ASB222 Module 3-4 actual lecture notes, Lecture notes of Advanced Education

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ASB222 Module 3- 4 actual lecture notes

Buried Cities and Lost Tribes (

ASB222 Module 3- 4

3.1 : What It Means to Farm:

• Independently invented in multiple places
• Only appears in the Holocene.
• Has changed human life and the earth’s ecosystem.
• Its and ecological relationship between organisms
• Multiple types of ecological relationships: o Competition o Predation o Mutualism
• Agriculture is a kind of mutualism.
• Domestication is a form of a mutualistic relationship between organisms. Therefor humans are not the only species to use domestication. i.e., squirrels and oak trees
• Agriculture is a set of integrated activities that affect the environment inhabited by the domesticated plant (or animal) throughout its life cycle. Consequences of agricultural
• Evolution for increased yield resulting in unnatural growth of fruits, vegetables, etc.
• Co-evolution of humans and domesticates.
• Evolution of human biology and behavior to adapt to needs of domesticates.
• Resulted in behaviors to increase yields o Removing competitors (weeds) o Cultivating and fertilizing o Irrigating
• Building animals enclosures and shelters
• Herding animals
• Feeding animals
• Requires significant changes in behavior of humans
• Genetic changes to adapt to domestic plants and animals
• More efficient digestion of starches and carbohydrates
• Digestion of milk in adulthood
• Sediment & town life o Permanent architecture o Trash disposal
• Social conflicts
• Inequality
• Specialization
• Increase population and local environmental footprints.
• Infectious diseases Shifting risk of agriculture

o Late aceramic: 8800 – 6900 o Ceramic: 6900 – 6000

• Different parts of the Neolithic start and end at different times in different places
• Parts of the Neolithic time period: o Large settlements o Closely packed mud-brick, rectangle shaped houses with internal subdivisions and entrances through a flat roof o Non hierarchical social structures o Dead buried in settlement, sometimes under house floors o Some skulls removed and plastered and then buried again in caches o Sickles and mortars and pestles and grinders o Weapons o Transition to agriculture Abu Hureyra – The Process of Domestication
• Round houses sunken into the ground
• Hunter gazelle, cattle, donkey, etc.
• Est. in 11,000 BC
• Just after Abu Hureyra is settled, the Younger Dryas cold phase occurs (10800 BC) o This climate change affected what people eat at this site o Reduction of some cereals, fruit trees and nu trees o People diversify: collect smaller seeded grasses and other plants that weren’t as nutritious, required a lot of processing and were farther away. o Not the best strategy, so they shift and intensify o They begin intensively cultivation rye – a cereal that can tolerate harsh conditions
• Macrobotanical analysis shows that the first inhabitants of the aceramic neolithic settlements brought wheat, barley, and pulses (beans, peas, etc.)
• Hunted gazelle, wild ass, and cattle
• Began to manage wild sheep o Faunal analysis of bones shows that they are morphologically wild, but age/sex demographic profile suggests management – population in early stages of domestication
• Sudden change in procurement strategies: o Dramatic decrease in gazelle bones o Dramatic increase in sheep bones ▪ This signifies a change from hunter to herding strategies Ain Ghazal – Late Aceramic/Early Ceramic
• At the outskirts of Amman Jordan
• At the juncture of many ecozones
• A large site
• Anthropomorphic statues that were discovered in buildings, possibly shrines

• Herded mostly domesticated goats
• Reliance on domesticated animals increased dramatically over the period of time that Ain Ghazal was present
• Overall loss of diversity from 50 to 10 species in diet Changes in the Ceramic Neolithic
• Abandonment of large settlements and establishment of small settlements
• Architectural changes
• Introduction of pottery
• Dental Carries (cavities) 3.3 Maize and Turkeys in Mesoamerica

Definitions:

• Agricultural ‘mistake’ argument: choosing between limiting population and increase food production we chose food and ended up with starvation, warfare, and tyranny.
• Abu Hureyra: The process of domestication, river and Moise grounds (11000-9600 BC)
• Agricultural Revolution: increased agricultural production
• Agriculture: A set of integrated activities that affect the environment inhabited by the domesticated plant (or animal) throughout its life cycle.
• AMS dating: Acceleration mass spectrometry to carbon date
• Anatolia: turkey
• Ancestral Pueblo: native Americans in the four-corner region
• “Archaeological animal”: Animal and plant production has major consequences: new economy, permanent settlements, more complex social organization, population growth, increasing social inequality, 11,500 BC levant/Syria domesticated goats and sheep. 2000BC navigators of pacific small game pigs, chicken
• Ceramic analysis (definition and types): Any of various techniques used to study artifacts made from fired clay to obtain archaeological data. experimental studies, form and function analysis, stylistic analysis, and technological analysis. In experimental studies, archeologists attempt to replicate ancient methods of pottery making in the laboratory. form and function focus on the shapes of ceramic vessels. The underlying assumption in this approach is that the shape of the vessel was determined by the way it was used. Stylistic analysis focuses on the decorative styles applied to ceramic artifacts, including painted designs, incisions, embossing, and other surface treatments.Technological analyses look at the materials from which the ceramic is made. Of chief interest are the chemical composition of the clay, the tempering materials, and the proportion of clay to temper.
• Ceramic characteristics (that make them useful to archaeologists): Common – all over the world. They were accessible to everyone, rich, poor, living and dead (included in burial).

