ANTH 160A1: EXAM 1
75 Cards in this Set
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Lithics
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Pieces of rocks that have been eroded down
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Why are Lithics important?
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-Excellent preservation
-Gives clues on how people used natural resources for subsistence
-Can give clues on how mobile people were
-The different types of stone tools can be used as indicators of cultural affiliation and chronology
-They can provide information on trade and exchange
…
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What are two broad categories of stone tools?
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1) Tools produced by pecking and grinding
2) Tools produced by chipping
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What are chipped stone tools?
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tools produced by chipping
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What are two recent technologies used for stone tools?
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1) Grinding
2) Pecking
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The raw materials used to make tools are not necessarily what?
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Homogeneous in their composition, or brittle, and do not flake well (granite, basalt, sandstone, limestone)
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Manos?
Metates?
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Manos- refers to a stone that's held in one or both hands, that's moved back and fourth against a larger rock
Metates- refers to the larger stone in which the mano is ground
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Raw Materials
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...used are variable, but best materials to produce chipped stone tools are homogeneous fine grained stones
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Cryptocrystalline Silicates
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the most often used raw materials
(chert or flint, and obsidian)
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Core
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Once a flake/layer is removed.
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What are the two techniques of reduction?
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Percussion and Pressure Flaking
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Dendrochronology
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Gives you the most precise readings
-Can give exact year
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Ecofacts are analyzed for...
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Clues about the environment as well as diets of ancient people
-Animal bones
-Pollen
-Carbon Isotopes
-Phytoliths
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Humans and pre-human skeletons are analyzed by...
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-Species
-Sex
-Age death
-Geographic origin
-Pathology and disease
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Direct Percussion
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Core is struck directly with a hard hammer (stone), or soft hammer (antler, bone, etc.)
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Indirect Percussion
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A punch is placed between core and the hammer
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Pressure Flaking
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-Means applying pressure directly to the edge of flake or tool (ex. with the tip of an antler)
-Is often used in the final stage of making the tool and for resharpening.
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Hard hammer
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stone
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Soft hammer
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antler, bone
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Retouching
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Taking smaller flakes off, shaping the tool
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Core
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Once a flake/layer is removed.
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What are the two techniques of reduction?
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Percussion and Pressure Flaking
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Percussion
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Is used to remove large flakes from a core.
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Direct Percussion
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Core is struck directly with a hard hammer (stone), or soft hammer (antler, bone, etc.)
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Indirect Percussion
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A punch is placed between core and the hammer
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Pressure Flaking
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-Means applying pressure directly to the edge of flake or tool (ex. with the tip of an antler)
-Is often used in the final stage of making the tool and for resharpening.
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Hard hammer
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stone
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Soft hammer
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antler, bone
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Retouching
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Taking smaller flakes off, shaping the tool
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Debitage
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-All the material produced during the process of lithic reduction and the production of chipped stone tools.
-Larger flakes are often used to make tools or can be used as they are.
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Analyzing tools and debitage can give...
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Information about the manufacturing processes and what kind of stone tool manufacturing activities were carried out where (identification of activity areas).
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Refitting
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Is a process whereby the collected assemblages of debitage are carefully put back together.
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Striking platform
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Is the surface on the certain portion of a lithic flake that is struck to remove a flake or blade in toolmaking.
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Uniface
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Is a specific type of stone tool that has been flaked on one surface only.
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Biface
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Is a specific type of stone tool flaked on both faces or sides
-Main tool of Homo erectus
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Scrapers
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Are unifacial tools that were used either for hideworking or woodworking purposes.
-A retouched flake tool with a thick working edge; a flake tool that's been sharpended on one edge but left blunt on the other.
-A late Pleistocene and Holocene stone tool
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Bulb of percussion
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On the flake or blade struck off there is a rounded, slightly convex shape around the point of impact.
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Bulbar scar
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The irregularly shaped scar on the bulb of percussion of a struck flint flake. It marks the place where a small piece of flint is dislodged during fracture.
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Billet
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A soft hammer used to strike flakes from a stone core often made of antler bone or wood.
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Observations on cortex can...
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Indicate when in the process a flake was struck from the core
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Archaeology
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The study of past human behavior based on surviving material remains.
