Archeology of the Americas

Refugia

-ice free areas on West Coast -Based on plant evidence -Possibility humans migrated this way -Critics argue there is no evidence for boats that early... But then there's Australia -Recent finds of grizzly and black bear remains on Prince of Wales Islands date to 35 000 BP. Since bears and humans have similar diets, it's possible humans could have survived in the area also

Maritime Archaic

- Atlantic Coast, 9000 BP -sea mammal hunters -elaborate burials -grave goods: points, harpoons, ochre

Northern Archaic

- after 7000 BP, west of Hudson's Bay -large side of notched points -microblades -mostly forest adapted -cultural continuity to present

Archbishop James Ussher

-17th Century -Said Earth was created October 23, 4004 BC

Julian Steward

-1950s -cultural ecology -culture is influenced by environment -environment is cultural core -The environment is entirely deterministic

Processual archaeology

-1960s-present -Led by Lewis Binford -Interested in culture process (change) - New Archeology (notice lack of A) -cultures as systems -challenged old school archaeology very agressively -Human behaviour as an adaptation to the environment -scientific methods and hypothesis testing

Post-processual Archaeology

-1980s-present -less impact in Americas than Europe (until recently) -led initially by Ian Hodder -focus away from ecology and towards human intent, sociality -interest in human relations, power structures -self-reflexivity: understand own bias, know where you're coming from

The Plains Archaic

-7600 - 1500 BP -Divided into 3 parts: Early, Middly, and Late Plains Archaic

Beothuk

-Aboriginal group in Newfoundland and Labrador -Completely wiped out

Willard Libby

-Announced development of radiocarbon dating (14C) dating in 1949 -Allows for absolute dating of organic sample

Direct historical approach

-Applied in areas where there was historical continuity -Start in present and work backwards -cultural continuity

The North

-Arctic and Sub-Arctic

First Peoples in Alaska

-Arrive in 4700 BP -Appear simultaneously in Greenland and Alaska

Classic Thule Culture

-Begins in AD 900 - 1000 -Ancestor of modern Inuit -spreads rapidly from West to East -Ultimate whalers -Little to no decoration. Very different from OBS -Elaborate subterranean houses with tunnel entrances -dog sleds -Social hierarchy: umialik -Large scale abandonment of villages in AD 1500

The Plains after contact

-Bison wiped out by colonial gov't -Indigenous lifeways that had existed for several thousands of years come to an end

Thomas Jefferson

-Brilliant American leader -Wanted to prove mounds were built by Native AMericans -Conducted one of the first scientific archaeological excavations in the Americas -Concerned with stratigraphy

Buttermilk Creek, Texas

-Claimed pre-Clovis site. Accepted by many -Dated to 15 500 - 13 500 BP through Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) - Would have been 5-6 degrees cooler than present -Some questions about dating technique -Over 15 000 stone artifacts: cores and flakes, no fluted points

Paleoindians

-Clovis, Folsom, Regional variants -Viewed as primarily big game hunters -Is this from site sampling problems?

Late Plains Archaic

-Corral and drive systems are quite elaborate -Jumps are still important, but more artificial systems are used -Combination of jump and corral -Knew animal behaviour, therefore made system efficient

Development of Archaeology in Canada

-Early collection of artifacts done by geologists for Geological Survey Canada -Daniel Wilson of U of Toronto founds anthropology department in mid 19th century -Very influential in the early development of anthropology /archaeology as academic discipline

Manis Mastadon Site, Washington

-Excavated by Carl Gustafson initially -remains of one or more mastadons -one mastadon rib has a piece of bone, Gustafson thought it was projectile point -New CT and radiocarbon dating -Mastadon dated to 13 800 BP -CT shows bone is a projectile point, therefore hunted by humans

Early Plains Archaic

-Few sites, we don't know much paritally because of altithermal

Graham Clarke

-First environmental archaeology at Starr Carr

Vance Haynes

-Geoarchaeologist -scrutinizes pre-Clovis claims -known as gatekeeper. Part of "Clovis police"

Shield Archaic

-Great Lakes 7000 BP -lanceolate points -Caribou hunters

Atlantic Migration

-Hypotheses that migration from Europe across frozen Atlantic -Based on similarity between Clovis points and Solutrean points -Promoted by Stanford and Bradley -Not supported by many others

Beringia

-Hypothesized land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska Thought to exist between 20 000 and 14 000 BP, Pleistocene period -Sea levels 120 m below present -Thought to be steppe-tundra landscape -Lots of animals

The Protohistoric

-Indigenous groups experience effects of European arrival, but no contact yet -trade -Horses, new diseases, and firearms introduced

Jose de Acosta

-Jesuit priest, proposed Asian origin of Indigenous peoples in North America. (1590)

Alfred V. Kidder

-Leading archaeologist in America, worked mainly in SW USA -Created ceramic typology and chronology for entire southwest -Also argued for alignment between archaeology and anthropology

The Dorset Culture

-Lived in Eastern Arctic from 2500 BP -1000 AD -Descendants of ASTt -rectangular pit house -distinct harpoon head with toggling design -Had sleds but no dog sleds or gear for whale hunting -known for exquisite artwork -Powerful images related to shamanism?

