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81 Cards in this Set
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Faunal Analysis for Indirect Evidence
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There was evidence found such as cutmarks on the bones of bison, and tools left at the site. This suggest that the bison were then killed and butchered on site. Due to the size of this kill, it can be inferred that this was an organized bison hunt that provided meat for fairly large numbers of people. This remains, however, only indirect evidence of diet, as nothing at the site or about the faunal remains provides direct evidence of the bison meat being ingested. (remember that faunal remains are indirect evidence, and thus require higher levels of inference based on context)
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Botanical Analysis for Indirect Evidence:
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botanical remains are much more susceptible to decay depending on the conditions to which they are exposed. At Danger Cave for example, there is evidence of botanical remains which still grow within 10 miles of the cave. When found within a cave, it can safely be inferred that the plants were gathered and purposefully brought into the cave. There is no strong evidence that the plants were being gathered for food
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Paleofeces and Forensics for Indirect Evidence:
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FALLS MORESO UNDER DIRECT EVIDENCE, because it consists of human digestion, etc. dealing with human remains, therefore not inferred as much.
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Direct Evidence
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context must be “solid”
Ex. Bog Body with stomach flesh remaining (can be used as direct evidence for what was in the diet of the human before death) |
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Direct Evidence in the context of human diet
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can ONLY be found through studying the remains of what has passed through the human digestive track or still remains within the digestive track. So, you are forced to rely on paleofeces and gut contents (think “poop lab” or “crap lab”).
Ex.Lovelock Cave, NV (dried human excrements were found and studied there, providing insight into the diet of the people that once lived there) |
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Gut contents
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These are perhaps the most uncommon form, as this requires the preservation of human tissue. The Incan child mummies, preserved by the extremely dry, cold conditions in the high Andes, are a good example of these kinds of remains.
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Definition of agriculture
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The science, art or occupation concerned with cultivating land, raising crops, and feeding, breeding and raising livestock. Agriculture is a subsistence strategies that relies heavily on domesticated plants and animals.
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Definition of domestication (plants & animals)
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To convert (animals, plants, etc.) to domestic uses, esp. by generations of breeding, usually creating a dependency so that the plant/animal loses its ability to live in the wild. Domestication is the introduction of changes to plants and animals at a genetic level. These changes, in turn, remove the ability of these plants and animals to reproduce on their own.
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Characteristics of wild vs. domesticated wheat
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The wild wheat seed on the left has a brittle, un-fused rachis, which allows the seed to break away from the plant easily as part of its reproduction. In comparison, the domesticated seed on the right has a tough, fused rachis that stops it from breaking away from the plant, allowing it to be gathered more easily.
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Animals- 3 vital elements:
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Constraint of movement
Regulation of breeding Control of feeding |
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Which types of animals are domesticated?
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Social animals are most easily domesticated. Herd movement. Tolerant to feeding & breeding in confined environment. Animals are similar. By controlling their movement, their feeding, and most importantly, their breeding, humans introduce genetic changes into the population that make it increasingly hard for the animals to survive in the wild. The animals that are most tolerant of this treatment are social, herd animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, and horses.
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Oasis Theory (of food production) -V. Gordon Childe
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lays an emphasis on environmental change. Grazing animals in the desert area were forced to go to Oasis's and come into contact with humans. The humans would let the animals graze on the remains of their harvest and eventually this lead to the domestication of these animals
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Hilly Flanks Hypothesis-Robert Braidwood
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He believes that in 8000BC the inhabitants of the hills around the fertile crescent grew to knew their habitat so well that they began to domesticate many of the plants and animals. He also believes that this area may be the birth of agriculture.
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Demographic Theories-Lewis Binford-
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maintains that environmental change along with sedentism was the principle cause of agriculture. In his theory he states that environmental changes led to higher population of people and cultivation as developed as a response to this growing population. This theory deals more so with south-west Asia
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Feasting Hypothesis-Barbara Bender-
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Feasting plays a role in social competition. People wishing to achieve a higher rank do so by throwing large feast that creates a dependency between them and other members of the community who could not produce food on that large of a scale.
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Evolution & Intentionality-David Rindos
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Agriculture was the result of long term relationships with humans and their food sources. Rindos believes that agriculture should be viewed as evolutionary adaption. Humans are adapting to plants and plants are adapting to humans.
