Final Section for Archaeology

More resources becoming available for people during Early Archaic

"Bifurcate" Base Spear points Point, upside down "U" shaped base, corner notches Spears hold Early Archaic bodies under water in a FL bog (similar to the Dutch bog bodies) Suanto Corner Notched: another early archaic point (Swanton Corner Notch (4,000-7,500 BC)) Thumbnail (quartz) Scrapers: Don't know exactly what they are used for. Unknown function! Sharp at top and halved at bottom probably to put on a handle. Popular across New England. Diagnostic of the Early Archaic period. Used to work emerging plant resources?

Herding

Similar to cultivation, requires intentional changes in the relationship between humans and animals.

Social Complexity

Small-scale hunter-gatherer societies have flexible group membership, and disputes can be resolved simply by one or other party leaving to join another group. As group size increased with the adoption of agriculture, new types of social organization emerged. the greater diversity of social roles may be shown by grave goods placed with the dead, or by differences in the number and quality of the objects associated with individual houses in a settlement

Seasonality Studies of Early Archaic period

Spring: fish and wild plants Summer: snails, wild plants, grapes, strawberries, mash elder, swamp weed Fall: occupations show people focus on nut collecting Late fall: river-deer, birds, fish

Significant environmental changes during the Mesolithic

1. Rise in sea-level 2. Warming episode: 8,000 BP Europe reached present temps 3. Changes in forest and distribution of trees/ plants. Pleistocene grasslands replaced. N. Europe = coniferous. S. Europe = mixed conif/ deciduous 4. Megafauna disappear 5. Reindeer move north our of Europe 6. Replaced by forest animals (deer, wild cattle, wild pigs, ibex) In Mesolithic we see a... 1. Shift in tool technology. A continuation of Upper Paleolithic trends 2. Shift in population densities and distribution a. Lower population density than in the Upper Paleolithic b. Formerly open areas are now forested c. Little edible biomass d. Resources are smaller, and more dispersed (dispersed resources = dispersed people) 3. Shift in diet a. "broad spectrum revolution" b. shift from big game to a greater dependence on wild pant resources c. not a "revolution," but a long-term process paralleling the environmental change

PPNA (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) SW Asia

10,500-9,500 BP similar settlement and technology(sickles) to Natufian Massive population growth @ 10,000BP Mound of accumulation of 10,000 years of human occupation Oldest monumental architecture = wall around Jericho Circular stone tower Tell at Jericho Major change in plant remains. 1st evidence of domesticated emmer wheat and barley. Harvesting wild grains selecting best/biggest grans; these plants then will be intentionally reproduced Evidence of a 2nd domestication of Marley east of fertile crescent Still hunting wild gazelle, pig, and cattle

plow agriculture

4500 BC

secondary products revolution

4th-millennium bc graves at Budakalasz and Szigetszent- marton in Hungary. It has been argued that plowing, animal traction, milk, and wool were adopted together (some o f them from Southwest Asia) at about this time, stimulating what has been called the "secondary products revolution" (Sherratt 1981). A more cautious view is that these innovations appeared gradually over a period of several centuries, being integrated in different ways in the increasingly diverse central European farming societies. Their intensified use in the 4th millen nium b c may nonetheless justify retention of the concept of a "secondary products revolution" (Greenfield 2010). Genetic studies have shown that lactose tolerance - the ability to digest milk products (see box p. 396) - is particularly pronounced in human populations of the northern European TRB area and beyond into southern Scandinavia

Late Archaic period

6,500-3,000 BP Characterized by: 1.Population increase. Evidenced by increase in the number of sites 2. Cemeteries show further development of territories. Warfare evidenced by traumatic injuries 3.Artifact styles show local regional cultural affiliations 4. Huge increase in trade and exchange (Why?) a.Resultant from... i.Environmental change ii.Political favors iii.Valuables 5. Signs of status differentiation a.Seen in burials 6.Beginning of plant domestication and horticulture or gardens (not full blown crops)

Middle Archaic period

7,500-6,000 BP Characterized by: 1.Population growth, still increasing 2.Less mobility—size of use area decreases—sites in areas of concentrated raw material and animal resources 3.Cemeteries—further evidence of territorial attachment 4.Deeper sites, buried under flood deposits 5.Humans in all parts of North America 6.Still mobile hunter-gatherers, but some signs of a shift to tribal level societies, based on burials and evidence of interaction between groups. i. Broad levels of social configuration: Egalitarian (bands) - hierarchical (tribes chiefdoms states)

Biskupin

738 BC Irone age town Among the most impressive of these fortified settle ments was the waterlogged and preserved timber township of Biskupin [11.46] in northern Poland. Set on a low marshy island on the edge of a lake, the settlement was surrounded by a timber rampart 463 m (1519 ft) long and originally some 6 m (20 ft) high. Along the top was a walkway for the defenders, protected by a timber screen or stockade along its outer edge, while a timber tower may have stood over the single gateway with double-leaf door. Around the edge of the island was a breakwater of 35,000 oak and pine stakes, designed to prevent the lake waters from undermining the edge of the settlement. Within the stockade, the timber houses were tightly packed, laid out in terraces along parallel streets of split oak and pine logs originally sur faced with earth and sand. The regularity and order of the Biskupin settlement strongly suggests the operation of a pow erful central authority.

