Archaeology & the Human Past Exam 3

Eva, Yucatan, Mexico. 12,000-13,000 ybp.

Eva 13,600 ybp 4'6ft Mexico, woman in her 20s found in a cenote, place were Mayans would give offerings, Yucatan peninsula, mix between native and Caucasian, found to be related to all contemporary native Americans Her presence so early is an archaeological mystery. It has long been thought the first Americans were Clovis people who journeyed through an opening in the Canadian ice sheets, 13,000 year ago. But Eva was on the Yucatan Peninsula centuries before the ice sheets parted. Her people must have found another route into the Americas.

Trans-Atlantic migration to Americas

First proposed by Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley (2000)Claims:-North America was first occupied by Upper Paleolithic Europeans-Migration happened via North Atlantic ~20,000 BP-The earliest Clovis tools are similar to the Upper Paleolithic Solutrean culture of southern France and Spain (23,000-20,000 BP)

Kotelny Island, Beringia 20,000 ybp

H. sapiens adapted to the northeast Asian coast Beringia interior spread along the coast into north America sometime between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago. they had Polynesian and Caucasian features mammoth found by poaching in Siberia 20,000 ybp , cut marks on other bones of the mammoth woolly mammoths Beringia — the sprawling region that includes parts of Russia, known as western Beringia; Alaska, called eastern Beringia; and the ancient land bridge that connected the two. Genetic studies show that the first humans to cross became genetically isolated from people in East Asia between about 25,000 to 20,000 years ago Extinct woolly giant was killed by early man in extreme north, insist palaeontologist 'detectives' as spear wound 'proven'.When the remains were brought to Yakutsk, regional capital of vast Yakutia, experts immediately suspected that they found a broken bone tip of a spear in the beast's shoulder blade. Butchering signs were visible on the skull and ribs, they believed. He believes ancient man 'cut all the meat from this mammoth, severed the trunk, removed the brain and pulled out bone marrow from all the limbs.The scientist explained: 'I believe that people killed this animal, but the death blow was probably in the soft tissues, so we could not see the traces on the bones.20,000-year-old mammoth murder established: but was it committed by first American migrants?

What cultural traits define a society as a civilization?

central towns/ cities surrounded by farming communities, centralized bureaucratic government, non-egalitarian social structure, public architecture, monetary exchange, organized "agro"-religion, organized warfare

Younger Dryas climatic episode

climatic event sharp decline (of 2 to 6 degrees C) in temperature over most the Northern Hemisphere right before the Holocene period changed in a few decades possible response to influx of fresh water from Lake Agassiz and deglaciation in North America

Cactus Hill, VA with pre_Clovis evidence dating to 16,000-18,000 ybp

dennis Stanford and bruce Bradley, the tools found looked like tools found in south France, clovis points? Maybe the people who made the tools were related to Solutreenne people, maybe it is Solutrean

What are ecotones and what role did they play in settlement?

ecotones -a region of transition between two biological communities. - the settlements : coastal estuaries, lake margins, foothill regions - people moving from their village to others goes along with trade

Luzia, Brazil. 11,500 ybp

exhibits Australoid features Laming-Emperaire found the 11,500-year-old skull separated from its skeleton. Eventually, one-third of her body was recovered - enough for forensic scientists to determine that Luzia died in her early 20s. Luzia was named in homage to Lucy - the famous and important 3.2 million-year-old human remains found in Africa in 1974. Researchers have long debated the skull's origins. Some say her ancestors may have come from southeast Asia Luzia supposedly came in at less than 5 feet tall the Oldest Human Skull Found in the Americas

Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, 300,000 ybp

homo sapiens longer skull with bigger brow bone Genetic evidence indicates a split between the south African Khoisan from other human populations 260,000-350,000 ybp had clicking language this means that sapiens have existed since them

Homo naledi, South Africa 250,000 ybp

is an extinct species of hominin, which anthropologists first described in September 2015 and have assigned to the genus Homo. They were identified as a new human species with a surprising combination of features. a small head with a very projecting face, a relatively slender body but with wide hips, and human-like feet and hands, but long curved fingers Homo naledi fossils have only been found in South Africa's Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, about 40 kilometres from Johannesburg. found in cave H. naledi's anatomy suggests it walked on two legs with a modern gait and an efficient long-distance stride. Its shoulder position and shape of its fingers would have helped it climb and hang from trees and could be traits retained from a more ape-like ancestor. 'This is astonishingly young for a species that still displays primitive characteristics found in fossils about two million years old

How did Europeans alter the landscape to accommodate farming?

land clearance, lack of diversity because of few crops, soil infertility because of disruption of natural processes

