First Midterm - Full Deck Flashcards
Study for midterm
Temperature
Entirely within the tropics, so main temperature differences are day/night versus seasonal
Altitude: Minus 1 degree (F) per 100 feet of elevation
Oceans make it cooler along the coasts than inland
RAINFALL - AMOUNT
High mountains to the east of the Lowlands, and Eastern prevailing winds = 150” annual rainfall in gulf lowlands
Adjacent Highlands = 10-30” annual rainfall
17-19” annual rainfall required for maize
RAINFALL - SEASONALITY
April to December = rainy season
December to April = dry season
Volcanic Activity
Particularly impactful on Highlands where volcanos are located
Lowlands effects: (1) erosion and winds carry volcanic soils to lowlands; (2) flooding distributes soils widely; (3) soil is enriched beyond normal nutrient levels
Resources (bedrock) and materials (obsidian), limiting them to outcrops, and requiring trade to acquire
Beasts of Burden
Man is the only beast of burden
125-140 miles = max distance a person can travel on the amount of food (corn) they can carry
Prevailing Winds
From the east for most of the year
Eastern winds + altitude differences = diversity of microclimates
3 Key Questions re:
Humans Arrival in Mesoamerica
- WHEN did Native Americans colonize the New World?
- WHERE did Native Americans originate - and HOW did they enter
- WHAT evidence exists within Mesoamerica to demonstrate the culture of these earliest Americans?
Bering Sea Land Bridge Chronology
3 Major Openings
44-48,000 bp
19-23,000 bp
14-15,000 bp
WHEN?
EARLY ENTRY HYPOTHESIS
(aka the “long chronology”)
Theorizes that humans entered the New World well before 15,000 bp
Point to (problematic) RC dates 20-40,000 bp
But no sites appear in between these and 13,500 bp
Argue for boat travel (point to early human entry into Australia @ 50,000 bp)
But no direct evidence of boat use
Land bridge was open prior to 50,000 bp
but very little evidence of humans in Siberia at this time
Naia - (disputed) date 12-13,000 bp in Eastern Yucatan with mtDNA haplotype unique to Native Americans, estimated branch at 30,000 bp, but not present in Asia, suggests New World mutation, and possible evidence of earlier migrations “wave”
Beringia refugio theory suggests humans were penned into Beringia 26-18,000 bp and this is where the mutation occurred
Monte Verde recently dated as early at 18,500 bp
WHEN?
LATE ENTRY HYPOTHESIS
(aka the “short chronology”)
- 9000 to 14-15,000 (bp)
- Southern coastal route reappears at 16,000 bp, and land bridge reappears around 13,500 bp
- 9000 to 14-5,000 bp: humans begin colonizing , and moved quickly to Southern Chile (Monte Verde 14,500 bp)
- but modern h/g’s don’t mover rapidly (expanding into new territories is risky)*
- 13,000 bp: sites appear in the new world with points (Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, Clovis)
- Earlier dates are problematic
Later Entry / Big Game Hunter Hypothesis
What Was the Culture?
Big game hunters following their prey (mammoth, giant sloth) into the New World across the Bering Straight
if horses could walk out, humans could follow mammoths in
Big game is mostly extinct by 9000 bp and it is argued that humans followed them south and drove extinction
Theory is that large fluted points (Clovis, Folsom, Meadowcroft) were developed to hunt big game
this is a specialized tool not found in Siberia or the Old World
MacNeish argued that agriculture was a reaction to big game extinction
(may have been the reverse: agriculture may have impacted big game by reducing the plants on which they fed)
Upward Sun River
January 2018 Report in Nature on DNA analysif of burial of two infants found in Northern Alaska (eastern Beringia)
Dated 11,500 bp (stratigraphic chrono based on 27 RC dates)
DNA argued to show a distinct ancient Beringean population
Ancient Beringians split from ancestors of Native Americans 22-18,000 bp (during LGM)
Ancient Beringians and Native Americans both descended from a single founding population that split from East Asia populations around 36,000 bp
Problems With
“Bering Straight Only”
Hypothesis
Limited Skeletal Evidence
Kennewick Man, one of the earliest human remains in the New World 9500-9200 bp
Facial reconstruction does not “fit” with East Asia populatitons (but facial reconstruction easily biased)
Problems With
“Bering Straight Only”
Hypothesis
Stone Tool Manufacturing Techniques
Stone tool manufacturing techniques differ markedly between EA (microblades in wood or bone) from New World (fluted points)
why would humans enter the New World, abandon the tool kit they were using to hunt big game, and start making tools with an entirely different technique
