

• craft + settlement specialization

Mohenjo-daro

• urban planning (grid system)

• drainage systems

• high standard of living

Indus Sociopolitical organization

1. uniformity

2. huge trade network

BUT

1. no elite residences

2. all burials had similar goods

3. no hordes of prestige goods in citadel mounds

warfare + conflict

> 1700s people thought ancient civilizations were peaceful

proof of warfare

1. weapons + objects associated w/ warfare

2. mortuary remains (wounds, etc)

3. architecture (defense)

what is a cultural environment

social, economic, political forces that shape the life of a person/populaton

what is a cultural ecology environment

relationships among humans, their cultures, and the environments in which they live

Ecological impact

• every organism impacts environment

• human impact

  • ranching, farming

• consequences may only be apparent in long-term

ecological impacts

• desertificatoin

• salinization

• soil erosion

• deforestation

• fire

• land loss on coasts

reconstructing past landscapes

• remains of plants and animals

• soils and sediments

• topographic features

fall of Easter Island

• Diamond thought that the people destroyed their own environment

• Europeans and rats settled on the island

  • rats became invasive and contributed to deforestation

• starvation, cannibalism

• reorganization

rise of easter island

• complex society

• writing

• travel + seafaring

• ritual

• farming

• domestication

Mesa Verde pros

• four corners region

• great preservation for archaeologists

• domesticated corn (came up from Mexico)

• adapted easily to the environment

• strong architecture

Mesa Verde collapse

• increasing conflict

• trade had become centralized → isolating mesa verdeans

• growing population (couldn’t handle)

• drought

traditional explanations for societal collapse

• drought + environmental change

• human impact on environment (wood use, big game (deer) depletion)

• war

• disease

social issues of societal collapse

• emigration is before drought + violence … so why?

• settlement reorganization + intraregional population movement

• religious change

Greator Angkor Project

• multi-national (mostly out of australia) interdisciplinary research about interdisciplinary of urbanism in Angkor

• Survey + mapping

  • remote sensing

  • huge settlement

  • water management system

  • palynology

  • sedimentology

Khmer decline

• super complex water system

  • needed for rice (elites)

• system couldn’t adapt to unpredictable weather (monsoons)

• widespread geographically

Cultural history

• cultures are shared practices, identities and mechanisms

  • artifacts reflect those

• diffusion + migration are key mechanisms of change

• objective is to map out artifact distr

Processual archaeology

• culture comes from adaptation to nature

• artifacts are tools of adaptation

• change happens when ecology changes

• objective is to create general laws for culture change

• Redman + Binford

Post Processual

• cultures are webs of meaning

• artifacts are symbols as much as they are tools/objects

• understand cultures in their own context (not generalize)

• Culture changes through intentional manipulation of meaning

• Hodder + Varien

Women the Toolmaker

women have to make stone tools to scratch hides to sell at markets and support their families

spread of agriculture - culture historical

diffusion of package of agriculture important

spread of agriculture - processual

agriculture provides technological solution (ex: irrigation system)

spread of agriculture - post processual

agriculture was a change in worldview

structure

rules + roles that govern individual behavior

agency

actions individuals take in transforming culture

CRM

Cultural Resource Management

• identifies, assesses, preserves, manages cultural/archaeological resource

  • sites, buildings, landscapes, artifacts

why preservation?

• sense of place

• cultural value

• scientific value

• lessons of the past

• education

• conservation

Antiquities Act

President can protect natural, historic and scientific features by designating them national monuments

Prehistory of Warfare - LeBlanc

prehistoric societies thought to be peaceful

• reality: they were not

• happens due to struggle for resources

• we can tell through artifacts and architecture that war was occuring

Rapa Nui - Hunt and Lipo

misconception that people of Rapa Nui destroyed their own environment

• european disease

• rats stopped reforestation

• shows misconception of past societies

Mesa Verde - Varien

Pros:

• great at adapting

• changed social organization (lived near soil → lived near water)

• strong buildings

Cons:

• conflict

• isolated trade = diminished influence

• population growth

Angkor/Khmer - Stone

• highly sophisticated water network

• couldn’t adapt to environmental conditions (monsoons)

• water system was importance to social structure → collapse when water system collapsed

Neanderthals - Hall

• challenges dumb, primitive way in which Neanderthals are depicted

• capable of complex thought/behavior

• similar to humans

• different culture (cultural buffering helped modern day humans survive but not neanderthals)

Hunters in a Landscape - Binford

• different mousterian assemblages reflected a need for different tools for different environmental factors

• hunter gatherers use land for a long time, even come back to it

  • lots of different needs for tools and buildings

Women and Men at Catalhoyuk - Hodder

• gender did not determine someone’s status

• burial practices, diet, daily life, artwork

  • not many differences

Trade in Indus (Harappa) - Kenoyer

• substantial trade through Indus region → sharing of goods and ideas (technologies)

• loop of innovation (competition and demand)

• Harappa continually developed as a city because of all the ideas

Future of Archaeology - Fagan

next 50 years:

• civilization origins still not solved

• improving technology will help focus on minute details

  • molecular data

• cumulative discoveries

• understanding human diversity and

  ourselves

white sands

• 10,000 years earlier than we thought in North America