Flashcards
ANT200Y1Y
Cards in this deck (36)
- 1How was the Kebara Period characterized?By small hunter-gatherer encampments. There are few remains from this period other than stone tools and animal bones.
- 2What is the Ohalo site and why is it significant?It's a Kebaran site in northern Israel with excellent preservation of organic remains due to being protected from air. Despite the associated period, stone structures indicate evidence of occupation.
- 3Describe the Natufian in (4) points.1. The Natufian refers to societies in the Middle-East that practiced a broad subsistence strategy that relied on using a wide variety of resources. 2. Being responsible for the earliest stone buildings in that area, they are known for being some of the first societies to transition to village life. 3. They are thought to have engaged in long-distance trade b/c of the abundance of Red Sea and Mediterranean sea shells (even though their source would not have been close to the Natufian sites). 4. There is no evidence that indicates they domesticated herd animals, but they may have domesticated dogs, because they were found buried beside people, and with smaller snouts than wild dogs.
- 4What was the Younger Dryas and what effect did it have on the late Natufian?It was a period of global climate change often referred to as the 'little ice age', which may have happened within one generation. The Younger Dryas is likely to have contributed to the reduction of size and number of Natufian sites, as well as the reduction of areas suitable from human occupation.
- 5Describe the aesthetic, associated period, and possible function of the Jericho Tower.It is a 9-meter-high structure made of undressed stone and mud brick dating back to the PPNA, and is the oldest monumental architecture that has been found. It may have been a defense barrier or a cultist construction.
- 6What was the PPNB and how was it different than the PPNA?The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B was the 2nd half of the division of the Neolithic period. Unlike the PPNA, the PPNB is marked by rectangular houses (not round), as well as the size and density of the settlements - both of which increased. Farming also developed in the Middle-East during the PPNB; wheat, barley and lentil were domesticated.
- 7What insights do we have into the social organization of PPNB societies?One would think that PPNB societies would have had Leviathans, yet there is no evidence of a social hierarchy. There was no obvious difference in the quality of housing or burial.
- 8What are plastered skulls and what is the significance of them?They're human skulls on which a plaster face has been modeled that have been buried beneath floors at sites dating to the PPNB period. They are significant because they could be symbolic artifacts used for ritual purposes; which would support one archaeologist's notion that the 'birth of the gods' happened during the Neolithic period.
- 9What is Ain Ghazal and what is it's significance?It is a site in Jordan where plastered figurines were found. The figurines of people were made of straw and covered with plaster; some were missing torsos and other had 2 heads. How this is significant to PPNB is unknown.
- 10Describe the LBK culture.The Linear Band Keramik refers to the earliest farming communities that emerged around 7,200 yrs ago in central and western Europe cultures.
- 11What are some similarities and differences between LBK culture and Middle-Eastern culture?LBK societies cultivated Middle-Eastern plants, and herded Middle-Eastern animals, but their communities were much different. Their villages consisted of longhouses built of massive timbers.
- 12What might have influenced the LBK culture to live in longhouses, and harvest what they did?Houses: this may have been because extended kinship groups lived together. Harvesting: this mat have been in response to the climate of central Europe, and/or possibly cultural preference.
- 13What is the Great Serpent Mound and how was it perceived by colonialists?It is an artificial earthwork made in the shape of a snake in Adam County, Ohio. European colonialists ruled that it must have been a group that had been there at another point in time that made those earthworks; they did not think the 'savage' Natives were capable of achieving something like that.
- 14What is teosinte and where was it found?It is a wild grass found in the highlands of Mexico. It is also the wild ancestor of maize.
- 15What is the key difference between teosinte and maize?The resilience of the rachis. Wild maize have brittle rachis which allow them to break and spread seeds. Domesticated maize have tough rachis and will not break and spread seeds without human intervention.
- 16What is Tehuacan Valley and what is it's significance?It is a valley in the Mexican highlands, where excavations by Richard MacNeish recovered some of the earliest evidence of domesticated plants in Mesoamerica. Using AMS radiocarbon dating, they found the oldest dated bean in Mexico at this site.
- 17What is Guila Naquitz and what is it's significance?It is a site in Oaxaca, Mexico that has produced the earliest evidence of domesticated plants in Mesoamerica. Using AMS radiocarbon dating, the oldest directly-dated maize was found at this site.
- 18Why is it important to study the domestication of corn in Mesoamerica within the proper social context?Because when we do not, it can lead to false assumptions. Mesoamericans may not have domesticated corn for the kernels, but rather to make alcohol using the sugar in the stems.
