Chapter 13

important pre-Clovis site - Buttermilk Creek Complex in Central Texas

- 15,500 ya - found beneath Clovis layers.

important Paleo-Indian sites in the New World

- Colby (Wyoming) & Naco/Lehner (Arizona) - 13,500-13,000 ya - Paleo-Indian sites where tools and other artifacts are found associated with the remains of mammoths. - Pedra Pintada Cave (Brazil) - c. 12,000 ya - organic remains provide evidence of hunter-gatherer way of life in the tropical rain forest. - Olsen-Chubbuck (Colorado) - 9,400 ya - bison kill site, created when a herd was stampeded across a narrow gully in eastern Colorado. - Kennewick (Washington) - 9,300 ya - one of few early North American human skeletons; object of a 9-year court battle to decide if scientists would be permitted to study his remains.

important Archaic sites in the New World

- Danger Cave (Utah) - c. 10,000-historic - deeply stratified site that contains evidence of desert Archaic life ways. - Koster (Illinois) - 9,000-4,000 ya - stratified sequence of Archaic camp sites that document the changing life ways of people who lived on the edge of the Illinois River Valley throughout the Archaic period. - Poverty Point (Louisiana) - 3,500 ya - a large series of earthworks that covers nearly one square mile; the most elaborate example of planned communities that were built in the southeast in the late Archaic times.

Clovis (first model)

- North American archaeological complex, dating 13,500-13,000 ya in the west. - once widely believed to be representative of specialized big-game hunters, who may have driven many late Pleistocene animals into extinction.

Archaic period (10,000-3,000 ya)

- North American hunter-gatherers after the end of the last ice age. - traditionally ends with the beginning of the use of ceramics. - equivalent to the Mesolithic in the Old World.

"pre-history" of the North American continent

- Paleo-Indian period (14,000-10,000 ya) - Archaic period (10,000-3,000 ya) - Woodland period (3,000-2,200 ya) - Mississippian (1,100-550 ya)

important Pre-Paleo-Indian sites int he New World

- Pedra Furada (Brazil) - 50,000-40,000 ya - one of several South American sites for which great antiquity is claimed. - Pendejo Cave (New Mexico) - 37,000-12,000 ya - controversial claim of great antiquity for human presence in the American Southwest. - Meadowcroft (Pennsylvania) - 19,000-14,000 ya - often cited as evidence of pre-Clovis presence of humans in easter North America. - Monte Verde (Chile) - 14,500 ya - pre-Clovis campsite in southern South America.

Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic sites in the Old World

- Star Carr (England) - 10,500 ya - Mesolithic camp site, the excavation of which influenced how archaeologists view the Mesolithic in Europe. - Tybrind Vig (Denmark) - c. 7,500-6,000 ya - Mesolithic village submerged by rising sea levels off the coast of Denmark. - Ohalo II (Israel) - 23,000 ya - Kebaran or pre-Kebaran camp site with preservation of organic remains; evidence that hunter-gatherers depended on seeds as food 10,000 years earlier than believed possible. - Abu Hureya (Syria) - 13,000-7,800 ya - Natufian and Neolithic site; the Natufian occupation was a sedentary hunter-gatherer village whose members harvested mostly wild cereal grasses.

Paleo-Indian fluted point

- a distinctively Paleo-Indian stone tool-making technique. - each face of a fluted point typically displays a groove resulting from the removal of a long channel flake. - makes it easier to use a special hafting technique for mounting the point on a spear shaft.

important Northeastern Asia sites

- Yana RHS (Russia) - 30,000 ya - earliest evidence of late Pleistocene hunters beyond the Arctic Circle in northern Siberia. - Berlekh (Russia) - c. 14,000-13,000 ya - archaeological evidence of human adaptations. - Bering Land Bridge (Russia & USA) - c. 75,000-45,000 and 25,000-11,000 ya - land bridge that formed between northeaster Asia and northwestern North America during maximum glaciation.

megafauna

- animals over 100 lbs, including the mammoth, mastodon, giant bison, horse, camel, and ground sloth. - most impressive sites associated with Paleo-Indians are where ancient hunters killed and butchered megafauna. - kill sites include knives, scrapers, and finely flaked and fluted projectile points, directly associated with animal bones.

artifacts

- archaeologists study stone, bone, and ivory tools from early sites in the Americas and Asia. - similarities in appearance, use, and production suggests a common knowledge and technology shared between the people who made them.

collectors

- hunter-gatherers who tend to stay in one place for a long time. - task groups may range far afield to hunt and collect food and other resources that are brought back to camp and shared among its inhabitants. - valued food resources such as nuts are commonly stored in anticipation of future use.

language

- languages spoken by indigenous Americans reveal their connections to other groups of peoples. - the majority of languages spoken by indigenous Americans are Amerind, Eskimo-Aleut, and Na-Dene. - languages suggest that people migrated in multiple waves.

hunter-gatherers

- people who make their living by hunting, fishing, and gathering their food, not by producing it. - a generalized lifestyle; somewhat opportunistic. - trend: nomadic to semi-nomadic to sedentary.

