African Archaeology Midterm

Front 1

Hominin

Back 1

Humans that are bipedal, etc.

Front 2

Hominid

Back 2

The family of great apes.

Front 3

Oldest hominids before 3.7mya are where?

Back 3

In Chad, Ethopia, Kenya.

We have leg bones from fossil in Kenya. May hae been bipedal!

Front 4

Oldest humans in Eurasia?

Back 4

Georgia (1.8mya)

Spain (800kya)

Italy (700kya)

China (1.6 - 1.8mya)

Indonedia (1.6 mya)

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Oldest anatomically modern humans?

Back 5

In Ethiopia, 200kya

Front 6

Oldest symbols

Back 6

South Africa, 70kya

Front 7

Outline of Human Evolution: 6 - 5mya

Back 7

Expansion and diversification of terrestrial African apes.

Possible bipedalism or beginnings of bipedalism.

Front 8

Outline of Human Evolution: 5 - 2.5 mya

Back 8

Bipedal hominins expand through open zones of Africa.

Fruit is few in the Savanna. You have to eat tougher foods. Roots of lotus and papyrus, seaweed, etc. Similar diet of modern baboons. Result is MEGADONTY, or bigger teeth.

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2.5 - 1.9mya

Back 9

First tool-makers in Africa. Long before anything else. Making complex tools, traveling very far for materials.

Front 10

1.9mya - 800KYA

Back 10

Expansion to Europe, other parts of Africa, Asia.

Beginning of obligate bipedalism. Before then, could do well in the trees, but now we're committed.

Front 11

800 - 200kya

Back 11

Expansion to Europe, competent hunting, modern-size brains, big teeth and bodies.

Europe very hard to live in. Very dark. NOt enough sunlight to grow through entire October and March.

TO live, you need to get animal protein or something.

Now, the gulf keeps the climate temperate.

Front 12

200kya - 10kya

Back 12

Anatomically modern humans, complex technology, symbolic culture, worldwide expansion, modern-size brains AND teeth/bodies.

Front 13

Possible date for human/chimp split?

Back 13

In the Miocene, about 9mya

Front 14

Orrion tugenensis

Back 14

Was a biped! Lots of early hominids are unclear. Do they evolve into us, or die out? We don't understand relationships!

A little bit before 6mya to like 5.75myaish

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Sahelanthropus tchadensis

Back 15

Dated to about 7mya by biostratigraphic correlation.

Found near what was once a gallery forest adjacent to freshwater lake. (found evidence of hippos, monkeys, etc.

They know it's human because the foramen magnum is on the bottom of the skull instead of at the posterior.

Front 16

General location of most early human sites around 6 - 2mya

Back 16

East Africa and down coast to the South (were there preservation difficulties in other areas, or just no humans?)

Front 17

Five main "events" in human evolutionary history

Back 17

-Bipedalism (6 - 4mya)

-Tools and tool-dependence (from 2.6mya)

-Niche expansion to Eurasia, meat-eating, varied temperate environments (from 1.8mya)

-Hunting and meat-dependence (from ca. 500kya)

-"Living in our heads" - symbolic culture (from 800kya+?)

All gradually developed in Africa!

Front 18

Some physical attributes about bipedalism

Back 18

Lucy's arms were v. long compared to her legs. Has long, curly toes. Harder to run with long curly toes!

We have curvy spine, thigh bones slanted inward (most quadrupeds, bone goes straight from hip bone, because you never need to balance on one leg!)

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Why bipedalism?

Back 19

Out in open country, easier to carry things back with hands free.

Easier to hold weapons and tools.

Could feed from bushes.

Increases flexibility in unpredictable environments


**Exceptional endurance for heat!
-no hair, sweat glands,coolants in the brain.
-humans really good at running, could run down another animal.

Front 20

Hominins with: large brains, small teeth, obligate bipedalism

Back 20

H. sapiens
H. neanderthalensis
H. heidelburgensis
H. antecessor
H. erectus
H. ergaster

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Hominins with: small brain, very large teeth, facultative bipedalism

Back 21

P. robustus
P. aethlopicus
P. boisei

aka, the robust australopithecines.

Front 22

Hominins with: small brain, large teeth (but not very large!), facultative bipedalism

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Au. habilis
Au. anamensis
Au. afarensis
Au. africanus

Front 23

Hominins with: small brain, small teeth, quadrupedalism

Back 23

Chimps!

Front 24

The Australopithecines

Back 24

Found in eastern, southern, and north-central Africa.

Robust (Paranthropus) and Gracile. Based on cranial and dental robusticity.

Lots of secual dimorphism! Suggests that they didn't have monogomous mating.

Sound scapula of a child that indicates hanging well from trees.

Females smaller than a chimpanzee!

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Australopithecus afarensis

Back 25

Lucy!

A gracile australopithecine, about 3 - 4mya

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Selam

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A 3.3mya juvenile A. afarensis from the Dikika region of Ethiopia.

(found scapula, indicates hanging well from trees?)

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Robust Australopithecines

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also known as Paranthropus

Large teeth, jaws, extensive muscle attachments for chewing (sagittal keel), ate perhaps hard, gritty foods that pitted their teeth.

But STILL had smaller teeth. Probably didn't show them for intimidation!

Lots of sexual dimorphism. Suggests different social organization (aka, not monogomous) than modern humans

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Laetoli footprints

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<3

Found in Laetoli, Tanzania

3.7mya, dated with K-Ar dating.

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Diet of australopithecines

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Dental microwear:

Gracile: leaves, tough foods
Robust: hard, gritty material

Isotope data:

Higher up the food chain, more Nitrogen15 in your bones. Indicate some meat-eating.

