Ch1 Principles of Archaeology 01 17 2014 What ties us to the past are trends in our development as a technological species growth diversification and specialization Growth increasing number of people on the planet and greater complexity of human technology and organization Diversity variable roles and social relationships that exist in society and in the kinds of environments our species inhabits Specialization tools and techniques used to obtain food and manufacture objects Story of past is then the story of these changes over time change from small local groups of people to large nation states involved in global trade warfare and politics Archaeology is the study of our human past combining the themes of times and change Change in our biology and change in behavior over time Archaeology is the closest thing we have to a time machine First need introduction for comprehending our human past themes of time and change along with basic methods and principles of archaeology Time 01 17 2014 Big Bang Theory at first there was nothing but then with the explosion helium and hydrogen were thrown into the universe and eventually began to compact and create stars Stars gave rise to the heavier elements of carbon oxygen magnesium silicon sulfur and the other elements more stars are created and eventually so are the planets Earth formed about 4 6 billion years ago among the chemicals in the oceans there were a combination of atoms Able to reproduce itself and live life emerged 4 billion years ago This life was then able to reproduce and reproduce eventually becoming more complex and elaborate developed metabolic and sexual reproductive functions Systems for eating and internal metabolism enabled organisms to obtain energy from other life forms Sexual reproduction allowed for a tremendous diversity in offspring and thus a greater capacity for adapting to changing environments and conditions Plants appeared in the oceans and spread to the land photosynthesis Swimming cooperatives of molecules moved to the land fish amphibians reptiles insects mammals and birds spread out Then came the human being Geological Time Universe believed to be 10 billion years old Earth roughly 4 6 billion Archaeologists deal with the time period of humans being on the Earth roughly 6 or 7 million years Archaeologists use geological time but have also created a means of reckoning time that reflects changes in human behavior and artifacts system of chronology Iron Age Involves decisions such as Paleolithic Neolithic Bronze Age and Geologists deal with the history of the earth and distinguish a series of eras representing major episodes usually separated by significant changes in the plant and animal kingdoms Precambrian organisms origin 600 million years ago single celled Paleozoic 540 m y a 245 m y a first vertebrate species fish and the first amphibians Mesozoic Cenozoic 245 65 the Age of the Dinosaurs 65 now expansion of modern mammals birds and flowering plants o Cenozoic Era further divided into 7 epochs only the last four are relevant to the evolution of the human species Miocene 25 5 5 m y a witnessed first humanlike ancestor near the end of the epoch Pliocene Pleistocene 5 5 2 variety of hominines appear 2 0 01 series of major climatic fluctuations completely modern forms of the human species appeared towards end of epoch Recent Holocene or Postglacial or Present Interglacial 11 000 years ago witnessed origins of agriculture the first cities and the industrial age including our present time Change 01 17 2014 Change modification variation themes describing the path of evolution from first self replicating molecules to the fully modern humans of today Most evolution on Earth is marked by biological evolution from one species to another in order to adapt to change We have a second system of adaption involves learned behaviors Culture means of human adaption based on experience learning and use of tools o Allows us to modify and enhance our behavior without a corresponding change in our genetic makeup o As a consequence biological evolution and natural selection alone cannot explain the culturally acquired traits of the human species Prehistoric period is characterized by both biological evolution and culture developments Biological changes dominated our first several million years of existence Evolution was highlighted in changes of movement body size teeth and the size and organization of the brain Cultural traits through learning occurs much more rapidly than Darwinian evolution past 100 000 years have been marked by cultural rather than biological changes Biological Evolution Theory of natural selection formulated by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace describes the process of change Darwin and Wallace influenced by Thomas Malthus who observed that growth rate of human population potentially exceeded the amount of food available famine war and disease limited the size of human populations Not everyone who was born survived to reproduce Darwin coined the term natural selection to account for increase in offspring of those individuals who did survive introduced concept in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection 1859 surviving individuals because of certain advantageous characteristics they possess better adapted to the world o survival of the fittest continual change in the species Evolutionary change is often described as differential reproductive success and natural selection is the principal though not the exclusive mechanism responsible for it Views on process of evolution change over time debate over level in populations at which selection operates the pace of change Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge of Harvard University describe uneven pace as punctuated equilibrium o Some changes gradual others abrupt and sudden Fundamentals of Archaeology 01 17 2014 In one sense archaeology is the investigation of the choices that our ancestors made as they evolved from the first humans to the historical present Piecing together history from the archaeological standpoint can be frustrating because the clues to past human behavior are enigmatic broken decomposed and often missing It s like a detective story Subject matter is highly diverse and highly human high range of interests Chemistry zoology human biology ceramics classics computers experiments geology history stone tools museums human fossils theory genetics scuba diving etc Regard nature of archaeology by considering how it fits in among