Early Archaic period

9,500 -7,500 year BP Climate Change(sea levels begin to rise due to glaciers melting) there is a stable slow stand = stable coastline ; lots of drowned sites As glaciers melt: Land "rebounds" from the glacier melting and not putting pressure on the land Pine to Oak transition in Early Archaic times: Rainfall changes has a lot to do with this (and temperature)

PPNB (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) SW Asia

9,500-8,500 BP Same domesticated plants Shift in settlement from circular to rectangular houses. Increase in segmented space (broken up into rooms) Large circular huts can't support a large roof. Rectangular houses allow for modification and can accommodate more people i.e. larger families Becoming more of a town feel 1st evidence of domesticated animals (sheep and goats) Decrease in hunting of wild animals (Abu Hureyra) Changes in consumption of animals at Jericho: early 10,000 BP gazelle .. later 8,000 NO more goat

The Hilly Flanks Hypothesis Braidwood's "Hilly Flanks" Natural Habitat hypothesis

= predicts where domestication occurred (didn't answer why people began to invest time/ effort) In the late 1940s, a group of American archaeologists, led by Robert Braidwood, set out a model of agricultural origins in Southwest Asia that they proceeded to test by fieldwork. Braidwood believed that farming would have begun not on the lowland alluvial plains, but in the hilly flanks of the Fertile Crescent, which were the natural habitat zone for a cluster of potential domesticates barley, emmer and einkorn wheat, sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle - and which lay between the hot, dry floodplain and the cool, damp mountains. The theory still has many adherents, and research at sites such as fiayonii in the Taums foothills has confirmed the key role of the "hilly flanks" of the Fertile Crescent in the origins of agriculture in Southwest Asia

Binford's Population Pressure hypothesis

=as population pressure created a scarcity of resources, people expand into fringe areas (agricultural practice began to deal with population pressures. A good explanation of why, but the locational argument does not hold up). Demographic Theories From the later 1960s, most theories of agricultural origins looked for factors that would have forced hunters and gatherers to abandon their existing lifestyles and adopt the more labor-intensive agriculture. The American archaeologist Lewis Binford (1968) maintained that environmental change along with sedentism was the principal cause. These sedentary populations experienced population growth, as the abandonment of nomadism relaxed traditional constraints on reproductive rates; infant births became more closely spaced and offspring more numerous. Population pressure then led to expansion into more marginal zones outside these original resource-rich areas. It was in these more marginal, semi-arid zones, Binford argued, that incipient cultivation was developed in response to new population pressure from expanding groups. Binford's theory had the merit of considering patterns at the global scale: why had agriculture arisen both in Southwest Asia and in other regions of the world at around the end of the last Ice Age? However, in terms of explanation, the theory may be held simply to shift the burden of the debate from "why agriculture?" to "why sedentism?". Furthermore, recent research indicates that in key areas of Southwest Asia, sedentism appeared and then disappeared again before re-emerging with the adoption of agriculture

Irrigation i

A means of overcoming seasonal deficiencies in rainfall so as to permit the cultivation of crops beyond the limits of rain-fed agriculture. It takes two primary forms: a) the storage of rainwater or floodwater in tanks and basins, and its release to the fields by a system of canals (e.g. the traditional receding flood agriculture of the Nile Valley in Egypt); or b) the distribution of river water to the fields via canals (e.g. the irrigation agriculture of early Mesopotamia or coastal Peru). The cost implications of irrigation agriculture lie in the heavy labor input required for the construction of channels, banks, sluices, and reservoirs, and the need for constant cleaning and repair.

The Adoption of Writing

A salient feature of early states that is of wide significance is the adoption of writing (Hooker 1990). This, again, is a technology that appears to have developed independently in a number of different locations [5.13]. The earliest known writing systems are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt (both of which originated during the 4th millennium bc), but writing was also a feature of the Harappan, Shang Chinese, and Aegean states from the 3rd/2nd millennium bc, of both highland and lowland Mesoamerica from the 1st millennium bc, and of the Meroe and Aksum states in Africa from the late 1st millennium bc.

Abu Hureyra and Tell Mureybet

Abu Hureyra, Euphrates River, Syria; Best example of animal domestication PPNB Population growth, expansion of settlement areas. Evidence of more long distance trade. Shift in treatment of the dead Mud brick buildings PPNB house, Abu Hureyra, Euphrates River Syria: Burials inside house the sheep were morphologically wild, but the age and sex profiles suggest that the population was being managed. Then, quite suddenly, the high percentage of gazelle bones drops to a very low figure, while the small numbers of sheep rise sharply to become the dominant component among the animal bones. Sheep herding became a major element in the economy, and the hunting of gazelle in particular became an activity of minor economic significance.

Evolution and Intentionality Rindos' Evolutionary Adaption Hypothesis

Alongside environmental or demographic theories were several that emphasized agriculture as the result of long-term relationships between humans and their food sources. Thus the idea arose thatagriculture should be viewed as one type of evolutionary adaptation between humans and other species. American archaeologist David Rindos (1984) argued that domestication was an unintentional outcome of relationships between humans and plants, and that the process followed three stages. First was incidental domestication: human dispersal and protection of wild plants in the general environment. Second came specialized domestication: the creation of locales in which plants and humans influenced each other fairly intensively. Finally there arose agricultural domestication: the culmination of the co-evolutionary process, producing plants adapted to a special set of humanly created conditions.