Kennewick, WA. 9,500 ybp

one of the most complete skeletons, The skull, while clearly old, did not look Native American.He sent a bone sample off for carbon dating. The results: It was more than 9,000 years old.corps attorneys showed that federal law did, in fact, give them jurisdiction over the remains. So the corps seized the bones and locked them up at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, often called Battelle for the organization that operates the lab. NAGPRA was passed to redress this history and allow tribes to reclaim their ancestors' remains and some artifacts. Kennewick Man's bones were perplexing. Even though his grave lies 300 miles inland from the sea, he ate none of the animals that abounded in the area. On the contrary, for the last 20 or so years of his life he seems to have lived almost exclusively on a diet of marine animals, such as seals, sea lions and fish. although he came from distant lands he was deliberately buried in an extended, prone position, faceup, the head slightly higher than the feet, with the chin pressed on the chest, in a grave that was about two and a half feet deep.

Megafauna Extinction: overkill versus natural

overkill to feed population of growing humans "blitzkrieg" natural-climate change, draining of Lake Agassiz (13,000 BP), Meteor impact (12,900 BP), Laacher See eruption in Germany (12,900 BP) (would've caused worldwide climate change)

What are the archaeological indicators of human sedentariness?

permanent structures such as houses, also non portable tech, hearths in houses, sedimentation shows influx of plant material, trash thrown on ground gives insight to diet ,tools found with remains,

Pre-Clovis Theory

sites discovered that predate Clovis peopleHad a broader-range lifestylemostly marine lifestyleex: Cactus Hill, Va, Meadowcroft Rockshelter Pa, Mote Verde, Chile

Yamnaya Culture

source of Indo-European languages, cattle, domesticated horses, metal, wheeled vehicles, corded pottery, lactose-tolerance, light skin

Lake Baikal, Siberia. 24,000 ybp.

the boy's DNA matches that of Western Europeans, showing that during the last Ice Age people from Europe had reached farther east across Eurasia than previously supposed. Though none of the Mal'ta boy's skin or hair survives, his genes suggest he would have had brown hair, brown eyes and freckled skin. his DNA also matches a large proportion — about 25 percent — of the DNA of living Native Americans It now seems that they may be a mixture between the Western Europeans who had reached Siberia and an East Asian population. The Mal'ta boy was 3 to 4 years old and was buried under a stone slab wearing an ivory diadem, a bead necklace and a bird-shaped pendant

Monte Verde, Chile. 13,500 ybp

The early dating at Monte Verde adds to the evidence showing that the human settlement of the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by roughly 1000 years. This contradicts the previously accepted "Clovis first" model which holds that settlement of the Americas began after 13,500 BP. The Monte Verde findings were initially dismissed by most of the scientific community, but in recent years the evidence has become more widely accepted in some archaeological circles, although vocal "Clovis First" advocates remain.

How and when did farming and other innovations "spread" from Asia Minor into Europe?

- exchange networks & political alliances more complex social structures -Beginnings of sedentism (village life) in ecotones: coastal estuaries, lake margins, foothill regions permeant structures and Non-portable technology, post molds, structures, above ground storage, subterranean storage - genetic evidence is shown in the different skeletons of hunter gatherers and farmers, farmers had less muscle mass for example and remains changed through time as interbreeding between lifestyles

The end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene.

-Holocene epoch - egalitarianism no chefs, kings, queens, equal access to resources, Yamnaya culture (4500) = source of Indo-European languages, cattle, domesticated horses, metal, wheeled vehicles, corded pottery, lactose-tolerance, light skin Pleistocene- end 125,000 - about 10,000 ya "ice age", advances and retreats of massive continental glaciations, at least 15 major and 50 minor glacial advances document in Europe and impacted hominins as climate, flora, and animal life shifted

Younger Dryas and its effect on human life.

-Severe drought in Africa & the middle east @12,800 BP (younger dryas stadial)- deserts expand, food resources become scarce, migrations impeded by natural & political barriers, populations become "circumscribed", need for subsistence innovation, humans gather secondary resources, more energy expended for less return, such as wild wheat & barley, tether/hobble, pen relatively docile, sources of meat, milk, & blood (esp. goats & sheep) -Humans have to be forced into agriculture, some sort of thing happened like younger dryas, no big idea to grow own food would have continued to be hunters and gathers, not a coincidence that it correlates with end of ice age and younger dryas

