ANTH 111 (Archeology)

What was the age of the earth calculated by?

The bible

Who calculated the earth's age and claimed the world was created on Saturday October 22, 4004 BC?

Archbishop Jame Ussher

What was the problem and solution regarding archeology in the 1700s?

Problem: God created a perfect world, exactly as we see it (1700s)
Solution: Catastrophic natural events changed the world dramatically (1600s)

What is the principle of uniformitarianism?

the same geological processes observed in present have been at work in the past (uniform processes)

NOTE: these processes are so slow, that the formations on Earth must be very ancient

What is stratigraphy?

The study of layered rock successions, oldest layer is typically at the very bottom

How was archeology described in the 1800s?

As racist due to Europeans claiming that Native ancient architecture belonged to their ancestors so they could prove they deserved the land

What was an addition to archeology in the 1920s?

Multidisciplinary approaches (incorporated line of research and stressed anthropological understanding)

What is scientific archeology?

A destructive process to the artifacts, uses multidisciplinary techniques, and uses stratigraphy.

NOTE: Dr. Langlie digs in squares guys

What are the three classes of archeological dating and what do they mean?

Artifacts: portable objects that owe their form to humans, ceramics, lithics, and metallurgy

Features: non-portable human-made remains that cannot be removed without destroying the original form

Ecofacts: portable objects that have cultural significance, but do not owe their form to humans

What is a site?

a place where civilization dipped and left their shit behind fr

NOTE: these are found by accident or by discovery

What are systematic surveys?

when on the search for archeological clusters and you dig to find them

How do you date organic remains?

By measuring the carbon

What is the Libby half life?

The average rate at which live things decay

What is the alphabet soup?

BC is "before Christ", goes after the year (500 BC)
AD is "anno Domini" or in the year of the Lord, goes before the year (AD 2013)
Order: 2 BC, 1 BC, 0 BC, AD 1, AD2,
BCE is "before the common era", (500 BCE)
CE is "the common era", (2013 CE)

NOTE: BP is "before present", goes after the year (2000 BP). If reported in BP, it means the radiocarbon date is uncalibrated.

What do Paleolithic and Neolithic refer to?

Paleolithic: old, stone age prior to farming (hunting and gathering)
Neolithic: new (age of farming)

Who is the lion man?

An anthropological figure, the first of abstract art, and made due to religion

When was writing created?

Around 5.2 kya or in 3,200 BCE

How many Binghamton Blocs have produced a fourth of a million of artifacts from ancient Native Americans?

5

What do precontact and postcontact history of excavation mean?

Precontact: occupation history and chronology of Native Americans, different site functions, land use, and social structure
Postcontact: a transformation in social relations, ideology, and landscape with industrialization and urbanization

What consists of most of our prehistory?

Hunting and gathering

NOTE: timeline: 2 mya till 250,000 years ago

What was the Holoscene?

when humans first started farming about 12,000 years ago

What is megafauna extinction?

the animals we see today are not the same as they once were, they were larger before the ice age and those versions of them are extinct and look different

What occurred during the massive climate changes?

It occurred between 12,000-4,000 years ago and there were massive changes in vegetation.

12,000 BP Near East
7,000 BP Southeast Asia and Central Africa
6,000 BP South American Andes
5,000 BP Central Africa
4,000 BP East North America

What consists of crop domestication?

making food more viable for human consumption (crops) through fertilizer
- more seeds, edible, and larger

What consists of animal domestication?

controlling the rate and type (animal) by breeding and controlling their violent urges and their social behaviors (solitary or gregarious)
- made them smaller and less dangerous
- more docile and social
- useful secondary resources (sheep's wool)

Approximately how many people can hunters and gatherers feed?

Approx. 100 people

What is considered the worst mistake in human history?

Farming

What were the issues with farming?

Diamond argues that it is not progress
- hunters and gatherers had a varied diet
- farmers ran the risk of starvation if crops failed
- crowded and highly populated areas led to infectious diseases and parasites

What was the progressivist view of farming?

- built civilization
- hunters and gatherers have a nasty, brutish life
- they have no food stored and struggle to survive
- more efficient to farm

What is wrong with the progressivist view of farming?

- caused gross social and sexual inequity as women and men hunted and gathered equally
- disease and despotism (hoarding food)
- hunters and gatherers have varied diets (healthier and unrestrictive)
- due to the switch, it made lives worse (average heights of men in Turkey dropped from 5'9 to 5'3 and lifespans decreased while diseases increased)

What is the difference between farming and hunting/gathering regarding food intake?