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Problems with theories-
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The important thing that we can take away from a discussion of the various theories that have been introduced are that no one theory is applicable on a worldwide scale. In order to explain the origins of agriculture, archaeologists must appreciate the conditions of each individual area of domestication.
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Monocausal vs. multicausal explanations Consequences of agriculture
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Foragers had better balanced diets
Much more vulnerable to famine, infectious diseases and epidemics Anemia and malnutrition – slow growth, especially in children; paleo-pathologists suggest a general decline in quality and length of human life Changes in fertility rates and population growth rates Lack of leisure time among populations Introduction of social issues – war, inequality, etc. Environmental change & degradation -be familiar with Jared Diamonds article the worst mistake. |
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3 crops of the Mesoamerican triumvariate
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Squash-Dating to between 8000 and 6000 BC, these appear to be the first purposefully grown crop in this region.
Maize- (corn) allowed a process of introducing genetic changes to the plants to choose attributes that were desirable, such as size and availability (making it “wait for the harvester”). beans- provide lysine, which is an amino acid that aids in the effective digestion of the protein in maize. Secondly, the bean is a nitrogen-fixer, a plant that returns nitrogen to the soil. This is particularly useful when growing maize, as it removes large amounts of nitrogen from the soil. Beans, therefore, help maintain the fertility of the soils. Once domestication of the ‘triumvirate’ was complete, Mesoamerican groups domesticated a large variety of crops. It is important at this point to note that while plants were used intensively by Mesoamerican groups, the domestication of animals never became an important feature of their economy. |
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Meaning of ‘longue durée’
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the slow change over time of subsistence strategies and their evolution.
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Transition of wild to “culturally managed landscapes”
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changing the landscape to fit a certain type of subsistence strategy and mostly applies to the domestication of wild plants and animals.
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Mixed economy
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this is the use of wild and domesticated plants and animals to supplement the diet and using different types of subsistence strategies together in order to achieve a balanced diet
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Peopling of the Pacific region – determining choice of strategies
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faunal remains show that the Lapita people subsisted primarily off of wild birds, turtles, shellfish, fish and a small amount of domesticated animals. Environmentally, the Lapita were blessed with lush, wild environments free of predators. This made the food quest extremely simple, with abundant food resources that were easily obtained.
The archaeological record demonstrates, however, that the introduction of human predators eventually had some serious consequences. After the first 550 years, the populations of birds and sea turtles were nearly halved. This was most detrimental with sea turtles, which have an extremely long maturation cycle and were not able to repopulate their numbers. This “crisis” in food resources necessitated a shift in subsistence strategies. In such situations the choices can be varied: war, starvation, abandonment, or intensification. Many of these island peoples chose intensification, becoming more and more dependant on domesticated plants and animals for food. |
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Cowboy Wash – evidences and explanations
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Importance of scientific rigor in drawing conclusions from the archaeological record
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Potential problems with interpretive archaeology
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Nazis
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4 categories of social complexity
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Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, States
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Bands
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small-scale (less than 100 people) egalitarian societies (this means that everyone is equal, there are no elite or leaders). Subsistence:Hunter-gatherers. Settlement Pattern: Seasonally occupied camps and specialized activity sites.
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Tribes
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(segmentary societies): Small-scale (a few thousand people) egalitarian societies. Subsistence: Settled farmers (horticulturalists) or pastoralists. Settlement pattern: Homesteads and villages (no central places).
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Chiefdoms
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Large-scale (5,000-20,000 people) ranked societies (often hereditary). Subsistence: Settled farmers (agriculturalists). Settlement pattern: Villages functioning as central places (with limited power).
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States
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Large-scale (tens of thousands of people), stratified societies. Subsistence: Settled farmers (agriculturalists) with division of labor and craft specialization. Settlement pattern: Settlement hierarchies with urban settlements functioning as powerful central places (public buildings).
