archaeology 1000 - unit 14

origins of food and food production

isostatic uplift

the rise of landmasses previously under the immense weight of ice up to three kilometers thick

Broad-spectrum collecting

where people relied on a wider subsistence base like the combination of gathered plants, fishing, and hunting instead pursuing singular large game animals like mastodon or wooly rhinos (that were fast disappearing). These new subsistence procurement strategies are known globally by different names: Epipaleolithic in in Southwest Asia, as the Mesolithic in Europe, and as the Archaic in the New World (Americas)

Neolithic

Understanding the origins of agriculture “the establishment of an artificial ecosystem in which selected species of plants and animals are cultivated and reared.” This definition is important because it allows us to look at agriculture as a plant/animal/human relationship through acts of domestication, cultivation, and herding

Domestication

a genetic process by which the purposeful or accidental selection of specific traits in plants or animals renders them dependent upon humans for their survival. The first doma=esticated animal known are dogs

Cultivation

the cultural process by which crops are planted and harvested.

Herding

loosely defined as the purposeful change in the relationship between humans and animals

Oasis Theory

People and animals settled near oases due to environmental factors and this closeness prompted eventual domestication

Readiness Hypothesis

Human familiarity with local plant and animal life slowly progressed until domestication occurred.

Coevolution

Human landscape modification unintentionally resulted in the selection of certain plant species and greater human reliance on them, thus agriculture

Fertile Crescent

a term used to describe an area that is now modern-day Sudan to Iraq, following the rich river plains of the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, and Jordan rivers. This region is credited as one of the first locations for structured agriculture and several reasons are offered for this. Abundant natural plant resources like wild rye, pistachios, apples, pears, various legumes, and wild game like red deer, gazelle, sheep, and pigs all made the area desirable for hunter-gatherers.

megaliths

large structures made of stones that serve functions from burial chambers to (likely) places of worship. The most well-known and popular of these is Stonehenge in England, where 30 vertical stones stand in a circle surrounded by a series of circular ditches.

maize

the precursor to modern corn, and was crucial to the establishment of settled life because evidence for hunter-gatherer activity continued during the domestication of other plants, and mostly stopped once it was established.

irrigation

a system of dug canals to either redirect naturally flowing water, or to release stored water to water fields independent of rainfall

plowing

the use of animals or tools to till the soil and make it more productive

terracing

the ‘stepped’ system of increasing arable land was invented during this time. reduced erosion and could be combined with irrigation to further enhance agricultural landscapes.