UW-Madison Anthropology 102: Professor Henry Bunn

Archaeology

The study of rubbish

Types of Evidence

Includes stone artifacts, animal bones, hominid fossil bones, geological record, and modern analogues

Linnaeus

Biological classification system

Muir

"tugging on one thing in nature shows that it is connected to everything else"

order

Kingdom, phylum, class, ______, family, genus, and species

Geological time scale

era, period, epoch

geological time scale

cenozoic, quaternary, pleistocene, and holocene

holocene

geological time scale from present--->100,000 years

pleistocene

2.6/1.6 mya-->100,000 years

pliocene

5-->2.6 mya

age of the universe

15 billion years

age of the earth

4.5 billion years

life on earth

3.6 billion years

last dinosaurs

65 million years

age of humans

5-7 million years

Darwin distinctions

1. Locomotion (bipedal vs. quadruped)

2. Brain size (large vs. small)

3. Canine tooth size (small vs. large)

4. Technology (tools or no tools)

phylogeny

diagram of family tree

taxonomy

the branch of science concerned with classification, especially of organisms; systematics

bipedal

hominid locomotion

large

homo brain size

Ardipithecus ramidus

species marking the beginning of bipedal locomotion

Ardipithecus ramidus

species came about 4.4 million years ago (sometimes called "ardi")

Australopithecus afarensis

species marking ape-sized brain and skull proportions

Australopithecus afarensis

species came about 3-4 million years ago (sometimes called "Lucy")

bipedal

Locomotion type of Australopithecus afarensis

Australopithecus afarensis

species was found to have valgus angle of knee, foramen magnum, primitive teeth

Australopithecus afarensis

this species was found in Ethiopia

Lateoli, Tanzania

site of footprints found that dated back 3.6 mya

5 mya

bipedalism comes about

2.5 mya

expanded brains come about

>5-1 mya

Australopithecus comes about

2.5 mya - today

Homo and stone tools arise

True

True or false: stone tools support homo evolution

No

any evidence that Australopithecus used stone tools?

Dikika

site in Ethiopia from about 3.5 mya showing cut marks on bones that was eventually falsified (said to be tramping or abrasion marks)

Kenya

claim of flaked stone tools from around 3.3 mya in East Africa

dolomite

limestone like material

breccia

mixed/ jumbled deposits of sand, bones, rocks, etc.

Taung Baby

Raymond Dart finds this skull and identifies it as a hominin

Africa

modern "cradle of humankind"

A. africanus

Found by Raymond Dart in Starkfontein that showed bipedality

A. robustus

shows a large ridge of bone called a saggital crest

A. robustus

defined by large cheekbones and teeth

A. robustus

clearly at plant materials and had a small brain

Raymond Dart

man who found the Taung baby and A. africanus

Raymond Dart

Believed that A. africanus were violent hunters and primitive beasts

2-3 mya

A. Africanus comes about

males

Raymond Dart said the (males/females) did the majority of the killing?

Osteodontokeratic

bone-->tooth-->horn

Raymond Dart

Osteodontokeratic Hypothesis founder

Makapan

site of skeletal disproportions:

1. 7000 fossil bones, mostly antelopes

2. Wrong ratio of number of bones

3. Abundance of mandibles and some limbs

4. Selected for tool and weapon use

Taphonomy

processes affecting bones

South Africa

Dynamite was used before scientists could get to the important cave sites here

True

True or False: Breccia makes identifying and digging up evidence very difficult

Eagle

what animal was said to have damaged the eye sockets of the Taung baby?

Swartkrans

site containing P. robustus, but not many H. erectus

cave at Swartkrans

what did Brain propose?

Paranthropus

juvenile cranium that matched two puncture wounds from a leopard madible

geological time

subdivisions of the history of the earth based on major geological and biological events

archaeological time

subdivisions of the human past based on changes in human culture

Paleolithic

Paleo-Indian

first hunters

Mesolithic

Archaic

last hunters

neolithic

woodland

first farmers

bronze age

classic

ranked societies

iron age

states

relative dating

dating based on ages (youngest to oldest)

absolute dating

a date, an estimate of age in calendar years

stratigraphy

oldest dating method

study of sequential layering of deposits

principle of superposition

seriation

battleship curve

things start out unpopular-->get popular--> go back out of style

faunal correlation

animals alive at the time give us important dates

Radiocarbon dating

decay of carbon/ half-life analysis

0-40,000 years

range that radiocarbon dating works within

5730 years

half life of carbon

dendochronology

method of calibrating radiocarbon because of atmospheric changes over time

dendochronology

analyzing tree rings

radio-potassium dating

1.26^9 year half life

large error

bioturbation

animals digging into the earth

bone diogenesis

bones begin to lose collagen, so because of this, radiocarbon dating is messed up

Swartkrans

site of many butchered bones and carnivore feeding

East Africa

site of origins of human behavior

hammerstones

large round rocks used to pound out other tools

Oldowan

earliest stone tool era

Oldowan

stone tool era making use of flakes and hammerstones and direct percussion

Mary Leakey

created classifications of tools

debitage

the waste/ leftover flakes from tool making

Australopithecine

small animals and plant based-diet

nutrition

needed for brain growth

False

True or false: wooden tools would be preserved in the fossil record

wild plant

meaning of Old Tupai--> Oldoway--> Oldovai

3.5 mya

Stone tool use outdates Homo... what is the date?

2.5 mya

year that Homo is most likely the tool maker

Korongo

gully in Kiswahili

FLK

Frida Leakey korongo

No

was there a gorge at FLK 2 mya?

Zinjanthropus bosei

east african man

Charles Bosei

large financial supporter at the Zinjanthropus find site

1 mya

bed IV and bed III-->rivers and streams

at oldovai

1.2 mya

Bed II --> lake

1.79 mya

Bed I --> lake

Home base

What do Leakey and Isaac call Olduvai?