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economy
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movement/distribution of goods, products and services; quest for food, house and lifestyle
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subsistence
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the necessities of life; mainly food
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horticulture
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low level of domestic plants/animals, supplement with wild food, more permanent housing and technology, storage technology introduced- no large surplus,
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pastoralism
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focus on domesticated animals- used for primary and secondary resources, trade for resources, partly sedentary, partly nomadic, huge amount of one species of animal, low-intensity farming
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hunter-gatherer
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use wild resources from landscape, mobile lifestyle, simple technology, rarely complex and settled
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intensive agriculture
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people get food from someone who produces a massive surplus, trading, large-scale use of domesticated products, more technology, extremely permanent, huge amounts of storage, class system
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exocannibalism
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only eat people outside your group
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endocannibalism
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eat people within your group
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ceremonial cannibalism
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part of ceremony, only at specific religious time
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vengeance cannibalism
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during times of conflict- terrorism, do it once or twice, people freak out
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psychopathic cannibalism
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crazy people eating other people
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cowboy wash
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indirect evidence: remains of people inside dwelling, bones broken and cut, evidence of cooking, butcher's tool kit there is blood residue
direct evidence: coprolites had human myoglobin in them |
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Potential problems with interpretive archaeology
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Can be interpreted in ways that benefit them. Example: Nazis- good archaeology was done, but the interpretation was wrong; Israelis use it to kick people off land
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9 attributes of increased social complexity
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-High, concentrated population
-Intensive and/or diversified food quest -Food storage and preservation -Permanent or nearly permanent settlements -Specialized technologies—farming, hunting, fishing, plant-processing -Specialized division of labor—craft specialization -Social ranking -Exchange of goods -Increased ceremonial life |
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Mesolithic Europe
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-Is the time period from the end of the last Ice Age until agriculture is introduced. The melting of the Ice sheets produced a changing environment which created new conditions and opportunities for Europe’s ancient inhabitants.
-A switch in technology: from bifacial weapons to microblade technology -Tybrind Vig a site in Denmark was found with harpoons, fish hooks, and nets. Pottery was starting to appear later in the Mesolithic at this site. -The majority of sites in Mesolithic Europe are located on the coasts of the continent. -The highly mobile lifestyle that dominated in the Ice Age has begun to shift, with semi-permanent or permanent camps being established within various resource spheres. -By setting aside a piece of landscape specifically for burial, Mesolithic peoples may have been expressing a greater belief in an afterlife and importance of burial of their ancestors. |
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Cahokia – trade, settlement hierarchies, elite populations
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-Cahokia, dated to AD 1050 – 1150, is located in the Mississippi valley & known for its impressive earthen mounds. As discussed in the article, these mounds were indicative of issues such as the presence of large populations, increased ceremonial life and high levels of regional trade.
-Cahokia is the central settlement with other small settlements surrounding it. This settlement hierarchy shows that Cahokia is the center of an early state-level society. |
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Archaeological definition of ‘city’
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-A city is a physical entity that you can identify on the landscape, and is characterized by large, permanent, relatively dense settlement. Population at these sites is usually estimated to be in the thousands, if not the tens of thousands.
-The settlement therefore requires a hinterland that can produce the supplies that will support the settlement. This hinterland can be immediately adjacent to the settlement, or it may include an incredibly large area from which the settlement draws in resources. -Signs of craft specialization are abundant within the settlement. Buildings such as workshops, administrative centers, and religious centers may all be part of what you find within a city. Marketplaces are also important, since the non-food producing population will need access to food resources through some form of exchange. With all of these specializations and necessary infrastructure, the organizational complexity of the city quickly becomes apparent in the archaeological record. |
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Definition of a ‘state’ (cultural)
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Cultural: States are centralized political institutions, in which power and access to resources is controlled by a ruling elite. In general, a state system allows the ruling authority to gather revenue, in the form of taxes or tribute, from their subject populations, in return for services. These can include the maintenance of a military force or the building of infrastructure (public buildings, roads, water systems, etc.). Depending on the circumstances, subject populations belong to a state by choice or by force.
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Definition of a ‘state’ (physical)
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Physical: States usually develop in areas that have high economic productivity. The productivity of a landscape may be natural, but it can also be developed through cultural means (e.g. the introduction of irrigation systems into the southern Mesopotamian landscape). States also tend to be large in size, and this may be reflected in the architecture they construct in their seats of power. Monumental buildings, for example, can be functional (i.e. they hold a large number of people), but they also may be an outward expression of the power and influence of the centralized political authority that built and funded the structure. Another aspect of the physical state is that statues and monuments will be built in most states because of the status of political leaders who want to spread their propaganda. It also demonstrates diversity of wealth and power in the state.
