final exam Flashcards
(63 cards)
1
Q
Stratigraphy
A
- The study of the sequential laying of deposits
2
Q
Taphonomy
A
- The study of how mines and other materials came to be buried in the earth and preserved as fossils
3
Q
Taphonomist
A
- Studies the processes of sedimentation, the action of streams, preservation properties of bone, and carnivore disturbance factors
4
Q
Features
A
- Products of human activity that cannot be removed from the archaeological record as a single items
- Pits
- Post-molds
- Hearths
- House floors
5
Q
Artifacts
A
- Are tangible objects; anything made or modified by people in the past
6
Q
Eco-facts
A
- Natural materials used to reconstruct the local environment of a site
7
Q
Ethnoarchaeology
A
- An approach used by archaeologist to gain insight into the past by studying contemporary people
8
Q
Experimental Archaeology
A
- Research that attempts to replicate ancient technologies and construction procedures to test hypothesis about past activities
9
Q
Cultural Resource Management (CRM)
A
- Part of legally mandated efforts to conserve the records of the past for future generations under the threat of encroaching development and construction
10
Q
Sahelanthropus
A
- Small brain-case, vertical face, huge brow ridge, hominin status questioned
11
Q
Ardipithecus
A
- Pelvis shows derived characteristics, divergent big toe, woodland environment
12
Q
Australopithecus Afrarensis
A
- Come from sites in Hadar (in Ethiopia) and Laetole (in tanzania)
- More primitive (less evolved) than any other later australopith
- Share more primitive features with late Miocene apes
- Earliest well-documented biped; possible ancestor of
all later hominins - 3.6 -3.0 mya
13
Q
Australopithecus Africanus
A
- Small-brained, with an adult cranial capacity of about 440 cm cubed
- Well adapted bipeds
- Lived approx. between 3 and 2 mya
- Quite derived; likely evolutionary dead end
14
Q
Homo habilis
A
- Significantly larger brain than in australopiths,
- Estimated average cranial capacity 631 cm cubed (increased cranial size of 20% over australopiths)
- Also called “early homo”
- Had different cranial shape and tooth proportions from austrolpiths
15
Q
Homo Erectus
A
- The first hominin to expand into new regions of the old world
- As a species, H. Erectus existed over 1 million years
- We can understand its success as a hominid species based on behavioral capacities (i.e more elaborate tool use) and physical changes (i.e larger)
- Discoveries from East Africa have established Homo Erectus by 1.7 mya
- Some researchers see anatomical differences between the African and Asian discoveries
= They place African fossils into the /Homo dragster/ represents closely related species and possibly geographical varieties of a single species
16
Q
Homo Heidelbergensis
A
- Paleospecies name for group that likely gave rise to Homo sapiens and Neanderthals
17
Q
Homo Sapiens Idaltu
A
- Near modern homo sapiens, on the verge of modernity but not quite there
- Idaltu means elder
18
Q
Bipedal Locomotion
A
- Walking on two feet. Walking on two legs is the single most distinctive feature of the hominins
19
Q
Mosaic Evolution
A
- A pattern of evolution in which the rate of evolution in one functional system varies from that in other systems
20
Q
Difference between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens
A
Neanderthals:
• Flake told not specialized
• No distance hunting weapons
• Use of non-stone tool
• Stone materials transported over relatively short distances
• Artwork uncommon
• Deliberate burial is seen but with few artifacts
Homo Sapiens:
• More varieties of stone tools
• use of spear-thrower and bow and arrow
• use of bone, antler, ivory and more specialized tools
• stone materials transported over longer distance
• artwork much more common, including transportable items
• burials more complex, including tools and animal remains
21
Q
Glaciations
A
- Climatic intervals when continental ice sheets cover much of the northern continents
- Glaciations are associated with colder temperatures in norther latitudes and more arid conditions in southern latitudes, most notably in Africa
22
Q
Interglacials
A
- Climatic intervals when continental ice sheets are retreating, eventually becoming much reduced in size
- Interglacials in northern latitudes are associated with warmer temperatures, while in southern latitudes the climate became wetter
23
Q
Upper Paleolithic
A
- A cultural period usually associates with modern humans, but also found with some Neanderthals, and distinguished by technological innovation in various stone tool industries
- Best know from Western Europe, similar industries are also known from central and Eastern Europe and Africa
24
Q
Models of Human Origins
A
- Regional Continuity: Multiregional Evolution
- Replacement
= Complete
= Partial
25
Regional Continuity
- Associated with paleoanthropologist Milford Wolpoff of the University of Michigan
- Populations, connected by gene flow, in Europe, Asia, and Africa continued evolutionary development from archaic H. Sapiens to anatomically modern humans
26
Complete Replacement
- Developed by British paleoanthropologist Christopher Stringer and Peter Andrews
- Proposes anatomically modern populations are in Africa in the last 200,000 years
- They migrated from Africa, completely replacing premodern populations in Europe and Asia
- Does not account for the transition from premodern forms to H. Sapiens anywhere except Africa
27
Partial Replacement
- Our perspectives suggest that modern humans originated in Africa and then, when their population increased, expanded out of Africa into other area of the Old World
- This model claims that interbreeding occurred between emigrating Africans and resident premodern populations
28
Atlatl
- Spear thrower
29
Archaic
- New World region
30
Mesolithic
- Europe region
31
Epipaleolithic
- Near East region
32
Holocene
- The geological epoch during which we now live
| - The Holocene follows the Pleistocene epoch and began roughly 11,000-10,000 years ago
33
Pleistocene
- The epoch of the Cenozoic from 1.8 mya until 10,000 ya.
