The First Humans - Archaeology

ARC 150

How were Neanderthals related to us?

they were probably not directly ancestral to us

who was our last shared, common ancestor with the Neanderthals?

H. heidelbergensis

consensus view of the spread of AMH in Africa was _

c. 200,000 ybp

where do we see what appears to be the flowering of the human mind?

the archaeological record

how can archaeologists study thinking?

cognitive archaeology: middle range theory (experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, direct historical approach)

what made these periods different?

cultural adaptations

Late Pleistocene changes

reliance on new and improved stone technologies; refinement of a more efficient blade technology (percussion technologies still used) new hunting and weapon technologies (bow and arrow, spear throwers), broadening of the subsistence quest, branching out in raw materials, new uses for plant materials, acquisition of raw materials from a great distance, larger sites of aggregation, abundance of non-utilitarian objects, elaborate burials, unambiguous symbolic expression through the production of art/recording systems

how did people migrate 65,000 and 40,000 years ago?

intentional water crossings across Wallacea (region of islands not fully connected by land), Northern and Southern routes, from today’s Siberia to the Americas (Beringea/Bering Strait)

traditional view of Paleo-Indians

after c. 13k years ago; people followed mega-fauna, Clovis culture

newer evidence of Paleo-Indians suggests _

range between 25k-15k years ago; coastal route, multiple migrations, “kelp highway”

climate fluctuations marked transition to _

Archaic