Anthropology 2020 OU Spring 18 Exam 1

Olduvai Gorge

-Tanzania

-where Australopithecine fossils found

-oldowan tools found

Zhoukoudian

-China

-500000-200000 BP

-40 Individuals found, 40% under age 14, 2.6% adults over age 50

Boxgrove

-England

-500000 BP

-Flintknapping debris from the manufacture of a handaxe

Location of the Taung Baby

-South Africa

-Skull showed intermediate characteristics (Small canine teeth, small brain, bipedalism)

Chauvet Cave

-France

-30000-35000 BP

-Art on the walls

Blombos Cave

- South Africa

-80000-70000 BP

-Both Art and Bone tools were recovered from Middle Stone Age levels

Gesher Benot, Israel

Earliest evidence of fire

Shanidar, Iraq

A neatherthal site that contains burials which implies treatment of the dead

Blombos Cave, South Africa

-80000-70000 BP

-Both Art and Bone tools were recovered from Middle Stone Age levels

Katanda, Zaire

-90000-80000 BP

-the oldest bone harpoons, projectiles made specifically for the acquisition of aquatic resources are now known from the African Middle Paleolithic

Pavlov & Dolni Vestonice

-Czech Republic (Moravia)

Pavlov:

-The world's oldest ceramics

-Thousands of clay figurines of animals intentionally exploded in kilns

-Evidence of weaving, preserved in clay impressions

Dolni Vestonice:

-A womoan lies between two men, both men wore headbands of pierced canine teeth and ivory, one man was killed by a wooden pole shoved through his hip, the woman (age 17-20) has a number of skeletal abnormailities suggesting that she may have been somewhat disabled

Monte Verde

Located in Chile, also contains pre clovis evidence

East African Rift Valleys

One of three places in Africa where Australopithecine fossils can be found

-where Olduvai Gorge is found

Paisley Cave

Located in Oregon, contains evidence that is pre-clovis

Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

-one of a few places where Australopithecine fossils are found

Sterkfontein, South Africa

-Another place wehre Australopithecine fossils are found

Archaeology

The study of the past through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains

-classical archaeology: ancient egypt, rome, greece

-historic Archaeology: Late-19th/early-20th century artifacts from Annapolis, MD

-Prehistoric archaeology: 12000 yr old Folsom Point & 25000 yr old stone tools from Europe

Ethnoarchaeology

study of living culture with an archaeological question in mind

Law of Superposition

Strata that are younger will be deposited on top of strata that are older, given normal conditions of deposition

OR

the geological principle that objects laid down first are older than objects laid down after

Artifact

Something made or modified by humans

Acheulean

-stone tools dated 1.8-ca. 0.5 mya

-retains all of the basic tool forms of the Oldowan with a couple of additions

-handaxes and cleavers

Cultural Anthropology

Study of human cultural diversity among living societies

Mousterian

Middle Paleolithic stone tools

Levallois

Levallois Point Cores

Optimally Stimulated Luminesc..

A dating technique that determines when sediment was last exposed to light

Recent African Evolution

-Modern humans evolve in sub-Saharan Africa 100 to 200 KYA.

-After ca. 100 KYA, moderns colonize Eurasia, completely replacing archaic Eurasian Homo.

-All archaics go extinct

Multi-Regional Evolution

-"Strong MRE"

-We have been a single evolving species since ca. 2 MYA linked by gene flow and common selection.

-Homo sapiens evolved more or less simultaneously in all parts of Africa, Europe and Asia.

-Archaics are our ancestors

Middle Range Theory

Hypotheses that link archaeological observations with human behavior or natural processes that produced them (Experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, taphonomic processes)

Central Place Foraging

Scavengers forage resources and return it to a central base

Relational Analogy

based on close cultural continuity between archaeological and ethnographic cases

Relative Dating

Tells you only whether something is older or younger than something else (Stratigraphy, seriation)

Anthropology

the study of all aspects of humankind

Linguistic Anthropology

focus on human languages

-historical development of languages

-language influences culture

-language revitalization

-population movements

Culture

-Integrated system of beliefs, traditions, and customs that govern or influence a person's behavior

-culture is learned, shared by members of a group, based on the ability to think in terms of symbols.

