Anthropology Exam 2

pleistocene humans

major changes in culture

used bone, shell, wood, ivory

diversity in artifacts

ART

upper paleolithic europe 40,000-10,000ya

art

body lice 72,000-42,000ya

tailored clothing

Klasies River Mouth Cave

120,000-60,000ya

middle stone age/early modern people

65 feet of deposits

wide range of animals and shells

human remains with cut marks (cannibalism)

hunting abilities

attritional demographic pattern

individuals most likely to die

catastrophic demographic pattern

all ages are represented

drive

take a herd and chase into kill zone

Nelson Bay Cave

10,000ya

improved hunting through bow and arrow

upper paleolithic

40,000-10,000ya

atlatl, bow and arrow

dog domestication (26,000ya)

art

entire world colonized

demographic increase

bone, antler, ivory, wood tools

soultrean

highest quality stone tools, took on symbolic meaning

blade stone tools

longer than are wide

mass produced through percussion techniques

blank

left over nodule of stone

atlatl

spear with handle, extends how long a human can throw, up to 50 yards, very important

Dolni Vestonice, Czech Republic

upper paleolithic, 25,000ya

buried under loess soil, deep

discovered on accident

highest layers contain campsite

provenience altered due to solifluction

used mammoth bones as construction materials and fuel for fire

30×50 feet oval structure

3 semi-subterranean houses

large fire pit (hearth)

ivory figurines

hollowed bird bones with ends cut off (musical instrument?)

oldest example of fired clay

shells from Mediterranean Sea (sign of trading?)

solifluction

constant freezing and re-freezing

upper paleolithic art

mural art, often pregnant animals, humans in engravings

Lascaux

17,000ya

was not a living place

used many colors

human hands were frequently outlined often without fingers or knuckles

only one human in Lascaux (could be a successful hunter in a bird clan?)

Gargas Cave

10/217 complete hands

often without fingers or knuckles

potential signature or prone to finger injuries?

meaning of cave art

concern with killing animals for meat

fertility of nature and replenishing herds

art

temples

people of all sizes entered caves

Chauvet Cave

36,000ya

Cosquer Cave

18,500ya

lions, rhinos, high quality art

discovered on accident by scuba divers

portable art

35,000ya

“venus” figurines around 25,000ya

ivory, wood, stone, clay, engraved on walls

female features exaggerated

lion man figurine

80% comes from Magdalenian (later in upper paleolithic)

anthromorphized

make human

Abri Blanchard

24 tools to make 69 marks

moon phases over 6 months?

Austrailia

colonized around 55,000ya at one time due to deep trench

lived successful lifestyle until Europeans arrive (Captain Cook)

peopling of the Americas

sometime before 15,000ya

by 8,000BC all Americas occupied

fossilized human footprints found and dated to 21,000-23,000ya in New Mexico (changes the game)

the driftless area

was never transformed by glacier activity

very hilly, not flattened down

ice free corridor

area between alpine and continental glaciation

40,000-21,000ya

Beringa dry land

60,000-13,000ya

northeastern asia reached by… (Ushki)

14,000ya

Monte Verde

13,000ya

12 living structures

bola stone, wood, edible plants

Cactus Hill, Virginia

15,000ya

Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas

13,200-15,500ya

bog sites in Southern, WI

14,500ya

Olympic Penisula, Washington

13,800ya

Topper Site, SC

16,000-50,000ya

Meadowcroft Rockshelter, PA

16,000-19,000ya

Paisey Caves, Oregon

coprolite

14,250ya

coprolite

fossilized human turd

Paleoindian period

11,000-9,000ya

fluted stone spearpoints

pressure flaking with chest crutch

clovis points (200 years in duration)

followed by regional types

found all over the continent

folsom in the Great Plains

Kennewick Man

7500 BC

also known as the “ancient one”

projectile point in the hip (spearpoint)

lacked Native American features

diet of fish

was studied by scientists before returned to burial

pleistoscene extinction

35 species of land animals go extinct

due to climate change and over hunting

small, large mollusks all go extinct at similar rate

post-pleistoscene hunter gatherers

rich variety of plants and animals

Mesolithic

10,000-5500BC

Archaic

6000-1000BC

99.9%

% of our history that has been spent as hunter gatherers

egalitarian

equal society

earned leadership for skills

seasonal rounds

labor by sex

hunter gatherers on earth…

do not exist

“original affluent society”

worked less than we do on average

collected food and then hung out together

selective breeding

process to pass on the most desirable traits

plant domestication

growing a plant and changing it genetically to make it more useful to humans

plants and animals must spread offspring

1. seeds (wind)

2. seeds (float in water)

3. animals carry seeds in the form of fruit

we unconsciously pick plants to collect

1. size

2. taste

3. fleshiness

4. seedlessness

5. fibers

non-shattering rachis

allows seeds to stay on a plant instead of falling off

germination inhibitors

prevents the seeds from growing right away, are more storable

domesticatability of plants

amount of genetic changes needed to become crops

wheat, barley, peas

10,000ya

fruit and nut trees

4000 BC

more difficult fruit trees

weedy plants (radish, beats, lettuce)

classical era

tannins

bad tasting chemical in acorns

why not oak trees?

