ANT 253 McGIll NCSU Test 3

New World / Old World differences

new world didn't have wheel, milk pack or draft animals, little bronze and iron (with a few exceptions)

still complex

- domestication in old world ( single or dual domesticates) vs agriculture in new (maize/bean/squash/pepper)

- Landscape and enviorment. in old move from mountains to fertile valleys; river focuses like nile or indus. In new world highland/lowland zones are occupied and exploited at the same time NOT RIVER FOCUSED

The "Pristine Myth"

the idea that the americas before europe was this untouched, unpeopled, pristine wilderness that europeans just happened upon

Incredible Human Journey video on first peopling of the New World

the first peopling of the new world was originally thought to be through a channel in the ice (bering land bridge) 13,000 ya, but evidence shows that it may have been earlier thru island hopping

Clovis

theory of peopling of new world

Land bridge from N. Asia to Alaska "bering land bridge"

13,000 ya

supported by the megafauna hunters

Bering Land Bridge

Land bridge from N. Asia to Alaska, break in the ice that started forming (by glacier subsiding) 13,500 ya

Pre-Clovis: Gault site, Monte Verde

proof that humans have been here before the ice parted

Gault site- 14,400 ya, Texas

Monte Verde-14,500 ya, Chile

Tent stakes, foorprints, plant remains, maybe used medical plants. securely dated

theories

pacific route, traveled across the ocean

costal hop,moved down coast SUPPORTED BY GENETIC EVIDENCE

Kennewick Man (the Ancient One)

discovered in 1996 in Kennewick Washington

9,000 ya

controversy as native people claimed affiliation but anthropologists wanted to study "too old to claim"

found in 2015 the people claiming affiliation were right

reburied in 2017

NAGPRA

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 1990

Human remains, associated funerary objects, and sacred objects must be catalogued, affiliated, and repatriated (if requested)

Archaeology of Halloween

Samhain- "feast of the dead" marked end of summer start of winter

Hill sites of Ward and Tara- walls and walls in a circle with bonfire in middle to see the shadows dance AD 200, tara is mounds in the same fashion

Liminal rituals-activities that border the natural and spritual worlds like Ouija boards or bobbing or apples

Day of the Dead- Aztec god Mictecacihuatl

(Lady of the Dead) maybe orgin of sugar skulls

Witch pits and bottles- witch pits where skeletons have been staked in the mouth to stop reanimation, witch bottles were made to keep away or strengthen witches depending

Archaeology + Halloween imagery- church moved "all saints day" to NOV 1st to overlap with samhain making it "all hallows' eve" honoring ancestors and marking new season

Mesoamerican ecological diversity

very diverse ecologically

Northern lowlands

Southern lowlands

Highlands

pacific coastal plain

The Olmec

-1200-400 B.C.

-Gulf coast Mexico

-two big sites, San Lorenzo and La venta

Firsts= Pyramid building, shamanistic religion, cave "underworld symbolism", writing, colossal heads, ball game

-heads= huge heads of basalt carried 35-50 miles, usually weraing a ball game hat but maybe rulers

-ballgame= 1400 bce first team sport, all over mesoamerica all the way to Arizona NO sacrfices

Teotihuacan

-first urban mesoamerican civilzation 125-200k ppl

-huge city, pyramid of moon and sun with a 3k avenue of the dead

-2k+ multi-family compunds with 60-100 ppl, ethinic neighborhoods

-writing but evidence is pictorical

- dunno leadership structure

-art mostly gods

-built on grid to match landscape

Ancient Maya

environmental successes= forest gardens, chinampas (floating gardens), cenotes, chultuns, raised fields/terracing

Tikal, Guatemala= big classic pd structure 4 miles of big, peaked at 800 AD, 60k ppl, big water reservoirs

The Maya "collapse"

didnt happen, still over 6 million Maya in central America practicing Mayan culture

Mixtecs/Aztecs

-migrated to central mexico 1111 AD

-political economy=tribute system

-Pochteca- long distance traders and spies

Aztecs and Spanish

AD 1519: Spanish under Hernan Cortes arrive at Tenochtitlan

AD 1520: Moctezuma (Aztec ruler) jailed and killed

AD 1521: Spanish return with Tlaxcala and other Indigenous rivals and take Tenochtitlan

Aztec orgins

Patron god Huitzilopochtli led aztecs (Mexica) to Tenochtitlan by having an eagle perch on a cactus with a snake in its beak where he wanted them to settle

Tenochtitlan

(now mexico city): Aztec captial founded 1325, patron god Huitzilopochitli

Inca: Origins, Cuzco, Machu Picchu

Orgins: pre-inca cultures Nazca, Moche (Tiwanaku/Wari)

Cuzco: Capital of Inca empire

Machu Picchu: built for inca ruler and was religious site

Guaman Poma de Ayala

Wrote EL primer nueva coronica y buen gobierno, a history of the Inca people in 1615 with 400 pages of drawings

born 1535

indgenous peruvian, decended from rulers

Royal mummy cult

religion of the inca, believed mummies were strong ancestors, paraded and consulted them

gaurded mummies in estates

offered mummies as sacrifices

left bundled mummies on high peaks

Inca civic infrastructure

centered on ruler (Inca/Inka) and his extended family (ayllu), they want to expand rule build infrastructure, and increase labor force

South American environment and domesticated plants/animals

beans

potatoes

cotton

cassava

quinoa

coca (cocaine)

guinea pigs (food)

llama & alpaca

ducks

Inca Legacy

continued cultural practices today, and global influence

North American historic archaeology

-began 1930 to conserve, restore, and interpret early sites in American history like Monticello, Williamsburg, St. Augustine

-started as studying euro-American culture spread since 15th cent

-now change from ACCULTURATION TO PLURALISM, including the story of those not in written records (native and enslaved people, farmers, factory workers, women)

-now archeology independent research not just to support history

New York African Burial Ground

-used 1600-1796

-told more about early African American lives

-in 1990, 419 bodies were excavated and later reinterred from the site

-men & women worked inhumane conditions, dying prematurely with nutrient deficiencies

-enslaved people fuled shipbuilding, construction, domestic labor, farming, more

-Adults were from Africa, children from USA

Oberlin Village material culture and cemetery

-first free black settlers in 1850s

-thriving village late 19th cent

-"hotspot" in raleigh

-African American cemetary that no one owns

North Carolina archaeology

idk

Modern Aztec influences

idk

Maya engineering (e.g. chinampas, cenotes, chultuns)

idk