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archaeology 2 > Archaeology 2 > Flashcards

Archaeology 2 Flashcards

1
Q

Potts

A

Stone Cache Hypothesis
• Hominds made stone tools out of heavy materials (lava rocks) which are too heavy to cart around on Savannah so he thinks the concentration of stone and bone were storage places of raw materials made by hominids.

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2
Q

Isaac

A

oArchaeologist in African Places, he went along with Leakey and thought the artifacts scatters at sites like DK and fsJj50 have a forging pattern that is different than chimps.
• Chimps eat as you go and move around on land. Ranging behavior or forging pattern with apes.

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3
Q

Binford

A

Processing Places –
• believed that predominance of low quality foods (legs bones) meant that hominds were scavengers who practiced eat as you go behaviors like Apes.

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4
Q

Marshall and Rose

A

Social Activity — Marshall and Rose
• Could have been living sites because they believed that social activity by a group of hominds would scare off carnivores. Stones tools could be viewed.

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5
Q

FLK and DK

A

o Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (location)
• Site: DK (Bed 1, 1.8mya)
• Site: FLK (Bed1, 1.75mys)
Oldowan chopper? This site?
Home Base Hypothesis (aka Central Place Foraging Theory)
• DK site- Olduvai Gorge in Bed 1- - Mary Leakey is excavating this and comes across a feature of a semi-circle of lava cobblestones. Within the circle and outside were stone artifacts and bones. She thought this might be a living floor. Homo habilis (evidence) built a simple structure to maybe keep away wind… (semi-circle shape at this site)

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6
Q

Olduvai Gorge

A

• Olduvai Gorge/ Oldowan sites
o Oldowan core and flake tools
o Wide diversity of animals
o Antelope lower leg parts (think about what meat might get)
o Cutmarks, carnivore marks
DK site here
• Bed 1 Oldowan Gorge: (1.8 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago-first one found) (oldest tool found is the one in Gona)
-was a site for homo habilis in DK and FLK

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7
Q

FxJj 50

A

o Koobi Fora, Kenya (location)
• Site: FxJj 50-1.8mya
o 1400 flaked stone artifacts
o 2100 bones
o 20 diffferent animals, cutmarks, carnivore marks smashed bones
• Modern day east Africa, looks a lot like it did when hominids were around
o Many hominid sites were by lakes
o Provided opportunities for hominids and animals to take shade, eat, drink
o All of their sites they found other animals

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8
Q

Laetoli

A

• Laetoli, Tanzania (3.75 mya)—(3.8-3.4) dating by potassium argon
o Lava and rain turned into like cement and captures footprints and also footprints of animals, another layer of ash preserves them until found in 1970s
o After Mary Leakey found this they had to rebury it to protect it. Used local river sands and lava with cobble stones. The river sands over time grew acacia trees through the footprints
o Footprints proved that hominids were bipedal…long before stone tools!
o Did Australopithecines make stone tools?

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9
Q

Fossil Index Concept

A

• Key To Relative Dates:
 1. Law of Superposition- lower strata are older than those up high (good for a particular site)
 2. Index Fossil Concept
• -19th C. (attributed to William “Strata” Smith); he observed that forms of life changed over time and that different fossils characterize different rock strata and layers
• Index Fossil Concept for Archaeology
o Artifact forms diagnostic of a particular time period
• Fossil directeurs- time markers

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10
Q

Levallois

A

• Shift from core to flake based emphasis in middle Paleolithic
o Levallois – prepared core (core was prepared so they could take flake of one at a time- the flakes ( about 5-6) come off same size and shape
o Mousterian (flake based) (came from Levallois)

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11
Q

Mousterian

A

o Mousterian (flake based) (came from Levallois)

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12
Q

Gona

A

• Sites with Homo habilis
o Ethiopia(location)
• Site: Gona River 2.6mya
-earliest stone tools