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Uses of the earliest tools

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2.6 - 1.7mya

-butchery (cut marks on bones)
-digging for roots, tubers (microwear)
-woodworking (residues)
-nutcracking

Nothing that could have been used for [b]illing?

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How can we use languages to understand history?

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-Common words, cognates, and loan words in vocabulary. Shows how close cultures are to each other.
-Maybe based on alphabets?-Grammar, sentence structure (same set of pronons, etc.)

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How can we tell the borrowed word from its root?

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1) Core Vocab (names, numbers, colors, animals, body parts, etc. About 100 words that change less rapidly than acquired (?). New technology, words come with it. Algebra, internet, etc.

2) Same roots. Might have different endings to give grammatical meaning.

ex. Indo-European, romance, Germanic, Slavic, Indian. Word for food, "pied" in French, the p's turn to s's. Fish, pez, etc.

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Glottochronology

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Used this to figure out the Bantu expansion. Fuzzy to tell when Huns conquered other Chinese colors.

Tells when one language group split into two. Core vocabulary changes 14% every 1000 years.

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Why so many languages?

Back 34

Like genes, languages diverge over time when populations of speakers are isolated (English and American)

Eventually become not mutually intelligable

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How do we know if two languages are related?

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-Phonemes (like clicks, glottal stops, tones, and other sounds)

-Regular sound transformations

-Cognates or very similar words in a "core" vocablary

-Grammar

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Four indigenous language families pre-1500 AD

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-Niger-Congo/Congo-Kordofanian (1436 languages, including TWI!)

-Afroasiatic (371), including Semitic languages. Only one to include languages spoken outside Africa.

-Nilo-Saharan (196 languages, slowly being extinguished, mostly along the Sahel)

-Khoisan languages (35)

-Indo-European languages were imported here, except for Afrikaans, which was formed in Africa after colonialism.

-Malagasy, an Austronesian language spoken in Madagascar

All originate close to the Horn!

Front 37

General African language features

Back 37

-Phonological diversity - tones, clicks, glottal stops

-Noun classes (reflect gender, animate/inanimate, human/nonhuman, shape, etc.)

-Noun cases (nomnative, accusative, or other)

-Verbs (may have prefixes and suffixes which indicate not only tense but also action [toward or away from speaker], opposites, etc.)

Front 38

Afro-Asiatic Languages

Back 38

-Second oldest family, origin in Ethopia/Sudan

-Includes Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew...only African language family spoken outside of Africa)

-Includes Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic.

-Cushitic and Chadic are v. diverse and found in W, C, and E Africa.
ex. Hausa (W. Africa, Afar (Ethopia)), Somali, Galla (Kenya), and Iraqw (Tanzania)

-Noun classes: gender

-Possessive is "n" or "na"

-Similar pronouns ('i' or 'u' for 'I')

Front 39

Nilo-Saharan languages

Back 39

-Originated in Sudan

-Related to maroitic

-Mainly in C. and E Sahara/Sahel to N. Kenya, Uganda, and NE Congo. Some pockets in W. Africa. Recent extension to S. Kenya and Tanzania (Maasai)

-Includes Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Karamojong, Dodoth, Turkana, Teso, Lese, Maasai, etc.

-More cattle-related words than Afroasiatic

-Gender and inanimate/animate noun classes

-Pronoun "a" for "I"

-Interrogatives - "nai" for "who", "nyo" or "iano/nainu" for "what"

-Use of "k" to form plural

Front 40

Niger-Congo languages

Back 40

-Biggest group is Bantu languages of W. E. and S. Africa

-Some small "Kordofanian" groups in Sudan

-Nuba hills and non-Bantu groups in W. Africa (Wolof, Fulani, Mande, Voltaic, Yoruba, Akan), and C. Africa (Azanda). Elaboration of forest vocabulary.

-Bantu languages - eg. Xhosa, Zulu, Herero, Swahili, Kikuyu, Nande, Shona, Ndebele, Kongo

-Elaborate noun classes - prefixes for mu/ba for person/people, ki/se for languages, also distinguish animate/inaminate, human/non-human, shapes, etc.

-Huge expansion from W. Africa ca. 1000bc - 0ad



*Can get political! Sawra, baSawra or leSawra, "kiSwahili" or "isiSwahili" to denote the languae

Front 41

Khoisan Languages

Back 41

-Today only in western South Africa and N. Central Tanzania (Hadza, Sandawe). Share clicks but little vocabulary.

-Elaborate tones and glottal stops

-Most ancient languages - genetics suggest more than 40k - 60kya

-Distinguish singular, plural, and dual

-Many lack noun classes and significant verb inflections

-Original Africans - Most Khoisan languages were eclopsed as incoming Bantu took over, intermarried

-Loan words into current E. Africa Niger-Congo and Bantu languages suggest at least 6 extinct sub-families of Knoisan

-Similarity in sounds makes it easy to learn new vocabulary and have no accent.

Term "san people" means "savage that eats raw meat"

Front 42

Khoisan Clicks!!!!

Back 42

/ is the dental click. Example, n/o

≠ for alveolar click

! for palatal click

// for lateral click

" for glottal stop

Front 43

The concept of "race"

Back 43

If you haven't gotten this from EVERY other antho class you've ever taken, race is a cultural construct in which certain biologically based features are used to classify people.

Each culture choses different criteria (Sudanese "arabs" distinguish themselves from Christian "blacks", but both would hav been considered black in the US. Rwanda, hutus and Tutsis on basis of body and nose shape.