Doggerland

Area of low hills became an island within the formative North Sea, until, ultimately, it too was submerged and became the rich fishing grounds known as the Dogger Bank

The Bandkeramik Culture

Around the middle of the 6th millennium bc, a distinctive cul tural package developed in western Hungary Bandkeramik settlements are characterized by a number of distinctive features,notably the pottery with incised banded decoration that gives it its name, longhouses o f fairly standardized construction, polished stone "shoe-last" adzes, single grave burials sometimes grouped in cemeteries, and particular types of site location and economy. From its earliest manifestation in Hungary and eastern Austria c. 5600 bc it spread relatively rapidly across Europe, reaching the Rhineland by 5300 bc, a distance o f 650 km (400 miles) in 300 years, and the Paris basin a century or so later Bandkeramik settlements took the form of massively built longhouses [11.18] grouped in twos or threes in forest clearings on gravel river terraces, which provided access to water and easily tilled soil. Successive generations of houses shifted over time, and Bandkeramik settlements typically display a palimp sest of postholes, but they never developed settlement mounds like the tells of southeastern Europe. Occupation of settlement sites was altogether less fixed and less intensive [see box: The Bandkeramik Longhouse, pp. 412-13]. make it one of the strongest candidates for interpretation as a movement of colonizing farmers

the bell beaker

Around the middle ofthe 3rd millennium bc a distinctive kind o f pottery vessel, the bell beaker, came into widespread use in western Europe, from Spain to Scandinavia and inland as far as what is now the Czech Republic. These vessels, which fre quently accompanied their owners in death as grave offerings, represent the spread o f a fashion or a drinking cult, and are associated with a range o f other luxury items: copper daggers, gold ornaments, and fine stone perforated plaques interpreted as archers' wristguards. The origin of the beaker vessel itself may lie in western Iberia, but it was soon taken up and reproduced in numer ous regional variants. Study o f the contents, where these have been preserved, has suggested that the beakers may have held a honey-based (probably fermented) drink, or possibly beer

Mesolithic

Only in Europe: Paleolithic is followed by the mesolithic (middle); end of the last ice age; period of the adoption of agriculture

"Princely Centers"

By the end of the 8th century b c , most of Europe had adopted the working of iron, though bronze con tinued to play a major role for ornaments, alongside the rarer and more valuable gold. It is during this period (700-480 bc), labeled Late Hallstatt after the site in Austria where it was first defined, that the first indications of a political geography appear, with evidence for a series of "princely centers" across a broad band of central Europe from Burgundy to Bohemia. These were marked by hilltop enclosures such as the Heune- burg in Bavaria, overlooking massive circular burial mounds containing richly furnished graves.

Poverty Point, Louisiana

Centric mounds an open plaza: related to things that are going on in South America and possible flood controls. Not just thrown together but made with a plan and a vision in mind. Huge port of trade. Important trade hub Cosmopolitan center (city like) People coming together. Mound A Platform: Heterogenous color, 230,500 m^3 of mound fill; intentionally mixed together in thematic loads (from 100-400 m away) before systematic modular function Carefully selected from specific deposits, not uniformly collected from across the Macon Ridge Constructed in an ~30-90 day 1000-3000 people working (showing people built it fast)

Material Culture

Changes in material culture were an integral part of the transformation of human societies that followed the adoption of agriculture.

Points in Late Archaic period

Otter Creek type points:found near Rutland VT, 5,000 BP "Glacial kame" grave goods from Isle La Motte, VT: Many different points and tools. Shows long range trade and exchange and shows status and social differentiation

Terracing

Designed to increase the area of cultivable land in rough or mountainous terrain by the construction of tiers of dry-stone walling to support fertile but often narrow andrestricted fields; terraces also stabilize slopes and limit erosion. Agricultural terraces are sometimes combined with irrigation canals, and spectacular landscapes of terraced fields are found in Andean South America and the Philippines

Peaceful coexistence or not

During the 6th and 5th centuries bc, contacts between the urbanized Mediterranean and Europe north of the Alps appear to have been relatively peaceful. European raw materials were traded southward, perhaps, in return for Mediterranean manu factures. Contact soon turned to conflict, however, and the Celtic and Germanic raids into Mediterranean territory during the 4th-2nd centuries bc reveal the capacity of temperate Euro pean warrior societies for concerted and effective action. The two sides in this exchange were ill-matched, however, and ulti mately it was the Mediterranean, in the form of an expanding Roman empire, which triumphed, conquering western and some ofcentral Europe, though the north and northeast always lay beyond its control.

Recorded sites in VT Late Archaic Period:

Paleoindian: 38 Early Archaic: 39 Mid Archaic: 94 (includes transitional between middle and late Late Archaic: 287 (more sites is mostly due to population increases)

Social Complexity during Archaic periods in eastern US

Early: Still hunter gathers, they're mobile; storage pits mean that people are tied to certain sites. Depends on seasonality Middle: Less mobility, actual cemeteries, still hunter gather shift to tribal level societies (come together) Late: Cemeteries are present, actual warfare present with traumatic injuries (battle between tribes), huge increase with exchange and trade, and beginning of plant domestication i.e. farming

The two major mechanisms of farming spread were the adoption of farming by hunter-gatherers from their neighbors, and the displacement of hunter-gatherers by expanding farmers.

Farming clearly conveys a demographic advantage over hunting and gathering, since it is able to support many more people per unit area. It is not surprising, therefore, that where farmers and hunter-gatherers came into conflict over land, it was the former who usually prevailed. Farming may sometimes have been adopted by hunting and gathering communities from their neighbors, either under pressure of rising population, or through processes of social competition. Recent evidence indicates, however, that in most cases it was the expansion of famers into new territories that was responsible.