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13
Q

Morgan

A

• Two proponents of this evolution of humans idea
o 1. Lewis Henry Morgan (19th c.) and 2. Sir Edward Tyler (19th c.)
• both said these were the universal stages of human progress (this is a cultural evolutionary model):
 1. Civilization
 2. Barbarism
 3. Savagery
• Two ideas embedded in this idea of the past:
o 1. Each new stages was an improvement
o 2. Pattern of progress was driven by a kind of social Darwinism (less efficient supplanted by more advanced)

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14
Q

Tyler

A

• Two proponents of this evolution of humans idea
o 1. Lewis Henry Morgan (19th c.) and 2. Sir Edward Tyler (19th c.)
• both said these were the universal stages of human progress (this is a cultural evolutionary model):
 1. Civilization
 2. Barbarism
 3. Savagery
• Two ideas embedded in this idea of the past:
o 1. Each new stages was an improvement
o 2. Pattern of progress was driven by a kind of social Darwinism (less efficient supplanted by more advanced)

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15
Q

Greenhill & Southwood

A

GreenHills
• Agricultural economy

South Wood
• Lost factory economy to oversea shores

what do we need to know from them?
–gossip controls social norms there and the wealthy people were gossiped about if they showed their wealth by dressing fancy. In both small towns everyone knew everything about everyone and the gossip controlled the showing status differentiation

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16
Q

Boule

A

Marcellin Boule 1913- reconstruction of Neanderthal skeletons from bones

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17
Q

Oldowan

A

o Oldowan – size of hand first found by Mary Leakey, but not earliest occurrence, good for chopping things

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18
Q

Acheulean

A

o Acheulean hand axe1.8mya-200k
• 2-3 step process
• min. of 25 hammer strikes
• Movius Line represents boundary between hands axes where we see them and where we don’t’
 south Africa, asia, western Europe not East Asia or easter Europe usually

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19
Q

Post-processual Archaeology

A

Until the 1980s, archaeologists believed that they could interpret the past objectively and that the past is knowable
This conviction describes the paradigm of New Archaeology or Processual Archaeology
Processual archaeology: focused on research design and the scientific methods, explicit hypotheses, etc.
Post-Processual archaeology: hard to define, has its roots in the post-modern movement, refers to a blurring of categories and boundaries
Post-processualists believe 1) no one perceives the past objectively and 2) we create the past: what we perceive is informed by what we believe to be true
Our interpretations of the past arise out of and are limited by our own cultural context and experiences
But: in order for research in a given field to advance, practitioners have to agree on certain models so that they can judge good work from bad work
This movement did help raise awareness of the inherent bias in archaeological interpretations

20
Q

Processual Archaeology

A

Until the 1980s, archaeologists believed that they could interpret the past objectively and that the past is knowable
This conviction describes the paradigm of New Archaeology or Processual Archaeology
Processual archaeology: focused on research design and the scientific methods, explicit hypotheses, etc.

21
Q

Movius Line

A

• Movius Line represents boundary between hands axes where we see them and where we don’t’
 south Africa, asia, western Europe not East Asia or eastern Europe usually
hand axes date from 1.8mya-200k…

22
Q

Libby

A

pivotal scientists. Who studied cosmic radiation during WWII. Libby realizes that cosmic radiation (rays) in the earth’s upper atmosphere produces high energy neutrons, and in some cases these neutrons react with hydrogen atoms to release a proton (going from proton7-proton6) and that leaves a C14 (6P 8N). C14 is taken up as carbon dioxide into plants, trees, animals that eat plants, and humans that eat animals that eat plants.
• 14C stays in constant proportion to 12C and to that of the atmosphere until the organism dies. When an organism dies it is no longer a part of the carbon cycle so it begins its decay back to nitrogen 14. The rate of decay Libby discovered.
• Half life: the time it takes for half the atoms in a sample to decay
• T1/2 for carbon= 5730
• This makes a decreasing exponential curve.
• The longer dead the less 14C

23
Q

Lucy

A

o Gracile Australopithecines- slender form (avg. cranial capacity 450cc) KNOW LOCATIONS AND THESE 2 SPECIES!
• East Africa—Australopithecus Aforensis (4-3mya)
 Found by Donald Johanson 1973-
 Lucy-have 60% of skeleton 3.5 ft tall
• Southern Africa—A.africanus (3-2.2 mya)
 Found by Raymond Dart 1924 (first example found!)