- The Pleistocene, often called the Ice Age, was marked by advances and retreats of massive continental glaciations
= At least 15 major and 50 minor glacial advances have been documented in Europe
= Hominins were impacted as the climate, flora, and animals life shifted
34
Anthropocene
- The geological epoch during which human behavior became one of the earth’s major geomorphological and geological processes
35
New World Migration Theories
- Bering land bridge
- Pacific rim coastal route
- North Atlantic ice edge route
```
- Depends on multiple types of evidence:
= Geographical
= Biological
= Cultural
= Linguistic
```
36
Bering Land Bridge
- Beringia -- The dry land connections between Asia and America
= Up to 1,300 miles wide north to south during the last glacial maximum (28,000-15,000 years ago)
37
Pacific Coastal Rim
- Humans had watercraft and early as 40,000 years ago
38
North Atlantic Ice-Edge
- Clovis — a period in North American prehistory in which short-fluted projectile points were used in hunting large mammals
- Clovis - solutrean connection
- Chronological and technological gap
39
Beringia
- Siberian Yana RHS site 30,000 years old
| - Bering passage was dry land 25,000-11,000 years ago
40
Sedentism
- Residing in a single location for most or all of the year
41
Domesticated Animals of the New/Old World
- NEW
- Llama
- Alpaca
- Guinea pig
- Muscovy duck
- Turkey
- Dog
- OLD
- Sheep
- Goats
- Pigs
- Cattle
- Horses
- Water Buffalo
- Camels
- Reindeer
- Dog
42
Domesticated Plants of the New/Old World
```
NEW
=Staple Foods
- Maize (corn)
- Bean
- Squash
- Potato
- Yam
- Manioc
- Peanut
- Sunflower
- Quinoa
```
=Other foods
- Pepper
- Tomato
- Pumpkin
- Pineapple
- Papaya
- Avocado
- Guava
- Passion fruit
- Vanilla
- Chocolate
=Stimulants
- Tobacco
- Coca
- Peyote
OLD
- Rice
- Wheat
- Millet
- Barley
43
Cultivars
- Wild plants fostered by human efforts to make them more productive
44
Cultigens
- A plant that is wholly dependent on humans; a domesticate
45
Domestication
- An evolutionary process
- A wild species is genetically transformed so that…
- … it depends on human intervention in some part of its life cycle
46
Agriculture
- A cultural activity
- Propagation and exploitation of plant and animals
- Includes all the activities associated with both farming and animal herding
47
Pastoralism
- Using their herds to act as ecological intermediaries by converting though grasses to meat and by-products useful to humans
48
Craft Specialization
- Economic system in which some individuals do not engage in food production, but devote their labor to the production of other goods and services
- Examples are potters, carpenters, smiths, shaman, oracles, and teachers
- They exchange their services or products for food and other necessities
49
Egalitarian
- No social classes; informal leadership
50
Ranked
- Social differentiation but not social classes
51
Stratified
- Social classes
52
State
- Social classes; citizenship; monopoly on force; administrative institution; bureaucracy
53
City
- An urban center that both supports and is supported by a hinterland of lesser communities
- Characteristics of a city include:
= Complex society
= Tonkin social organization
= Craft and administrative specialists
= Production, trades religion, and administration centers
= Prominent ceremonial or civic buildings
54
Civilization
- A larger social order and set of shared values in which state are culturally embedded
55
City-state
- An urban center with its supporting territory that forms an autonomous sociopolitical unity
- Farmers and other food producers tended to live in the urban center and work their fields on the outskirts of the city
sociopolitical units
56
Territorial State
- A form of state political organization with multiple administrative centers and one or more capitals.
- The cities tended to house the elite and administrative classes, and food producers usually lived and worked in the surrounding hinterland.
57
Teotihuacán
- Earliest city-state to dominate the Valley of Mexico. It became one of the largest urban centers in the New World up to the nineteenth century
58
Teochtitlan
- Aztec capital, built on the future site of Mexico City
59
Cuneiform
- Wedge-shaped writing of ancient Mesopotamia
60
Biocultural Evolution
- The mutual, interactive evolution of human biology and culture; the concept that biology makes culture possible and that developing culture further influences the direction of biological evolution; a basic concept in understanding the unique components of human evolution
61
Human Population Growth since the Ice Age
- 3,000,000 to 2,500,000 ya: Culture, in the form of tool use, distinguished our hominin ancestors from other species
- 200,000 ya: Modern humans appear in southern Africa
- 150,000 ya: Modern humans spread to Asia and Europe. Cultural change speeds up
- 10,000 ya: Hunter gatherers were similar to those of modern times
62
Effects of Sedentary Living
- Farmers substituted domesticated species for wild species in their field and pastures
- Plowing, terracing, de-foresting, and animal grazing eroded the land
- Pests moved to take advantage of the disturbed landscape
- Intensive agriculture depleted the soil’s fertility
- Populations grew in size and density
- Infectious diseases spread
- Overall human health quality declined
63
Climate Change
- Rapid global climate change is accelerating
| - Human activity in the last two centuries is the most significant cause
