ANT 304 Final Exam Sites

Swartkran’s Cave

world heritage site, deep caves where rocks, dirt and animal bones accumulated, remains of homina, stone tools evidence of regular burning

Olduvai, Gorge

discovered by a German neurologist and amateur paleontologist, record of human evolution, evidence of oldowan tools, remains of homo-sapiens, evidence of hunting and gathering

Jebel Irhound

earliest homosapiens identified, challenges human origins in East Africa, mousterian tools (neanderthals)

Bizmoune Cave

occupied exclusively by homo-sapiens, arterian technology, remains or barbary lions, personal adornment items (shell beads)

Quafzeh Cave, Israel

rock shelter, 28 skeletons (mostly children), dated using thermoluminescence, middle-paleolithic, care for sick and disabled

Sunghir, Russa

quarry site, one of the oldest burial sites in Europe, multiple kinds of graves (surface and partial), earliest evidence of prestige status

Page-Ladson, USA

underwater site, human altered mammoth remains, challenged clovis-hypothesis, submerged sinkhole, excavated in steps, 8 stone artifacts with butchered mastodan remains (radiocarbon dated)

Fa Hein Lana, Sri Lanka

dating using radio carbon/uranium thorum methods, small mammal hunting, earliest bow and arrow use, human capacity for adaptation to environments; tropical forests

Abu Hereya, Syria

earliest known farmers, pioneers of flotation

Phase 1 of Abu Hereya

round huts with underground sorage, sedentary “hunter-collectors”, mass gazelle killing/processing, utilization of wild buckwheat and rye

Phase 2 of Abu Hereya

growing domesticated rye/wheat, sheep as livestock, decreased use of gazelle, increased injury, worn down teeth

What was agriculture used for at Tell Abu Hereya?

risk management for an already sedentary community

Sannai-Marayuma, Japan

jomon site-earliest pottery in the world, storage pits above and under ground, long-large houses

Seasonal Occupation at Sannai Marayuma

round huts with underground storage, intensive utilization of local nuts, fish, beans, and cylindrical pottery

Sedentary Period of Sannai Marayuma

above ground storage in seperate buildings, burials in elite stone circles

Sannai Marayuma Japan was

settled, large heirarchal society, with no agriculture

Catalhoyuk, Turkey

tell-site, “proto city”, digital and progressive methods, layers of houses, ritual surrounding agriculture, female figurines in grain storage bins, sheep domesticated, cattle probably domesticated and centered in ritual spaces

Egaltarianism in Catalhoyuk

no houses with distinct feautres, even distribution, men and women buried in same way (equivalent nutrients)

Agriculture but very little heirarchy

Catalhoyuk, Turkey

Varna Bulgaria

burial complex, primarily cenotaphs, oldest “large” assemblage or worked gold, regional exchange of copper, yellow flint, obsidian and spondulyus shell

Varna, Bulgaria was mostly made up of

cenotaphs, most graves containing pottery or an unequal amount of gold

Amesbury, England

burial of archer, early bronze age, suggestive of high status, greatest number of artifacts in from bronze age, many arrow heads, earliest known gold in Europe

Tomb of Nebamun, Egypt

New Kingdom, tomb of a scribe and grain accountant, covered in painted scenes showing daily life

New Kingdom

imperial expansion, monumental building, religious change, elite tombs

Fowling Scene

fertility/rebirth, control over chaos, high status/ideal masculine identity, organizaed around cycles of life, death and rebirth

Rapa Nui, Chile

Easter Island, most remote populated island in the world, culturally Polynesian, known for moai (monolithic human figures), identified cultural continuity between carvers and Rapa Nui, moving statues required large amounts of labor and timber

Serra de Capavera, Brazil

densely populated in Pre-Colombian era, primarily rock-shelter sites with rock art, occupied by hunter-gatherers, then ceramic-producing farmers, inconsistent support for site’s preservation, disagreement of ages of sites, complicated history with locals