24
Q

Unilinear Evolution

A

o All societies pass through or progress through evolutionary stages
• Some get STUCK! Probably bc not fit enough
• Each society is unique so they should be judged based on merits of their system not other cultures (Boaz and his students had this idea)

25
Q

N!ai

A

The story of a Kung Woman
N!AI: aka “Short Face/Gunda—rejected husband
Tshum!kwi: relocation camp (1970s)
Film shot in 1950s and 1970s (where the Kung has be relocated to the camp)
How is film analogy?
-What kind of behavior can you see in ethnographic present from film that you could infer about past life?
Technology: gather water with ostrich eggs, travel far to eat, but always they were near water,
Ideology: Religious beliefs. Don’t fear child birth.
Ways of life: gathered and picked food like berries, families are important,

26
Q

attribute

A

classification- means bringing order from disorder, arrange objects into groups with meaning that share characteristics and attributes

attribute- any observable trait of an object that can be defined
o 1. Stylistic attributes: most observable characteristics (e.g. color, texture, decoration)
o 2. Morphological attributes: measurable aspects (e.g. weight, length, width)
o 3. Technological attributes: raw material (what’s it made of?), plus any characteristics that reveal how the item was made (coil method or thrown on wheel?)
• Classification does three things:
o 1. Creates order by dividing into groups
o 2. Discuss large number of objects by referring to types
• Types: represent objects where we see reoccurring attributes
o 3. Helps us define variability

27
Q

Gifford-Gonzalez

A

is not advocating politically correct images, she is advocating more diverse representations that are based on ethnographic and archaeological evidence

28
Q

analogy

A

a form of reasoning where by the identity of unknown things and relations is identified by the known
o Ethnographic analogy: based on ethnographic studies, which are in-depth studies of a living culture done by anthropologists

• Analogical Reasoning: Basis for ALL prehistoric reconstruction

29
Q

Schlepp Effect

A

selective transport of meat
–when archaeologists discover certain elements–such as foot bones and skulls–together at an archaeological site that lacks rib bones or upper leg bones, they could interpret that to mean that the larger less useful bits were left in the field and the meaty rest were taken back to the home base.

30
Q
  1. Define relative and absolute dating. What are some examples?
A

• Relative Dating: evaluating the age of one object relative to another (how different from indirect?)
o Relative dates involve qualifiers… older than, younger than…
• Artifact X is older than artifact Y (but you don’t know by how much, but can’t correlate this with another site across the world)
• Key To Relative Dates:
 1. Law of Superposition- lower strata are older than those up high (good for a particular site)
 2. Index Fossil Concept
• -19th C. (attributed to William “Strata” Smith); he observed that forms of life changed over time and that different fossils characterize different rock strata and layers
• Index Fossil Concept for Archaeology
o Artifact forms diagnostic of a particular time period
-seriation dating is also a method of relative dating: idea that we have artifacts produced at a place in time, the styles and shapes are characteristic of society so we can place in series by similarities

Absolute Dating: methods or procedures that allow us to assign actual ages to archaeological artifacts (many are radiometric in nature= they rely on the fixed rate of decay on the unstable variety of an element to a stable variety) C14 to N14
the older the less carbon
• Radiocarbon dating: most often used
• Willard Libby- pivotal scientists. Who studied cosmic radiation

o AMS Dating (accelerator mass spectrometry)
• Counts remaining carbon atoms in a sample
• Very accurate
• 10-15 milligrams of sample size
dating)
• Potassium/Argon Dating (K40/Ar40)
 The argon is set to zero because it escapes as a gas when heated
 Cools- K40 begins to decay to Ar40

31
Q

Sir William Flanders Petrie

A

handles on pots change and become just decoration…example of seriation evolution

• Seriation: ordering objects in a series… objects adjacent to one another are more alike than objects farther apart
• Principles of Seriation
 1. Objects from a given period and place… have recognizable style, which are characteristic to the culture that produced it
 2. Changes in style are often quite gradual…like goes with like; objects that look alike probably are from same time period.

