ant
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## STONEHENGE FILM — THE 8 QUESTIONS
Two types of stones used at Stonehenge :: Sarsen (local sandstone harder than granite, uprights + lintels, up to 45 tons) and Bluestones (transported from Wales, at least 150 miles away)
When was the first stage of Stonehenge built :: Around 3000 BC
Three main stages of building Stonehenge :: (1) ~3000 BC — ditch, bank, and ring of 56 pits (Aubrey Holes) that probably held the bluestones; (2) ~500 yrs later (~2500 BC) — the colossal sarsen stones installed, bluestones rearranged among them; (3) later — parallel banks defined the avenue running from Stonehenge to the River Avon
What was also found at Stonehenge that was reinterred by archaeologists in 1935 :: Cremation burials (nearly 60 human burials, reburied in Aubrey Hole No. 7) — one of the biggest cremation cemeteries in early prehistoric Europe
Findings from the cremated remains :: Mostly adults, majority male, mostly aged 25-40, fairly healthy/robust — a select group, likely people of political stature or royal lineages; points to an aristocratic, male-based society
Seasons the archaeology indicates feasting occurred :: The summer and winter solstices (midsummer and midwinter) — feasting evidence (pig/cattle bones) at Durrington Walls
Theory as to why Stonehenge was built where it is :: Natural grooves/ridges in the landscape (cut by Ice Age freeze-thaw between two ridges) happen to align with the solstice axis (midwinter sunset); this natural coincidence made it a sacred, powerful spot, so they built just beyond where the grooves end
What happens when metals like copper and gold are adopted into England :: Focus shifts to personal wealth and status; the dead are buried with riches in individual burial mounds; the age of grand communal monuments ends and Stonehenge is eventually abandoned
## STONEHENGE FILM — SUPPORTING DETAILS
Mike Parker Pearson :: Led the Stonehenge Riverside Project (Univ. of Sheffield); developed the living/dead theory of Stonehenge
Ramilisonina :: Archaeologist from Madagascar; his insight — stone is associated with the ancestors/the dead, wood with the living — reshaped Stonehenge interpretation
Realm of the dead vs realm of the living :: Stonehenge (stone) = realm of the dead; Durrington Walls (timber circle) = realm of the living; River Avon linked the two
Durrington Walls :: Giant henge <2 miles north of Stonehenge; timber circle + houses; possibly the largest village in Northern Europe ~2500 BC; feasting site
Aubrey Holes :: The ring of 56 pits at Stonehenge; held cremation burials / probably originally bluestones
Antler picks :: Made from red deer antler; used to dig the ditches and pits (labor-intensive)
Hammer stones :: Stone tools (50 found in the dressing trench) used to shape/dress the sarsens by pounding
Andrew Young (theory of moving stones) :: Univ. of Exeter grad student; theorized carved stone balls were used as ball-bearings on grooved rails to move giant stones (advisor Bruce Bradley)
Clive Ruggles :: Archaeoastronomer; argued Stonehenge is NOT an observatory — only ONE confirmed alignment (the main axis = midsummer sunrise / midwinter sunset)
Bluestonehenge :: Stone circle by the River Avon (~25 stones) found by Parker Pearson's team; may have been linked to Stonehenge from ~3000 BC
Neolithic Britain (the film's world) :: Final Stone Age phase; stone axe supreme; small scattered settlements; kept livestock; grew barley and wheat; metal had not yet reached Britain
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## LSA / UPPER PALEOLITHIC / PALEOINDIAN
AMH (Anatomically Modern Human) traits vs Neanderthals :: More tool variety (bone, antler, ivory); personal ornamentation; long-distance resource acquisition; art; complex burials
Origin of modern humans (date + place) :: Southeastern Africa, at least 200,000 years ago
Key dates of AMH world spread :: Out of Africa ~100,000; Europe ~40,000; Siberia ~25,000; Australia ~50,000; Americas ~15,000; East Asia (Liujiang, S. China) ~67,000
Race (anthropological view) :: Socially constructed, not biological; divides a population to maintain/extend the power of one group; traits (hair, body build, skin color) sort independently in reproduction
Skin color variation :: Controlled by melanin (more sunlight = more melanin = darker skin); Vitamin D hypothesis — need UV to synthesize Vitamin D for bone growth; too little UV causes rickets
