Lecture 25: Dawn of the Anthropocene Flashcards
When is the Neolithic estimated to have begun?
~6kya but this is debated
What is the Neolithic known as?
The new stone age
What are 4 characteristics of what happens during the Neolithic?
- Shift from hunter-gatherer to agriculture and semi-permanent settlement
- Domestication of plants
- Animal husbandry
- Population increases
What has the growing influence of humans in the quaternary raised?
when humans started to influence things so much that is marked a new geological period
What were the first animals to be domesticated and when?
Wolves - possibly back to 36kya but for definite from 14.7kya
What did the evidence for wolf domestication consist of?
Dog mandible found in a human grave in Bonn, Germany
What did the DNA analysis of the dog mandible found in Bonn, Germany confirm?
Modern dogs are a direct descendant of those early wolves and dogs which were first domesticated
What have some argued about the domestication relationship between humans and wolves?
That it was effectively wolves that chose humans not the other way round
Why did wolves and humans work together/domesticate each other?
It improved the mutual efficiency of hunting for both species
What did the domestication between wolves and humans mean for their evolution?
Convergent evolution - both species underwent a parallel evolutionary process meaning as they evolved together.
What were some aspects of the convergent evolution process between wolves and humans?
Digestion, metabolism, neurology and cancer
What evidence is there for the coevolution between dogs an humans still taking place today?
Dogs are starting to understand human pointing actions
What did Greger Larson (2015) claim?
That the progress we have made as humans owes a lot to our domestication of other animals such as wolves by improving our skills and strategies
What were some other animals that were domesticated early on in Central NW Africa?
Cattle, Sheep, Horse, Goat
What were some other animals domesticated early on in Australia?
Pig, Chicken and duck
What were some other early animals that were domesticated in West South America?
Alpaca, Llama, Guinea Pig
What animal was domesticated in North America?
Turkey
What did the domestication process entail? What did this mean?
Breeding and sculpting them so that they were adapted for specific roles and functions. This meant they evolved and were selected in to different breeds
Where is the first place that agriculture has been identified and what has it been called as a result?
Middle East - ‘fertile crescent’
What crops were first grown in the Middle East?
Wheat and Barley
What crops were first discovered in South America?
Potatoes, squash, beans, maize and cotton for clothes
What was the dawn of agriculture enabled by and what did it consist of?
Technological advancement - consisted of irrigation, deforestation, food storage
How were plants also changed and evolved as a result of our domestication?
They were adapted to grow bigger seeds, flowers, fruits etc.
What crops were first grown in China and India?
Millet and Rice
What are the 4 theories for why agriculture developed?
Cultural progress hypothesis - inevitable process of evolution as it is superior to constant foraging.
Environmental change hypothesis - end of Pleistocene there was a beneficial change to agriculture in the climate and environment
Population pressure hypothesis - population growth forced agriculture as foraging could not supply demand
Accident and opportunity - natural distribution of plants and animals inspired agriculture
Which reason for why agriculture developed has less support for it?
Environmental change because it would mean over a short time period and there is no evidence from records of change
What is the most likely reason for why agriculture developed?
A combination of all factors
What impacts were there of the domestication of plants and animals?
- Increasing population
- complex social structure (labour division, trade methods, politics, early religions and property rights)
- Increasing anthropogenic impact on environment through irrigation domestication and grazing
What early civilization emerged in the Middle East and when?
Akkadians (~5,500BC)
What early civilization emerged in Africa (NW Africa) and when?
Egyptians (~4,300-3,300BC)
What early civilization emerged in India and when?
Harappans (~2,300BC)
What early civilization emerged in China and when?
Ancient China (~2,200BC)
What early civilization emerged in South America and when?
Norte Chico (~1,500BC)
What early civilization emerged in Central America and when?
Olmec (~1,250BC)
Which society is it thought that many of the bible stories came from?
Akkadians
Rank the early civilizations in order of emergence from earliest to latest
Akkadians Egyptians Harappans Ancient China Norte Chico Olmec
Who was the first to propose the idea of an Anthropocene and what did it consist of?