32
Q

Dating Gap

A

o 1000K to 500K (no greaat dating methods for this time period)

33
Q

Know geological and archaeological stages!

A 
CERAMIC VESSIL EARLIEST IS 14,500!! THAT’S AROUND NEOLITHIC
Geological:
o	Pliocene 5mya-1.8-1.7 mya
o	Pleistocen 1.8-1.7mya to 10k
o	Holocen 10k – present
Archaeological:
o	Lower Palaeolithic (early stone age)
2.6 mya-100k
o	Middle Paleolithic (middle stone age msa)
100k(or 200k)-40k
o	Upper Paleolithic (later stone age)
40k-10k (things really change! Blade and projectile points)
o	Neolithic (later stone age)
Comes in at 10,000 years ago
34
Q

Ethnography

A

• Problems with Ethnographies:
o 1. Time depth-not a lot of time to work with
o 2. Anthropological focus- so their focus is different than that of an archaeologist. Archaeologists are interested in how the archaeological data is linked with human behavior.
• Other sources of analogies: historical documents- written info. About living societies; letters or more professional records
• Actualistic studies- studies in which actual behavior is linked to diagnostic material culture
• 1. Ethnoarchaeology- ethnography done by an archaeologist with explicit goal of understanding the patterns behavior takes in forming material culture (e.g. woman the tool maker)
• 2. Experimental Archaeology: studies designed to aid archaeological interpretation by duplication behavioral processes through experimentation.—stone tool cutting elephant hide.

35
Q

• Lennaeus

A

Has classification system for species (order=primate, family=hominid, genus=homo, species=sapien, subspecies=sapien

36
Q

• Hominin

A

humans and their ancestors (including the Australopiths)—hominid is similar to hominin… refers to genus and family

37
Q

Australopithecines

A

o Autralopithecus (hominid)
• Australo- southern
• Pithekos- ape
• An early hominin genus of Africa, characterized by bipedal locomotion and relatively small brains.

• Australopithecines
o From 4mya
o African
o Fully bipedal
o Teeth human and ape teeth
o Prognathous face like apes
o Postcranial (from neck down more human than ape)
o 2 groups
• Gracile
• Robust
o A. afaransis (transitional medial k9) type of ape/human australopithecines?
o Gracile Australopithecines- slender form (avg. cranial capacity 450cc) KNOW LOCATIONS AND THESE 2 SPECIES!
• East Africa—Australopithecus Aforensis (4-3mya)
 Found by Donald Johanson 1973-
 Lucy-have 60% of skeleton 3.5 ft tall
• Southern Africa—A.africanus (3-2.2 mya)
 Found by Raymond Dart 1924 (first example found!) skull…site is Taung in South Africa
o Robust Australopithecines (avg. cc 530) has sagittal crest and bony ridge for attaching muscles for chewing
• East Africa – A. boisei (2.2-1.mya)
 1959 Mary Leekey, zinj- means east Africa, anthropus- man (aka Zinjanthropus is name of skull found)
• South Africa – A. robustus (2-1mya)
• Proanthropus- means “beside man” and is not as close… some think that the fossils can be broken into this category, but not all people believe it. Is A. boisei or A robustus