"Three Sisters"

In Central and North America, early agriculture was based on this - maize, beans, and squash - which together provided the sources of carbohydrate and protein essential for a successful agricultural economy.

Domesticated plant species

Include several large-seeded grasses, namely wheat, barley, millets, sorghum, rice, and maize; tuberous root crops such as manioc, yam, and potato; and pulses such as beans, peas,and lentils. Especially important among these plants are the large-seeded grasses that formed the basis of some of the very earliest agricultural economies: wheat and barley in Southwest Asia; millet and rice in East Asia: maize in Mesoamerica (Chapter 9); and pearl millet in Africa ). Along with root crops such as yams and potatoes, these constitute the staples that have proved an excellent source of carbohydrate, and are grown in many parts of the world today. Successful farming economies, however, needed to combine these carbohydrate-yielding staples with sources of protein from pulses or animal products. The combination of plant and animal species varied significantly from region to region, largely in response to the range of locally available domesticable species.

Fertile "Crescent"

Iraq, Turkey, Syria (Mediterranean) (Red Sea); the area with the most agricultural potential at this point in time. Near East Chronology: transition happening around 12,500 from mobile to sedentary villages in Levant area how Israel, Lebanon and Jordan- area on the eastern Mediterranean at foothills of mountains

Attempts have been made to associate the distributions of language families with demographic expansions that might be the consequence of farming (Bellwood 2005).

It is argued that the geographical patterning of related groups of languages, or language families, around the world might reflect the expansion of the initially small farming communities that spoke the ancestral forms of those languages.

Jericho

Largest village in the world (population=2,000) Mound of accumulation of 10,000 years of human occupation oldest monumental architecture = wall around Jericho Circular stone tower, tell at Jericho (protection against other people. and Ancient Tell of Jericho @ northern end of the Jordan Valley

Indian Knoll

Late Archaic; Green River, Kentucky Shell beads: imported marine shells from Mexico "Bannerstones": used as a weight on a spear Native American Site Full excavation happened a long time ago—would NOT happen today

Koster site: Middle Archaic period

Lower Illinois River Have to go down pretty deep to get to the middle archaic period because of flood deposits. Go down as much as 35 ft. Some of the sights with best preservation are not easily accessible and cost a lot to get to 12 horizons 30' dig Middle Archaic layer

Settlement

Most farming communities are distinguished by being sedentary, their members living in permanent farmsteads or villages that are occupied year-round. Ethnographic and archaeological evidence shows that many hunter-gatherers, by contrast, were nomadic, moving camp regularly throughout the year as resources in different parts of their territory came into season. (there are exceptions to this) Farming settlements are larger and of more durable construction than those of most hunter-gatherer communities. The greater productivity of agriculture allowed larger groups of people to come together, and communities of several hundred could be supported by the produce of fields that lay within easy walking distance of a central settlement.

Point tool in Middle Archaic period

Neville-Type and Stark Projectile points are the points of the middle archaic

Natufian SW Asia

Northern Israel 12,500-10,500 BP Vertical economy: warmer climate allowed important plants to grow in more varied environments / altitudes. People follow plants into higher altitudes as they ripen Wild emmer wheat, Wild barley, Wild legumes Semi-subterranean, round houses, storage facilities Stone sickles—for grain harvest Hunted: wild gazelle, pig, horse, cattle Regular cemeteries Structures: Semi-Subterranean, round houses. Storage facilities; digging into side of a slop; round huts imbedded into slope (honey combs) groups for families Tools: stone sickles blades helped to harvest wild grans (wheat/barley)

The"Iceman"

On 19 September 1991, two German mountaineers came upon the oldest preserved human body ever recorded in modern times. The site o f the discovery was the Italian South Tyrol, close to the main ridge o f the Alps and only a little more than 90 m (300 ft) from the international frontier between Italy and Austria. This section o f the Alps is known as the Otztaler Alps, taking its name from the long, narrow Otztal Valley, and the body is commonly known today by the nickname "Otzi"; many, however, simply refer to the corpse as the "Iceman" (Spindler 1994; Fowler 2000). The Finds The body proved to be that o f a man aged around 45 years old. The body was in an excellent state o f preservation, which has allowed detailed analyses to be undertaken, including the sequencing ofhis complete genome (Keller et al. 2012). The reason for thisunusualdegreeofpreservationlayinthe sequence ofevents thatled to and followed his death. It was thought at first that the man had died after being overcome by an early autumn blizzard. Then, in 2001, an X-ray of the body revealed that a flint arrowhead was lodged immediately below the left shoulder: he had been shot in the back (Gostner and Vigl 2002). Although the thin covering of autumn snow was not therefore the cause o f his death, it was certainly the medium ofhis preservation, preventing attack from insect larvae as the corpse was gradually desiccated by autumn winds. In essence, what occurred was a natural freeze-drying. The condition o f the corpse was already largely stabilized when the heavy winter snows covered it. Radiocarbon dating o f tissues from the body, undertaken separately in four different laboratories for greater reliability, indicated that these events took place between 3300 and 3200 bc. The corpse lay buried for over 5000 years before melting ofthe ice, accelerated by wind-borne Saharan dust in July 1991, exposed it to view again. The preservation ofthe Iceman is hence more remarkable than mysterious, but the circumstances ofhis death, and thesignificanceoftheobjectsthathewas carrying, do pose many questions. Lying around the body in the ice hollow were a copper axe hafted in a yew handle, an unfinished bow, also ofyew, a backpack o f larch planks and animal hide, a flint knife and Later Regional Croups By 5000 b c the Bandkeramik had begun to be replaced by a series ofregional groupings defined mainly on the basis oftheir pottery types: Rossen and Michelsberg in the west, Lengyel in the east. At first these retained the longhouse settlement mode but occupied a wider diversity ofenvironmental settings, including the lowlands of the north European plain. Toward leather scabbard, a deerskin quiver with two flint-tipped arrows and 12 unfinished arrow shafts, and a calfskin pouch that hung from a belt. The remains ofhis clothing included fur leggings and cap, a fur outer garment of poncho type, leather shoes stuffed with grass for warmth, and a grass cape that could have doubled as a groundsheet or blanket. This was a set o f clothing well able to cope with the harsh Alpine climate, at least outside the winter months. However, the unfinished nature ofhis bow and the majority ofhis arrows suggest that he was not well prepared for his journey. Furthermore, he was not in the peak o f health. Analysis o f one ofhis fingernails revealed that he suffered from serious illnesses (resulting in interruptions to fingernail growth) at least three times during the six months before he died. He also bore tattoos on his lower back, left leg, and right ankle and knee. These may have been decorative but more probablyhad atherapeuticfunction,sincethe Iceman suffered from arthritis. Analysis ofhis colon contents has indicated that he also suffered from an intestinal infestation that could have given him chronic diarrhea. Most serious of all, however, was evidence that his right hand had been seriously injured, perhaps in a knife fight, several days before his death. A deep cut 4 cm (1.6 in) long across the palm o f the hand would almost have immobilized two o f his fingers.