Front 44

Skin Colour

Back 44

-Pigment called melanin produced by melanocytes in the skin

-Everyone has more-o-r-less same number of melanocytes, just more or less active

-Unrelated to melanin activity in the brain

-Protects against UVA and UBC exposure, which damage immune system

-In low sunlight conditions, melanin prevents UV rays from making adequate vitamin D from precursors in the skin

-Advantageous in equatorial regions, disadvantageous in low sunlight conditions

-High-levels re-established in native South Americans

Front 45

How can genes reflect history?

Back 45

-A small % of genome actually makes proteins, is exposed to selective forces

-Most genes are inactive, just carried along from one generation to another

-Substitutions, inversion, duplications, deletions in those "neutral" regions occur randomly at a regular ate and so not affect life of bearer or descendants

-Can reconstruct order of these "mistakes" and use to reconstruct ancestor-descendant relationships of gene sequences. Give each sequence or "haplotype" a name letter.

-% of particular haplotypes in a region reflects ancestry and migration history.

Front 46

Characterization of haplogroups

Back 46

-Pie charts used for statistical characterization of population frequencies

-Individual's haplogroup can only suggest likelihood of origin area, not definitive

-Pattern shows that Europe was populated from C. Asia repeatedly (Mongols?)

-mtDNA only reflects the female lineage

-M = original "out of Africa" group, found in C. and South Asia, but not in Europe

-L1, L2, and L3 all original African groups

Front 47

African genetics

Back 47

-More variable continent - reflects greater antiquity of African gene pool

-All people outside of Africa descended from just one group of Africans

-Last common ancestor of all Africans, ca. 150kya

-last common ancestor of mtDNA group L3 and all non-Africans, ca. 60kya

Front 48

Four Grades in OUR African Ancestors

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1) Gracile Australopithecines (anamensis, afarensis, africanus, from 4.2mya), AND Paranthropus (from 2.6)......bipedal, megadont

2) Early Homo (habilis, ergaster, erectus, 2.3mya. Coexists with Paranthropus for first millon years!)......bigger brain, committed biped (ergast/erect), first expansion from Africa

3) Mid-Pleistocene (Homo heidelbergensis, rhodesiensis, helmei, etc. NO neandertal, 600kya). Modern-sized brain, still big teeth and face, more inventive

4) Homo sapien (from 200kya), modernsized brain, small teeth and face tucked under braincase, large scale social groups, complex weapons, and symbolic culture

Front 49

Context of the origin of tool use

Back 49

-Obtaining foods otherwise difficult to access (nuts, tubers, dead carcasses)

-Our social nature provides context for new behaviors to be learned, shared, and passed on.

-Group size needs to be big enough, otherwise everyone dies and the new behavior disappears. Something must be repeated in large numbers to be preserved in archaeological record

Front 50

Progression of hominin tool use

Back 50

~5 - 8mya: tool assisted behavior

~2.5mya: tool dependent behavior

Front 51

Tool-making by Australopithecus?

Back 51

Would be by Australopithecus garrhi, about 2.5mya

Bouri, Middle Awash, Ethiopia

Percussion and cut-marks on bones

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How to tell diet at death from microwear on teeth

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Linear scratches on teeth: leaf/fruit eater. Howler money/A. africanus

Pitted surface of teeth from diet on harder materials (Capuchin, P. robustus)

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Stone tools ~2.6mya

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-earliest sites hard to detect b/c of low density

-earliest tool for ms difficult to distinguish from geofacts

-at 2.6mya, repeated use of locales!

-earliest tools look simple, but given chimp social diversity likely present among early hominins for tool manufacture/use

Front 54

How to recognize old sites

Back 54

-Human artifacts or modifications (cut-marked bone, postholes)

-association with extinct fauna and/or dates

-evidence of primary deposition and burial context

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The Oldowan Industry (dates and sites)

Back 55

2.6mya - 1.5mya

-Ain Hanech (north Africa)
-Gona, Hadar, Middle Awash
-Omo
-Koobi Fora, West Turkana
-Olduvai, Peninj
-Swartkrans, Sterkontein

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Things to consider when knapping

Back 56

-Platform angle
-Platform depth
-Core morphology
-Required force
-Accuracy

Front 57

Oldowan Tools in: Olduvai

Back 57

-Oldowan (1.87 - 1.65) (choppers, discoids, polyhedrons)

-Developed Oldowan A (1.65 - 1.53 (choppers, spheroids, proto-bifaces, awls)

-Developed Oldowan B (1.53 - 1.2) (spheroids, sub-spheroids, awl , outils ecailles, "crude" bifaces)

-Developed Oldowan C (1.2 - 0.6) (light, dusty scrapers, outils ecailles, laterally trimmed flakes)

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Oldowan Tools in: Omo

Back 58

Shungura Facies (2.3mya)

Small quartz pebbles

Front 59

Oldowan Tools in: Koobi Fora

Back 59

KBS Industry (no retouched pieces of spheroids, 1.9mya) made with BASALT

Karari scrapers (1.6mya)

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Oldowan Tools in: West Turkana (Lokalalei)

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2.35mya

Pre-Oldowan (LA1) (flawed material?)
Highly skilled (LA2C)

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Oldowan Tools in: Gona

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2.6mya

High-quality materials and sophisticated artifacts

Picked out the rocks that would make the sharpest flakes!

Indicates stasis?

Made from volcanics

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Living Floors

Back 62

Theory of the 1970s

Thought of like little camps! Butder or tool-making sites.

