arch. lecture 4

Question 1

Origin and Spread of Modern Humans

Answer 1

Anatomically modern Homo sapiens originated in a single population in east or south Africa, around 160-200 KYA

• leave Africa by 90 KYA, spread around the world
• Earliest modern Homo sapiens are not immediately associated with the full range of “modern behaviour”. They are still associated with Middle Palaeolithic stone tool types.
• “New” aspects of material culture accumulate gradually (e.g. elaborate bone tools, indication of art), at least in part because evidence does not preserve.

Interaction of modern humans with Neanderthals?

• Not completely clear, but genetic studies indicate not much interbreeding.
• In many areas, modern humans probably displaced Neanderthals and other pre-Homo sapiens rapidly.
• Last Neanderthals went extinct around 35 KYA, within about 5 KYA of spread of modern humans to Europe.
• Interaction? interbreeding? conflict? competition? This process is still poorly understood.

​once Homo sapiens has been around for millennia, and most aspects of modern human behaviour have developed, we have the Upper Palaeolithic Period.

Question 2

Upper Palaeolithic Period

Answer 2

• begins around 50 KYA in Africa, 40 KYA in Southwest Asia and Europe
• clearly associated with modern humans
• saw many different trends increase/emerge.

Question 3

Specialized Stone Tool Technology | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 3

there appeared increasingly specialized stone tool technology.

• emphasis on Blade Technology
• blades are finely crafted, parallel-sided flakes, average 10 cm long
• require elaborate preparation of the core
• blades and other tools often retouched by pressure flaking
• blades are used to make a variety of tools, e.g., backed blade (knife), endscraper, burin, weapon points

Why blades?

• conserve raw material (get more working edge from a given amount of raw material)
• produce more versatile tools
• regularity in tools allows hafts (handles) to be re-used

Question 4

Complex Organic Industry | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 4

there appeared many new classes of bone/antler/wood tools, including:-

• bone projectile points - barbed etc.
• bone needles - tailored clothing
• after 20 KYA - spear-throwers (atlatls)

Question 5

Composite Tools | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 5

• there appeared more frequent composite tools.
• hafting: attaching an artifact to a handle to make it easier to handle.

Question 6

Settlement Patterns | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 6

• each region saw increased complex, specialized settlement patterns, based on:
  
  • access to fresh water
  • game resources (esp. water crossings for game, spawning streams, game jumps)
  • sunlight - south-facing caves
• ​​home bases were occupied for long periods, plus temporary special purpose camps throughout territory
• this differs from earlier hominins who moved more often and whose sites did not differ from one another as much
• these factors would have led to increasing sedentism (living for extended periods in a single location)

Question 8

Complex Dwellings | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 8

• evidence for dwellings becomes more common
• tents, sod houses, large, complex bone structures
• e.g. mammoth hunters in Central Russia and Ukraine: 18-14 KYA:
  
  • ​Mezhirich site: large houses constructed almost completely of mammoth bone - 4 to 7 metres across - could each hold several families
  • much evidence of trade, elaborate symbolic systems

Question 9

Higher Population Densities | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 9

• more sites, larger sites
• people are settling into new lands, understanding resources

Question 10

Regular Social Gatherings | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 10

• indicated by large sites with ceremonial structures, e.g. caves with paintings
• largest sites - may be seasonal aggregation points – take advantage of dense seasonal resources which required communal action (e.g. migrating herd animals)
• large sites are often associated with art, ritual, and trade, probably indicating complex social relationships

Question 11

Stylistic Tool Variation | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 11

• saw an increase in stylistic variation in tool form over time and space.
• stone tools, bone tools, etc. change over time
• possibly represents social boundaries – different groups each have identity
• styles change over time – different from Mousterian which is conservative (illustrating cognitive differences between Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens

Question 12

Herd Hunting | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 12

• saw a shift towards hunting herd animals
• this requires cooperation and planning