The Bandkeramik Longhouse

Oneofthemostdistinctivefeaturesof the Bandkeramik farming communities that spread through central Europe in the 6th millennium b c is the timber-built longhouse. Typically 5-7 m (16.5-23 ft) wide and up to 40 m (131 ft) long (sometimes even longer), these had three central rows o f enormous posts supporting a ridged roof covered by reeds or shingles (overlapping wooden slates), the eaves resting on the more lightly built outer walls o f wattle-and-daub.

Leicester Flats Site, Salisbury, VT Middle Archaic period

Still dry in Middle Archaic Some of the sites like this one, you can only excavate during the driest time of the year because for part of the year it is still underwater (Need to wait until the soil is dry (late July)) Many sites like this are wet now but used to be very dry during Middle Archaic. Also have to deal with with a lot of clay at the sites Suggests that it was occupied in a dryer time!

Neolithic

The adoption of cultivation is normally equated with the beginning of the neolithic or new stone age; Europe. In America they talk about it as the Late Archaic

Holocene europe southeast europe greece when did first farming communities get established

The first farming settlements in mainland Europe were estab lished around 6500 bc on the fertile alluvial plains ofThessaly in east-central Greece.They were established on the raised levees or in the channels ofabandoned river courses, with access to light, easily worked silts that were watered every year by spring floods (

Focus of this chapter

The greater yields available through food production caused the steady abandonment of hunting and gathering, and the growth of large agricultural populations. Societies became more complex in their internal organization as they grew in size, and during the 4th and 3rd millennia bc, new kinds of settlement appeared in the form of the first cities, associated with the invention of writing and the development of the state.

Urnfields

The increasing fortification of settlements continued in eastern Europe into the later part of the Bronze Age, after 1300 bc. There were also important changes in burial ritual, beginning in the east and then spreading through central and western Europe. Cremation became the norm, with the ashes of the deceased collected and buried in pottery urns. These burials usually have few grave goods, though they are sometimes accompanied by metalwork or sets of tableware. A key feature is the size of the so-called "Urnfields,'' or cemeteries, in which the cremation burials were often grouped: these burials may number several thousand, suggesting that for the first time the bulk of the population is represented in the archaeological record. Furthermore, most of these individuals received very similar treatment, with little indication of status differences.

Chalcolithic, or "Copper Age,"

The introduction of metals does not mark a sharp break in the development ofsoutheast European societies, although the term Chalcolithic, or "Copper Age," is sometimes used to distinguish this period from the preceding Neolithic. But it does mark a stage in the increasing complexity o f material culture, and an expansion of human settlement and activity across the land scape, associated with the introduction o f the plow and wheeled transport

refugium

The lands closer to the Mediterranean provided this, whereas the continental landmass behind was more seriously affected by the colder, more arid conditions.

The Trade Imperative

The large agricultural communities that developed in the fertile lowland plains were rich in plant productivity but poor in other essential materials. It is striking, for example, how Mesopotamian cities were built of mud- brick (and occasionally baked brick), but used very little stone. The clay on which scribes wrote and from which structures were built was available in abundance, but hard stone had to come from the surrounding uplands, at some considerable distance. The Maya cities of Mesoamerica were similarly deficient in many vital resources such as obsidian, salt, and stone for grinding tools.