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Role of a state:
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Much of this information can be found in the cultural and physical aspects above, but really states are just central areas where commerce can develop and wealth can be shared.
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Levels of inference required in applying label
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When debating if a settlement is a state, what needs to be looked at is if there is a high level of concentration of people, intensive/diverse food quest, if there’s food storage and lots of it to sustain the population, permanent settlement, specialized technologies meaning tools, hunting gear and plant processing, specialization of labor, social ranks and hierarchy, exchange of goods and an extensive trading system, and increased ceremonial life and practices. For it to be a state-level society, there must be all components of the inference for it to even qualify.
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Definition of city-states
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1. -centralized food distribution, craft specialization and social stratification, political regulation (religious, not, secular leaders), large sphere of influence (trade), 1st evidence of writing.
2. Characteristics of Mesopotamian city-states-Ziggurat complex with satellite temples. |
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Definition of ‘empire - characteristics
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large accumulations of political entities. -absorption of other states. territorially extensive. organizationally complex. often multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, and sometimes multi-religious.
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Definition of ‘civilization’:
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Urban state level societies, regional traditions that includes one or more separate states or empires, usually share cultural features, common script, artist conventions, similar rituals
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Royal graves of Ur III
1. Evidence of social stratification 2. Reasons for possible interpretations: |
Many of these Akkadian elements were seen in burials dating to the Sargonic phase of Ur, as previously mentioned. City-states such as Ur regained their independence after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in approximately 2200 BC. It is believed that this collapse was caused by a number of factors, including invading forces from the east and a climatic decline that forced the abandonment of marginal agricultural lands.
This example illustrates how archaeologists can use the archaeological record to reconstruct the ebb and flow of political entities, as well as cultural traditions, across time and space. To some extent, the archaeological can also be used to identify the types of state-level societies that were functioning at various times in the distant past, differentiating between political systems such as monarchies, theocracies, and thalassocracies, to name only a few. |
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4 aspects of architecture
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Location: Distribution (inter- & intra-site)
Size/Scale: Monumentality Materials: Exotics (cost) Decoration: Labor & material investment |
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Interconnection of cities and hinterlands
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Urban centers house large, dense populations, which limits the space that can be used within an urban center for tasks like food production. The burden of producing food for these populations falls, therefore, to the open areas of the hinterland, outside the city boundaries
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Landscape archaeology
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Landscape archaeology-Landscape archaeology is a specialty within archaeology that attempts to examine what have been archaeological ‘blank spaces’. Among the problems they are faced with, however, is the vast amount of land to investigate. Unlike urban centers, which, while big, tend to be concentrated, rural landscapes are expansive. To cover recover information on these kinds of issues, landscape archaeologists have turned increasingly towards survey methods (e.g. field walking, aerial photography, satellite imagery, ground-penetrating radar, and GIS technologies).
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“longue durée”-
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deals with how the landscape changes over time as a result of the societies that live on it, and how archaeologists can reconstruct ancient society by looking at what happened in the long run.
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Thespiai (archaeological vs. historical)
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Thespiai plays an important role in the history of Greece during the Battle of Thermopylae in c. 480 BC.Although this battle is largely known for the heroic stand of 300 Spartans against the entire Persian army, in reality 700 farmers joined the Spartans in their last stand and were recorded in history by Herodotus. This is the one and only time that the populations associated with Thespiai, although they were mostly rural populations, appear in historical accounts. This is also used as a case study for longue duree: it was used as a agricultural center, and then much later, when the Romans took over, it was given better fortifications and more heavily agraculturalized to feed the Roman empire.
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Elites vs. non-elites-
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The large populations within urban centers are mostly comprised of non-food producers, such as elites, religious officials, merchants, and craftsmen. The food producers of the hinterland produce a surplus to support these populations. Without these agricultural surpluses, large urban centers could not exist. Archaeologists use survey methods (field walking, aerial photography, satellite imagery, ground-penetrating radar, and GIS technologies). By employing these methods, archaeologists have been able to answer a growing number of questions concerned with non-elite populations, such as how many people were actually living in the rural landscape, how isolated were they, what crops were they growing, were their local authorities that oversaw the organization of rural landscapes, and how much regional interaction was there between different pieces of the landscape?
