Archeology Final Exam

Hunter-gatherer/forager

People who rely mainly on wild plants and animals rather than farming or herding.

Bering Strait/Beringia

Land/region that connected Siberia and Alaska during low sea levels; key migration/refuge area for peopling the Americas.

Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)

Coldest peak of the last Ice Age (~26,500-19,000 years ago) with maximum ice sheets and low sea levels.

Oxygen isotopes

δ18O/δ16O measurements in ice cores and ocean sediments used to reconstruct past temperature and global ice volume.

Younger Dryas

Abrupt cooling event near the end of the Ice Age (~10900-9700 bce).

Holocene

Current warm interglacial period (~9700 bce—years ago to present).

BC/BCE

Calendar dating system counting years backward from the traditional year 1 (BCE is the secular equivalent of BC).

BP

"Before Present," with "present" standardized to 1950 for archaeology/radiocarbon dating.

cal BP

Calendar years before present (radiocarbon dates corrected using calibration curves).

Diffusion

Spread of ideas/technology between groups without major population movement.

Migration

Movement of people into new regions, often spreading genes, languages, and technologies.

Invention

Independent development of a new tool, practice, or idea in a region.

Mesolithic/Archaic

Post-Ice Age periods (term varies by region) marked by broad-spectrum foraging, regional toolkits, and often increasing sedentism.

Microliths

Small stone tools/blades often set into handles to form composite tools.

Sedentism

Living in permanent or semi-permanent settlements rather than moving frequently.

Complex foraging

Foraging societies with storage, high population density, territoriality, and sometimes social ranking.

Pastoralism

Subsistence system based on herding domesticated animals.

Agriculture

Food production based on domesticated crops (and often animals) as a major diet source.

Domestication

Genetic and physical changes in plants/animals caused by human selection (e.g., bigger seeds, tameness).

Cultivation

Human tending of plants (planting/weeding/watering) that may or may not be fully domesticated.

Braidwood's "hilly flanks"

Idea that agriculture began in Fertile Crescent foothills where wild ancestors of crops/animals lived and people already used them.

Binford's "Sedentism/Marginal" hypothesis

Model arguing population pressure and settlement packing pushed groups into marginal zones, encouraging intensification and farming.

Population pressure

Population growth relative to resources that drives intensification, new technologies, and sometimes domestication.

Co-evolution

Mutual long-term shaping of humans and domesticated species (humans select traits; domesticates reshape human diets and societies).

Feasting

Competitive/ritual large meals used to build alliances, status, and obligations; often encourages surplus production.

States

Centralized societies with formal government, taxation/tribute, law, and institutionalized inequality.

Complex societies

Societies with hierarchical leadership and organization beyond small, egalitarian bands.

Social stratification

Ranked social classes with unequal access to wealth and power.

Specialization

Full-time or dedicated roles (craft specialists, priests, administrators) producing goods/services.

Urbanization

Development of large, dense population centers (cities) with multiple social and economic functions.

Centralization

Concentration of decision-making power and authority in a central leadership or capital.

Intensive agriculture

High-input farming (irrigation, terracing, raised fields, fertilizing) to maximize yields and support large populations.

Archaeological consequences of states

Material evidence of states (monuments, administrative records, elite burials, craft workshops, planned settlements, fortifications, roads).

Rock Art

Images painted or carved on rock (pictographs/petroglyphs) often tied to symbolism, identity, or ritual.

Shamanism

Belief system where ritual specialists enter altered states to communicate with spirit worlds for healing/divination.

Trance state

Altered consciousness (rhythm, dance, fasting, etc.) associated with visions/ritual experiences.

Eland

Large antelope frequently depicted in southern African rock art; symbolically important in trance/ritual interpretations.

Green Sahara/African Humid Period

Period when Sahara was wetter with lakes/grasslands due to stronger monsoons, enabling settlement and movement.

10000-5000 bce

Dufuna

Nigerian site known for the Dufuna canoe 6-8000kya (very early watercraft evidence in Africa).

Nabta Playa

Western Desert (Egypt) site with early pastoralism and ritual/megalithic features during the wet Sahara. 7000bce

Ounjougou

Mali archaeological region with long sequences used to study West African prehistory (Stone Age onward).

9400 bce

Millet

Drought-tolerant grain domesticated/used widely in Africa.

Sorghum

Major African domesticated grain important in savanna farming.

Yams

Starchy tubers important in West African agriculture and food systems.

Bantu Migration

Long-term spread of Bantu-speaking peoples (often with farming/ironworking) across central, eastern, and southern Africa.

Ancient Egypt

Early Nile Valley state society with writing, dynastic rule, and monumental architecture.

Narmer Palette

Early Dynastic Egyptian ceremonial palette linked to kingship ideology and unification narratives.

3100 bce

Saqqara

Major Egyptian necropolis; site of the Step Pyramid complex.

Giza

Egyptian plateau with major pyramids and the Sphinx.

Lalibela

Ethiopian site famed for medieval rock-hewn Christian churches.

Aksum

Ancient kingdom in Ethiopia/Eritrea known for stelae, trade, and early state development.

Ironworking

Production/use of iron tools; often linked to agricultural expansion and new political complexity.