How did farming spread across Europe

The recent application of DNA analysis to European prehis toric skeletal remains has confirmed that the movement of farmers themselves was the primary mechanism by which farming spread across Europe to Iberia, Britain, and Scandina via. Indigenous hunter-gatherer populations must have been rapidly absorbed into these new Neolithic communities.

enchainment

There is evidence that the fragmentation of figurines was often intentional: they were made and fired in such a way that they would easily break apart. This suggests that whatever the figurines stood for - whether living individu als, dead ancestors, or deities - the intentional dispersal of the fragments would have served to link together people or places, in a process that has been termed enchainment

tells southeast europe greece and balkans

These are a feature of Neolithic communities in Greece and the southern Balkans, from Thessaly and Thrace to eastern Hungary. As houses decayed or were demolished, the mud-brick or clay daub accumulated to form the mound, a process that was repeated as new houses were built on the sites of those destroyed. In their earliest stages many such tells were of relatively modest dimensions; the Neolithic tell of Karanovo in southern Bulgaria [11.9] measured only 1.5 m (5 ft) in height, though in later millennia it grew to a height of 12 m (40 ft) and spread over 4 ha (10 acres) (Bailey 2000). Such mounds are not accidental creations but are the result of particular attitudes to place by communities that tchose to remain at the same location over successive generations. The prominence of the tells may ultimately have made them visual symbols of the importance (certainly of the longevity) of the community that lived there,

the timing of the first farming settlements from oldest to youngest south east europe greece and balkans

Thessaly 6500 bc in this respect formed one of a number of lowland basins that became key centers of early Neolithic farming communities, others being Macedonia and Thrace from 5800 bc, the Sava and Morava valleys in the northern Balkans from 5700 bc, and Dalmatia (coastal Croatia) also from 5700 b c .

Summary and Conclusions

This chapter has sought to provide an overview of the key developments in human societies during the past 11,500 years, focusing in particular on the transformation of the world in the earlier Holocene. As the ice sheets melted, temperatures and sea levels rose, and human communities took advantage of the new opportunities, growing rapidly in numbers where conditions were favorable. In several regions, population increase and the availability of suitable local plants and animals led to new patterns of exploitation, which resulted in the development of agriculture. The greater productivity made possible by food production ensured the further growth of farming communities and the extension of farming (and in many cases colonist farmers) to new areas. Farming came to dominate the world far beyond the confines of the original habitats of the domesticated plants and animals. The hunting and gathering lifestyle that had supported humansocieties for tens of thousands of years had been pushed to the margins of the occupied world, and survived only in areas where agriculture was impossible. The modern nation-state and its sprawling conurbations are the outcome of processes that began with the intensification of human subsistence practices during the early Holocene.

Ain Ghazal

Very large community in Jordan. There were formal burials and evidence of ditched skulls. Large scaled statues. Over populated, rapidly fell off, possibly due to using up all of their resources too fast Mass graves, Removal of skulls, Life size figurines

Early Archaic Sites

Windover Bog 8,280 BP Central Florida: Bog bodies, people buried in bogs with spear like stakes going through their clothing to "hold them in place". In tact human brain found in bog body that is 8k years old John's bridge site Swanton, VT (early archaic) —similar tools as the Mazza site (which is paleoindian). Munsungan chert. Mr. Jasper rhyolite. Don't see as many similar artifacts all over, start to see people taking advantage of their unique local resources Calvin, South Burlington: another VT site: along river near middle bury and oxbow

Trichterbecher ("funnel-necked beaker") culture

after the bandkeramik culture in central and northern europe This culture is divided into a series o f regional groups and appears to represent an inter action zone - an interlinked series of communities among whom ideas, materials, and artifacts circulated widely. Most conspicuous among the materials involved in these exchanges is copper from the southeastern TRB area in Slovakia. This cir culated through the TRB zone to reach northern Europe, where it appears in the form of axes and hoards of copper objects, such as that at Bygholm in Denmark, from around 4000 b c [11.24]. The early appearance of copper axes and ornaments in Denmark, far from the initial areas ofmetallurgy in south east Europe, is all the more surprising in that Denmark has no metal deposits ofits own

The Feasting Hypothesis Hayden and Bender's Social "Feasting" hypothesis

agriculture developed to find aggregations of people (beyond subsistence. Surplus social worth through food). Thus British archaeologist Barbara Bender (1978) and Canadian archaeologist Brian Hayden (2009) have emphasized the key role that food and feasting play in social competition. In many societies, those wishing to achieve rank and status do so by throwing feasts that create lasting dependencies between themselves and other members of the community who are unable to reciprocate on the same scale. Hunting and gathering would have provided only limited opportunities for this kind of social emulation, as the availability of wild resources was finite.

"technologies of cultivation"

archaeological traces of domestication: grindstones, sickles, storage facilities, and plows. Not all of these are reliable indicators, since grindstones may have been used for processing wild plant foods, and storage facilities likewise, but they are most commonly associated with sedentism and food production.

"technologies of the landscape,"

archaeological traces of domestication: More reliable indicators are ield systems, forest clearances, terracing, and irrigation.

Early Archaic period in eastern US

ca 9,500 -7,500 year BP Characterized by: 1. Population grown 2. Storage Pits: i. Indicative of change in mobility? People are more tied to their sites? ii. Implied population growth because storage can increase the number of people that can be fed 3. Wide range of adaptation - forests, plains, rivers 4. Still mobile populations i. still hunger gathers. ii. For example, in Ohio Valley, Early Archaic sites found on floodplains, and buffs and above rivers

Chambered tombs are the third major category of Neolithic monument:

chambers or cists (box-like containers) of timber or stone, usually, if not invariably, covered by a mound, and associated with the deposition of human remains. Many were places for collective burial, and some contain the remains of hundreds of individuals. Associated mortuary practices fre quently involved the removal, manipulation, and sorting of the skeletal elements. The tombs take a variety of forms: mounds or cairns may be circular or elongated, and may contain either Among the most elaborate passage graves are those of Gavrinis in Brittany and Newgrange [11.30] and Knowth in Ireland, where the megalithic blocks are carved with spirals, circles, and lozenges in a style known as "megalithic art.