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Core-periphery models (“World systems”)
Definition |
a model that attempts to explain the various levels of interaction that may have existed in the past, how they functioned and how they were administered. cores are zones that draw resources from the peripheries; peripheries are zones from which resources are drawn. There are also "gateway communities" that facilitate the different types of trade between the core and its peripheries
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Reconstructing regional interaction
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Core-periphery models can be used to reconstruct and explain how societies and cities interacted with each other within a region. Three types of trade have been suggested: reciprocal gift trade; redistribution of goods through administered trade; and market trade. For example, in the Mediterranean (see below), the presence of port cities like Pi-Ramesses and Ugarit shows that trade had attained a high level of complexity
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3. Bronze Age Mediterranean
Sphere of interaction |
core vs. periphery: in Bronze Age Mediterranean there were three major cores: the Egyptians, the Hittites and the Minoans. Their need for resources led them to take over various peripheries, like Ugarit, a Canaanite city that became a Hittite protectorate. Peripheries included tropical Africa, Baltic Europe, and Mesopotamia
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Uluburun shipwreck
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sources of materials- this shipwreck contained bronze and tin, weapons of Mycenaean manufacture, pottery from various locations throughout the Mediterranean, a Mesopotamian cylinder seal, ebony and hippopotami teeth from tropical Africa, amber from northern Europe, and ceramics from Minoan Crete.
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Minoans @ Pi-Ramsses
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The Minoans needed to trade (being a small island, they couldn't produce the masses of goods that left their ports), and Crete was an important "gateway." Minoan frescoes and artwork found in houses in the Egyptian city of Pi-Ramesses indicate that the Minoans were involved with trade throughout the Mediterranean.
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Definition of cognitive archaeology
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attempts to reconstruct 'prehistoric mindways' through material culture & art
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Definition of religion
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A set of beliefs in supernatural being and forces directed at helping people make sense of the world and solve important problems.
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4 types of religion
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Individualistic, Communal, Shamanistic, Ecclesiastical
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Individualistic Cults:
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A set of rituals that are performed by one person for his or her own purposes
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Shamanistic Cults:
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A set of rituals that involve at least two persons, the ritual practitioner and client who is intended to benefit from the performance of the practitioner.
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Communal Cults:
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A set of rituals that members of the same religion participate in as group activities for the benefit of all involved in the ritual or even the entire community of which they are a part.
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Ecclesiastical Cults:
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A set of rituals in which a religious specialist is charged with performing rituals for the benefit of an entire congregation.
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Definition of historical archaeology:
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The study of peoples with a written record
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Crusader architecture – reorganization of the landscape
Secular practicalities: |
Crusade architecture shows secular practicalities such as farms to provide food for pilgrims, places for them to stay, and fortress to protect them. There were also secular reasons for the crusades, which include overpopulation and warfare caused by people hiring knights as mercenaries. In ordered to keep knights occupied they were sent to war
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Crusader architecture – reorganization of the landscape
Religious necessities: |
The religious necessities are shown in crusade architecture by the many churches. The religious reason behind the crusades was to get back the holy land and take back holy relics.
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Crusader architecture- Overlap of the sacred & secular:
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The overlap of the sacred and secular is shown in the churches of the crusades in that were used for more than just worship. They had very thick walls, like fortress, with catacombs to store weapons. They were also used for escape routes.
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Stonehenge
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Most people believe it is an astrological site, somehow connected to the spring and autumn equinox.
When using the post processualist stance in observing Stonehenge, there is no evidence to support any theory. There are a few lines that come close to charting astrological patterns but no evidence in charting seasons, or certain astrological bodies. Stonehenge is truly a mystery. |
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Tomb at Abydos
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early wine production, evidence of grape acid in the vessels,
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chemical analysis
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can tell you what something held
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secondary product revolution
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in the Bronze Age people increasingly used secondary products of animals (renewable foods or resources- milk, urine blood, etc)
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