Crutzen (2002) stated that it was characterised by significant human impact and influence on the earth (eco)system, including but not limited to anthropogenic climate change
What are the three theories for when the Anthropocene could have started?
- Early Anthropocene period: Neolithic period onwards
- Industrial Revolution
- Rapid Acceleration Period
What does the early Anthropocene hypothesis claim should have happened and therefore the reason for this hypothesis?
We should have entered a glacial period from ~8kya but instead started displaying evidence of rapid warming
What is thought to be the reason for the early anthropogenic hypothesis?
Records of the amount of carbon dioxide released through deforestation and methane from agricultural products such as rice paddies
What have critics of the Anthropocene hypothesis in general argued?
Holocene is a super-interglacial i.e. a prolonged interglacial period
What evidence do the critics of the OVERALL Anthropocene hypothesis use for their counter argument?
MIS 11 which ran on a 31,000 year cycle determined by the eccentricity cycle was very prolonged in its duration and so the Holocene is the next one in this cycle.
What do critics of the EARLY Anthropocene hypothesis argue?
The time proposed for when humans started to make a difference on the earth system was unlikely because it at that time the human population was only a few million where the earth remained in pristine condition
What was important about the idea of the Anthropocene?
It created a vital debate about the possible role of humans
What response was there to critics about how the early Anthropocene hypothesis might be invalid?
Work in a peatbog suggested that while there was no evidence for major influence as early as initially proposed, there was evidence for influence from 4,000 years ago
What was monument building characterised by during the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland?
Stonehenge and Newrange
What were some areas that agriculture took place during the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland?
Wessex, East Anglia, Cumbria coastal plain
What did pollen and weed evidence suggest about the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland?
That deforestation had taken place but was then followed up by landscape abandonment in which it would be allowed to regenerate
What evidence was there for increased intelligence of humans with the environment during the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland? DT, SB, M, RoB
Daylight tunnel, Skara Brae, Maeshow, Ring of Brogdar
What allowed for the dawn of agriculture in Britain and Ireland during the Neolithic?
Diffusion of agricultural techniques originating in Turkey that found their way across Europe. This was linked with the rapid migration process that took place
What were the bronze and iron age characterised by in Britain and Ireland?
improving technology enabled by the smelting of metal that allowed more places to be cultivated. This meant that there was permanent vegetation clearance in some places
What was the bronze and iron age also characterised by in Britain and Ireland?
First major settlements
What had happened to the landscape of Britain by the Iron age?
most of southern Britain was under agricultural use and previously unexploited areas such as Scotland, Wales and Northern England were cleared for agriculture later
What was the product of the landscape changes that took place during the bronze and iron ages which were documented in the ‘Doomsday Book’ of 1086?
15% of original forests remained
What important process for landscape change also took place during the bronze and iron ages in Britain? what is its significance?
Ancient fields system which is one of the oldest cases of this in the world extending back to 3,000 years
What is debated over about Dartmoor National Park?
Whether it is an area of natural wilderness or an anthropogenic landscape?
What did a study of a peat bog in Dartmoor National Park identify about the history of the area?
Prior to 4.5kya Dartmoor was largely forest. between the end of then and 3kya there is increased evidence of anthropogenic burning and then from 2kya there is a dramatic reduction in the number of trees and increase in replacement grasses.
Does it appear whether Dartmoor National Park is natural or anthropogenic?
Anthropogenic - maintained by grazing and burning
What other anthropogenic processes also took place in Dartmoor National Park?
Mining, grazing and peat cutting
What important question should be raised about the preservation of the Dartmoor National Park landscape?
preserve current what appears to be anthropogenic landscape or restore natural woodland
What was roman Britain like?
Really advanced culture and civilization where agriculture and domestication processes had been fully integrated in to their society.
What problems were experienced by roman Britain and what does this suggest?
Waste and pollution - already a strong anthropogenic influence
Where does evidence of roman Britain pollution come from?
Greenland Ice Cores