Discrete horizons of artifacts and bones

campsites, butchery sites, quarry sites, toolmaking sites

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Why sites? (hypothetical patterns of oldowan behavior)

Back 63

1) Home base/central place foraging
2) Favored Places
3) Resource Transport

Front 64

Home Base/Central Place Foraging (Hypothetical pattern of Oldowan behavior)

Back 64

-group slips to forage and reforms at central place
-implies food sharing, sexual division of labor

Front 65

Favored Places (hypothetical pattern of Oldowan behavior)

Back 65

-bones and artifacts tend to accumulate at places of repeat activity (water, shade, nearby food, climbable trees)

-high competition: scavenging stations, resource defense

-lower competition: routed foraging, refusing.

Most likely to be this one because mosquitos, snakes, and leopards leopards are usually sleeping by the lake

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Resource transport (hypothetical patterns of oldowan behavior)

Back 66

-key innovation is transport of resources around landscape
-accumulated stones may have acted as a "magnet"

Front 67

Function of Oldowan tools?

Back 67

1. Cutmarks and percussion pits, asosciation of bones and tools

2. Use wear (nine flakes from Koobi Fora)...wood, meat, grass

3. Experiments (cutting meat and hide, woodworking, breaking bones and nuts)

Front 68

Did the Oldowan people hunt and/or scavenge?

Back 68

1. Whatever the answer, plant foods still important

2. Argument is dominated by evidence from FLK Sinj

3. Primary, secondary, or multistage scavenging access?

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Evidence for hunting/scavenging among Oldowan users

Back 69

1. Cutmarks and toothmarks
-abundance
-placement (midshaft vs. epiphysis, overlapping...in bones with lots of meat?)

2. Skeletal part represntation
-transport by hominids and/or carnivores
-destruction by hominids and/or carnivores
-postdepositional destruction
-shaft frags?

3. Equifinality?

4. Nature of scavenging opporunities

Front 70

How much intelligence does the Oldowan indicate?

Back 70

1. "stone tools made to standard pattern represent a different kind of cognitive organization than that known for any other animal"

2. ape tool use (nut-cracking, termite dipping, hammer transport, experiments

3. Spatial cognition (piaget, "concept" of boundar, symmetry, etc.

4. Knapping skillz

5. Raw material selectivity

6. "Cultural" variability and adaption

Front 71

What happened with climate 2.6 million years ago that made tool use start?

Back 71

Water sources lessening, activities must be concentrated.

Temperature was REALLY wiggly and unsteady

Front 72

What happened with hominin evolution 2.6 million years ago that made tool use possible?

Back 72

Brains are metabolically expensive.

Isn't much room in primate body to compensate. Internal organs use most energy. Change in diet (eat MEAT can result in smaller gut, larger brain? (expensive tissue hypothesis)

Front 73

What is the Acheulean age?

Back 73

1. Certain percentage of large bifacial tools: handaxes, cleavers, picks ("cultural historic" approach)

2. One is enough (Evolutionary stage approach)

3. Large flakes, bifacial "concept", platform preparation (technological approach)

Front 74

Early Acheulean sites in Africa

Back 74

1.5mya

1) Konso-Gardula, Ethopia (1.4mya, large crude bifaces)

2. EF-HR, Bed II Olduvai (1.4-1.6?mya, no radiometric dates)

3. Peninj (1.4-1.7mya, controvercial K/Ar, normal paleomag, more work being done)

Front 75

Who invented the Handaxe?

Back 75

Homo ergaster/erectus! 1.8mya

-bigger brain
-bigger body
-more mobile
-better hunter

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Function of the handaxe?

Back 76

-"Swiss Army knife"
-Wood and other plants
-butchery
-projectile
-core

Front 77

Mode 2 of the Acheulean vs. Mode 1

Back 77

-larger flakes? but many European ones made on cobbles

-symmetry (piaget stage), but are they deliberate designs or cores?

-manmade fire! (constantly burns at the same place, add fuel)

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When fire? Where fire? Why fire important?

Back 78

Cooking, diet of cooked starches unique

Warmth, move into winter climate

Caves, first evidence of actual occupation in caves, scare away other residents

Predator protection, could be first ground-dwelling sites?

Fighting - drive or ambush hunting

Transformation of materials, basis of all later technologies

Social function, light at night, create focus for development of language

Front 79

How do we know that humans controlled fire?

Back 79

-more intense (stronger magnetic signal, higher temperature)

-longer lasting (contiuous fuel supply....cave guano fires?)

-spatially localized and discontinuous (stump fires?)

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Earliest records of fire?

Back 80

-Koobi Fora, 1.65mya - 1.4mya, and Chesowanja

-Burned bones from Swartkrans (cave) S. Africa, ca. 1.5-1mya

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Gersher Benot Ya'aqov

Back 81

790kya

-burned flints
-burned grass seeds
-charcol
-hearths and debitage

Front 82

Change in humans from australopithecus to early homo

Back 82

-larger bodies
-longer legs
-smaller teeth

Front 83

When does general drying trend become pronounced?

Back 83

About 2.5mya

Front 84

Flake technologies of the Acheulean

Back 84

-shift to flake begins in 500kya in Africa, with shift in fauna from specialized grazers to more generalized species

-levallois technology by ca. 350-400kya or older, 350kry in Near East, 300kyr in Europe

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Mental capabilities of modern humans ("living in our heads")

Back 85

-abstract thinking
-planning ahead
-creativity (problem-solving through innovation)
-'imagined communities'
-symbolic thinking and communication
-theory of mind

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Detecting a capacity for "living in our heads" in the archaeological record: Abstract thinking, planning ahead, problem-solving

Back 86

-increased rate of technological change

-economic intensification (getting more use out of a single piece of land)

-storage

-long-distance trade

Front 87

Detecting a capacity for "living in our heads" in the archaeological record: imagined communities, social complexity

Back 87

-regional styles (handaxes look same from Africa to England to India!)