Newgrange and Knowth

chambers were usually accessible by a door or portal, or by a more formal entrance passage in the classic "passage grave" form. Among the most elaborate passage graves are those of Gavrinis in Brittany and Newgrange [11.30] and Knowth in Ireland, where the megalithic blocks are carved with spirals, circles, and lozenges in a style known as "megalithic art." These designs have been compared to images seen in trance, with the tunnel-like spirals indicating passageways through the stones

Cultivation

cultural phenomenon that involves intentionally preparing fields, sowing, harvesting, and storing seeds or other plant parts. This required significant and deliberate changes in human technology, subsistence, and perspectives.

The Oasis Theory

end of Mesolithic = an oasis, aggregate of plants, people, and animals. These places could be the prompt for domestication (the theory was not supported) It was Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe who proposed one of the first coherent theories to explain the origins of agriculture. believed that at the end of the Pleistocene, a northward shift in the path of the Atlantic depressions (areas of low barometric pressure) from North Africa to Europe led to desiccation (extreme dryness) in countries that were always relatively dry. it focuses very largely on animal domestication, and does not fully explain the origins of plant cultivation, although stubble fields and fodder crops are an important part of Childe's model. the model was based on inadequate environmental information, which we now know to be incorrect, for in North Africa and SouthwestAsia, rainfall increased rather than decreased at the end of the Pleistocene.

pistacia (terebinth, a relative of the pistachio tree), and wild almond

environmental scientists map a greatly restricted distribution of open Mediterranean woodland zone of evergreen oak These are the tree species whose pollen dominates the samples, so they are the markers for the ecological zone in which the less easily detected large-seeded grasses, cereals, and legumes would also be found.

WhoWeretheCelts?

for the peoples who occupied most of Europe north of the Alps in the 1st millennium bc. It is applied also to an art style (more accurately known as La Tene) and by linguists to a group o f interrelated languages.

Plowing

generally requires animal traction (though humanly pulled plows have sometimes been used). As a result, plow agriculture only developed in areas where suitable animals were available, and traditional world agricultural systems can accordingly be divided into two types: hoe agriculture and plow agriculture.

copperworking

has been dated to the early 5th millennium bc in Almeria, though at present this early dating remains controversial

Varna Cemetery in Southeast Europe

he cemetery at Varna, on the Black Sea coast o f Bulgaria, was discovered accidentally in 1972 Vama cemetery remained in use for little more than a century (4560 to 4450 b c ) , Most o f these graves (170) have up to 10 items, but 23 graves have no grave goods that have survived, while 18 have large and spectacular assemblages ofmaterial. Grave 14, the occupant ofwhich was a male aged 40 50 years old, had over 1000 objects. O fthese, over 980 were o f gold, including beads, rings, sheet ornaments, bracelets, and a penis sheath. There were also copper axes and other tools, as well as flintwork and pottery. Many ofthe richly furnished "graves" yielded no conclusive evidence of a body, and have been termed cenotaphs gold was worn on person on sewn on clothing

2 Franchthi Cave

in southern Greece, occupation began in the Paleolithic and continued through the Neolithic period, and the frequency and species o f shellfish in successive layers illustrate the changing character of the local shoreline, which drew progressively closer to the site as rising sea level flooded the lowland plain

animal domesticates

include a few large terrestrial herbivores, notably sheep, goat, cattle, pig, horse, camel, water buffalo, and llama, and a few smaller herbivore and bird species, including chicken, turkey, rabbit, and guinea pig. These represent only a tiny percentage of the total available species, and it has been argued that of the 148 available large terrestrial herbivorous mammals, only 14 have been successfully domesticated

Bermann's "Grow Your Own" hypothesis

intentional independence

Sundaland

land bridges that linked Asia to Alaska and transformed much of island Southeast Asia into an extensive, dry, low-lying peninsula caused by sea levels falling to 100 m (328 ft) below their present height, turning vast areas of what is now sea bed into dry land

Agriculture

the establishment of an artificial ecosystem in which selected species of plants and animals are cultivated and reared. Its two basic premises are the intentional propagation of food (both plant and animal) by humans, and the isolation of the domesticated species from their wild relatives, leading to changes (intentional and unintentional) in their morphology such that domestic species may easily be distinguished from their wild relatives. It is a commitment to this relationship between humans and plants and animals.

The Trundholm sun chariot:

this bronze wheeled-model ofa horse pulling a large disk was discovered in a peat bog on the Danish island ofZealand in 1902. It has been dated to around 1650 bc and was probably buried as a ritual offering. Oneface ofthe disk is covered with gold leaf representingthe sun, while it has been suggested that the otherface, left plain, represents the moon. NORTHERN EUROPE BRONZE AGE 1650 BC

The Talheim Death Pit

mass grave at Talheim in Germany Talheim is a Bandkeramik settlement site dating from the late 6th millennium b c . Ina pit among the houses, archaeologists found the remains of34 individuals: 16 children and adolescents and 18 adults, ofwhom at least 7 were females (Wahl and Konig 1987). Most of the bodies bore traces ofviolence. Ai least 18 had received blows from polished stone adzes: 2 2 blows had been inflicted with the cutting edge offlat polished stone adzes, four by more massive adzes, and a further 14 were from blunt implements or die sides of adzes. Furthermore, three adults (atleasttwo nfthemmale)hadreceivedarrowwounds from behind. The absence ofany evidence nfresistance (noinjuries tothearms), and the position ofthe majority ofhead wcmnds on the rear ofthe skulls, suggests that these people were killed while attempting to flee. The most probable interpretation is that these were inhabitants ofthe Talheim settlement who had been killed by raiders from a neighboring Bandkeramik settlement, though whether as part ofa feud or simply to steal livestock or food stores cannot be determined. What the Talheim evidence does reveal is that the polished stone adzes o f "shoe-last" form, a characteristic feature o f Bandkeramik material culture, are not to be interpreted merely as carpentry tools; they had (or were capable o f assuming) a much more aggressive role. This throws new light on the discovery o f shoe-last adzes in the graves ofolder males at Bandkeramik cemeteries such as Nitra in Slovakia: they doubled as weapons ofwar, and were evidently male status symbols.

