Midterm (Arch) Flashcards

1
Q

Oldowan

A
Earliest stone tools
Approx. 2.6 MYA (Lower Paleolithic)
Associated with H. habilis
Pebble tools, choppers, and flakes
Uniform across space and time
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2
Q

Acheulean

A

Approx. 1.8 MYA - 200 KYA (Lower Paleolithic)
Associated with H. erectus
Handaxes (Symmetrical and bifacially worked)

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3
Q

Mousterian

A

Approx. 200 KYA-30 KYA (Middle Paleolithic)
Associated with H. neanderthalis
Levallois cores and flakes, side scrapers, backed knives

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4
Q

Flake attributes

A

Platform

Bulb of percussion

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5
Q

Core attributes

A

Flake scar

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6
Q

Upper Paleolithic tools

A
Approx. 50 KYA-10 KYA
Associated with H. sapiens
Blades, blade cores, points and scrapers
Composite tools
Bone tools
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7
Q

Ohallo II

A

Paleolithic era (20 KYA) settlement in Israel
Semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers
Shows that sedentism could precede agriculture

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8
Q

Natufians

A
Near East culture (15-11 KYA)
Focus on wild grasses
Halfted crescent-shaped blades and grinding stones
Semi-or-full-sedentism
Controlled burns
Gazelle hunting
Circular houses
Sub-floor burials
Storage of grain
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9
Q

Göbekli Tepe

A

Western Turkey site (19-11.5 KYA)
Built by people living off wild plants and animals
Gathering locations for lineages / Lineage-owned houses
Variety in the Natufian landscape

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10
Q

Linear Band Keramic (LBK)

A

Early Central European farming culture (7200 - 6500 YA)
Known for pottery with linear lines
Farming with plants and animals brought from the Middle East
Rectangular longhouses
Settled on floodplains
Conflict between farmers over land near the end (Talheim massacre)

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11
Q

Talianky

A

Cucuteni-Trypillia culture (another Central European farming culture)
Large farming settlement in the Ukraine of 10K+ people (5850-5700 YA)
Known for distinctive pottery/wall art
Burned to the ground and built anew somewhere else every 60-80 years
Example of semi-sedentism

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12
Q

First pottery

A

China, 20 KYA

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13
Q

Metallurgy

A

Begins in the Eurasian-steppe (5000 KYA+) with the Sintashta culture
Brought into China and Europe from there
Bronze pots made in China for ritual purposes (“boiling culture”), facilitates connection to the gods and thereby social hierarchy

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14
Q

Sintashta culture

A

First culture to work with bronze (metallurgy) and domesticate horses (horse and chariot travel)
Used bronze without social inequality

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15
Q

Peopling of Australia

A

50-60 KYA (Late Pleistocene)
Likely arrived via marine travel
Time of Sahul supercontinent

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16
Q

Landscape management

A

Controlled burns for creating patchwork landscapes, cultivating habitats, and reducing bushfires
Fish weirs
Mound building

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17
Q

Peopling of the Americas

A

Clovis-first hypothesis: Civilizations that made fluted points called clovises for hunting big game are first peoples in Americas (13 KYA), arrived through ice-free corridor in the Bering land bridge
Monte Verde: Site in Chile that predates Clovis (14.5 KYA)
Coastal migration hypothesis: Coastally adapted people arrived via boat, facilitated by kelp highway and glacial refugia

18
Q

Maize domestication

A

First domesticated in Highland Mexico (Oaxaca) at least 6 KYA, genetics suggest maybe even 8-9 KYA
Tougher rachis, softer glume, more rows of corn, developed husk (compared to Teosinte)
Spreads into South America in semi-domesticated form 8 KYA

19
Q

Olmec

A

First Mesoamerican culture (3 KYA)
Settlement hierarchy emerges with regal-ritual centres where resources are controlled and traded
“Mother culture” of Mesoamerica

20
Q

Poverty Point

A
Southern Louisiana (3600 YA)
Brought together people from across the region to build and maintain
Unclear in its purpose–likely multipurpose
21
Q

Chaco Canyon

A
Urban centre in New Mexico (1050 AD)
Construction of great houses; giant buildings for storage
Housed elite families
Had plazas for rituals and feasts
Mexican influence
22
Q

Cahokia

A

Urban centre in Ohio of 10-15K people (1050 AD)
Established colonies/missions
Centre of Mississippian world

23
Q

Mesopotamia

A

The first ever cities, emerged around the Tigris and Euphrates
Process of urbanization begins 7 KYA with the construction of temple centres showing region-wide belief system
No real settlement hierarchy until city states emerge 6 KYA, the first being Uruk

24
Q

Indus Valley

A

Civilization in Pakistan (2600-1900 BC)
Trading partner to Mesopotamia via the Indian Ocean
Different political organization, however:
Elites with no kingship

25
Q

Great Zimbabwe

A

Major city in Sub-Saharan Africa (1000 AD)
Trading with China and Persia via Indian Ocean
Walled complexes/compounds, possibly houses of successive rulers
Lineage-based society
Built by Shona Indigenous people but the narrative that it was built by Middle Easterners was pushed in the early 20th century until 1979 (colonial archeology)

26
Q

Urbanism in West Africa

A

Long process beginning over 3 KYA
Bassey Andah: rejected colonial archeology, argued that urbanization happened differently in Africa than elsewhere
Enormous variability in people and geography = variability in urbanization
Density of villages both large and small
No kings like in Mesopotamia for a while

27
Q

Ahnenerbe

A

Research organization established by the Nazis promoting the idea that Germany is the centre/originator of Europeans civilization
Example of archeology used as a tool for nationalism

28
Q

Dolni Vestonice

A

Mammoth hunting site in Czechoslovakia (25 KYA)
Used by Czechoslovakia to legitimize its own existence
Evidence of clay working (figurines, flutes, etc.)
Excavations taken over by Nazis in 1939, wanted to trace “Nordic” past to Paleolithic: “This cite is German and the Germans conquered the neanderthals”

29
Q

Relative dating methods

A

Evidence dating based on association with other things of a known age or just in relation to other things (i.e. older or younger)

30
Q

Absolute dating methods

A

Evidence dating based on scientifically determining actual age (ex. Radiocarbon dating, potassium-argon dating)

31
Q

Provenience

A

“Place of origin” based on location using X Y Z coordinates, stratigraphic deposits, and/or associations
Helps to provide context

32
Q

Types of archeological surveys:

A
  1. Aerial
  2. Pedestrian/ground truthing
  3. Geophysical
33
Q

Fieldwork methods:

A

Survey and excavation

34
Q

Is stratigraphy and example of absolute dating?

A

No

35
Q

Oldowan technology produced what kind of tools?

A

Choppers (from cores) and flakes

36
Q

Which technology is associated with neanderthals?

A

Mousterian

37
Q

In the European Paleolithic, examples of portable art are usually found at hunting sites–were these figures thought to influence the outcome of hunts?

A

No

38
Q

What is archeology?

A

The study of the past through its material remains

39
Q

Material remains are:

A

Anything that humans make

40
Q

While domesticated wheat and other grasses seem to have spread from the Near and Middle East to North Africa, does pottery appear to have diffused the same way 7000 years ago?

A

No, it appears to have diffused the opposite way

41
Q

Archeological evidence suggests Aboriginal Australians have been living in Australia for approximately:

A

50,000-60,000 years