First modern human fossils (195,000-70,000 BP) :: Herto, Ethiopia (Homo sapiens idaltu); Omo Kibish, Ethiopia; Border Cave, South Africa; Klasies River Mouth, South Africa
Middle Stone Age (MSA) :: The African term (280,000-40,000 ya); = Mousterian / Middle Paleolithic in Eurasia; large flakes and blades; Levallois technique
Levallois technique :: Prepared-core flintknapping method producing flakes of predetermined shape
MSA regional styles (by 130,000 BP) :: Aterian, Nubian, Mumba, Lupemban, Howieson Poort
Dar es Soltan Cave 2, Morocco :: North Africa MSA site, 127,000-40,000 BP; interglacial (wetter); Homo sapiens sapiens (adult + child skull); snail collecting, rhino hunting; Aterian Industry
Aterian Industry :: First tanged artifacts (hafting) using Levallois Mousterian technique; earliest evidence for ornamentation (bone and quartz pendants)
African Later Stone Age (LSA) :: 40,000-20,000 BP; microliths (smaller tools); bone/ivory/antler tools; hafting/composite tools; pressure-flaking
Blombos Cave, South Africa :: Occupied from 164,000 ya; ~100,000 yr old oldest portable art; worked red ochre; 28 polished bone tools; 40 perforated snail-shell beads; earliest modern-human art in Africa
Klasies River Mouth Caves :: MSA + LSA, ~70-125,000 BP; charred H. sapiens sapiens remains with cut marks (ritual vs. dietary cannibalism debate); shell middens = first exploitation of marine mammals (shellfish + seals); NO fishing; seasonal occupation
Klasies hunting — catastrophic vs attritional :: Catastrophic = docile animals driven into traps in groups, all ages/sexes (Eland); Attritional = aggressive animals hunted selectively for weaker/young individuals (Cape Buffalo)
Apollo 11, Namibia :: MSA occupation 27,500 BP; OLDEST dated painted rock art in Africa (7 painted stones); LSA occupation 18,000 BP; organic materials, ostrich eggshell decoration, microliths
Assemblages before Europe (key point) :: No evidence for a "Human Revolution" in Europe; dispels the myth of European superiority; development was incremental (blades, grindstones, pigments, points, fishing, bone tools, microliths, beads)
Pestera cu Oase, Romania :: "Cave with Bones"; Europe's oldest modern humans at ~40,000 BP
Cro-Magnon, France :: 8 individuals, 32,000 BP; after 31,000 BP modern humans alone in Europe
Upper Paleolithic Europe :: 40-30,000 BP; equivalent to Africa's early LSA; blade technology; increased bone/antler tools; non-utilitarian objects; portable (mobiliary) art
4 Upper Paleolithic cultures :: Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian
Gravettian Culture / Dolni Vestonice :: Czech Republic, 25,000 BP; burial of a woman + two men, heads sprinkled with ochre + adorned with wolf/fox teeth; Ivory Venus figurines; "String Revolution"
Dolni Vestonice housing & hunting :: 100-120 people; bone and timber winter houses; net hunting (weaving); intensive mammoth hunting with seasonal movements
Earliest Venus figurine :: 35,000 BP, found in Southwest Germany
Magdalenian Culture :: 16-11,000 BP; composite tools (harpoons, spear-throwers); trade in amber and shells; Lascaux, France = peak of cave art (polychrome paintings)
Upper Paleolithic rock art :: 90% found in France and Spain; 80% created 17-12,000 BP; interpreted as Hunting Magic (Trophyism) and puberty rites / group solidarity
Habitation of Australia :: 60,000-40,000 ya; required 2 sea voyages (~30 and ~90 km), meaning boats; land had been separated ~30 million years
Lake Mungo, Australia :: First known cremations; Woman ~19 yr old dated 24,710±1270 BP; Man originally 28-32,000 BP, redated to 60,000 BP, with red ochre; NO blade technology; winter-spring occupation
Archaeology of the Dreamtime :: 28,000-17,000 BP; Kakadu / Arnhem Land art; Indigenous explanation — made by mimis (ancestral beings) in The Dreaming; everything assigned to a moiety (two exogamous groups); art about renewal
Sungir, Russia (burials) :: 22,000 BP; adults and children buried with clothing, spears, arctic fox teeth, ivory beads; children too young to earn status = status was hereditary
Mezhirich, Ukraine (structures) :: 15,000-14,000 BP; houses of 150-650 interlocked mammoth bones; ~10 people, 15 days to build; ritual construction; long-distance trade (amber, ivory)
Walking to the Americas (Bering Land Bridge) :: Two windows to cross when sea level was low — 75,000-45,000 BP or 25,000-14,000 BP
Clovis Culture / Colby, Wyoming :: Mammoth kill site, 11,000 BP; 6-7 individuals; fluted Clovis points; mammoths driven into a cul-de-sac; two meat caches (unused frozen articulated + used)