archaeological evidence for spread of modern humans into Australia

-The lack of preservation of any ancient boat means archaeologists will probably never know what kind of craft was used for the journey. None of the boats used by Aboriginal people in ancient times are suitable for major voyages. The most likely suggestion has been rafts made of bamboo, a material common in Asia. -The earliest accepted dates for human occupation of Australia come from sites in the Northern Territory. The Madjedbebe (previously called Malakunanja II) rock shelter in Arnhem Land has been dated to around 65,000 years old (Nature, 2017). -Recently published dates of 120,000 years ago for the site of Moyjil in Warrnambool, Victoria, offer intriguing possibilities of much earlier occupation (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 2018). The site contains remains of shellfish, crabs and fish in what may be a 'midden', but definitive proof of human occupation is lacking and investigations are ongoing. -The oldest human fossil remains found in Australia date to around 40,000 years ago - 20,000 years after the earliest archaeological evidence of human occupation. -The oldest ground stone tools appear in Australia about 10,000 years before they appear in Europe, suggesting that early Australians were more technologically advanced in some of their tool manufacturing techniques than was traditionally thought. -rock art, pigments, and shell evidence (Shell middens are the most obvious remains of meals and are useful because they provide insight into ancient Aboriginal diets and past environments and can also be radiocarbon dated to establish the age of a site.)

Beringian migration to Americas

-a single population of modern humans migrated from southern Siberia toward the land mass known as the Bering Land Bridge as early as 30,000 years ago, and crossed over to the Americas by 16,500 years ago. Archaeological evidence shows that by 15,000 years ago, humans had made it south of the Canadian ice sheets.The theory of the first Americans crossing over the Bering Land Bridge remains viable,

archaeological evidence for spread of modern humans into the Americas

-settlements ranging from north america to south america -EVA disproves clovis theory - Cactus Hill may be one of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas. If proven to have been inhabited 16,000 to 20,000 years ago, it would provide supporting evidence for pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas. -medowcroft rockshelter

Lake Mungo, Australia. Human burials dating to 42,000 ybp

40,00-68,000 ybp it is a dried-up lake but in the past during the ice age it was a lake nice environment Mungo Man and Lady with ceremonial burialsMan- unusually tall for aborigine males, body stained with red ochreLady- one of the oldest cremations, body was burned, bones were broken and then burned again, sprinkled with ochre

Genetic evidence for spread of modern humans into Australia

A genome of Aboriginal Australians has been made Their DNA is unique because of the isolation while other humans around the world were interbreeding -The most widely accepted viewpoint is that the first humans to colonise Australia came from a recent migration of Homo sapiens through South-east Asia. These people belonged to a single genetic lineage and were the descendants of a population that originated in Africa. The fossil evidence for the earliest Indigenous Australians does show a range of physical variation that would be expected in a single, geographically widespread population. -2. One lineage was believed to have been the evolutionary descendants of Indonesian Homo erectus while the other lineage had evolved from Chinese Homo erectus. Modern Aboriginal people are the result of the assimilation of these two genetic lineages. -3. Modern humans had reached Asia by 70,000 years ago before moving down through South-east Asia and into Australia. However, Homo sapiens were not the first people to inhabit this region. An older species, Homo erectus, had already been in Asia for at least 1.5 million years. It is possible that these two species may have coexisted, as new dates for Indonesian Homo erectus suggest they may have survived there until as recently as 50,000 years ago. Homo erectus remains have never been found in Australia. -Solo Man' - Homo erectus discovered in Ngangdong, Indonesia. 'Solo Man' shares similarities with earlier Homo erectus specimens from Sangiran and is considered to be a late Homo erectus -For much of its history Australia was joined to New Guinea, forming a landmass called Sahul. These countries were finally separated by rising sea levels about 8,000 years ago. Genetic evidence supports the close ties between these two countries - the Indigenous peoples from these regions are more closely related to each other than to anyone else in the world, suggesting a recent common ancestry.

When and where did the first domestications of plants and animals take place?

Mesopotamia (which includes the modern countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria) middle east around 11,000 years ago for animals -plants were first -Hourse 6,000 years ago, southern steps of Russia, skeletal morphology shows domestication llama & alpaca 6,000 bp for wool also used as pack animals and food chicken- 8,000 ybp Thailand

Meadowcroft Rockshelter, PA. 13,000-16,000 ybp

People began camping there episodically as early as 16,000 years ago and continued visiting the shelter until the thirteenth century A.D A roof collapse 13,000 to 14,000 years ago trapped beneath it a wealth of material uncovered in excavations. Adovasio says roughly 700 pieces of stone, some of them tools made from jasper and chert were recovered from the deepest units at the site. There were 50 complete tools or large enough fragments to be recognizable implements. There were prismatic blades and straight-based points with lance-like tips. As opposed to the fluted ridges found on Clovis points, these were largely smooth on the sides. More than 50 sequential dates were taken, primarily from charcoal found in hearths, to arrive at ages that Adovasio says are between 14,000 and 16,000 years old. He was confronted with criticism related to a lack of ancient plant and animal remains at the site, which some researchers say make it difficult to know what the people at Meadowcroft subsisted on.