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Sites
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Are the places where people lived and carried out tasks.
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Sites are buried by...
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-Rivers flooding
-Winds may cover site w/ sand
-Lakeside deposites
-Debris falling
-Volcanic eruption
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Sites are found by surveying...
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-Pedestrian surface strategy
-Test pitting
-Chemical analysis of foil
-Scanning aerial photographs
-Geophysical Remote sensing
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Ground/Geophysical remote sensing
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Using radar, magnetic or electrical methods
-Ground penetrating radar (GPR)
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Remote sensing
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Aerial
-Photography- crop marks
-Satellites
-Infra-red photography on planes
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Research questions...
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Where, when, how, why
-Synchronic vs. diachronic
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Types of field methods
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Survey and Excavation
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Survey
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When archaeologists search for sites and collect information about the location, distribution, and organization of past human cultures across a large area.
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Excavation
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Is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains.
-Dig site
-Rarely use heavy instruments, tools, and materials
-Always record/take notes on findings
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At what pace are caves investigated and excavated?
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Very carefully and slowly
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What is very important?
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Context
-If you take away the context you may lose important info because you may not know the interpretation of how the items were used.
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Key Developments in Human Evolution
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-Bipedalism
-Increase in brain size
-Tool making (Habilis)
-Reduction in sexual dimorphism
-Human use of fire (1 million yrs. ago, Genus Homo)
-Development of language
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Evidence for Human Evolution
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Comparative Anatomy
-Darwin's deductions 1871
-Suggested African origin
Fossil Evidence
-First found in East Asia 1890s
Genetic Evidence
-Comparison of living populations
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Darwin noted that...
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Asian primates are least like humans and noted that modern African great apes (gorillas, chimps) were much more like humans
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Two features of human evolution
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1) Punctuated equilibrium
2) Multilinear
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Punctuated equilibrium evolution
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Characterized by long periods of relative stability punctuated by bursts of rapid change
-Causes: the savannah hypothesis and environmental changes which caused people to adapt
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How did different hominines move out of Africa?
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The Neanderthals were already living in the east near Asia.
-Interactions w/ new people
-Humans bread with Neanderthals
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Multilinear biological evolution
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Many different hominins
-Proved a dead end
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"Lucy" Australopithecus
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Afarensis skeleton of female, around 20 yrs. old at time of death.
-Found in Hadar, Ethiopia in 1974
-Age of skeleton: 3.2 million years
-She's 40 percent complete
-Rare to find whole skeleton
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Why is Lucy a hominid?
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She is not the first, but her species is the first
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Homo Habilis
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2.33 to 1.44 mya
-Oldowan Industry (cobble tools)
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Homo ergaster and Homo erectus
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1.9 mya
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Glacial Cycles
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The Earth has been through 30 cycles in the last 2.5 million years (100,000 yrs each)
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When did we know hominins were bipedal?
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Around 4.4 mya
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Debitage
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Larger flakes are often used to make tools or can be used as the
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Relative Dates
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Are based on stratigraphy, unless the site is disturbed, deeper layers are older than the layer above them.
-Based on order showing popularity and percentage of usage.
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Absolute Dates
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Are on a fixed scale extending back from the present. This can be a historical calendars, like the Christian, Islamic or Maya calendars, or in years before the present measured by some kind of scientific technique.
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Obisidian
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is volcanic glass
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Chert
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A cryptocrystalline sedimentary rock material composed of silicon dioxide. Chert breaks with a conchoidal fracture, producing very sharp edges.
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Nodule
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Is a small, irregularly rounded knot, mass, or lump of a mineral or mineral aggregate.
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Raw material (nodule) is struck with a hammer stone or a billet (soft hammer, made of antler, bone, or wood) to remove what?
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A flake
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Flintknapping
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The process of chipping away material from high silica stones like "flint" in a carefully controlled manner with special tools to produce sharp projectile points or tools.
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Core Reduction
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The process that once the first flake is removed, nodule is called core. As flakes are detached from the object, the original mass of the stone is reduced.
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Cortex
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Rind; calcified layer, that forms because of calcareous parent material, limestone. The outer layer of rock formed on the exterior of raw materials.
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ANTH 160A1: Anthropology Final