Clovis Barrier vs Pre-Clovis :: "Clovis Barrier" = long-assumed baseline (Clovis = first Americans, via Ice Free Corridor ~12,000 BP); "Pre-Clovis" = claims for earlier peoples; new evidence favors a Coastal Route
Monte Verde, Chile :: Pre-Clovis site, 14,500-14,000 BP; peat bog preservation; 42 plant species (shows over-reliance on the "hunting" model); ivory tools; habitation with structures + hearths
Pedra Furada, Brazil :: "Painted" rockshelter; charcoal dates 50,000-17,000 BP; disputed — "artifacts" may be "geofacts" (natural, not cultural); dates at edge of C14 range
Kennewick Man / Spirit Cave Man :: 9000 BP (WA) and 9400 BP (NV); long narrow skull, projecting nose, receding cheekbones; morphology most resembles the Ainu (Indigenous Japan), NOT Europeans; suggests multiple migrations
NAGPRA :: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 1990; requires federal lands/agencies to consult Native Americans before disturbing remains/sacred objects and to return culturally affiliated items
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## MESOLITHIC / ARCHAIC
Pleistocene-Holocene transition :: ca. 12,000 BP (warming climate)
Terminology by region (Early Holocene) :: Upper Paleolithic → Mesolithic (Europe, Asia, N. Africa); PaleoIndian → Archaic (Americas)
Megafaunal extinction — Blitzkrieg hypothesis :: "Overkill" by humans; extinctions at different times in Europe/Asia/Americas; Australia is the exception (no large-animal kill sites); ~70% of North American large (>100 lb) mammal genera went extinct at end of last ice age
Megafaunal extinction — other causes :: Environmental change (stable plant/animal communities disrupted, seasonality, habitat loss); likely a combination of overkill + environment
Carrying capacity :: 15,000 BP world population ~8.5 million; after 15,000 BP population began to exceed carrying capacity, restricting movement and increasing use of local resources
Broad Spectrum (Diversification) strategy :: Greater exploitation of many resources (fish, small game, plants); mixed hunting economy; more fresh/marine water resources; smaller, specialized tools
Intensification strategy :: Focus on specific wild resources; sedentary permanent shelters; higher density, larger settlements; more social complexity (grave goods); experimentation with domestication
Residential vs Logistical mobility :: Residential = whole camp moves to the resources; Logistical = only some members move out from a base camp (for hunting/raw materials)
Jomon Culture, Japan :: 12,000 BP; diversification (winter land mammals, summer fish/mollusk/sea mammals, fall/spring nuts/berries); site = Nittano; oldest ceramic technology; "Jomon" = cordmarking; no pottery wheel yet
Jomon ceremonial + tools :: Ceremonial structures with broken ceramic figurines, flat-stone altars with fine points/axes, phallic stone objects; tools — hunting bows, arrowheads, harpoons, grinding stones
Ertebolle Culture, Denmark & Sweden :: 6000 BP; 50+ settlements in varied environments; major foods fish + seal; middens (rubbish mounds); logistical movement
Ertebolle subsistence evidence :: Bone chemistry / stable isotopes (carbon, nitrogen); marine plants/animals show 10-18% δ13C; Vedbaek skeletons show 70-90% marine diet
Ertebolle burials / technology :: Vedbaek cemeteries, 22 individuals, rich ornamentation, evidence of violence, coastal sedentary societies; tech — adzes/axes, bows/arrowheads, bone fish hooks, cordage/nets, ceramic vessels
The Great Basin :: Between Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mtns; deserts/marshes/mountain forests; 82% of sites at 5-7,000 ft
Great Basin subsistence :: Pinon nut harvests (storage, residential movement); mesquite/screwbean/agave (desert); birds (marshes); deer/pronghorn/rabbit/bighorn (forests); Kutsavi (fly larvae)
Lovelock Cave, Nevada :: 9,000-1,000 BP; lake environment; two features — (1) 40 storage pits (snares, 3,000+ textile pieces, 11 duck decoys) and (2) burials (mummies, woven clothing/shoes); coprolite analysis shows fish, bone, marsh seeds
Poverty Point, Louisiana (Archaic) :: 3,700-2,700 BP; confluence of 6 rivers; 6 concentric earthworks; kinship-group labor; NO burials/tombs; West Mound aligns with equinox sunrise; animistic beliefs
Poverty Point trade + subsistence :: Traded copper, galena, jasper, quartz, soapstone across the American NE/Midwest; each site specialized; subsistence — fishing, clams/oysters, acorn/hickory nuts, earth ovens with clay balls
