Subsistence & Environmental Archaeology Flashcards
Hunters and Gatherers
- low population density
- mobile
- rely on the natural resources readily available in their environment
Pastoralists
- care and use domesticated herd animals
- low density
- mobile
Farmers
- higher density
- investment in land
Market Economy
connected communities, sedentary, differences in settlement sizes
How do we learn about subsistence in the past?
- meals
- diets
Meals
- stomach contents
- fossilized feces
Diet
- the whole photo album, from your whole life
- direct and indirect examination
Direct Examination
the remains of things we ate
Indirect Examination
- things we use to obtain and prepare food
- our own bone chemistry
Zooarchaeology/Archaeozoology
the identification and analysis of the remains of faunal species from archaeological sites
Zooarchaeological Remains
- bones
- mollusk shells
- egg shells
- insect parts
- feathers, fur
- soft tissue
Zooarchaeology Identification
- species
- bone in the body
- modifications to the bone
- age and sex of the animal
Zooarchaeology Quantification
- 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?
Zooarchaeology Interpretations
- 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
Taphonomy
- 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
Reference Collection/Working in the Bone Library
- should contain:
- representatives of full range of species in a region in present and past
- different ages and sexes
- pathological examples
Working in the Bone Library: Step 1
sorting
Step 2
identification
Step 3
find a match
Step 4
eliminate the other possibilities
Step 5
record data
Paleoethnobotany/Archaeobotany
- 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
Plant Macroremains
- wood (charcoal)
- seeds
- fruit
- nut shell
- tubers
- use flotation tanks
Plant Microremains
- pollen
- phytoliths
- starch grains
Environmental Arch
the reconstruction of human use of plants and animals and how past societies adapted to changing environmental conditions
Anthropocene
- 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)
Golden Spike
- mark the start of a new proposed geological epoch the Anthropocene
- Crawford Lake Ontario
Ecosystem Engineering
- modifying, maintaining or destroying a habitat by an organism
- impacts number of different species present
- impacts the degree of different types of landscapes (heterogeneity)
Keystone Species
species that strongly affect the environment are considered ecosystem engineers
ex. beavers, woodpeckers, humans
Relationships of Humans with Fire
- 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
Miocene Fires
- spread of savanna
- reduce invasions of species
Pleistocene Fire Creation
cooking had significant effects on human evolution
Holocene Landscape Burning
- creation and maintaining of new habitats (farming)
- craft production (pottery, metallurgy)
Post Industrial Fire
- fossil fuels
- much greater land clearance
Niche Construction
- 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
Examples of human niche construction
- 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
The Domestication Relationship
- over generations
- managed species and the manager species reap benefits
- mutual benefits (make it difficult for either partner to walk away)
Human Irrigation (watering land)
- managed plant produces more
- benefit to humans as greater yield
- benefit to plant because greater reproductive success compared with non irrigated plants
Predisposition to Domestication: Plants
ability to colonize open disturbed anthropogenic habitats
Predisposition to Domestication: Animals
- hierarchical social structure
- lower reactivity to humans
Predisposition to Domestication: Both
rapid response to selective pressures
Domestication is investigated by…
- direct changes to plant and animal parts
- expansion of ranges
- changes in human settlement patterns
Anthropogenic Extinctions
- megafauna (overhunting)
- island extinctions
- European colonialism
Island Extinctions
- anthropogenic in origin
- due to human hunting, anthropogenic burning, landscape clearing, translocation of new plants and animals
- Madagascar, New Zealand, Pacific Islands
