Lecture 2: Mobility & Early Farming

Question 1

How much colder was it in the late ice age?

Answer 1

8-10 °C lower than today

Question 2

How much lower was the sea level in the late ice age?

Answer 2

100-120m lower than today

Question 3

When was the Younger Dryas

Answer 3

10,800-9600 BC

Question 4

What was the Younger Dryas?

Answer 4

Abrupt climate change, global cooling

Question 5

How much did the temperature drop in the Younger Dryas compared to today?

Answer 5

Up to 10 °C

Question 6

What happened around 9600 BC?

Answer 6

Increasingly milder, wetter & warmer climate

Question 7

How fast did the Younger Dryas end?

Answer 7

Abruptly, probably within decadal timescale (< 50 years)

Question 8

What happened after the end of the Younger Dryas, having to do with water?

Answer 8

Retreat of ice; melting of glaciers; increase of rainfall; increase of water run-off; creation of rivers, marshes, lakes, ponds

Question 9

What happened after the end of the Younger Dryas, having to do with sea level?

Answer 9

Increase of sea level & flooding of lowlands

Question 10

What happened after the end of the Younger Dryas, having to do with vegetation and animals?

Answer 10

Expansion (recolonization) of forests & other vegetation + animals in regions formerly too cold and dry

Question 11

When did the Geometric Kebaran live?

Answer 11

ca. 16.000-12.500 BC

Question 12

In what areas did the Geometric Kebaran live?

Answer 12

Coasts, woodland, steppe, caves & open-air station

Question 13

How big where the Geometric Kebaran sites?

Answer 13

Small, 15-600m2 (up to 2500 m2: Azraq)

Question 14

What type of technology did the Geometric Kebaran have?

Answer 14

Microlith technology

Question 15

What type of toolkit did the Geometric Kebaran have?

Answer 15

Portable toolkit: few bone tools & ground-stone tools

Question 16

Why did the Geometric Kebaran leave minimal stratigraphy behind?
(vanaf hieronder anki toevoegen)

Answer 16

Frequent movement

Question 17

How did the Geometric Kebaran acquire their food?

Answer 17

They were hunter-gatherers

Question 18

Where did the Geometric Kebaran live?

Answer 18

Circular, semi-subterranean huts; postholes

Question 19

When did the Natufian people live?

Answer 19

ca. 12,500-10,000 BC

Question 20

How big where the Natufian sites?

Answer 20

Up to 2000m2

Question 21

How long did the Natufian occupy an area?

Answer 21

Long, they were sedentary

Question 22

What did the Natufian do with their dead?

Answer 22

They were put in cemeteries

Question 23

Which came first (in the case of the Natufian) sedentism or food production?

Answer 23

Sedentism

Question 24

Neolithic

Answer 24

New Stone Age, 10,000-5300

Question 25

Who came up with the term “Neolithic Revolution”?

Answer 25

Gordon Childe

Question 26

What did Gordon Childe mean with the term “Neolithic Revolution”

Answer 26

The transition from food gathering to food production

Question 27

What is misleading about the term “Neolithic Revolution”?

Answer 27

It suggests a “Great Leap Forward” while it was a slow & gradual process of change over thousands of years

Question 28

Were sedentary settlers always farmers?

Answer 28

No, agriculture, is not a necessary requisite of village life

Question 29

Domestication

Answer 29

Biological process that evolves changes in genotypes and physical characteristics of plants and animals as they become dependent on humans for reproductive success

Question 30

When did domestic cereals emerge?

Answer 30

From late 9th millennium BC onwards

Question 31

When did domestic sheep, goats and pig emerge?

Answer 31

From late 9th millennium BC onwards

Question 32

When did domestic cattle emerge?

Answer 32

In the 7th millennium BC

Question 33

Arguments against theory that agriculture started as a reaction to a changing environment?

Answer 33

• Timing, intensity, duration of climate change; data hardly consistent
• Urgency for change not consistent -> change takes place at different moments in different regions
• Carrying capacity never reached in any region

Question 34

Arguments against theory that agriculture started due to population increase

Answer 34

• Sedentism before farming

- Restricted archaeological proof for population increase; only very few sites known from the earliest Neolithic

Question 35

Arguments against theory that agriculture started due to social factors, power & prestige

Answer 35

Lack of explicit evidence; interpretation of current data in the first place

Question 36

Arguments for the theory that agriculture started as a reaction to environmental changes

Answer 36

• Holocene climate change (considerable increase of plant and animal resources)
• People change only under pressure (new food strategy is risky)

Question 37

Arguments for the theory that agriculture started as a reaction to population increase

Answer 37

• Sedentary lifeway reduces miscarriages, interval between pregnancies -> increase of population
• Sedentary lifeway leads to exhaustion of local environment & local resources -> requieres intensification

Question 38

Arguments for the theory that agriculture started because of social factors, power & prestige

Answer 38

• Intensification/agriculture provides surplus to support rivalry, allows development of exchange networks & rise of status markers
• Staples and storage; territorial claims; property
• People actively bring about the change (not environmental determinism)