Fertile Crescent (SW Asia intensification) :: Wild barley + wheat; acorns, pistachios, almonds; wild goats, sheep, dogs, humpless cattle, especially gazelle
Natufian Culture, Ain Mellaha, Israel :: 11,000-9,000 BC; earliest large village in the world; year-round; 70+ structures; population ~300; near grassland + woodland
Natufian burials / technology :: Burials with grave goods; cavities (high carbohydrate diet); pendants, headdresses, necklaces; possible social stratification; tech — grindstones, querns (saddle-shaped), sickles with geometric microliths
Oaxaca Valley / Guila Naquitz Cave, Mexico :: Squash first; domesticated gourds 9,600-8,900 BP; domestication shown by larger seeds (9,600-8,900 BP) + peduncles/stems (7,700-7,000 BP); mobile hunter-gatherers, low density
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## NEOLITHIC / FOOD PRODUCTION
Neolithic definition :: Cultural stage after the Mesolithic/Archaic; archaeological cultures with evidence of food production (domesticated plants and/or animals) + stone artifacts
Domestication :: The process of genetic change in plants and animals through artificial selection, enabling planting/harvesting of crops and control of animal species
Why domesticate :: Regular meat supply + byproducts (milk, cheese, later labor); dense gatherable food supply; less long-distance foraging; a regular, dependable supply
Domesticating animals (control) :: Constrain movement, regulate breeding, control feeding; gregarious social animals are easiest to control
Genetic signs of animal domestication :: Smaller body size (easier to control); changed horn shape/size; smaller teeth; demographic shift — young males slaughtered first
Genetic signs of plant domestication :: Selection for larger grains; tough (not brittle) axis/joint = rachis; brittle husks = glume
Oasis Hypothesis :: Dry climate confined plants/animals/humans to areas near water in the Near East, forcing domestication to survive
Margins Hypothesis :: Populations grew too large in rich habitats; people moved to the margins and turned to food production to survive
Alcohol Hypothesis :: Cereals first domesticated to keep a steady supply of "brew," which won prestige (friends/influence)
Beer vs Bread debate :: 1952 Braidwood vs. Sauer; Jiahu, China = earliest fermented drink (rice, hawthorn, honey) at 9000 BP tied to feasting/shamanism; tetracycline in Sudanese Nubian bones from beer
Consequences of food production :: Increased population; higher carrying capacity (plow, terracing, irrigation); nutritional/health problems; increased social stratification (tribes and chiefdoms)
Neolithic demographics :: Near East population went from 100,000 to 5 million between 10,000 and 6000 BP; softer foods shortened lactation → higher fertility; children became labor assets
Agriculture health problems :: Bone lesions, arthritis, porotic hyperostosis (iron deficiency), enamel hypoplasia (seasonal food stress), dental caries; little/no gain in lifespan
"Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" (Diamond) :: Farming traded variety for quantity; risk of starvation; disease spread with density; encouraged inequality/stratification, elites, and inequality between sexes
Migration + language + food production :: SW Asia→Europe = Indo-European; Central→Southern Africa = Bantu; S. China→SE Asia = Austronesian; Mexico→US SW = Uto-Aztecan; W. coast S. America = Andean
Proto-language vs daughter language :: Proto-language = the ancestor languages diverged from; daughter languages = those descended from the same parent
Core vocabulary :: Pronouns, numbers, body parts, earth, wood, stone — compared (100-200 terms) to measure how far languages diverged
Glottochronology :: Dating language separation; estimates ~14% change in core vocabulary every 1,000 years
Abu Hureyra, Syria :: Natufian (Mesolithic) settlement under later Neolithic occupation, 12,500-10,000 BP; 30-acre tell; excavated 1972-3 by Andrew Moore; flooded by Tabqa dam; "world's first farmers" (barley, rye, lentils, wheat, chickpeas)
Abu Hureyra subsistence + skeletons :: Early — gazelle hunters (2/3 of fauna, April/May); by 8500 BP goat/sheep dominate; 162 burials under house floors; enlarged neck vertebrae, arthritic toes, muscular limbs (from grinding/carrying); cribra orbitalia from parasites