North American Paleo-Indian cultures

- pre-Clovis (15,500 ya) - various sites. - Clovis (13,200-12,800 ya) - earliest late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers who occupied much of North America below the glacial ice masses of the northern latitudes. - Folsom (12,500 ya) - late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers who hunted now-extinct giant long-horned bison in the American southwest. - Plano (11,000-9,000 ya) - hunter-gatherers of the Great Plains; unfitted spear or dart points associated only with modern fauna.

changes in vegetation

- predicting vegetation and habitats available at sites throughout prehistory. - archaeological data used to refine the trend. - west to east encroachment of prairie. - change from mesic to dryer conditions. - northward retreat of spruce and pine.

dental morphology

- prehistoric Americans have more similar variations with Northern Asians than that of Eastern Asians. - dental morphology of Eastern Asians and Europeans is distinct from Sindodont and is called Sundadont.

the earliest Americans

- scarce skeletal evidence that survives from the earliest era of New World prehistory shows considerable morphological diversity. - cultural and biological evidence firmly link the first Americans with Asian roots.

where did they come from?

- scientists believe that people migrated from Asia at least 15,500 yeas ago. - supported by: - archeological sites - artifacts - language - human biology

Archaic period research (ca. 7,000-3,000 B.P.)

- significant gaps in our understanding. - few stratified sites found in the region. - long-term warming and drying episode--hypsithermal. - reliance on permanent sources of water. - sedentism and development of village life. - diversification of subsistence base/starchy seeds/nuts. - transition to horticulture and plant domestication. - increasing cultural and social complexity. - use of cemeteries, mounds, territorial markers. - new technology and tools/local raw materials.

human biology (between Indigenous and Asian Americans)

- studies of DNA, blood types, and the morphology of teeth and bones reveals biological similarities. - analysis of mitochondrial DNA has revealed common genetic sequences--suggests that the groups have a common origin.

sinodonty

- the dental morphology of Northern Asians and Indigenous Americans. - incudes traits of incisor shoveling, single-rooted upper first premolars, and triple-rooted lower first molars.

Bering Land Bridge

- the earliest inhabitants of North America may have entered the continent by way of the bridge, exposed during maximum glaciation. - similarities between artifacts of the age of sites in Alaska and Siberia suggests that these peoples shared a common culture. - scientists theorize that people moved from Asia into North America when sea levels were low via the bridge.

holocene

- the geological epoch during which we now live. - follows the Pleistocene epoch (Ice Age) and began roughly 11,000-10,000 ya.

human entry into the New World (hypotheses)

1. by way of the Bering Land Bridge (beringia) that connected Asia and North America several times during the late Pleistocene. 2. along the coast of the northern Pacific Rim. 3. by following the ice edge across the northern Atlantic from western Europe.

Laurentide

Pleistocene glacial ice sheet centered in the Hudson Bay region and extending across much of eastern Canada and the northern United States.

cordilleran

Pleistocene glacial ice sheet covering the mountains of western North America.

younger dryas

a climatic event between roughly 13,500-11,500 ya, when the climate became colder and drier but did not mark a full return to glacial conditions in higher latitudes.

seasonal round

a technique of hunter-gatherers to maximize subsistence by relocating in accord with the availability of key resources at specific times and places throughout the year.

till plains

accumulations of stones, boulders, mud, sand, and silt deposited by glaciers as they melt; ground moraines.

Natugians

advanced collector-type hunter-gatherers who established sedentary settlements in parts of the Near East after 12,000 ya.

totem

an animal or being associated with a kin0group used for social identification; also a carved pole representing these beings.

shell middens

archaeological sites or features within sites formed largely by the accumulation of domestic waste.

Great Basin

rugged, dry plateau between the mountains of California and Utah, comprising Nevada, western Utah, southern Oregon, and Idaho.

potlatch

ceremonial feasting and gift giving event among northwest coast Indians.

Pacific Costal Route hypothesis

earliest immigrants into the Americas may have traveled by boat along the islands and environmental refugia that dotted the Pacific coast during the late Pleistocene.

climatic maximum

episode of higher average annual temperatures that affected much of the globe for several millennia after the end of the last Ice Age; also known as the altithermal in the western United States or hypsithermal in the east.

aurochs

european wild oxen, ancestral to domesticated cattle.

Paleo-Indians in the Americas

evidence of mobile hunting and gathering comes from widely scattered locations, including many sites in the western U.S.

foragers

hunter-gatherers who live in small groups that move camp frequently to take advantage of fresh resources as they come into season.

Paleo-Indians

in the Americas, early hunter-gatherers, from about 13,000 to 10,000 ya.

Mesolithic

middle stone age period of hunter-gatherers especially in northwestern Europe.

coprolites

preserved fecal material that can be studied for what the contents reveal about diet and health.

transhumance

seasonal migration from one resource zone to another, especially between highlands and lowlands (e.g. Kebaran groups).

Epipaleolithic

term primarily used in reference to the Near East designating the time of Middle Age foragers and collectors.

settlement pattern

the distribution of sites across the landscape (all periods).

Beringia

the dry-land between Asia and America that existed periodically during the Pleistocene epoch.

North Atlantic ice-edge corridor

the earliest arrivals in the New World may have come from wester Europe and traveled up the coast and across to North America by following the ice sheet between the continents in the late Pleistocene.

settlement system

the relationship of sites within one time period--base camp/village, extraction camp/ephemeral site, quarry.

sedentism

to reside in a single location for most or all of the year, to become sedentary.

Tundra

treeless plains characterized by permafrost conditions that support the growth of shallow-rooted vegetation such as grasses and mosses.