Teviec and Hoedic

mesolithic cemeteries of western Europe southern Brittany, in France - some of the burials were single interments and others double. One grave (Teviec K) contained the remains of six individuals, evidence suggesting that, as with the other multiple graves, these were the result not of simultaneous but of successive inhumations. At Teviec, several of the graves had a lining of stone slabs, creating a rudimentary cist, with a covering slab on which a fire had burned; this has been interpreted as evidence for funerary feasts [11.25]. Ritual hearths were also associated with the Hoedic burials complex" hunter-gatherers, with specialized for aging strategies, semi-sedentary settlements, and evidence of social competition.

Oleneostrovsld Mogilnik

n Karelia, in Russia, numbered more than 170 burials [11.2], and grave goods indicate social differentiation that has been interpreted in terms of clan moie ties, or division into two parts is the oldest and largest Mesolithic cemetery in northern Europe, with some 400 burials with rich grave assemblages including zoomorphic figures, maceheads, and axes. The graves illustrate the social and cultural complexity of Mesolithic communities and the iconography ofthe carvedfigures may refer to a northern cosmology which has survived into recent centuries.

A c h i l l e i o n

northern Greece yielded fragments of zoo zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines, the ear liest dating from the later 7th millennium bc, with human forms increasingly predominating over animals in succeed ing phases (Bailey 2000). Many of the human figurines from Balkan sites of this period have no indication of gender, but where sex is shown it is predominantly female, with emphasis on hips, breasts, and belly

Farming came to Europe from Southwest Asia

notably sheep and goat, wheat, and barley) were in many cases restricted in their natural distribution to Southwest Asia,

Catalhoyuk

one of the largest Neolithic settlements in Southwest Asia more than five times larger than Jericho. This extraordinary site was discovered in 1958 by British archaeologist James Mellaart The area has the lowest rainfall in Turkey,marginal for dry farming. The rivers that once fed the former lake have formed alluvial fans around the margins of the plain. Huge sheep farming Houses were built like rectangular boxes pushed together, the four walls of one touching the walls of the four adjacent houses. No lanes, roof was way of access

Old World agricultural economies

relied on a combination of plants and animals whereas in much of the New World no suitable large herbivores were available for domestication.

The Natufian toolkit

remarkably similar to earlier Epipaleolithic assemblages in the Levantine corridor, and there are no new tools for new functions. With one exception - sickle blades - the changes that have been defined to differentiate the Natufian from its predecessors do not suggest a changing balance between different kinds of activities, but rather seem to be matters of cultural preference. Sickle blades, however, do provide evidence for a widespread change in cultural practice.

The Environmental Setting

semi-arid parts of Southwest Asia mobile hunter-gatherers could continue to operate, living in small groups at very low population densities; but for farmers, the annual variability around the 250-mm (10-in) average made farming risky. Semi-sedentary and sedentary hunter-gatherers were more like farmers than like the mobile foragers; relying on harvests of wild cereals and legumes, they were subject to the same risks as farmers, and since they lived in larger groups in permanent or seasonal villages, they lacked the mobility and flexibility of the classic hunter-gatherers. The "hilly flanks" environments with annual winter rainfall of more than 250 mm (10 in) suited hunter-gatherers harvesting plant foods, and the farmers that they became.

Cardial Ware

so-calledfrom the use ofthe edge ofa cardium (cockle) shell to impress decoration into the surface ofthe vessel beforef ring, this is the characteristic pottery of the earlyfarming communities ofthe west Mediterranean basin. It wasfirst made about 5600 b c , but was preceded by a phase of non-cardium decorated "impressed ware," which marks the spread ofpottery and domesticates into southern France and eastern Spain beginning around 6000 b c . UNPAINTED Cardial pottery at several deeply stratified cave sites, including Chaves, Coveta del'Or, Cenres, and Cariguela de Pinar, is dated to around 5900-5400 bc.

Flannery's Risk Management hypothesis

storage of food

quipu

system of knotted cords may have performed part of its role. The significance of writing in early societies must be carefully evaluated. It marks an important innovation, and a valuable source of information, but it was not essential for the successful functioning of early states. It was never adopted in Andean South America but this system was

microliths

though the Mesolithic is also distinguished from earlier and later periods by the use of small flint blades, small, standardized flakes. were used to make composite tools, with flint or chert cutting edges inserted into wooden or bone hafts. In Europe,these are a distinguishing feature of the "Mesolithic" , the period between the end of the Paleolithic (the end of the last Ice Age) and the beginning of the Neolithic (characterized by the adoption of farming), though microliths had been used much earlier in Africa, where quartz and other fine-grained rocks formed the raw material.

Vertical (elevation) economy

warmer climate allowed important plants to grow in more varied environments / altitudes. i.e. wheat and barely Natufine culture