The Archaic Period

-Most of North and South America, the Archaic period dates from 10 000 BP to 7000 BP (varies with region) -shift from mobile forager to increasing sedentism or collector pattern -disappearance of lanceolate, appearance of notched points -End of archaic marked by introduction of agriculture (only in some places)

Beringia Standstill theory

-New sites on Yana River, Siberia, show cold adapted people living there 40 000 BP -Genetic studies indicate people lived there during late glacial maximum prior to migration -Had to be population of several thousand for thousands of years to avoid bottleneck -Two new dates from Yana 21 000 BP

Later Paleoindians

-No fluted points after Folsom: lanceolate points -Referred to as Plano cultures

Overkill hypothesis

-Paul Martin -hypothesis that Paleoindians wiped out several species of Pleistocene megafauna -Many problems with this idea - In this model, humans advance 16 km/ year. 300 000 hunters bring down 100 000 000 animals in 300 years

Monte Verde, Chile

-Possible pre-Clovis site. Best candidate -Original site on stream bank = good preservation from flooding -found wooden tent pegs, child's foot imprint -dated between 12 000 - 14 000 BP -Artifacts c. 12 500 BP -Tools are biface, but not fluted. Therefore not Clovis!! -So far, approval from the Clovis Police!

Lewis Henry Morgan

-Promoted idea of social evolution - Savagery > Barbarism > Civilization -Unfortunately governments adopted this policy

Diego de Landa

-Spanish priest -described Maya ruins in 16th century

Clovis points

-Style of points dated between 13 500 BP - 12 900 BP -Very thin, long, fluted

Folsom points

-Style of points that dates between 12 900- 10 500 BP

Chill, Kill, or Ill

-The major theories on megafauna extinction -Chill = climate change -Kill = human over-hunting -Ill = succumbed to new disease brought to Americas

The Three Migration Hypotheses

-Theory that three waves of migration populated Americas -Based on linguistic, dental, and genetic data 1. Amerind 2. Na-Dene 3. Esk-Aleut -Area of greatest language diversity was likely first settled -According to this theory, people of North formed last migration -Sinodonty similarities between Asia and North American Indian

The Norton Tradition

-Western Arctic 3/2500 BP to AD 800 -Maritime -Had pottery -Vast trading network -some permanent settlements -continuity to present in some areas (Alaska) -Develops in Old Bering Sea Culture

The Clovis Problem

-Where did the culture originate? -Why/how did it spread so quickly and so widely -Why did it die out after 500 years?

Charles Darwin

-Wrote On the Origin of sPecies in 1859 -Promoted the idea of evolution, change through adaptation -Animals must have been around longer than 6000 years -Human a part of this process

Charles Lyell

-Wrote Principles of Geology, 1830-1833 -Introduced principles of Unifromitarianism -Changes in Earth are slow and continuous, therefore Earth much older than 6000 years

Criticisms of overkill hypothesis

-based on optimal models. Assumed that paleoindians did nothing but hunt and eat meat -model reliant on idea that animals are not afraid of humans -very hard to kill mammoth. Only one group of modern people hunt elephants with traditional tools, but Pleistocene animals much bigger -Other carnivores also existed -Assumes paleoindians did not eat plants, yet only 30% of modern hunter-gatherer diet is meat

Stone tool working

-chipping/flaking -pecking -grinding -sawing -raw material dictates method of working -you have to go to certain places to get certain materials e.g. obsidian quarries

Walter Taylor

-conjunctive archaeology

Flake

-detached piece of rock material from parent

Gordon Childe

-developed idea of archaeological cultures -Basis is that every society has norms which are reflected in pottery design, spear point shape, etc. -Began asking why cultures change -why did people develop agriculture -favoured environmental explanantions

Culture history school

-dominant from 1920s-1950s -putting archaeological cultures in time and space

Old Bering Sea Culture

-first appearnce of elaborate hunting tech -lavish decoration -Considered first neo-Eskimo culture -first evidence of kayaks and umiaks -concept of umialik

Calvert Island, BC

-footprints in intertidal zone -may be 13 000 BP -But it's in the intertidal zone..

Franz Boas

-late 19th and 20th centuries -worked in BC -historical particularism -people are the product of their history

Paleoarctic

-loose term describing people who used microblades -present in Alaska 9700 BP -mostly inland hunters

core

-parent material from which flakes are detached

Thomas Gage

-proposed origins in Northeast Asia in 1648 -This idea became accepted in the 18th century

blades

-really long flakes (2:1 ratio) -maximizes length of cutting edge

retouch

-sharpening

Arctic Small Tool Tradition

-used microblades -camped in small group -Highly mobile -may have introduced bow and arrow (based on tool size) -square pit houses

Altithermal

-warmer and drier period from 8000 - 4500 BP

Pre-Clovis claims criteria

1) Undeniable presence of humans (tools, skeletons) 2) Undisturbed deposits 3) Secure dating

Pleistocene

1.8 mya to 10 000 BP

Holocene period

10 000 BP to present

Archaeology

The study of the human past through its material remains

Late Prehistoric on the Plains

1500 - 500 BP -Major innovation: bow and arrow -small points. Very small points -First appearance of pottery, therefore agriculture

The Descriptive Period

1870-1950s

Middle Plains Archaic

5000 - 3000 BP -Expansion of settlement on Plains -bison population increase -bison hunting focused on fall kills, meat dried for winter (pemmican). Not just food, but also clothes/shelter -large stone circles appear at this time (tipi rings? Medicine wheels?) -Increasing use of buffalo jumps and drives -Stone and wooden corrals appear

Dyuktai

A Siberian culture thought to possibly be the ancestors of North American Indigenous -characterized by leaf shaped points

Pot hunters

People who collect artifacts for profit or hobby, not the knowledge behind them

Diffusion

Spread of ideas

General analogy

Using ethnographic information to try to explain archaelogical patterning