Clovis and other large biface, flutted points are virtually identical to older Solutrean culture in SW Europe (24-18,000 bp) - these are the only two examples of the use of this technique
- no other element of Solutrean culture ends up in the New World*
- little evidence of a plausible route from Europe*
Problems With
“Bering Straight Only”
Hypothesis
DNA Evidence
Study of mitochondrial DNA mutations show 4 maternal lines linked with East Asia
One line divergered 30,000 bp
The other 3 diverged later - 14-16,000 bp
Suggests waives of migration
A 5th mitochandrial line (Ojibwa), diverged 14-15,000 bp, associated with Europe, but not East Asia has also been found
Problems with the
Big Game Hunting Hypothesis
Very few sites w/evidence of big game being killed by humans (versus butchering)
Modern hunter/gatherers don’t drive their prey to extinction
Big game hunting is wasteful (high energy, limited ability to consume or transport)
No evidence that specialized fluted point technology is well suited to big game hunting (similar Solutrean tools from a people that exploited maritime resources)
Contradicted by Paleo Indian settlement patterns in the Quiche Basin which show consumption of plants and small game
Human biology not well suited to all meat diet (liver problems)
Problems with the
Solutrean Migrations Hypothesis
Solutrean in Europe is as much as 5000 years older than Clovis
Culture was heavily geared to the exploitation of maritime resources
No other aspect of Solutrean culture appears in the New World
No archaelogical evidence for how they could have arrived in the New World
ARCHAIC
PERIOD
9000-4500 bp
Transition from small h/g bands to settled village agriculture
Big game extinction by the begining of this period
Origins of Agriculture is the key question
Ends with pottery (Early Formative)
Origins of Agriculture
Diffusion
Agriculture is an invention that spreads from a single source
Thor Heirdal: getting an Egyptian boat (near) to the New World shows agriculture and pyramid buiding came from the Old World
Agriculture:
“Farming” v. “Domestication”
Coe, others argue that it is not agriculture until you have domestication (maladaptive change in genetic characteristics)
Brown says agriculture is a set of human activities revolving around plant foods
protecting plants, clearing land, planting seeds, irrigation, prior to domestication
“Farming” (including wild plants) creates a context in which domestication is possible
MacNeish in the Tehuacan Valley
rejected cultural diffusion
organized effort to find origins of agriculture in the Basin of Mexico
Worked in dry rock shelters in the Tehuacan valley (well preserved)
Assumed origin of agriculture would not be below levels without grinding tools (no grinding tools = not processing plants)
Tehuacan Valley Phases
El Reigo
9500-7200 bp
MacNeish stopped here
Hunting, but only small game
Wild foods prevalent, including maize (maguey hearts still the primary plant food)
domesticated chiles, squash, beans appear (but not maize)
Longer occupation periods as a result of processing ripe plant foods
Tehuacan Valley Phases
Coxcatlan
7200-5400 bp
Camps occupied for much of the wet season (scheduling)
if you are going to rely on MBS, must be in the area when they are ripe
Coprolites show no maguey fibers (as contrasted with dry season sites and all sites in earlier eras)
Occupations lengthen over time
(Brown: agriculture is a set of activities relating to scheduling)
Evidence of arrival at camps earlier in the wet season to protect plants from deer (scheduling)
domesticated maize appears in this level
formalized grinding tools appear
MacNeish estimates that 10% of food from domesticates (excludes wild plant foods)
“Succession weeds” (MBS) are not being succeeded becuase humans are expanding and protecting growth
Tehaucan Valley Phases:
Abejas
5400-4400 bp
30% of diet from food provided by domesticates (MacNeish’s definition of agriculture)
(90% if wild plant foods are included)
Not taking time to hunt becuase it takes away from protecting the field
Tehuacan Valley Phases
Purron
4400 bp (begins)
Characterized by first appearance of pottery and permantly settled villages in the valley
(MacNeish associated pottery wth settled villages - heavy and not suitable for mobile storage - but the same pit houses were in use as from the Abejas period)
Zia maize (4.5 inches v. 2 inches) domesticated at this time (possibly coming back to Tehuacan Valley from the Gulf Coast lowlands
Exchange between Tehuacan Valley and Gulf Coast lowlands
Maize Genetic Mutations
Wild maize: seeds fall off easily, each is protected by a husk and has a hard thick covering to protect to the next growing season
Mutations (zia maize):
1) Husk covers the entire ear
2) Kernel is fixed to the cob
3) kernel is soft
Leaves the plant unable to reproduce w/out human intervention