Question 13

Personal Adornment | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 13

• much more personal adornment
• indicating status and social identity
• adornments included clothing, beads, and decorated tools

Question 14

Long Distance Trade | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 14

• items were turning up in places that they were not native to; this, along with records, indicates long distance trade
• e.g. sea shells, amber, high quality stone for toolmaking

Question 15

“Art” | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 15

• huge variety - cave paintings, reliefs, sculptures, portable art, even music (e.g. bone flute)
• earliest hints are in southern Africa around 80 KYA, spreads with modern Homo sapiens around globe
• to Europe by 40 KYA as seen in carved animals
• e.g. Bone implements with series of dots - calendrical notations? counting / tallying something?
• e.g. “Venus figurines”
  
  • around 23 KYA – large numbers over a huge area from France to Russia - very similar to one another
  • large breasts, enlarged abdomen probably indicating pregnancy, often emphasis on genitals, usually no faces or feet
  • explanations:
    
    • art for art’s sake – no - this is a modern concept
    • paleo-pornography - ridiculous
    • fertility symbols – unlikely, since hunter-gatherers don’t usually need help getting pregnant
    • amulets to ensure successful birth?
• Main European cave art reached peak 17-18 KYA
  
  • e.g. Lascaux, France
  • deep in cave and at mouth
  • purpose? - hunting magic? social relations? shamanic rites?
• Cave art dies out in Europe by 13 KYA, remained very important in Africa, Australia

Question 16

Ritual | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 16

• indications of rituals.
• e.g. definite burials with grave goods.

Question 17

Expansion | Upper Palaeolithic

Answer 17

• expansion of our species to most of the planet.
• South and East Asia by 70-90KYA.
• Australia by 50KYA.
• Americans by 15KYA.

Question 18

The Peopling of the Americas

Answer 18

• Migration from Northeast Asia to North America occurred at the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Age) when sea levels were lower
• Migration occurred across Beringia = eastern Siberia, northwestern North America, and exposed continental shelf that connected the two areas.
• sea levels fluctuated, but Siberia and Alaska were connected for most of last 100,000 years, up to about 10 KYA
• By 15 KYA (at the latest), Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers had entered Alaska. However, there were vast ice sheets to the south.

Question 19

Routes South from Beringia | Peopling the Americas

Answer 19

there are two possible routes south from Beringia:

1. The “ice-free corridor” between the Cordilleran and Laurentide Ice Sheets, through Alberta
   
   • this corridor was open only after around 14 KYA
2. The coastal route – down the Pacific coast of Alaska and British Columbia, which was still partly glaciated.

Question 20

The “Clovis Tradition” | Peopling the Americas

Answer 20

what is the archaeological evidence to support this migration

• For many years, the “Clovis tradition” (around 13 KYA) was thought to represent the first people south of the ice sheets.
• Clovis made distinctive “fluted points” (points with a channel down each face, for hafting)
• Clovis was very widespread, across much of North America
• in many regions, Clovis is associated with the earliest radiocarbon dates, and is often associated with extinct Pleistocene species (e.g., mammoth)
• The timing of Clovis is consistent with the opening of the ice-free corridor

However, over the past few decades, it has become clear that there are earlier sites. 2 best examples:

• Monte Verde
  
  • coastal Chile – 14.6 KYA
  • complex site with structures, bones, plant remains – well-dated
• Paisley Cave
  
  • Oregon – 14 KYA
  • coprolites, animal bones, non-Clovis points

Question 21

Two Migrations | Peopling the Americas

Answer 21

the most likely scenario involves two migrations:

1. around 15 KYA – a “pre-Clovis” coastal migration occurred down the Pacific coast. Sites are rare because most are below current sea levels
2. around 13 KYA – a separate migration from interior Alaska, down the ice-free corridor, led to Clovis

• the two groups may have been similar, but may also have been drawn from quite different populations in interior vs. coastal Beringia.