Bing Anthro 111 exam 3

Why is archaeology like a problematic puzzle?

• It will never be finished

• You don’t know how many pieces are missing

• Most pieces are lost forever

• You can’t cheat by looking at the picture

What was archaeology like in the 1600s

• Earth is only 6,000 years old

• Arrowheads and other old artifacts were explained as “thunderstones” or “fairy stones”

Archbishop Jame Ussher

• “Calculated” the age of Earth based on the bible

• World created on Saturday, October 22, 4004 BC

Creationism and Catastrophism

• Problem: God created a perfect world, exactly as we see it

• Solution: catastrophic natural events change the world dramatically

Principle of Uniformitarianism - 1700s-1800s

• same geological processes observed in present have been at work in the past – uniform processes

• these processes are so slow that the formations on earth must be ancient

Stratigraphy 1700s-1800s

• sub surface layers produce ordered groups of fossils

what was archaeology like in the 1800s?

It was racist

Cyrrus Thomas

• 12 years of research

• published report in 1894

• concluded mounds were built by Native Americans

• was a good guy in the 1800s

1900s Scientific Archaeology

• excavation techniques

• Recovery of all artifacts

• Accurate record of every detail

• Military precision

• Dig square holes

• Stratigraphy

• Stressed anthropological understanding

• Incorporated many lines of research

Classes of Archaeological Data

• artifacts

• Eco facts

• features

Artifacts

• Portable objects that are formed to humans, i.e. bowls and arrowheads

Ecofacts

• portable objects that have cultural significance, but do not owe their form to humans i.e. bones, peach, pits, corn, wood

Features

• non-portable human made remains that cannot be removed without destroying original form. I.e. housing, chairs built into the ground.

How are archaeological sites found

• accidental discoveries

• Construction projects

• Sub surface detection

• Remote sensing

Is it possible to see the rise of cities and and states before farming?

Yes

Law of superposition

Younger artifacts closer to the top of the group, older artifacts lower

Radiometric Dating

• Uses Carbon -14

• How we can date organic remains

• People are made up of a lot of C14

Willard Libby

• Found that 50% of carbon will become stable in 5730 years

BC

• “before christ”, goes after the year 500 BC

AD

“Anno Domini” in the year of the Lord, goes before the year A.D. 2013

Correct order of years

2BC, 1BC, 0BC, AD1, AD2

BCE

“Before common era” 2013 CE

BP

“Before present” goes after the year 2000 BP, and usually means before AD 1950 (when carbon dating was invented), it reported in BP, It means the radiocarbon date is uncalibrated.

What is Archeology like today?

• Community engaged, figuring out people’s pasts.

The Paleolithic

The stone age, before farming

Upper Paleolithic culture

• Europe

• After 40kya

• Explosion of art and technology

What happened during upper Paleolithic culture?

• was glaciated it began to melt in 30 K which resulted in tundra and steppe aka one big pasture

• hunters, paradise, and technological experimentation

• The Atlatl (spear thrower), was invented

When did we see the first form of art – the lion man?

40kya

The Venus of Willendorf

• 26 kya

• Carved from limestone

• Fertility fetish? Self portrait?

• We learned a bit about style from it because it is wearing a hat

The Lascaux Cave

• Found in France

• Discovered by an 18 year old and his dog

• Covered by art depicting animals, hunting expeditions, and abstract works

Why is art important when related to anthropology?

• It shows us that early humans had the ability to think abstractly

• Points to religious ideology

When was writing invented?

5,200 years ago, 3,200 BCE

The first signs of writing

• Cuneiform tablets

• Kept track of things, accounting books

• Only later did writing keep track of history

What is BC/AD the same as?

BCE/CE

-What does BP mean?

years before today

What was subsistance for most of our prehistory?

Hunting and gathering

When did we start hunting and gathering?

When we started walking upright - 2 million years ago

Holocene period

Current geological epoch which began about 11700 years ago at the end of the last ice age

Pleistocene period

Geological period that lasted from about 2. 58 million to 11,700 years ago

when did we first start farming?

12 thousand years ago

when did agriculture occur independently?

Between 12,000 and 4,000 years ago

Animal Domestication

- smaller, less dangerous

- more docile more social

- useful secondary products

Solitary

done or existing alone

gregarious

fond of company

How are farmers different than Hunter-gatherers?

Farmers can produce enough food to feed hundreds of people

What does Diamond argue?

Agriculture is the worst mistake in human history

What happened when turkey and Greece adopted agriculture?

Height dropped from 5’9 to 5’3 for males

What are some problems with agriculture

• hunger gatherers have a varied diet

• farmers run the risk of starvation of the crop failed

• crowding and high populations led to infectious diseases and parasite

Why adopt agriculture?

Perhaps not by choice, but from necessity to feed constantly growing numbers

What stereotypes do we see in archaeology?

Archaeological evidence is often in odds with historical beliefs

What often shapes how we perceve ruins and what the pastv was like?

Our own anxieties

When was the Maya Collapse

8th to 10th centuries

What were symptoms of Maya Collapse

• End of hieroglyphic monuments

• Warfare

•abanndonmen of centers

• emigration to stable zones

• end of Divine kingship

What do communities do in the absence of political power?

Local communities often build structures to keep order

Neolithic Age

Origins of agriculture and new tools were made for farming

Origins of Thanksgiving

• Massachusetts

• Included a Native tribe known as Wampangos

• Ate game (fowl and deer, NOT TURKEY)

• Three sisters (squash, beans, corn)