Zia maize double the size of the corn cob
MacNeish believed that environment of GC lowlands is what led to the mutations
“Succession” Plants
Maize, Beans and Squash (MBS) are “successsion plants”
Don’t contine to occupy the same space for long periods of time
Seeds are blown in the wind and take root in areas where other plants have not taken hold
such as where fire has cleared a plot of land
Undisturbed, these succession plants are eventually succeeded, and driven out, by brush and trees which take the sunlight
Humans are stopping the succession process in flood plains to favor MBS
Tehuacan Valley Gulf Coast Lowlands Exchange
MacNeish argues that permanently settled villages were first invented in the Gulf Coast lowlands (see Poverty Point)
McN argues that migrants from Tehuacan Valey brought MBS to Gulf Coast lowlands and introduced farming
In turn, Gulf Lowlands people gave the invention of settled villages to the Tehuacanos
Gulf Coast Lowlands
First occupation in 5500 bp
Associated with change in climate allowing tropical forests to dominate and created mangrove swamps where rivers flowed into the ocean
Permanent settlements
Living on fresh water from rivers, rich deposits of shellfish and fruit from trees
(tropical forests are otherwise inhospitable for humans becuase of lack of animal protein)
Gulf Coast Lowlands
Agriculture
Natural levees along the river banks are attractive to MBS farmers - flooding replaces nutrients and suppresses invasive grasses, produce 2-3 crops a year
(river levees are of little value to shellfish/fruit eaters)
Theory is that immigrants from Tehuacan Valley came into Gulf Lowlands and killed trees to create fields in the river levees
This was not displacing existing inhabitants, adding to their diet
Rise of Settled Villages in Gulf Coast Lowlands
Fresh water flowing into the Gulf creates brackish backwaters with an abundance of shellfish
Also abundant fruit from trees in the area
6000 bp with change in climate creating these conditions, people come down from the Highlands bringing farming with them.
First inhabitants found they did not have to expend huge resources in farming becuse of shellfish resources
- no longer dependent on a single crop*
- resources don’t move so settled villages make sense (also allows protection as population increases)*
Retained contact with highlands becuase both farmers and shellfish collectors need stone
- stone for grinding cereal, sharp edges to cut trees or create weapons*
- Farmers are likely the ones with portable resources that can trade for stone from the Highlands*
Rise of Settled Villages in the Highlands
By 6000 bp farmers in the Highlands are increasing their dependence on farmed foods – which you have to stay around to support
Settled villages happend becuase people are dependent on non-moving resources (agricultural fields)
in the GC Lowlands, it is the shellfish beds and levee fields
Trade Between Highlands
and Gulf Coast Lowlands
First trade is driven by the need for stone in the GC lowlands for agriculture
“Basic item” trade: food, basalt, obsidian
Basalt or obsidian to clear trees, grind crops
This creates a need for good ties between GC lowlands and higlands
Ceramics were also flowing from Tehuacan Valley (and Oaxacan Valley)
Basin of Mexico
and Domestication
MBS could not have been domesticated here
Wild MBS did not grow in the Basin
Domesticated amaranth
Basin of Mexico
Trade
4500 bp - trade in obsidian leads to intense contact between BofM and Tehuacan Valley, Oaxacan Valley, GC Lowland (agricultural areas)
3500 bp - all of the obsidian in TV, OV and GCL coming from BofM
3000 bp - Obsidian begins to be worked in the BoM
BofM is not suited to MBS agriculture becuase of elevation, but once maize is adapted to grow at elevation Teotihuacan is ideal (basalt, obsidian, fresh water springs, swamps)
EARLY FORMATIVE PERIOD
5500-3600 bp
adption of fulltime resource management systems
(growing crops, exploiting shellfish beds)
Olmec
3500-4000 bp (Early Formative)
descendents of shellfish/fruit eaters and river levee farmers
idea is that water management (spreading annual flooding be cutting channels) gives rise to social control becuase of the need for social enforcement mechanism to ensure upstream can’t cutoff downstream
Olmec
San Lorenzo
3600 bp
Many tons of carved basalt monuments and a basalt drain (40 ton collosal head)
nearest basalt resources 125 miles away
Located on a sand dune (worked into a platform) on riverside levee land
levee land is very fertile (1-3 crops a year), floods replenish the soil
Many surface structures (possible political religious)
Olmec
Trading System
Olmec were getting huge amounts of basalt and obsidian, etc. - what were they giving in return (balance of trade)?
