prehistory

Question 1

2 theories for 1st inhabitants

Answer 1

1. crossed Beringia from Siberia to Alaska and Ice free Corridor following big game
2. coastal migration

Question 2

berginia theory problems 4

Answer 2

1. Pollen: ice-free corridor was also vegetation free (big game and in turn people wouldn’t be present if vegetation wasn’t)
2. Dating: Younger Sites in Alaska/Older Sites in Florida/South America
3. Mitochondrial DNA: 36,000-20,000BP (the convergence of America and Serbian DNA earlier than land bridge)
4. Linguistics: 35,000 BP (divergence of language in America happedened before the bridge)

Question 3

Coastal Migration- Moved along the coast of N. and S. America theory problem

Answer 3

• Hard to study because coast line from then is now under water

Question 4

What we do know, 1st inhabitants

Answer 4

that between 35,000-14,000 people from Asia came to S. America

Question 5

Paleoindian Period (13,000-10,000 BP)-more sedentary

Answer 5

o	Clovis Tradition: Clovis Point
o	13,250-12,800 BP
o	Rapid Spread of Clovis tech
o	Specialized big game hunters
o	Gathering Plants/fishing
o	Environmental Changes (cold dry to warm wet)
o	Increasing Population
o	Decreasing Mobility
o	Sub-regional Cultures (adaptation depending on the region)

Question 6

• Archaic Period (10,000-3,000)

Answer 6

o Early Archaic (10,000-8,000)- high mobility
 Generalized hunting and gathering (less large game)
 Seasonal mobility
• Logistically based Collectors (stay at a base camp and hunt and gather radially)
• Residentally-mobile Foragers (move where the resources are)
• Band-Macroband Model (several groups congregate at one river during winter then move to short term foraging camps during the rest of the year)
 Change in tools to projectile points made with exotic material
• Distribution of tools showed that there were no distinct cultural boundaries
• Movement was less constrained
• High mobility and/or trade

Question 7

o Middle Archaic Period (8,000-5,000)- sedentary

Answer 7

Altithermal Warming Period
	Environment became more heterogeneous 
•	Evidence shows that they ate more shellfish
•	New/more food resources
•	Available longer
	Promoted sedentary life
•	Tools made of local raw material
•	Expediently made

Question 8

o Late Archaic (5,000-3,000 BP)- More sedentary and diversity

Answer 8

	Increase in sedentism
	Systematic Re-occupation of sites
	Population growth
	End of Altithermal warming period
	Diverse food resources, environments, and organization of society
•	Permanent/semi-permanent/Transitory
•	Small structures/large villages
	Burials in shell features
	Trade
•	Exotic raw material
•	More sedentary lifestyle
	Pottery (4,500) Savannah River
•	Plain and tempered with fiber (thick and not too durable)
o	Not made to be put on a fire
o	Hot rock cooking
o	No change in culture at this time!

Question 9

• Wooldand Period (3,000-1,000 BP)

Answer 9

o Early Wooldand (3,000-2,100)
 Similar Subsistence and settlement
• Changes in Pottery
o Universal (at all sites)
o Sand tempered
o Taller and skinnier
o Thinner walls/stronger
o Direct heating rather an hot rock cooking
o Surface treatment of pottery different designs for different periods
 Eastern Agricultural Complex
• Plants with starchy or oily seeds that don’t require a lot of work(today’s weeds and bird food)
• Plants Co-evolved with people wild domesticated
• Disturbed soil=Weedy plants=Cultivation
• Early Domestication: 5 Ka
 Pits (for plant storage and to get clay)
• Horticulture
• Increased sedentism

Question 10

o Middle Woodland Period (2,100-1,500 BP)- farming began

Answer 10

 Famers
 Still using the E. Agricultural Complex (maze first used, but not important)
 Tributaries of major rivers
 Hopewell Interation Sphere (large earthworks- mounds)
• Ceremonial Centers (at main river convergence)
• People did not live here
• Long distance trading of exotic materials found at sites
• Ohio was the center of trade and ceremony
• Tranquil period (no warfare)

Question 11

o Late Woodland Period (1,500-1,100 BP)- rise of warfare

Answer 11

 Hopewell Interaction Sphere Falls
 No big mound centers
 Bow and arrow (warfare)
 Restricted social boundaries

Question 12

• Mississippian Period (900-1540 AD)- mounds and corn and increased warfare

Answer 12

o	Mound Centers
	Residential (not only for rituals)
	Platform Mounds
	Plazas (public area)
	Palisades (enclosure- indicative of warfare)
o	Reliance on Maize
o	Chiefdoms
	Chiefs are god-like
	Shared belief system

Question 13

o Late Mississippian Period (1,350- 1,540 AD)

Answer 13

 Mound centers
 Smaller sites without mounds
 Reorganization of people
 Rising and falling or chiefdoms (abandoning and reoccupying sites every 70 or so years)

Question 14

• European Contact (1,540 AD)

Answer 14

o Decline in Native American Population
 European domestication of animals increased disease in NA
• Native America population still here
• Archaeology helps us to understand things that would have been lost otherwise