- 19What does AMS radiocarbon dating stand for, and why was it revolutionary in the field of archaeology?It stands for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Radiocarbon dating, and it allows scientists to date very small samples (such as plant remains, residues and seeds), as well as very old samples (in which the concentration of living carbon-14 is extremely low). In many cases, this would not be possible without AMS radiocarbon dating.
- 20Name (2) sites where AMS radiocarbon dating was performed. What was dated?Beans were dated at Tehuacan Valley, and maize was dated at Guila Naquitz.
- 21Explain AMS radiocarbon dating in (3) steps.Scientists are able to count the isotopes in a sample by: 1. taking a sample of radioactive carbon-14 and mixing it with nonradioactive carbon-13 and carbon-12 isotopes. 2. They are then able to separate them into individual streams, counting each atom. 3. Finally, in order to count the small number of carbon-14 atoms, an atomic accelerator is used to blast the carbon-14 atom through the system at an acceleration of 8 mil. volts.
- 22What is Cerro Juanaquena and what is it's significance?It is an early agricultural site in northern Mexico with extensive evidence of terracing and other stone built features. Because the building of terrace walls and and rock rings at the site would have been a huge investment of time and energy for the people, it could mean that some Late Archaic farmers had transitioned to village life.
- 23What could explain the early uptake of maize agriculture at Cerro Juanaquena?Optimal Foraging Theory.
- 24What is Optimal Foraging Theory?It is a theory based on the assumption that the choices people make reflect rational self-interest in maximizing efficiency when collecting and processing resources.
- 25What is Poverty Point and what is it's significance?It is a Late Archaic site in Louisiana with a series of 6 concentric embankments, meaning the site may not have been a village. What is important is the large quantity of artifacts at the site which are not originally form the area, which opens up the possibility that Poverty Point wasn't a large village, but actually the gathering place for feasting events, which would have drawn in people from all over the region.
- 26What question does the study of Poverty Point beget?Is it possible that during the Late Archaic of eastern North America, monumental construction proceeded large settled villages?
- 27What is Adena and what is observed during this period?It is a period of intensive mound building in the Ohio River Valley that corresponds to the Early Woodland Culture. During this period we see elaborate burial practices, including the construction of mounds, and extensive trade networks.
- 28What is Hopewell and what is observed during this period?A period of intensive mound building in the Ohio River Valley that corresponds to the Middle Woodland culture. During this period we see evidence of elaborate burial practices, including the construction of mound and extensive trade networks. This is because expertly crafted objects that came from far away places were found at Hopewell - ie. art objects made of copper, mica and polished stone.
- 29Based on the presence of foreign materials at Hopewell sites, what theories can we deduce about how people lived during that time?We can speculate that they may actually have lived in dispersed farmsteads, rather than on the earthmounds themselves.
- 30What is the Vacant Center Pattern?A model that sees the Hopewell earthmounds as the empty core of a dispersed settlement system.
- 31Describe Nabta Plata and who is thought to have occupied it.It's an area of the Egyptian western desert that was the location of a series of early agricultural and pre-agricultural sites located along the edge of a lake. The sites were inhabited by hunter-gatherers, but storage pits and pottery were also found, as well as evidence of cattle domestication (but not plant domestication).
- 32Describe pastoral societies, and name a region where they've been discovered.They are mobile societies with an economy focused on maintaining herds of domesticated animals. They have been found in much of North Africa where the domestication of animals proceeded the domestication of plants.
- 33What is Kuk Swamp?A site in highland New Guinea that has produced early evidence of agriculture.
- 34What evidence suggests that the people of Kuk Swamp farmed (3)?1. Drainage canals, pits and earthmounds indicate an effort to drain the swamp and create beds for planting crops. 2. Starch grains that do not grow naturally in the highlands of New Guinea were found at the site. 3. Lastly, when the environment around Kuk Swamp became grassland, bananas wouldn't have been able to keep growing there, yet evidence shows that they did, which indicated human intervention.
- 35What is Paloma and what can we learn from it?It's a pre-agricultural village on the coast of Peru. This site provides a demonstration of the centrality of marine resources to those early village communities, as most of the recovered faunal remains were marine animals or shellfish. There was also evidence of gourd domestication.
- 36What is Jiahu and what does it show us?It's a site located in the Huai River Region of China. Flutes made out of crane bones were recovered, showing us the sedentarism doesn't automatically imply that they don't also hunt.