• Microbotanical remains: Plant remains on a micro level.
• Mixed farming: agricultural practices where the farmer raises many different species such as maize and cows.
• Mortuary analysis: Study of graves and their contents to learn about past societies and individuals.
• Mutualism: Two organisms benefit from each other
• Near Eastern domesticates: dog, wheat, barley, chickpeas, lentils, sheep, goat, pig, camel.
• Neolithic (time and associated changes): Geological change from Pleistocene to Holocene
• Opportunity costs of agriculture: by choosing to put effort in one kind of productivity, we eliminate the possibility of doing other things. Corp failure, diet limited, health, couldn’t go back to hunter-gatherers.
• Paleoethnobotany: study of past human-plant relationships
• Phytoliths: little cells of plants (fossils)
• Pollen/spore analysis: nature of exine, size shape, apertures, environmental change – dominant application
• Sedentism (definition and consequences): When people began living permanently instead of moving around to find food.
• Segmented society: equivalent parts held together by shared values.
• Social inequality/hierarchy: Ancient skeletal remains, funerary practices, DNA, diet, homes, etc. play a role in how archaeologists determine hierarchy and social status
• Specialization: when the groups would become sedentary, they would need each type of worker, therefore people would learn one specific trade
• Swidden agriculture: forests are cut down annually, cut and burn agriculture, to prepare fields for planting.
• Tehuacán Valley: Central Mexico
• Tells: mounds where many levels of artifacts are found
• Temper: foreign material introduced to clay in pottery making to improve firing and make sure it doesn’t crack.
• Teosinte: ancestral to domesticated maize
• Wild vs. domesticated animals: became dependent on humans. Human dependence on a few domestic plants and animals
• Wild vs. domesticated plants: The mechanisms of seed dispersal, ability to grow in new places, accessibility of the edible part of the plant, yield per plant, genetic change, uniformity means that they are equally susceptible to disease or climate extremes, removing competing plants, cultivate and fertilize, irrigation.
• Younger Dryas: Cold stage of 13000 – 6000 years ago
• Zooarchaeology: study of faunal remains found at archaeological sites.

• Earthworks: Outdoor works that use the earth and natural materials as their medium. Hopewell: communal ceremonial centers perhaps used to tie disperse community together. Adena: One of the first to build earthworks
• Mounds: A constructed hill, normally over a burial site. Hopewell: Tripartite structures, expressed closure, charnel houses, caches of ceremonial objects
• Poverty Point: earthwork 2k years prior to Hopewell. Type of adena
• Adena Mounds: Adena and Hopewell 500BC-400AD – Ohio river valleyflat- topped hills formed circles, squares, or other shapes and were 350 ft across. Ceremonial enclosures – not defensive works. Surrounded burial mounds or stool alone. Important tombs log-lined, corpse painted, pipes and tablets engraved with symbols. Some buried in death huts that were burned down ceremoniously. Most were communal mounds and generations added to it. Not as complex as Hopewell.
• Hopewell Subsistence Settlement System: Evidence by little midden development. Small, dispersed hamlets. Farming local crops. Wild game – deer. Wild plants - nuts
• Types and Forms of Hopewell earthworks: elaborate mounds, causeways, “forts”, octagons, circles, squares, often tripartite. Scale was huge.
• Reasons for building earthworks and mounds: Perhaps signified ancestral passage to underworld. Make dispersed community more concrete. Come segmentation – perhaps signified different clan participation. Mark ceremonial events. Established social and territorial boundaries.
• Enchanted objects: ritual object that had own power to communicate with supernatural identified by craftsmanship: Polished shininess, form, color, ornamentation, made of exotic material obtained by “power questing.”
• Power questing: Making journey to powerful places for personal prestige. Beyond “known world.” Pass through territories of different people. Physically challenging. Spiritual journey.
• Ritual objects and their purposes: Performance appropriate ornamentation for ritual garments that have now decayed. Musical instruments. o Participation attendees may have needed particular items (i.e., copper ear spools). o Large cache of stone pipes – analogy – the smoking may indicate a ceremonial use. Similar to the usage of ceremonial smoking in modern tribes. o Symbols of social or ritual affiliation. o Maybe symbols of authority.
• Charnel House: Basins lines in clay used for cremation
• Ranked society/chiefdom: o Ascribed status o Kin-based o Sanctified through mythological descent o Hierarchical order of status position o Socially defined privileges, responsibilities and authorities associated with these positions. o Non-elite autonomous in many areas of life