-long-distance contacts (you recognize people in your own social group. look for stones moving long distances!)

-burials with grave goods

-body ornaments

Front 88

Detecting a capacity for "living in our heads" in the archaeological record: symbolic communication

Back 88

-art

-image

-notation

-body ornament

-regional differentiation

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Detecting a capacity for "living in our heads" in the archaeological record: theory of mind, empathy

Back 89

-survival of pathological individuals

-look for people with horrific injuries that live

-body decoration with pigments

-clothing

-body ornamnent

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Signs that capacity to "live in our head" is OLDER than H. sapiens

Back 90

-problem solving: stone tools, fire, wooden spears, new environments

-abstract thinking: levallois technology

-planning ahead: ambush hunting at Lehringern, La Cote de St. Brelade

-social complexity: long distance procurement

-symbolic communication: ocher at 350kyr, with H. heidelburgensis or rudolfensis, ocher used at 290kyr, ground and shaped for some purpose...body coloration?

-theory of mind: survival of pathological individuals at Nariokotome, Dmanisi

Front 91

Gademotta, Ethiopia

Back 91

-spearpoint! indications of being attached to something

-large variety of tools

285kya (80k before H. sapiens!)

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Levallois technique

Back 92

aka, Mode 3 Prepared Core Technique

600kya!

3-dimensional, or third-order conceptualization

Front 93

Long Post-Acheulian sequences (date range and locations)

Back 93

500-200kya

-Middle Awash
-Baringo
-Naivasha-Narok
-Olorgesailie

Front 94

Olorgesailie, Kenya

Back 94

New research, 2001 - 2008

white stuff is old lake bed

2 localities are MSA. Lots of obsidian, not found in lake basin

-lake was there when Acheulian was there

Front 95

Olorgesailie Locality B

Back 95

Ostrich Eggshell Site

OLDER than 340kya:

-small, triangular flakes
-facetted striking platforms
-levallois cores
-5% exotics
-ocher/manganese lumps

Front 96

faconnage technique

Back 96

Reducing a flake bifacially

Front 97

Stillbay points

Back 97

Found in Blombos cave, 76kya

very, very fine points.

Front 98

debitage technique

Back 98

try to shape a flake on the core before you take it off

Front 99

Potential causes of shift from Acheulian to MSA

Back 99

-biological change to modern-size brains (by ca. 600kya in E Africa)

-adaption to environmental change reflected in faunal replacement after 500kya

-in situ cultural evolution

-new technologies, larger social networks, symbolic behavior?

Front 100

Aduma, Middle Awash, Ethiopia

Back 100

New developments after 130kya

small points (arrowheads? poison?) less than 90kya

-made with at least 4 different sources of obsidian

big points, more then 100kya, thrusting spears?

Front 101

Why suddenly make smaller points?

Back 101

force = mass x acceleration

If you have smaller mass, you need more acceleration to kill things

spearthrower - lengthens arm by almost 2 feet, hook on the end

3-part tool: shaft, point, and linkshaft (could be made of hollow wood, gum, ocher, etc.) Make linkshaft poison. Change one part of the tool, change the function.

Complexity of tool requires language?

Front 102

Climate and potential for movement

Back 102

Tropics and north africa/sahara have different periods of wet/dry. Possibly results in much need to travel

Front 103

MSA point styles

Back 103

VERY different in the different regions!

90-60kya

Front 104

Why are projectiles important?

Back 104

-more success, less duress

-survivorship increases - you don't have to be so close to your target!

-competitive advantage - only young men hunt (older ones can't see), travel very far, get women, etc.

Front 105

What defines the LSA?

Back 105

Microliths!

Hafted, portable, replaceable, reliable, multifuntional, (poisoned?) tools as risk minimization strategy for unpredictable environments

Front 106

Advantages of using stone point over bone point:

Back 106

-greater piercing qualities
-sharper, wider sides, inflict more damage, bleeding
-brittle, shatters or remains in wound
-greater mass
-sinks in water (Bad for fishies)

Front 107

Advantages of using bone point over stone point:

Back 107

-tip can be larger, blunter, knock down small game

-sides do not damage skin as much as stone

-less brittle

-ligher

-floats in water

Front 108

Advantages of making stone point over bone point:

Back 108

-elaborate raw material selection and transport

-materials isotropic

-rapid fabrication

-brittle, frequent replacement

-greater penetration

Front 109

Advantages of making bone point over stone point

Back 109

-materials easy to obtain

-bone anisotropic, longitudinal fracture

-slower fabrication

-more durable

-less penetration

Front 110

Bone points in the MSA

Back 110

-Katanda 2, 9, and 16 (>60-80kya)

-White Paintings Shelter (MSA/LSA transition ( ? >42kya)

Front 111

Katanda is in...

Back 111

the Congo!

Front 112

Katanda 2

Back 112

Found big, 75lb catfish! Feeds 25 people for three days!

(would have needed a harpoon!)

60-80kya for overlying sands in Katanda

Front 113

Katanda 9

Back 113

-barbed points, string wear in base!

-used as harpoons

-sites dominated by fish bones, mostly fish heads

Front 114

New technologies, networks, and symbolic information after 90kya in context of environmental deterioration after 60kya explain...