38
Q

Homo habilis

A 
•	Homo habilis (habilis means handyman)
o	2.4-1.6 mya
o	600-700cc
o	similar to Australopithecines in height/weight
o	less ape-like overall
o	reduced dentition- so smaller teeth
o	cranium-rounded, steeper forehead
o	larger absolute brain size and larger body to brain size ratio
o	reduction in jaws and cheek teeth
•	Sites with Homo habilis
o	Ethiopia(location) 
•	Site: Gona River 2.6mya
o	Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (location)
•	Site: DK (Bed 1, 1.8mya)
•	Site: FLK (Bed1, 1.75mys)
	Oldowan chopper? This site?
o	Koobi Fora, Kenya (location)
•	Site: FxJj 50-1.8mya
o	Changes in behavior and physical changes combined in archaeological records inclusion of higher quality foods procured and processed with stone tools—hominid was becoming more reliant on culture and technology
o	Sites with homo habilis are small with low density.. have stone tools and bone remains
o	No surviving evidences for communication—picture is very skewed to stones and bones
39
Q

Homo erectus

A 
•	Homo erectus (lower Paleolithic)
o	Brain mean 1000cm^3
o	East Africa
o	1.8mya
o	erectines more like humans post cranially than habilines
o	sloping forehead (unlike humans)
o	large brow ridge
o	Famous finds: KNM-WT 15000
o	Nanokotome Boy
•	West lake Turkana, Kenya
•	1.6mya
•	9 years old
o	Homo erectus is the first hominid out of Africa (as early as 1.7 mya)
o	Other places:
•	Eurasia
•	Southwest Asia
•	Indonesia
•	China
o	Acheulean hand axe1.8mya-200k
•	2-3 step process
•	min. of 25 hammer strikes
•	Movius Line represents boundary between hands axes where we see them and where we don’t’
	south Africa, asia, western Europe not East Asia or easter Europe usually
o	Standardization
•	Consistent length to breadth ration and thickness
•	Wide geographic distribution
•	Mental template
•	Communication (non-verbal, but maybe some vocalization to teach people because it was fairly standardized)
o	Campsites?
o	Hunters?
o	Fire (if have)- survive cold climates. Defense against animals. Food. Digestion/Toxicity. Extends the Day.
•	Chesowanja, Kenya 1.5mya
•	Swartskrans, South Africa 1.3mya
•	Zhoukoudian 500K
o	What don’t we see with homo erectus?
•	No ritual or complex symbolism
•	No intentional burials
40
Q

Hallmarks of the Lower Palaeolithic Period

A

(2.6mya-200k)
o This time is stasis and stability in archaeological record not fossil
o First stone tools are seen
o First concentrations of stones and bones-? Living floors/Home Bases- KNOW SPECIFIC SITES AND HOMINDS WITH THIS!
o Two stone tool technologies- Oldowan and Acheulean—what projections do we know about the past because of Acheulean
o Increasing intelligence (brain size and stone tool knowledge)
o First hominid outside of Africa
o Communication

41
Q

What are the Hallmarks of the Middle Palaeolithic Period? Sites? Border, Binford, Dibble? Describe Neanderthal Behavior?

A

o Pace of behavioral change begins to increase
• Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo neanderthalensis
o Characters not really homo erectus, but not modern human
o 1856
o Neader Valley (thal = valley)
o Abberant stage
• Kupka 1909 fossil
• Marcellin Boule 1913- reconstruction of Neanderthal skeletons from bones –> from La Chapelle-aus-Saints (but his skeletons were not representative accurately!)
• Neanderthals from 130kya-30kya… classic… have full set of characteristics!
o Classic Neanderthals
• Europe an Western Asia (Not Africa!)
• Cranial capacity ranges from 1300 to 1600cc
• 5 to 5.5ft powerful, stature
• receding chin, low sloping forehead, prominent brown ridges, very worn down teeth
• occipital bun- bony bun at back of head for attaching large neck muscles
• protruding teeth, nose, face
• average lifespan ~ 40years
• high infant mortality rate
Archaeological Record:
• Schoningen, Germany (400kya) wooden spears
• Shift from core to flake based emphasis in middle Paleolithic
o Levallois – prepared core (core was prepared so they could take flake of one at a time- the flakes ( about 5-6) come off same size and shape
o Mousterian (flake based) (came from Levallois and is refinement from it)
o Greater range of tools
• 30” of cutting edge
• flakes were used as blanks
• variation ~ 60 different types of tools
• greater range of tasks (cutting, slicing, piercing, sawing…) Achalaean was one tool, note this is 60 tools!