Cheddar Man

Remains of an ancient human found in England, believed to be the oldest documented DNA link - from 10,000 BC

Narwalla Pictograph site, Australia. Art dating back to 48,000-57,000 ybp

Rock shelter is narwalla "word for cave" pre-historic fish, wallabies, crocodiles, people, spiritual figures

Calvert Island, BC. 13,000 ybp

The researchers uncovered a total of 29 human footprints in these sediments, which radiocarbon dating estimated to be around 13,000 years old. "Our results suggest that humans were present on the west coast of British Columbia about 13,000 years ago, as it emerged from the most recent Ice Age," "This finding adds to the growing body of evidence supporting the hypothesis that humans used a coastal route to move from Asia to North America during the Ice Age." "The finding provides evidence of the seafaring people who inhabited this area during the tail end of the last major Ice Age,

Genetic evidence for spread of modern humans into americas

Thought to have come from Siberia but that doesn't line up with new timeline, maybe during ice age there was a southern root into the Americas, Asian -early natives had many Caucasian traits which is not associated with modern natives, stumped archeologists -- Lake Baikal child 24,000 ybp shares 1/3 DNA with modern native Americans and the rest with Europeans and Siberians

Where did the first civilizations emerge?

around the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East and North Africa. They were located along major rivers which were conducive to agriculture. MESOPOTAMIA

Bluefish Caves, AK. 24,000 ybp

While excavating at Bluefish Caves in northern Yukon during the 1970s and 1980s, Canadian archaeologist Cinq-Mars found cut-marked horse bones and other traces of human hunters that seemed to date to 24,000 years ago—thousands of years before the Clovis people. (Photo by Ruth Gotthardt) . the bones of extinct horses and woolly mammoths bearing what seemed to be marks from human butchering and toolmaking. Radiocarbon test results dated the oldest finds to around 24,000 years before the present. Bluefish Caves directly challenged mainstream scientific thinking. Evidence had long suggested that humans first reached the Americas around 13,000 years ago, when Asian hunters crossed a now submerged landmass known as Beringia, which joined Siberia to Alaska and Yukon during the last ice age His work at Bluefish Caves suggested that Asian hunters roamed northern Yukon at least 11,000 years before the arrival of the Clovis people.

Ohalo II, Israel. 19,400 ybp

the domestication of plants (biggest step for humans), based on influx of seeds in one area (think I heard this right, check) , no evidence immediately after this for another 7-8,000 years also only instance in that time period Excavations at the site revealed six huts, several hearths, a grave and a stone installation.The plant remains provide a rare opportunity for reconstructing the daily life and site environment during the last Glacial Maximum, a period preceding the agriculture revolution. Three excavation seasons were carried out during 1989-1991 by Dr. D. Nadel. An additional season, during summer 1999, has added much to our understanding of the site. This season revealed that Ohalo II is much larger then formally thought, more than 2000 m². It is also denser with habitations and has more diverse loci. Moreover, the site was found to continue below ground. Charred plant remains of wild barley and other edible grasses and fruits suggest, by their ripening seasons, that the site was occupied at least during spring and autumn The evidence for dry conditions in 19,400 B.P can be compared to the significant pick of herbs in Tsukada's diagram, drawn from a rather contemporaneous sample. The desert plant macrofossils from the site, the large quantities of herb and grasses in the pollen diagram, and smaller but significant quantities of conifers led us to suggest that when Ohalo II was inhabited, the climate was dry and cold.

Spirit Cave, NV. 11,500 ybp

the oldest mummified remains ever found in North America. Nearly 11,000 years ago, a man died in what is now Nevada. Wrapped in a rabbit-skin blanket and reed mats, he was buried in a place called Spirit Cave. But the new genetic findings have given researchers a much sharper picture. The earliest known Americans were already splitting off into recognizably distinct groups. The genetic data suggest that this group spread swiftly across much of North America and South America about 14,000 years ago. The expansion may have taken only centuries.The man from Spirit Cave in Nevada belonged to this southern branch of migrants. Willerslev also found that the man was closely related to a 12,700-year-old boy found on the other side of the Rocky Mountains in Montana. But the man from Spirit Cave also turned out to have a close genetic link to 10,400-year-old skeletons found in Brazil, on the other side of the equator

Clovis-First Theory

the theory that people first came to the americas by crossing the Beringia land bridge from Siberia to Alaska (now the Bering strait) following megafauna. This theory is named after the clovis points in clovis new mexico which dated to 9500 B.C.E. , the oldest ever found. In the Americas, the megafauna were hunted to extinction.