Farmers can feed more but with a poorer quality of life

What happened regarding the Mayan Collapse?

- occurred in Actucan, Belize
- there was a loss of civilization (taken over by nature)
- affected 30% of Mayan villages
- there was a change in the way people organize (warfare, abandonment of centers, and end of hieroglyphic monuments)
- ruins were located everywhere regardless of location

What do communities do in the absence of political power?

- often militia reform and local community structure building
- ancient Maya: 2000 BC, rotation of kings
- Actucan: constructed a monument center, had a royal power

What is collective remembering?

when events are interpreted and retained locally through daily interaction

Where did Dr. Van Dyke work?

Chaco canyon in New Mexico (Southwestern North America and home to many indigenous communities)

NOTE: She focused her studies on Native American pasts

What are kivas?

They are "ritual chambers" and were created in AD time period and are typically located on cliffs

What were kivas used for?

For people together and practice in ceremonies, they were mostly empty rooms other than that. Roads were built connecting them from different communities to ensure "balance between worlds".

What are celestial events?

When the sun hits just right on their land, sun daggers

What does balanced dualism refer to?

A world above and a world below (these are show in great houses and great kivas)

Are the communities connected through visibility?

Yes, each area is visible from great houses and kivas

What is the significance of conch shells?

They are used to communicate between villages and to signify the importance of the sun rising/setting as well as the moon rising/setting

What does climate change have to do with the world developing as a whole?

everything adapts to the new climates

What happens to society when the earth gets warmer?

animals and plants change therefore society and civilization has to adapt to the changes
- lucky people get access to more resources
- unlucky people have a lack of resources

What is the medieval warm?

When the climate gets colder and dryer

How do humans and animals solve food shortages?

through violence and believed to result in a civil war in modern days

What are some impacts on humans regarding climate change and social hazards?

- farming (farmers diversify crops to deal with risks)
- grazing
- trade/exchange (vertical archipelago)

Where did Thanksgiving originate?

Wampanoag

Who are the Wampanoag?

"The people of the east/dawn"
- Were one of the many many Native American groups encountered by British colonialists

What food did they (Wampanoag) possess?

Game (deer and fowl) and the three sisters

What do the three sisters provide?

Corn: carbs
Beans: protein
Squash: vitamins and fatty oil

What happened to the Wampanoag?

They were raided by merchant vessels and captured to be sold as slaves

Who is Squanto?

- Squanto (or Tisquantum) captured by Thomas Hunt and sold to Spanish monks who tried to convert him
- Freed, hired as interpreter on expedition ship, made his way home

NOTE: After his return, there was a decline in the population (likely from Small Pox)

What is the Mayflower?

- 1620, a group of 102 left Plymouth, England
- Religious separatists, Pilgrims
- Arrived at Cape Cod
- Founded Plymouth, MA in Dec. 1620

NOTE: Half of the population survive due to Winter and diseases and the Pilgrims started an alliance with two other Wampanoags

Legend has it...

- Squanto taught the pilgrims how to hunt and gather food
- After a successful harvest in November 1621 the Governor of Plymouth organized a three-day feast

What did they eat at the feast?

- Wampanoags brought "five deer"
- Pilgrims ordered to "hunt fowl"
- Wild turkeys (not that common, and mean)
- Goose
- Duck
- Passenger pigeons
- seafood

Where did the Wampanoag come from?

Underneath Massachusetts in Rhode Island in the state were province is.

Where was the first turkey domesticated?

In the North American Southwest in 500 BC, in the 1500s, the Spanish encountered them in Mexico and brought them home

Why are they called turkeys?

Mistaken for a bird the Turkish people popularized and sold, Guinea Fowl, a bird from Africa

NOTE: Linnaeus called them "Meleagris gallopavo" aka chicken peacock

What's the difference between wild turkeys and domesticated turkeys?

domesticated: weighed 2x more, large (cannot fly and bad at running), noisier, and have white feathers

What does it mean to use applied anthropology to solve real world problems?

applying anthropological methods, theories, and insight to address real-world challenges and this is done in all 4 anthropological subfields

What is the anthropological timeline?

Colonial administration (19th and 20th century), Post WWII (developed to use their methods to help community, and then they evolved to have ethics

What is qualitative research?

ethnography, participant observation, and interviewing (surveys, demographic studies, and analysis)

What are mixed methods?

using both qualitative and quantitative methods

What are participatory approaches?

participating in community

What is a story map?

a digital tool, combines different tools on the media to make/tell a story (visually)