Cultural Differences
• Bordes thought they had 5 diff. Neanderthal groups at this time
Different Activities (tool types )
• Binfords says it represent diff. activities
Different Use Stages
• Dibble says you are seeing different stages of use wear
Did Neandertals bury their dead? (maybe but rare…)
• Body in trench w/ bison bone on chest
• Buried w/ handaxe
• Male, female (flex position), 2 children, 2 infants→ one of heads at back of cave

Altruistic behavior?
• Bad dentition, would have needed help
• Amputation, injuries

NO EVIDENCE FOR SYMBOLISM!

in terms of subsistence:
hunting (but not big game hunting like Upper)

Cannibalism?
• Krapina, Croatia
o 20 males, females, children
o skull and long-bones smashed and split in suspicious ways butchery marks?
o (little ritual, symbolic stuff going on)
• Neanderthal looks have so many ranges (and not many women are thought about and drawn/ or created)
o They are hunters and gatherers
o BAND level (less than 50 pl)

42
Q

What are the hallmarks of the upper Palaeolithic Period? What does the archaeological record suggest regarding Upper Palaeolithic technology, subsistence, and socio-economic behavior?

A

Hallmarks of the Upper Palaeolithic ~40k to 10K
• Environment- fully glacial
o End of Pleistocene temperatures warm up
• Hominids- Homo sapien sapien (we are fully us!) anatomically modern humans
• Technology- flexible toolkit (huge variety of raw material…bone, antler, ivory, stone, shells)- tool traditions short lived–STORAGE of things
o Blade based technology HUGE EMPHASIS
o Microliths and blades
o Punch struck technology (antler or bone placed between chopper stone to direct the force)
o Composite tools
o Combining two types of materials (bone and stone)
o Indirect percussion
• In middle palaeolithich we see..
 Relative homogeneity in the tool kit temporally and geographically
 60 stone tool types
• In Upper
 Explosion of tools and short lived types of tools
 100 types of tools
• Subsistence- exploit wide variety of animals (mammoths reindeer and horses) generalized at some sites, but specialized at others
o Dolni Vestonice, Czech Republich – site 25kya has evidence for upper Paleolithic people to FOCUS on mammoths. Food, tools, shelter, items of adornment (maybe fuel and clothes, but no concrete evidence)
• In MP we see…
 Few smaller sites with not much there
• In UP see…
 Large number of sites with some sites people larger in size
• Social Behavior-
o storage, it can give a person more power over someone else
o shelter (Pincevent, France)- artifact suggest living floors
o trade- in exotic materials with people up to 300 miles away
o fire- more efficient use, hearths and lamps
o personal adornment – idea that object can enhance beauty or your prestige
o art – mobiliary art, cave art
o intentional burials common (MP some with simple grave goods vs UP grave goods with lots of ornamentation)
o birth of social enequality
UP Burials
• Sungir, Russia 28kya
o Wealth of grave goods
o 9 burials
o hands crossed over pelvis
o ivory beads
o ochre lined graves
o 13 year old child and 9 year old girl (also burired with large amounts of beads ivory, a pendent… so why was status ascribed to these children?)
o many past burials were flexed, but now they are full and stretched out
• Jebel Sahaba, Sudan 13kya
o 60 individuals (half died violently)
o evidence for war
Cultural Phases of the UP (based in Europe)
• Aurignancia 34-27kya
• Gravettian 27-21kya
• Solutrean 21-16kya
• Magdalenian 16-11kya (explosion of rock art)
sometimes venus figurines
o VENUS OF WILLENDORF – Austria 27-22KYA- widely distributed and made from variety of materials, clay ivory bones
-first depiction of humans in this time period

checosahava (phonetically spelled) in Sudan is good site for warfare….