Absolute Dating

Tells you an actual calendar age range of something relative to an actual temporal reference point (C-14 Dating, Potassium-argon)

Clovis

13,000 years ago

Oldowan

-Oldest stone tools

-3.3 mya

-basic af

Biological Anthropology

the study of humans as biological organisms

Movius Line

The Movius Line delineates between areas with and without handaxes

Encephalization Quotient

Measures brain size relative to expected brain size for the body and face size

K-Ar

-potassium-argon dating

-a radiometric dating technique, meaning it is based upon the decay of natural occurring radioactive isotopes

-used to date rocks of volcanic origin (basalt, obsidian, ash)

Dating Expensive Tissue

Paleomagnetic Dating

-based on variation in the Earth's magnetic field

- occasionally Earth's magnetic field is completely flipped (geomagnetic reversal)

-some rocks and sediments preserve the polarity of the magnetic field upon deposition

Radiocarbon Dating

Uses radioactive carbon 14 to date once living material

Thomas Jefferson

-In 1784 Jefferson trenches a burial mound

-Jefferson's work - was scientific as he was testing an idea by conducting excavations

Glynn Issac

-Interpreted Oldowan sites as "central places". He inferred a decision of labor, wherein males hunted and females gathered. The products of foraging would be returned to these "home bases" and shared among the group (1970s & 1980s)

Raymond Dart

-Discovered the Taung Baby in 1912

-Discovery showed intermediate characteristics (most importantly bipedalism)

-first discovered and named Australopithecus

Mary Leakey

-Interpreted Olodwan sites as campsites where hominids resided. Animal bones were a clear indication that these hominids were proficient hunters (1970s)

Richard Leakey

reported and named the first Homo habilis fossil in 1960

Lewis R. Binford

-the first person to propose that hominids may not have been gaining access to animal tissues by hunting

-analyzed the Leakey's data ad found that the most abundant body parts were those with relatively little nutritional value

-therefore, hominids were getting late access to carcasses

Lucy

-found in Hadar, Ethiopia

-Most complete skeleton ever found

-bipedal

-named after a hallucinogenic narcotic

Turkana Boy

-1.5 mya

-Nariokokotome

-would have grown to 6'1

-the most complete hominid ever found

Modern Humans

300,000 years ago

First Stone Tools

Oldowan

3.3 mya

found in Gona, Ethiopia

First Migration (Out of Africa)

1.8-1.4 mya

First Hominids (Date and Epoch)

6.5-2.0 mya

Earliest Fire evidence

750-790 kya in Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel

-burned flint clusters

-clustering of work activities

-burned floral and faunal remains

First Art

40,000+ years ago

Neanderthals

ca. 125000-30000 BP

Clovis

Estimated to be the first Americans, but nowadays that’s highly contested

First Homo sp.

Homo Habilas

Laetoli Footprints

3.4-3.8 mya

Colonization of Australia

Roughly 50,000 year ago, implies the ability to travel across water and movement through South East Asia

Colonization of N. America

Roughly 15,000 years ago at least

What is the evidence for bipedalism (both archaeological and anatomical)?

-Laetoli Footprints

-Where the spine goes into the skull (I forgot what it's called man idk)

Why may have bipedalism evolved?

Opening of grasslands and savannahs, seeing over grasslands (threat), tool use, carrying, endurance, cooling the body

What are some of the obstacles that African Hominids had to overcome in order to migrate out of Africa? And what changes or practices may have facilitated or led to migration?

New climates, Different environments, Cold temperatures, New predators, Finding unfamiliar food

Many experts believe that behavioral flexibility and primitive tool use were the key catalysts for their successful expansion.

Know the general chronological order of the Hominins

Early hominins => Australopithecus => Homo Hibilas =>Homo Erectus => Homo heidelbergensis => Neaderthals/modern humans

What is the expensive tissue hypothesis?

Because the brain takes so much energy we evolved to have less energy elsewhere, such as the digestive tract

What does it mean to be a modern human?

1. Art - Symbolic Behavior

2. Sea faring - Colonization of new lands by boat

3. Colonization of high latitudes

4. Complex technologies (e.g., composite tools and carved bone)

5. Prismatic blade technology

6. Long distance exchange

7. New hunting technology (spear thrower)

8. Complex site structure

What are the major questions surrounding the new genetic information presented about Neanderthals?

How did we interact with them and how much did we breed with them?

Know what tool technologies are associated with each major early hominin group/species

Oldowan => Archeulean => Mousterian => Upper Paleolithic

How do we measure or know when the earth was glaciated?

Scientists can reconstruct past climate by examining physical and chemical evidence left by glaciers and climate changes. (Paleomagnetism Dating)

Practical limit of radiocarbon dating and the basics about it

50,000 years