o Lifestyle – house style, diet, material culture o Mortuary remains – grave locations, elaborate treatment, adornment. o Power – access locations, control over labor, control over life and death o Adena and Hopewell - Elaborate mortuary complexes – prominent leaders may have been buried there o Mississppian – elaborate graves thatched temples and enormous plaza, ceremonial complex o Chacoan – highly planned civic structures, towns, irrigation, roads, burial

• Cahokia: Series – o 4 successive circles of wooden posts only at Cahokia o Calendarial marker, shrine o AD900- 1100 o Equinox sunrise – line up with monks mound post pits
• “The Big Bang” (archaeological sense): AD 1050 1100. Lohmann Phase
  • development of Cahokia – grew rapidly. o Grew into something entirely distinct, along with several other mounds o Enormous labor in Cahokia – great burst of effort in small period of time
• Monk’s Mound: o Ritual Architecture o AD 1000s o 14 separate building stages – central mound o 4 terraces – large buildings, platform mounds that supported temples or elite dwellings o Large post pits – not known exactly why they were there o Most evidence lost of platform mounds unknown o Enclosed by palisade
• Woodhenge: A circle of wooden posts at Cahokia, used to mark calendrical events by the movement of the sun. AD900-1100. There are 4-5 known circles
• Palisade: A stake wall or paling. Its fence or defensive wall made from Iron, wooden stakes, or tree trunks. Used as a defensive structure or enclosure.
• Explanations for the development of Cahokia: o Communal participations o Lack of coercion – shared goals of elites and commoners o Participation in meaningful common ritual activities o Mound building o Crafting o Feasting
• The Chaco Phenomenon: Name given to a major process of settlement and societal organization that occurred in the period 860-1130 CE among the people of Chaco canton, in what is now northwestern New Mexico. The society formed is notable for its settlement in large pueblos and for the building of hundreds of miles of roads (the purpose of which is not known)
• Pueblo Bonito: The most thoroughly investigated and celebrated cultural site in Chaco Canyon. Planned and constructed in stages between 850 to 1150 AD by ancestral Puebloan people, this was the center of the Chacoan world.

• Great Houses: Large, multistoried structures located at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, that became the center of a regional settlement network beginning around 800 AD
• Chaco Canyon population: 1000-2000 people
• Chaco Imports: Scarlet macaws, copper bells, chocolate, ceramics, corn
• Great Kivas: large round subsurface ceremonial structures (prehistorical churches) used for rituals
• Burials and social stratification: There are only 650 all together. We have found elites of 5 people with very high status. They found in two sets of rooms with 21 bodies. Turquoise was buried with mostly males and adults
• Chaco Outliers: over 200 sites associates with Chaco canyon, including small farming villages and stand-along kivas. They were build to the south and west in 1029-1040s. The houses are a bit smaller.
• Collapse of Chaco: a few people gained too much power over other people and that led to chaco’s destruction - Interpretations of the Chaco Phenomenon: o Chaco isn’t different its just bigger o Chaco was the center for trade and that food centrally stored in Chaco was redistributed to those in areas in which crops failed (however, no goods went out). o Chaco was an enormously important religious center for the entire world. It’s similar to Mecca (most accepted view).
• Hohokam: o Farmers in large southern Phx area with same agricultural strategies o Irrigation networks o Unique artifact styles – pottery o Public buildings o Platform mounds o Not sure if they spoke same language or considered themselves the same ethnic group
• Hohokam irrigation canals: o Second only to Peru o No evidence of major government organization or societal complexity o No graves or dwelling of high status individuals signaling a bureaucracy o Demarcated group of farmers who cooperated to make canals work.
• Effect of irrigation on Hohokam society: Allow large, dense settlement. Huge labor investment. Reliable water supply. Longest occupation in SW
• Production and distribution of Hohokam pottery: Able to classify source of clay and temper to 5 distinct areas which produced diff types of pots. Pots were distributed widely
• Sourcing pottery: o Characterized the temper o Match temper to natural source o Confirm pottery groupings based on temper with clay chemistry – can confirm source
• Hohokam Ballcourts: Ballcourt network across southern and central AZ – diff ecologic zones, diff product. Near central plaza – open air markets basis for large scale trade network of specialized goods