Unit 1 Flashcards
What is anthropology?
Holistic study of humanity
What is archaeology?
Study of the human past through material remains
What is culture?
Non-biological means of adaptation; learned behaviors for coping with environment
What are artifacts?
Any object created or modified by humans; portable
What are ecofacts?
Remains of living things that are found on sites but not made by humans; plant and animal remains
What is a site?
Accumulation of artifacts representing human activity (place)
What are features?
Non-portable human constructions
What is a survey?
Type of fieldwork for finding sites on the surface
What is excavation?
Type of field work that includes digging sites, larger scale, systematic exploration of deposits
What are different types of surveys?
Field walking, air photos, google earth/satellite imagery, multispectral imagery (soil chemistry, vegetation, human disturbance), LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)-penetrates thick vegetation
What is a geophysical survey (prospection)?
Subsurface detection of sites, non-destructive
What are types of geophysical surveys?
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)-like SONAR and magnetometry-patterns of magnetism in the soil (burned features, soil disturbances)
What is testing?
Small scale digging, for preliminary exploration
What are synchronic excavations?
Same layer or horizontal digging
What are diachronic excavations?
Multiple levels or vertical digging
What is technology?
Manufacturing techniques for converting raw materials into finished projects
What is economy?
How we organize the production, distribution, and consumption of goods
What types of goods are in an economy?
Basic needs for survival (food, shelter) and non-essential goods (status, wealth, power)
What is subsistence?
How we get the food we eat (hunting/gathering, agriculture, and markets)
What are horizontal relationships?
Unranked social status (egalitarian)
What are vertical relationships?
Ranked based on achieved or inherited social status, social inequality (prestige, wealth, power)
What is rank?
Inequality based on kinship relationships
What is class?
Status determined by membership in a social group, stratum, or class, not kinship based
What are bands?
Small population, mobile, hunters/gatherers, reciprocity, egalitarian, decision by consensus, power by influence
What are tribes?
Semi-permanent settlements, reciprocity/redistribution, egalitarian/rank, power by skills knowledge
What are chiefdoms?
More than one permanent community, redistribution, rank/class, centralized but general authority
What are states?
Large population, many permanent communities, intensive agriculture, trade, market economy, defined and stratified classes, centralized and formal offices with multiple governing bodies, power based on law
What is ideology?
Ideas about the order of the universe
What is cosmology?
Understanding origin and place in the universe
What is primary context?
Artifacts found where they were used and intentionally deposited by past humans
What is secondary context?
Artifacts have been moved from where they were originally used
What are the principal artifact classes?
Human remains, stone, animal bone, plant remains, pottery, metals
What is relative dating?
Relative order of past events (stratigraphy and seriation-changes in form/style over time)
What is absolute dating?
Precise dates in calendar years (historical records, dendrochronology-tree ring dating-arid regions, bogs, and permafrost; radiometric techniques-half lives of isotopes of organic materials and rocks
What is the order of epochs we are studying?
Miocene (first Hominins), Pliocene (first Homo), Pleistocene (Ice Age, first Homo sapiens), and Holocene (modern epoch)
What are hominins?
Humans and their ancestors, divergent lineage from apes
How did the human skeleton change to adapt to bipedalism?
Bowl-shaped pelvis, long legs, knees angled inwards, no opposable big toe, short/straight fingers, long thumb, power grip, s-shaped spine, forward placement of the spinal cord, larger brain, small brow ridge, less projecting face, smaller canines
Where were the early hominins found?
East African Rift Valley
What is Sahelanthropus tchadensis?
Earliest hominin (6-7 mya): small skull, large supraorbital ridges, reduced canines, reduced prognathism, bipedalism
What are Ardipithecus ramidus (Ardi)?
East Africa (4.4 mya)-habitual bipedalism, small brain, long arms, long/curved fingers, opposable big toe, bowl-shaped pelvis, angled knees
What are Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy)?
3-4 mya, obligate (fully) bipedal, footprints found in Laetoli (Tanzania 3.6 mya)-small skull and ape-like upper body and human-like lower body), no opposable big toe
Why did bipedalism evolve?
Energy efficient, carrying food/objects/infants, less sun exposure
What is a hammer stone?
A durable stone used for creating flakes
What is a core?
Raw material of a stone tool (lithic)
What is a flake?
Detached chips of a core
What was the Oldowan type tool?
Chopper-flat surface for cutting on one side
What is the male provisioning model?
Reduced canines and bipedalism evolved together which led to reduced aggression, pair bonding, and increased parental care
Where were the first stone tools found?
Kenya (3.3 mya)
Describe the Basal Paleolithic.
3.3-1.8 mya, Oldowan tool industry, Australopithecines & early Homo
How do we know a rock is a tool?
- fine-grained stone
- non-random shape
- conchoidal fracture
Why did early humans use stone tools?
Obtaining animal-based nutrients (high calories, energy rich)
Why is meat eating important?
Allows for brain expansion (needs a lot of energy), plants are harder to break down so…more meat=less get
How did hominins get their meat?
Confrontational scavenging-taking kills from other carnivores
What is the difference between Gracile Australopithecines and Robust Australopithecines (Paranthropus)?
Robust-ate tough plants, had a Sagittarius crest for chewing muscles attachment, huge teeth, large jaws, prognathic
Gracile-softer foods (meat), smaller teeth/chewing muscles, less prognathic
What is Homo habilis?
Increase in brain capacity, more stone tools, more meat, adaptability to cold temperatures (Ice Age)
What is bioarchaeology?
Study of modern human remains
What is paleoanthropology?
Study of past human remains and early human evolution
What is archaeobotany?
Study of the prehistoric use of plants
What is archaeozoology?
Study of animal remains from sites
What was discovered at the Olduvai Gorge?
Northern Tanzania (East Africa); a canyon with abundant fossil animal bones (early hominins) with deposit layers from 1.9 mya
Describe Homo erectus.
Robust with large bones/teeth/bodies, larger brains, heavy bone ridge, larger jaw with no chin, prognathic, forehead absent
What was the Pleistocene epoch?
Ice Age (2 mya)
What is the type tool for the Acheulean?
Handaxe-sharp teardrop-shaped cutting tool (Homo erectus)
What is the Lower Paleolithic site of Atapuerca?
Site in northern Spain (1.3 mya); oldest yet discovered humans on Europe; found evidence of marrow extraction and intentional burials
What is the hard hammer manufacturing technique?
Stone-on-stone method used to make irregular tools
What is the soft hammer manufacturing technique?
Using a hammer made of bone, antler, or wood; easier to control, thinner and wider flakes removed