Back 114

-failed expansion into Eurasia before 90kya

-popular expansion within Africa 90-60kya

-major expansions out of Africa into Asia after 60kya

Front 115

Blombos Cave

Back 115

in South Africa

-lots of MSA fish bones and shells

140kya

lower "stillbay" bone tools

-shells that have been perforated. string and ocher wear

-first MSA beads discovered in 2001

Front 116

Differences between Katanda and Blombos points

Back 116

Katanda: barbed, elaborate bases, rough

Blombos: unbarbed cylindrical, no traces of basal elaboration, polished

Front 117

Similarities between Katanda and Blombos points

Back 117

-both made by scraping in contrast to grinding of LSA in same region

-both have continuities in form with LSA in respective regions

-both are associated with fish bones

-both associated with v. informal lithic industries

Front 118

Why isn't Blombos more like Katanda?

Back 118

-functional difference? (lake fishing)

-low population density (no cultural transmission)

-different faunal provinces

Front 119

White Paintings Shelter

Back 119

-barbed bone points up to 3m, >42kya

Front 120

Implications of language after 90kya?

Back 120

symbolic behavior and social intensification after 90kya!

-blombos cave, geometric designs, shell beads at diepkloof shelter

Front 121

Age the ELSA?

Back 121

MSA is older than 55kya

ELSA is at least 40-57kya

Kalahari LSA begins before ca. 37kya

Front 122

Date of the later pleistocene

Back 122

ca. 35-14kya

Front 123

Later stone age environments

Back 123

Ice aaaaaaaage!

North/South Africa: more arid

Sea level down - coastlines recede. everything's friggin ice!

Sahara - hyperarid after 40kya

tropical forest more open, patchy

tropcial lakes, low levels at 18kya

interregional variability promotes MIGRATION, ISOLATION, LOCAL EXTINCTION.

-population increases at local levels/climate deterioration: new technologies and resource strategies

Front 124

Pretoria Rainfall

Back 124

Really low around 20kya, high around 32-35kya (when lake malawi is low).

Note how lake depth corresponds to rainfall. Ups and downs are at same time.

in later stone age

Front 125

Adaptations to crazy weather of later stone age

Back 125

-more flexible toolkit- microliths widespread

-more reliable toolkit (harpoons, poison, nets, etc.)

-ability to access wide variety of resources (esp. small-scale...fish, birds, snails, shellfish, tubers and grasses that require elaborate processing, etc.)

-burning grasslands to bring up new grass, attract game (control of fire)

-storage

-wider exchange networks -- beads, obsidian, rock art sites

Front 126

Diversity of arrow poison

Back 126

Over 200 types of poison that local people know!

-poison strong enough to kill a giraffe in a few days

-doesn't kill you if you eat it...digestive system breaks it down

Front 127

Where are the LSA sites?

Back 127

In high rainfall areas! In South Africa. Not much in dry bit south of Kalahari

People coped with wet/dry changed by moving up and down

Front 128

Dissapearance of grassland species

Back 128

Large versions of extant fauna go extinct at Holocene boundary (about 10kya): giant buffalo, hartebeest, zebra. Possible human impact, but mostly loss of grassland environment

Front 129

ǂGi, Botswana

Back 129

A period of wet around 24-26kya, when earliest tools come

10kya bone linkshaft, last until either Bantu or Western iron

Front 130

Iberomaurusian people/time period

Back 130

20-10kya coastal N. African phenomenon, particularly in 'lush' areas of coast

-Sites uncomfortably overlie Aterian sites: region abandoned for 20-40kya

-technological and biological discontinuities:

->dominated by backed bladelets
->w/o technological precedence in the region
-> genetics: U6 lineage introduced to N. Africa ~30kya from west Asia through sinai?

-very robust modern people

Front 131

Iberomaurusian cultural behaviors

Back 131

signal of cultural identity: knock out upper 2 incisors at puberty (dental evulsian)

burials in cemetaries in flexed psition (in crooked but not fetal position)

sites in fall and winter, most likely butchery sites. camps in spring and summer different

Montane hunters at Tamar Hat (Algeria), ~20kya, hunted barbary sheep

Front 132

Reverse Utility Curve

Back 132

At Tamar hat, clear evidence of human butchery and bone fragmentation

Implication: high utility elements transported everywhere

site function: specialized hunting/butchery camp

Front 133

Major Rock Art Regions of the Later stone Age

Back 133

Southern Africa and Zimbabwe

East Africa, esp. Tanzania

Sahara, esp. southern Algeria

Front 134

Major themes of rock art in the later stone age

Back 134

-hunting
-dancing
-trance and transformation
-"out of body" experiences

Front 135

Date for Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia

Back 135

ca. 27kya, human who's turning into an animal, a theriomorph

Front 136

theriomorph

Back 136

a human who's turning into an animal

Front 137

Rock art conservation problems

Back 137

-paintings are in open air rock shelter, exposed to erosion

-spraying with preservative causes moisture to build up behind on rock face, flake off entire slab

-medicinal and psiritual use of paintings and painted sites today

-tourists spray water on paintings to take better pictures

-need local guardians, paid adequately to avoid bribery potential

Front 138

LSA use of rainforest

Back 138

God evidence for quarts microlithic LSA use of rainforest and savanna habits from fauna/phytoliths

Quartz microlithic technology occurs in forest and savanna settings: simple technology not a barrier to difficult habitats. Increasingly complex behavioral solutions?

