Ch. 8 -- After The Ice Flashcards
Agricultural Revolution
Period of fundamental change in human economy marked by a shift from foraging wild foods to the production of domesticated plants and animals
After ~12 kya
Archaic
Chronological period in the New World that follows the Paleoindian period
End of Pleistocene, cultural adaptation period to new, post glacial environment
Artificial selection
Process used in the domestication and refinement of plants and animals whereby human beings select which members of a species will live and produce offspring
Australian Small Tool Phase
Cultural phase begin I g in Australia around 6 kya & became widespread w/in ~1 Kay
Production of blade tools = more efficient use of stone
Backed blade
Stone blade tool in which one edge has been dulled or “backed” so it can be more readily held in the hand while being used
Camelid
Large ruminant animal including bachtrian and dromedary camels in the Old World and llamas, alpacas, guanacos, & vicuñas in the New World
Capsian
Northwest African culture dating to after 10 kya
Characterized by hunting of wild sheep, collection of shellfish & snails, & the harvesting of wild grains
Carrying capacity
The number of organisms a given region or habitat can support without degrading the environment
Cereal
Plants, esp grasses, that produce starchy grains
Among the first domesticated foods produced during the Neolithic
Complex foraging
A system of bi ting animals and gathering wild plants in which subsistence is focused on a few, highly productive resources
Collected & stored, allowing for a more sedentary settlement system
Domesticated
A plant or animal that has been altered by human beings through selective breeding
Some can no longer survive without human intervention
Domestication
Through artificial selection, the production of new species of plants and animals that owe their existence to human intervention
Egalitarian
Social systems in which all members of the same age/sex category are equal in the sense that they all possess the same amount of wealth, social standing, and political influence
Einkorn
Variety of wheat
Emmer
A variety of wheat
Fertile Crescent
A crescent-shaped region extending from the eastern Mediterranean coast of modern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, north into the Zagros Mountains, and then south toward the Persian Gulf
Area marked by an abundance of wild cereal grain at the beginning of the Holocene
Hoabinhian
Southeast Asian Mesolithic stone-tool tradition based on the manufacture of tools from chipped pebbles
Holocene Warm Maximum
Period when worldwide temperatures rose beginning about 8,700 ya
Temps higher than they are now
Iberomaurusian
Northwest African culture dating to after 16000 B.P.
Inhabited coastal plain & interior of modern Tunisia & Morocco
Hunted wild cattle, gazelle, Hartebeest, & Barbary sheep & collected marine mollusks
Jomon
Ancient Japanese culture dating from 13 kya
Foragers, relied on hunting wild animals & gathering wild plants & collecting seafood
Dense pop & complex social patterns before adoption of agriculture
Lacustrine
Having to do with lakes
Lake Forest Archaic
Archaic culture of eastern North America, centered in, though not restricted to, the region of the Great Lakes
Legume
Produce fruits which grown in the form of a pod that splits along its seam when mature and opens to reveal the seeds
Levant
Name applied to the areas along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, including present-day Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, & Egypt
Linearbandkeramik
Early Neolithic culture of Central Europe
6,500 B.P.
Subsistence base: domesticated emmer wheat, barley, & pulses
Littoral
Related to the sea shore
Macroband
A group of bands who interact on a regular basis
Maglemosian
Early Mesolithic culture of Europe
Adapted to a forest & lakeside environment
Star Carr site
Maritime Archaic
Archaic period culture of NE North America
Along coast of New England & Canadian Maritime Provinces
Subsistence focus: sea mammals
Burials with elaborate grave goods
Mast Forest Archaic
Archaic period culture of NE North America
C. New England
Subsistence base: resources of mast forest (nuts & animals such as deer)
Mesolithic
Culture period after the Paleolithic & before the Neolithic
Period of proliferation of many regional adaptations & an explosion of local cultural diversity
Microband
Small, co-habituation F groups of people
10-15 people who move together in a pattern of seasonally nomadic movement
Microblade
Very small stone blade, often with a very sharp cutting edge
Microlith
Very small stone tool
Midden
An archaeological feature that consists of a refuse heap
A preserved like of trash, often food remains
Natufian
Middle Eastern culture dated from 13,000 to 9,000 B.P.
Mediterranean woodland zone
Relied on wild wheat & barley
“Set stage” for the Neolithic
Neolithic
The “New Stone Age”
Period after 12 kya when food producing through the domestication of plants and animals replaced foraging as the dominant mode of subsistence
Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT)
??
Paleo-Arctic tradition
Stone-tool tradition in the Arctic, dating to the period before 10 kya
Tech involved production of microblades detached from wedge-shaped cores
Peiligang
Earliest Neolithic culture in North China with well-established farming villages dating to 8,500 to 7,000 ya
Pelagic
Anything related to or that lives in the open sea, far from shore
Phytolith
Microscopic, inorganic particles produced by plants
Extremely durable
Morphology is species specific
Qadan
Sites along he ankle in Egypt dating to the period 15-11 kya
Reliance on fishing, hunting, & collection of wild grains
Microblades exhibit polish that may indicate their use in the harvesting of wild cereal crops
Rachis
Area of attachment between seeds & other seeds or between seeds & other parts of the plant
Sedentism
A pattern of settlement in which a community of people tends to remain in one place over the course of a year or years
Seedbed selection
Process wherein the seeds of wild plants are tended in planted seedbeds
Later-germinating & slower-growing plants weeded out of seedbed, quickly sprouting & growing plants with larger seeds & thinner seed coats selected for unintentionally
First step in plant domestication
Shell Mound Archaic
One of the post-Pleistocene Archaic cultures
American Midsouth
Subsistence focus: freshwater shellfish
Exhibit some level of social & economic differentiation in their burials
Starch grains
Small fragments of starch produced by plants
Shapes unique to individual plant species
Taro
A tropical plant with edible roots & leaves
Tehuacán
A valley in central, highland Mexico
Produced arch data about the domestication of plants in the new world
Teosinte
The wild ancestor of domesticated maize
Tuber
A relatively short, fleshy, usually underground stem of a plant
Yang-shao
Early Neolithic culture of China
7,000 B.P.
Settlements appear to have been planned out
Subsistence: cultivation of foxtail millet. Domesticated rice as well, but minor component in diet
Younger Dryas
Name given in Europe to a stadial that lasted between 12,900 to 11,600 ya
Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating
A variety of radiocarbon dating