People who control levee lands are the ones with the food surplus necessary to get basalt and obsidian
Food extends trade networks food can be traded and people are the pack animals
Coe argues that Olmec “missionized” areas like Chalcatzingo, Pacific Piedmont, Valley of Oaxaca and religious leaders took hold
Olmec
La Venta
3000 bp
Surrounded by levee lands and swamps
elites had access to huge amounts of jade, obsidian, and basalt
Massive offerings and basalt monuments (conspicuous consumption)
10000 tons of serpentine buried in Massive Offering No. 1
Olmec as the
Mother Culture of Mesoamerica
Chalcatzingo
Valley of Morelos, important location on obsidian trade network
“Olmec cliff carvings”
Argued to be an Olmex outpost in the Highlands near obsidian source; carvings commemorate conquest
But cultural complexity preceded any Olmec influence and Olmec elite items added to but did not replace existing elite objects
Olmec as the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica
San Luis Mogote
Nothern end of Valley of Oaxaca
Shows local development of traditions prior to Olmec influen (Danzantes)
Olmec cultureal items add to but don’t replace existing culture
Olmec as the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica
Monte Alto
Gautemala Pacific Piedmont
similar to GC Pacific - rivers drain into ocean, levees (**smaller and not as much rain)
Shellfish/fruit eaters followed by levee farmers
Possible pre-Olmec dates
Collosoal heads (smaller) and full bodied “fat boys”
Olmec as the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica
El Chayal
Valley of Guatemala
On most direct land route from Maya Lowlands to obsidian, jade and basalt
Cliff paintings claimed to be Olmec (based on head shape)
But the site is a Classic Period site, built 1000 years after Olment removing jade from this area
Olmec as the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica
Cor Site
3000 bp
Quiche Basin
Appears to have been an outpost of Pacific Piedmont peoples to conduct trade
During the height of La Venta
Trading groups went for nearby basalt, obsidian, quetzal feathers
These sites suggest that the Olmec were one of several trading partners moving goods around Mesoamerica
Also halucinagenic mushrooms (Peter Furst argues this is how leaders took on attributes of the gods and solved social problems by saying back what they had already heard from talking to community)
Basin of Mexico
Development of Complexity
3000 bp sites appear on the western side of the lake where there is more rainfall
Western sites known almost entirely from burals containing figurines (show increasing social stratification)
Burials also show no Olmec related elite goods (local motifs centered on life/death)
Loma Torremote (2600 bp) demonstrated that these western sites were using canals to do irrigation farming
LT also shows development of Teotihuacan style apartment complexes starting with 1-2 room compound with an enclosed area for garden or specialized craft going within 100 years to almost total coverage and many room complexes
Tezoyuca
Basin of Mexico
2600 bp
Hilltop forts on ridges of mountains on the east side of the BoM
Argued that perhaps these were warriors raiding the western communities
Below the forts are scattterd farming sites in a narrow band along the mountain slopes as they reach flat ground (rain flowing down the mountain side is used for farming, possibly with use of canals)
Abandoned by 2400 bp (rise of Teotihuacan)
Olmec Influence in the Basin of Mexico
Olmec items not found in burials on west side of lake where there are many sites around 2600 bp
Despite dealing with foreigners at this time (Otumba obsidian is going to Gulf Coast and Valley of Mexico)
Similar to Cor site in Quiche Basis - Pacific Piedmont outpost for 1000 years but appeared to have no effect on surrounding cultures
Cuicuilco
Clearly predated Teotihuacan, probably substantially
difficult to date because the site is mostly buried in a lava flow
Use of irrigation
West and South of Basin of Mexico more settled becuase of more rain and presence of fresh water
Possible first use of chinampa agriculture
Destroyed by volcano, possibly 2400 bp
The Rise of Teotihuacan
2400 bp
Teotihuacan goes from 0 to 10,000 inhabitants in a very short period of time
The populations in the surrounding Valley appear to all move to Teotihuacan abandoning prior settlements for all of the next 1000 years
By 1400 bp population had grown to 125-250,000
Why Did Everyone Go to Teotihuacan?
- 2 Theories*
1) They were forced to go here by eastern hilltop fort peoples - (questionable whether eastern folk had enough power or population to force this kind of a change)*
2) They went there voluntarily to participate in chinampa agriculture which is easier and more productive, and to be near sources of ceramics, obsidian, and other craft goods
Pollen studies show pre-Teotihuacan, swamps were primarily swamp plants, post-Teotihuacan replaced with MBS, and over 4-500 years from Teotihuacan taken over by chinampas
Chinampas can produce 2+ crops a year, not as susceptible to freezing, not dependent on rains becuase swamp is fed be fresh water from springs