Gold

High-value metal widely traded; often supports elite wealth and long-distance exchange.

Ivory

Valuable animal product traded widely; tied to status and exchange networks.

Mapungubwe

Early southern African state center linked to trade and elite formation.

(1000-1300 bce)

Great Zimbabwe

Large stone-built center in southern Africa tied to regional power and Indian Ocean trade.

(1100–1450 CE)

Paleoindian

Early Indigenous cultural period in the Americas associated with distinctive stone tools and big-game hunting traditions.

(13,500-8000 bce)

Clovis

Early Paleoindian tradition known for fluted points (~13,200-12,800 years ago).

Folsom

Later Paleoindian tradition known for very fine fluted points often linked to bison hunting (~12,600-12,000 years ago).

Fluted points

Stone points with a channel flake removed near the base to aid hafting (Clovis/Folsom hallmark).

Pressure flaking

Controlled tool-finishing method using pressure to remove small flakes and sharpen edges.

Anzick

Montana Clovis burial with artifacts and ancient DNA crucial to early Native American ancestry studies.

Megafauna

Large Ice Age animals such as mammoths and mastodons.

Pleistocene overkill

Hypothesis that humans contributed significantly to megafaunal extinctions via hunting (often with climate factors).

Pre-Clovis

Evidence for humans in the Americas before the Clovis horizon (>~13,200 years ago).

monte verde, meadow croft, Debra Freidkin—buttermilk creek, and potentially cactus hill, paisley caves, and pedra furada

Paisley Caves

Oregon site important in Pre-Clovis debates with early human evidence.

Buttermilk Creek (Debra Friedkin site)

Texas site argued to contain artifacts older than Clovis levels.

Meadowcroft

Pennsylvania rockshelter with very early human occupation claims; historically debated but influential.

Monte Verde

Chilean site widely accepted as strong Pre-Clovis evidence with good preservation.

White Sands trackways

New Mexico fossil human footprints indicating a very early human presence in North America.

23-21kya

Kennewick Man

Ancient human skeleton central to debates about ancestry, ethics, and Indigenous rights/NAGPRA.

Farmington mastodon

Mastodon locality used in discussions of human interaction and interpreting bone modification evidence.

Cut marks

Stone-tool butchery marks on bone surfaces showing processing by humans.

Trampling marks

Scratches made when bones are stepped on/abraded in sediments; can mimic cut marks.

Preparator marks

Modern damage from excavation/cleaning that can be mistaken for ancient modification.

Olsen-Chubbock site

Colorado Plains bison kill/butchery site showing organized communal hunting.

Archaic

North American period after Paleoindian marked by diverse foraging adaptations and often increased sedentism.

Woodland

North American period associated with pottery, horticulture, and mound building.

In eastern NA starts 1000 bce and in southwestern NA starts 2000 bce

Mississippian

Late Eastern North American tradition with maize agriculture, platform mounds, and complex chiefdoms/towns.

Koster

Illinois site with deep Archaic deposits important for long-term settlement and subsistence sequences.

6500 bce

Watson Brake

Louisiana early mound complex showing mound building by foragers.

3500 bce

Poverty Point

Louisiana earthworks/trading center with large scale construction and long-distance exchange.

1700-1200 bce

Gourds (Cucurbita pepo)

Early domesticated squash/gourd species in the Americas used as key horticulture evidence.

Adena

Early Woodland tradition known for burial mounds and ceremonialism.

800 bce—200 ce

Hopewell

Middle Woodland interaction sphere known for earthworks and long-distance exchange of exotic goods.

800 bce—400 ce

Newark (OH)

Major Hopewell earthwork complex with large geometric constructions.

Craig Mound

Large mound at Spiro Mounds (Oklahoma) associated with elite Mississippian burials and artifacts.

Cahokia

Largest Mississippian urban center near modern St. Louis; major political/religious hub.

Monks Mound

Massive main platform mound at Cahokia.

Platform mounds

Flat-topped earthen mounds supporting temples/elite buildings, common in Mississippian societies.

Effigy pipe

Carved pipe shaped like animals/humans, often linked to ritual/status.

Maize

Domesticated corn and major staple crop across the Americas in 1000-800bce especially in Great Plains

Beans

Legume crop often grown with maize; adds protein and fixes nitrogen in soils.

Squash

Domesticated crop (multiple species) often grown with maize/beans; provides calories and ground cover.

Hohokam

Southwest tradition known for irrigation canals and craft production.

200-1450 ce

Snaketown

Major Hohokam site with canals and ballcourts.

200—1200 ce

Pueblo I

Early Pueblo period marked by growing villages and agriculture (relative chronology).

pit-house

750 AD

Pueblo II

Period of population growth, aggregation, and regional interaction (relative chronology).

Chaco phenomenon, chaco canyon and pueblo bonito + kivas

900AD—1150 AD

Pueblo III

Period including major aggregation and cliff dwellings; ends with widespread reorganization/migration (relative chronology).

Mesa verde

1150 AD—1300 AD

Pueblo IV

Period of reorganization into new pueblos and regional traditions after Pueblo III (relative chronology).

out of Colorado to midwest