Front 139

Clarias sp. (catfish)

Back 139

-grows to over a meter long

-easy to catch when spawning in shallow flood plains

-rich in fats and fatty acids essential for brain nutrition

-in good condition in dry season when other resources are depleted

Front 140

Human landscape management of the LSA

Back 140

-tropics: forest edge maintained by burning. Does not grow back to last interglacial limits

-increase of canarium oil-seed plants in deep forest environment in Congo (needs open canopy sinlight

-collection and storage of wild grains (barly, sorghum) by 10kya

-herding wild cattle, sheep by 8kya

Front 141

Ishango, DR Congo

Back 141

Lots of harpoons!

2 notches at bottom instead of ridgemarks

It takes more technology to fish than hunt

Front 142

Archaeological evidence for Population expansion from central Africa to Nile corridor and sahara

Back 142

-based on hunting, gathering, and fishing

-earliest barbed point bones in c. Africa 90kya

-barbed poitns in east Africa by 10-9BP

In Sudanese and Egyptian NIle with ceramics by 9.3BP

Southwestern Sahel and Sahara by 7BP

Front 143

Saharan Wet Phases: 14-12.7BP

Back 143

Foragers, "wild Nile" (difficult to use the crazy Nile), first expansion to Sahara

Front 144

Saharan Wet Phases: 12.7 - 11.5BP

Back 144

Younger Dryas: cold and dry period.

Front 145

Saharan Wet Phases: 1.5 - 7.5BP

Back 145

Maximum wet phase!

Front 146

Saharan Wet Phases: 7.5-5.5BP

Back 146

Alternating periods of drought and good rainfall

Front 147

Saharan Wet Phases: 5.5 - 4.5BP

Back 147

Increasing dessication (desertization)

Front 148

Saharan Cultural Phases: 11,500BP

Back 148

aqualithic expansion (boned harpoons)

semi-sedentism

Front 149

Saharan Cultural Phases: 9500-8500BP

Back 149

cattle widespread, caprines (goats) on coast

Front 150

Saharan Cultural Phases: 7000-6100 BP

Back 150

3 species pastoralism in N. Africa

Front 151

Saharan Cultural Phases: 5900-4500BP

Back 151

s. expansion, predynastic Egypt

Front 152

Saharan Cultural Phases: 4500-4000BP

Back 152

cattle and caprines in W and E Arfica to L. Turkana

Front 153

ca. 2500BP

Back 153

first caprines in Southern Africa

Front 154

Other Evidence for Connections between Central and East and North Africa

Back 154

Ishango (DRC) of 20000-25000 BP were Nilotes

-tall and linear

-100% septal perforation of distal humerus (foramen in upper armbones)

Front 155

Wadi Kubbaniya

Back 155

Egypt, 18kya, height of big dry

probably semi-sedentary...broad spectrum diet and repeated re-use

Front 156

Wadi Kibanniyan artifacts and diet

Back 156

Backed baldelets, some with "polishj" possibly from grass-cutting

lots of fishbones. Floodplain fishing, not deep water

grindstones for prcessing seeds + tubers (major investment in low-ranked resource)

rare carbonized seeds and tubers, dated by carbon14 to 17019kya. Earlier "domesticates" shown to be intrusive.

Front 157

Tuber use at Wadi Kubbaniya

Back 157

-wild nut grass tubers require roasting, grinding, leaching, and cooking for use

-intensive collection of large numbers needed

-chemical analyses of grindstones suggest use for processing

Front 158

Wadi Kubbaniya burial

Back 158

18kya. burial, healed parry fracture on rt. ulna, stone chip lt. humerus and 2 bladelets in abdominal cavity

murders...human competition for limited resources!

Front 159

Uan Afuda, Libya

Back 159

Rockshelter, 9-8kya

Dense layers of Barbary sheep bones. Good evidence for hunting

-Dense Barbary sheep dung layer in shelter. Implies ownership of sheep. Not natural habitat for sheep

-penning/maintenance of Barbary sheep (aoudad) as prelude to domestication

Front 160

aoudad

Back 160

Barbary sheep

Front 161

Use of pottery among hunter-fishers of early Holocene

Back 161

!9.5kya

-all early African pottery sites in s. sahara

-w/o precedent, probably from southern origin. no evidence for movement south of nile

-independent african origin. one of oldest dates in world is 11kya Japanese pottery

Front 162

Wavy line pottery

Back 162

-found at forager sites across Sahel and Turkana with mammals, fish, and eastern Sahara "cattle" bones

-from local (<25km) clay sources

-early pots extensively decoated

-early pots rare at sites and do not appear associated with routine cooking

-useful for stage (delayed return)

-social or ceremonial purpose more likely

Front 163

What advantage is there in pottery?

Back 163

-storage (delayed returns in times of need, accumulation/social stratification)

-boiling (soften foods (faster infant eaning), eliminate toxins from tuber plants, extract grease from bones)

-social expression of individual or group

Front 164

Was there a Neolithic Revolution in Africa?

Back 164

No! Elements apepared early and separately

-prior intensification does suggest broad spectrum (variation in diet)
-harpoons before ceramics (Ishango)
-ceramics used by mobile foragers, not sedentary farmers
-when domestication occurs in N. Africa, animals precede plants
-reliance on domestic animals promotes MOBILITY, not sedentism (pastoralism!)
-Malaria spreads early on in pastoral context

Front 165

Herding of Cattle in Egypt

Back 165

10th-9th millenium BP in Nabta Playa

-other large fauna found at Nabta are adapted to xeric conditions (e.g. gazelles); this implies cattle had to be watered

-African cattle share last common ancestor with European cattle ca. 27kBP

-Microsatellite diversity pattern in African cattle suggests bottleneck event ca. 8k-10kBP

Front 166

Summary of economic intensification in LSA

Back 166

-oil seeds in Congo

-lots of fishing

-wild sorghum storage pits at Nabta

-ceramics

-cattle and sheep herding

Front 167

herder

Back 167

owner or controller of domestic livestock (cattle, ovicaprids, etc.)