43
Q

What are the venus figurines?

A

• Carving human and animal figurines (sometimes venus figurines 4inches tall about and unclothed with focus on torso, generally faceless with down-turned head, thin arms, breasts and large bottom, protruding abdomens (pregnancy) legs unnaturally short, tiny feet(maybe sticking them in earth) often found near hearth or cave walls probably used in everyday life) accumulation of fat in buttocks is good when times of food are short and is considered beautiful
o VENUS OF WILLENDORF – Austria 27-22KYA- widely distributed and made from variety of materials, clay ivory bones
o Good luck charms
o Symbols of fertility (maybe more difficulty giving birth bc women aren’t found over age 30)
o Cult objects –mother goddess, life giving, nurturer
o Palaeolithic porn
-widely distributed
o Self-representations of women by women by McDermott and McCoid-women look down at themselves and see what is seen in the statue, no mirrors

-cave floors and near living places

27-30kya is earliest venus date!

44
Q

Upper Palaeolithic rock art? When? Where? Why?

A

o Les-Trois-Freres Cave, France
• Bear, wolf, lion, man deer (all in one picture)—memory sketch? Costume? Meant to strike fear?
o Lascaux, France
• The birdman, dead man or wounded man (bison at top, stick figure man with bird face, rhinoceros lumbering off, bird on staff and spear)
o Gabillou, Dordogne
• Half human, half goat sitting at something
o Lewis-Williams and Dawson –signs in upper palaeolithic rock art show entoptic phenomenon!
o Lascaux, France (17kya)
• 65 ft. long chamber filled with huge animals
• 4 large bulls
• adjacent area, bison, deer, horses, wild cattle (superimposed… one upon another)
• animal characteristics, darts, groupings
• also place of birdman
o Altamira, Cave
• Used the features of the cave ceiling that bulged to paint bison.
o Chauvet Cave (at least 32kya maybe)
• Animals represented that are not normally seen, bears and owls, hyena
o Peche Merle –dots
o Niaux Cave- bison with spears going into bison. Also found 500 footprints (13-15y old children)
So what does it mean?
• Early interpretation art for art sake
• Abbe Breuil (man) suggests animals are sympathetic magic—If you paint animal you can capture it or gain power over it
• Ethnographic support
• Trophyism—virtual record of success
• Sexual symbolism- Leroi-Gourhan: structuralist interpretation, binary pairs, symbols sexual in nature
• Information/ Communication System—Conkey

  • -most of rock art done in Magdelinian Period
    • used common pigments
  • -stone lamps with fat and wicks to light dimly
45
Q

What typology is used by anthropologists and archaeologists to talk about socioeconomic organization? What defines these levels? What are the archaeological signatures?

A

If you know service of free typologiy and band tribe state… don’t know archaeological signatures right now!

46
Q

Gifford-Gonzalez

A

dont see: women interacting with others; they appear only to usually scrape hides
men don’t touch babies (look in notes for others)

Icons of women show different normative aspects of female identity: Marilyn Monroe vs. the Virgin Mary

Schemata/motifs: conventionalized representations, objects that are replicated from one form to another with little variation ex. “the drudge,” an iconic image of a toiling woman from 18th c painting, that has been re-created in images of the ancient past

Why is concerned about these reconstructions?

  1. they perpetuate stereotypes
  2. they construct the ideas of what people know about past and may be false
  3. it affects how we view things and what we expect from evidence… may miss seeing evidence for what it is
  4. legitimate status quo ideas

Gifford-Gonzalez: says we want to let the record speak for itself and let ethnography be part of the information we give to artists… doesn’t say we need to make past perfect

archaeology 2 (2 decks)

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