Lecture Topics 10 11 12 Archaeology Cultural Origins Rise of Domestication and Sedentism Archaeology The study of the human past through material remains o Thinking about human behavior in terms of the human past Origins of o Domestication o Sedentism o Agriculture o Civilization Archaeologists are Anthropologists They want to know how and why people did things About the cultural past heritage and process o Modern heritages based off of past heritage The study about human culture of the past Archaeology is not history Goals of Archaeology There are three major goals in interpreting the archaeological record o 1 Reveal the form of the past What happened o 2 Discover the function of the past Why did things happen What were people doing in the past What were peoples thought patterned in the past o 3 Understand the cultural processes How have people changed Material Remains Artifacts modified o Material items that humans have manufactured or Usually someone else s garbage But not always someone else s garbage Broken pottery Called shirds o Find record measure weigh artifacts o Small portion of the archaeology record Cultural Features o Nonportable remnants from the past such as a house walls or ditches i e a hole in the ground Cultural landscapes o Human made or modified environments o Mayan pyrmids Cultural Origins Early Homo sapiens sapiens o Populating the World Reached Australia 40 000 to 50 000 years ago Reached the Americas 30 000 to 15 000 years ago o Where the first people to really use culture The American o Waves of migration Multiple People move back and fourth between the New World and the Old World o Oldest evidence Monte Verde Chile 14 000 years ago Semi nomadic people only lived at this location a couple months per year Clovis Tradition 13 000 12 000 years ago A spear point used by big game hunters By then we have a well established population in the New World o Early Living 300 000 15 000 years ago Hunting and gathering life style Mammoths large horses bison ect Big game hunting Individual hunting Fishing Gathering Nomadic to semi nomadic Not everyone was a big game hunter some focused on fishing or small game o Early Living 15 000 years ago Broad spectrum foraging Middle East Old World People started expand the kind of foraging Things were getting warmer and more Led to a rich environment in some they were doing humid locations Neolithic Changes o 15 000 10 000 years ago o Major cultural changes global scale Earliest Major Human Cultural Achievements Creative use of interpreting expressing and o Art enjoying life o Domestication Human interference with reproduction of another species Both in terms of plants and animals Controlling reproduction Choosing specific traits Opposite of natural selection o Sedentism Settled lifestyle Big shift in lifestyle o Civilization Living in permanent structures A society with an extensive social hierarchy Cities Social classes Government People that do things that has nothing to do with food Our sociality is what makes us so different from every other species How did things change How did these changes occur o First Artistic endeavors Earliest 164 000 years ago In Africa Cave paintings Describing what people are doing Become more symbolic later on o Second Rise of Sedentism and Domestication Old World Middle East Natufians Sedentism was first Did not domesticate plants and animals until later People started to move into permanent buildings o Made out of stone New World Archaic cultures Domestication came first But they were still semi nomadic o They moved each season They gathered plants and started domesticating those plants Seasonal camps turned into permant settlements The First Farmers o The Neolithic Change Food production Domestication of plants and animals 1 Middle East 2 Sub Saharan Africa 3 China 2 locations in China 4 Central Mexico 10 000 years ago Rice Rice Chickens Squash Turkeys Beans 5 South Central Andes Grain kinuawh Potatoes 6 Eastern United States Sun flowers Squash Plants Genetic Changes o Process of Domestication Wild vs Domesticated Seeds Joints Wild Smaller Domesticated Larger W Weak joint fall off D Tougher joint stay on Environment W In natural environment D Grown outside normal environment o Normal range Pollen W Normal pollen D Changes in pollen o Larger in domesticated plants Secondary reaction o Plant Domestication Accidental Most productive plants get selected for Garbage heaps Intentional People see these changes and purposefully plant wild varieties Select for wanted traits EX Tougher grains Animals Genetic Changes o Processes of Domestication Wild vs Domestication Size W Larger D Smaller Environment o Not always this way but usually W In natural environment D Outside natural environment Morphological changes D Some changes thicker bones muscles Population W Same D increased population Sex Age Ratio W Normal sex age ratio D Abnormal sex age ratio o Animal Domestication Accidental Earliest dogs Dogs split off from wolves about 130 000 years ago Humans and dogs evolved together Humans and dogs are both pack animals o Worked together when hunting Intentional Mobile food source Cattle sheep pigs and goats People used to follow animals around and started to domestic to make them more tame Earliest Domestication o The middle east 10 000 years ago Wheat Barley Sheep Goats Cattle Pigs Food Production spread out Egypt s Nile Valley 8000 years ago Europe 7000 years ago India 8000 years ago o The New World First settled from Asia Domestication 10 000 6000 years ago Few domesticated animals EX Llamas Earliest crops Squash Maize Potatoes Manioc