Front 168

pastoralist

Back 168

reliance upon livestock with life organized around this (specialized)

Front 169

cultivation

Back 169

any human activity that increases the yield of harvested/exploited plants

Front 170

domestication

Back 170

human selection resulting in genetic, morphological/physiological changes

Front 171

Why domesticate?

Back 171

increase predictability of yield, productive potential of land, cope with climate deterioration or crowding, "broad spectrum revolution", aka variation in diet

Front 172

What is domestication? (not just definition, more specific)

Back 172

-keep animals/plants for a purpose

-ensure survival (animal/plant loses natural defenses)

-control reproduction (plant may lose its ability to reproduce itself)

-behavioral change (new habitats, expanded ranges, different ripening seasons, more docile animals, etc.)

-morphological changes

Front 173

Why did certain animals get domesticated over others?

Back 173

-we only domesticate herbivores

-large size means a substantial return for investment

-rapid growth (good size for slaughter or good age for sex)

-ease of breeding in captivity

-lack of nasty disposition/tendancy to flee or panic

-lack of territoriality, readily moved to where food/water is available

-well-developed dominance heirarchy

Front 174

Cattle

Back 174

-independent domatication of taurine cattle on n. Africa

-subsequent cross-breeding with Indian cattle or zebu cattle (more disease resistant)

-basis of most oAfrican pastoralist societies

-"storage on the hood"/the living larder

-food usually in form of milk or blood, rarely for meat

Front 175

Domesticated Grains

Back 175

-Barley in Egypt

-African rice (wild varieties found in Sahelian region, semi-arid adapted wild plant but human selection for water-tolerant varieties)

-Sorghum (~3kya?), vevry important for bread and porridge. Wild progenitor found in Sahel today. High-yield.

-Finger millet, bulrish millet: important in beer manufacture (nutrition + high social value), impressions in pottery ~3kya

-teff: high status crop, lavor intensive

Front 176

Effects on people of an emphasis on domesticated food sources?

Back 176

-general health decline with appearance of domestication (less diverse diet)

-weaker bones, shorter stature, poor dental health

-caries, anemia, Harris lines (malnutrition)

-sedentism creates serious sanitation problems

-spread of communicable diseases: malaria

-spread of diseases that jump from animals to humans :smallpox

Front 177

Denial River :-)

Back 177

-flows north, as opposed to other rivers of the time

-longer than US is wide

-3 major components: blue nile from ethiopia, white nile from lake victoria, and atbara from sudan/ethopia border

-sources are in Central African great lakes (16%) and summer rainfall in Ethiopia (83%)

-Result: perennial flow iwth major annual inundation in the fall, leaves behind mineral-rich silt

-dependable fertile land!

Front 178

History of Denial River

Back 178

-early Holocene "wild nile" scoured out by the avlley, high rainfall favored settlement of playa basins

-worldwide sea levels from melting glaciers flooded delta tp 50km inland

-subsequent trend toward aridity,

-many sites buried deep under Delta or valley silts

Front 179

Nile regions from South to North

Back 179

-Nubia, region of flow through sandstone from Khartoum to Aswan

-"upper egypt"

-"qena bend", luxor to cairo", sometimes "middle egypt"

-delta, from cairo to coast, "loewr egypt", direct contact with near east

Front 180

Fayum Neolithic sites

Back 180

-introduction of emmerwheat, domesticated 6-row barley, sheep, and goats from near east by 5000 BCE, oasis agriculture

-harpoons look more like Israeli than African...imported from middle east

-trade networks!

Front 181

evidence of domestication in Egypt

Back 181

-food storage (in silos or on the hood) replaces networks as "security net"

-population increase, fedby more reliable food, weaning foods, less work for women increases reproductive potential

-health effects: dental caries, decline in tooth size, robusticity, anemias and diet of deficiency diseases, spread of communicable and zoonotic diseases

Front 182

stone maceheads

Back 182

-feature of royalty, pecularly African

Front 183

Trade networks of the Fayum

Back 183

shells form mediterranean coast

turquoise from sinai

amazonite from Tibesti region in Sahara

sea shells from red sea coast

Front 184

Continuity between Upper Egypt and Nubia

Back 184

-large cemetaries (symbolizes rootedness in land)

-individuals buried in bundles of matting, and animals too

-animal and human figurines

-uman burials including gravegoods

-cosmetics - mining cosmetics, lots of making cosmetic containers, decorated grinding stones. green, white, red, and yellow pigments

-necklaces and bracelets of lots of materials

-stone maceheads and bowls

-double-crescent arrowheads

-fine pottery (thin, black-top. made by hand. never designed for cooking)

Front 185

Why bury with elaborate grave goods?

Back 185

-respect?

-avoid contamination

-provide for afterlife

-createrelationship with dead

-send message to gots to look favorably on living

-ceremonial occasion for feasting renewal of social bonds

-create social landscape of power

-distributed remains in some cases, locus of power?

Front 186

Treaatment of the Body in Egypt

Back 186

-accompany with precious goods (from Badarian on) including cosmetics

-accompany with evidence of feasting...bread and beer

-tomb panting at hierakonpolis depicting capture, "lord of the animals"

-wrap in leather, matting (from badarian on)

-wrap in resin-soaked linen (from naqada 2b on)

-pots for heads