Bantu "Iron Age Package" :: Spread of food production into southern Africa with Bantu speakers from central Africa — slash & burn agriculture, iron, domesticates, Central Cattle Kraal Pattern, burials, ceramics
American Southwest domestication :: Cerro Juanaquena, Mexico (3,150 BP, terraces/rock rings); Las Capas, AZ (earliest ceramics 4000 BP, water control, formal cemetery); Santa Cruz Bend (175 pithouses); abundant maize
Neolithic/farming society features :: Food production; stone tools + handmade pottery + grinding stones; burials under house floors = ancestor veneration; astronomy via earthworks/megaliths; concern with cycle of life and fertility
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## BONUS — SAPIENS ARTICLE (Tam Pà Ling Cave)
Tam Pà Ling Cave, Laos :: Modern humans reached mainland SE Asia at least 68,000 ya, possibly up to 86,000 ya — pushes back the timeline; shows the mainland was a viable dispersal route
Dating methods at Tam Pà Ling :: Luminescence dating (quartz for younger, feldspar for deeper layers); uranium-series + electron-spin resonance on animal teeth; micromorphology to confirm steady sediment layering; fossils couldn't be directly dated (protected, World Heritage)
Cobra Cave (near Tam Pà Ling) :: Yielded a ~150,000-year-old Denisovan tooth, suggesting the area lay on an earlier hominin dispersal route
AFRICA — the "firsts" (Middle/Later Stone Age)
Blombos Cave = oldest art (engraved ochre, shell beads, bone tools)
Klasies River Mouth = cannibalism (cut-marked human bones) + first shell middens (seafood)
Apollo 11, Namibia = oldest painted rock art in Africa (7 painted stones)
Aterian Industry = first hafting (tanged tools) + first ornaments (pendants)
Key idea: "No Human Revolution in Europe" — modern behavior (art, beads, blades) shows up in Africa first, gradually. Dispels the myth of European superiority.
EUROPE — Upper Paleolithic (blade tech + art)
Cro-Magnon, France = Europe's early modern humans (~32,000 BP)
Dolni Vestonice (Gravettian) = triple burial + Venus figurines (fertility)
Lascaux, France (Magdalenian) = peak cave art, polychrome paintings
Sungir, Russia = rich child burials → proves hereditary status (kids too young to earn it)
Mezhirich, Ukraine = houses made of mammoth bones
4 UP cultures in order: Aurignacian → Gravettian → Solutrean → Magdalenian
AUSTRALIA (remember: NO blade technology)
Settled 60,000-40,000 ya, needed boats (2 sea crossings)
Lake Mungo = first known cremations (the Mungo Woman/Man)
Dreamtime art = made by mimis (ancestral beings)
THE AMERICAS (PaleoIndian)
Came via Bering Land Bridge (low sea level windows)
Clovis = fluted points, mammoth kill sites (Colby, WY) — long thought to be "first Americans"
"Clovis Barrier" = old idea Clovis was first; Pre-Clovis = evidence of earlier people
Monte Verde, Chile = famous Pre-Clovis site (peat bog preserved plants)
Kennewick Man = skull resembles the Ainu (Japan), NOT Europeans
NAGPRA (1990) = law requiring return of Native remains/artifacts
MESOLITHIC / ARCHAIC (the "in-between" — after ice age, ~12,000 BP)
Two big strategies to know cold:
Diversification (Broad Spectrum) = eat a little of everything (fish, small game, plants)
Intensification = focus hard on specific resources, get sedentary, more inequality
Two mobility types:Residential = whole camp moves | Logistical = a few people go out from a base camp
Sites:
Jomon, Japan = oldest pottery (cordmarked)
Ertebolle, Denmark = shell middens, isotopes show 70-90% marine diet
Lovelock Cave, NV = duck decoys, storage pits, mummies
Poverty Point, LA = giant earthworks, trade hub (no burials)
Natufian (Ain Mellaha, Israel) = earliest village, sickles → about to invent farming
Guila Naquitz, Mexico = earliest squash domestication
NEOLITHIC (farming begins)
Domestication = genetic change via artificial selection
Plant signs: bigger grains, tough rachis | Animal signs: smaller body, smaller horns/teeth
3 "why farming started" hypotheses: Oasis (dry climate forced it), Margins (overpopulation pushed people out), Alcohol (they wanted beer)
Consequences of farming = mostly BAD: more disease, worse nutrition (caries, porotic hyperostosis, hypoplasia), social stratification, inequality → Jared Diamond calls it "the Worst Mistake in Human History"
Abu Hureyra, Syria = "world's first farmers" (gazelle hunters → herders)
Bantu "Iron Age Package" = farming + iron spreads across southern Africa
Language trick: farming spread languages → SW Asia=Indo-European, Africa=Bantu, S.China=Austronesian