1. tannins

2. slow growth

3. squirrels

4. bitterness controlled by many genes

Anna Karenina Principle

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

domesticated animals

selectively bred in captivity and modified from its wild ancestor for use by humans

changes in the domestication of animals requires…

genetic transformation

domestication is different from…

taming

there are 148 big wild terrestrial herbivorous mammals… how many are domesticated?

14

the origins of agriculture

a way of obtaining food that involves domesticated plants and animals

cultivation

caring for the entire time it is growing

labor intensive —> delayed payoff

problem with root crops

lack seeds

do not survive well overtime

secondary product examples…

animals are worth more than just meat

milk, wool, leather, traction

primary centers of agricultural development

independently invented, no outside influence

secondary centers of agricultural development

the rest of the word

primary centers

southwest asia

east asia

sub-saharan africa

north america

mesoamerica

south america

south asia

new guinea

oasis hypothesis

end of ice age —> hot temperatures —> travel to oasis

to take control of animals and plants

created by Childe

drawback of oasis hypothesis

today, we do not think that precipitation was so low

locations of oasis do not appear to show evidence of this hypothesis

hilly flanks/natural habitat hypothesis

Jarmo

where it rains, agriculture is more likely to develop

it is more likely to rain where it is hilly

created by Robert Braidwood

population pressure (edge) hypothesis

created by Louis Binford

people were forced to take control to up the carrying capacity of the land

the effects of population pressure would feel the strongest at the margins of a natural habitat zone where food is lest abundant

edge of the Fertile Crescent

symbolic/religious hypothesis

perceived nature differently as their religious beliefs changed

social hypothesis

to throw parties with food and beer to increase social status

issues with theories in southwest asia

some villages on margins

populations of average size

cooler and moister climate at end of pleistoscene

sedentism —> plants —> animals —> pottery

plants —> sedentism in mesoamerica

natufian

more sedentary

rely on grain

levant, ‘ain mallaha

11,000-9,000 BC

200-300 people

½ acre

3 layers

round houses 10-25 feet in diameter

period right before agriculture invented

heavy ground stone artifacts (mortars and pestles)

animal bones: wild pig and goat, deer, auroch, gazelle

wild barley seeds

person buried with puppy in grave

dental caries

cavities, sugar, 8-10% of teeth

sickle blades

used to cut the grain, high frequency

climate change

18,000-4,000 BC

approximately 8,000 BC temperature increases, and effective precipitation reduces (reduced moisture needed for plants to grow)

humans forced to adapt after becoming more sedentary

Gobekli Tepe

9,000 BC

mountain ridge site

oldest human made stone structure (not houses)

35-100 feet in diameter

massive limestone T-shaped pillars (10 feet, up to 7 tons)

carvings, symbols, pictograms

the structures were buried in sand 8,000 BC —> to hide it, religious, why?

importance of Gobekli Tepe

shows that humans were in the process of building a different relationship with the environment

tell

building up a manmade mountain through mud houses

Abu Hureyra

10,500 BC-6,000 BC

25 feet of debris

Natufian site

year round occupation

near gazelle migration

10,000 BC cooler drier climate

forests disappear, but wild wheat remains

domestication 25-300 years

wild lentils reappear

population 2,000-3,000

exotic items

importance of Abu Hureyra

first example of cultivation (wheat)

domestication

geography, abundance, morphology, demographics

archaeobotany (paleobotany)

carbonized remains

Jericho

oldest city on planet Earth

tell, 70 feet thick, 6 acres

10,000 BC

tower, wall, ditch —> flooding? raids?

extensive trade

7,500BC square houses

unique figurines and pottery

early neolithic Jericho

8,500 BC-7,600 BC

round pit houses

headless burials

about 600 people

cereals important

gazelle —> sheep/goat

Catalhoyuk, Turkey

tell, 65 feet deep, 32 acres

10,000 people, egalitarian

square houses with no spaces between them, used ladders and roof

obsidian trade due to volcanoes

dead buried inside the floor

bull heads coming out of the wall —> reflecting masculinity?

Mehrgarh

7th millenium BC

local barley? (possible domestication)

• imports from the west

gazelle, some sheep/goat

domesticated zebu cattle and cotton (5,000 BC)

portable art —> large eye wholes, exaggerated features

Cyprus

8,000 BC

brought living gazelles to the island via canoe to create a population

stone artifacts, fallis shaped (penis) —> most likely ritualistic, profound meaning

China

pottery, potsherds

temporal (time) markers

oldest pottery —> 15,000-18,000 in China

potsherds

fragments of pottery

Chinese Neolithic

yangshao culture

6th millennium BC

millet and pigs

rice 8,000 BC at Shang-Shan on Yangtze River