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ant200: Introduction to the Practice of Archaeology > Subsistence & Environmental Archaeology > Flashcards

Subsistence & Environmental Archaeology Flashcards

1
Q

Hunters and Gatherers

A
  • low population density
  • mobile
  • rely on the natural resources readily available in their environment
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2
Q

Pastoralists

A
  • care and use domesticated herd animals
  • low density
  • mobile
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3
Q

Farmers

A
  • higher density
  • investment in land
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4
Q

Market Economy

A

connected communities, sedentary, differences in settlement sizes

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5
Q

How do we learn about subsistence in the past?

A
  • meals
  • diets
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6
Q

Meals

A
  • stomach contents
  • fossilized feces
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7
Q

Diet

A
  • the whole photo album, from your whole life
  • direct and indirect examination
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8
Q

Direct Examination

A

the remains of things we ate

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9
Q

Indirect Examination

A
  • things we use to obtain and prepare food
  • our own bone chemistry
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10
Q

Zooarchaeology/Archaeozoology

A

the identification and analysis of the remains of faunal species from archaeological sites

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11
Q

Zooarchaeological Remains

A
  • bones
  • mollusk shells
  • egg shells
  • insect parts
  • feathers, fur
  • soft tissue
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12
Q

Zooarchaeology Identification

A
  • species
  • bone in the body
  • modifications to the bone
  • age and sex of the animal
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13
Q

Zooarchaeology Quantification

A
  • how many yellow perch = one elk?
  • does the presence of one bone from an animal indicate that people had the whole animal?
  • how do you compare animals of the same species but different ages or sexes?
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14
Q

Zooarchaeology Interpretations

A
  • can provide data about:
  • what past people ate
  • if they used domesticated species
  • how they processed animal carcasses
  • where and when they may have obtained animals
  • need to be cautious about exact caloric amounts contributed by different species or even types of species
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15
Q

Taphonomy

A
  • the processes which have affected organic materials
  • can determine decisions about what is edible
  • butchery and disposal practices
  • chemistry of burial environment

ex. bone after death

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16
Q

Reference Collection/Working in the Bone Library

A
  • should contain:
  • representatives of full range of species in a region in present and past
  • different ages and sexes
  • pathological examples
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17
Q

Working in the Bone Library: Step 1

A

sorting

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18
Q

Step 2

A

identification

19
Q

Step 3

A

find a match

20
Q

Step 4

A

eliminate the other possibilities

21
Q

Step 5

A

record data

22
Q

Paleoethnobotany/Archaeobotany

A
  • the recovery and identification of plant remains from archaeological sites
  • used in reconstructing past environments and economies
  • identifies using a reference collection
  • deal with issues of quantification
  • concerned about taphonomy
23
Q

Plant Macroremains

A
  • wood (charcoal)
  • seeds
  • fruit
  • nut shell
  • tubers
  • use flotation tanks
24
Q

Plant Microremains

A
  • pollen
  • phytoliths
  • starch grains
25
Q

Environmental Arch

A

the reconstruction of human use of plants and animals and how past societies adapted to changing environmental conditions

26
Q

Anthropocene

A
  • the geological epoch in which human activities have significantly altered the earth’s climate and ecosystems
  • a formal chrono-stratigraphic unit
  • mid-twentieth century (1900)
27
Q

Golden Spike

A
  • mark the start of a new proposed geological epoch the Anthropocene
  • Crawford Lake Ontario
28
Q

Ecosystem Engineering

A
  • modifying, maintaining or destroying a habitat by an organism
  • impacts number of different species present
  • impacts the degree of different types of landscapes (heterogeneity)
29
Q

Keystone Species

A

species that strongly affect the environment are considered ecosystem engineers

ex. beavers, woodpeckers, humans

30
Q

Relationships of Humans with Fire

A
  • fire exclusion is a powerful destroyer of biodiversity
  • the notion of “restoring natural fire regimes” without anthropogenic influence is neither possible nor useful
  • inappropriate fire regimes by European colonists
31
Q

Miocene Fires

A
  • spread of savanna
  • reduce invasions of species
32
Q

Pleistocene Fire Creation

A

cooking had significant effects on human evolution

33
Q

Holocene Landscape Burning

A
  • creation and maintaining of new habitats (farming)
  • craft production (pottery, metallurgy)
34
Q

Post Industrial Fire

A
  • fossil fuels
  • much greater land clearance
35
Q

Niche Construction

A
  • changing of a local environment by an organism for the purposes of that organism
  • many different organisms alter their environments
  • results in changes to the environments of other organisms
36
Q

Examples of human niche construction

A
  • human goal: increase yields or predictability
  • change plant communities through burning to increase plants and animals of economic importance
  • enhancing water delivery
  • broadcast sowing of annuals
  • selective culling
  • transplanting perennials
37
Q

The Domestication Relationship

A
  • over generations
  • managed species and the manager species reap benefits
  • mutual benefits (make it difficult for either partner to walk away)
38
Q

Human Irrigation (watering land)

A
  • managed plant produces more
  • benefit to humans as greater yield
  • benefit to plant because greater reproductive success compared with non irrigated plants
39
Q

Predisposition to Domestication: Plants

A

ability to colonize open disturbed anthropogenic habitats

40
Q

Predisposition to Domestication: Animals

A
  • hierarchical social structure
  • lower reactivity to humans
41
Q

Predisposition to Domestication: Both

A

rapid response to selective pressures

42
Q

Domestication is investigated by…

A
  • direct changes to plant and animal parts
  • expansion of ranges
  • changes in human settlement patterns
43
Q

Anthropogenic Extinctions

A
  • megafauna (overhunting)
  • island extinctions
  • European colonialism
44
Q

Island Extinctions

A
  • anthropogenic in origin
  • due to human hunting, anthropogenic burning, landscape clearing, translocation of new plants and animals
  • Madagascar, New Zealand, Pacific Islands

ant200: Introduction to the Practice of Archaeology (12 decks)

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