INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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since children cannot do things adults can. But men can gather plants and nurture babies, and women can hunt, and the stereotypes given above for now just reflect Western biases. Middle and Upper Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers The Emergence of Modern Humans, The Mesolithic Lesson Objectives: Compare models of Neanderthal and early modern humans and their lifestyles based on cultural evidence; understand political contexts; understand the Upper Paleolithic lifestyles and interpretations of art; the Mesolithic. What is the Middle Paleolithic? This cultural “stage” was once easier to describe when it was thought that clear divisions could be made in both culture and associated biological forms of humans. So the Neanderthals, robust and ugly-looking to us, were considered to be the makers of Middle Paleolithic tools in Europe and the Near East (eastern Mediterranean and southwestern Asia), then in came modern people with Upper Paleolithic tools and art, and away went Neanderthals. Now the picture is enormously more complicated and debated. One reason for this is that we know now that modern humans appear as early as 100,000 years ago, but Neanderthals last until about 40,000 years ago. What is the relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans? There are many opposing arguments. Some think Neanderthals were a separate species of hominid from Homo sapiens, called Homo neanderthalensis, that evolved from the Homo erectus forms in Europe and died out when moderns came in. Others consider Neanderthals a subspecies or biological race, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, differentiated only by geographical isolation but still contributing genes to modern humans, that is, mating with moderns to a degree. Physically, Neanderthals were different looking, with longer heads, more robust bones, even bigger brains; these adaptations are thought to be adaptations to the cold periglacial climate of their northerly home. What are the two opposing models explaining the appearance of modern humans? The “out of Africa” model has modern humans developing in Africa and moving out to replace other
hominids all over the Old World. Replacement is considered to include everything from violent conflict to genetic superiority, from no mating with “the other” to some exchange of genes. The “multiregional” model has modern humans evolving in place all over the world; in other words, gradually developing from whatever hominid is there because there would be enough gene flow (translation: mating across geographical regions) to assure continuity of the evolution of the species all over the map. How can archaeology contribute to the debates on modern human origins? In this class, we will not discuss very much the details of biological evolution nor the evidence from both fossil skeletal remains and molecular evolutionary studies such as changes through time in DNA. There have been a couple of DNA studies done on European Neanderthals which found that there was enough difference from modern humans so as to make them not ancestral. But this is a small sample size, and those individuals may have simply had family lines that died out. There will be more such studies soon. Meanwhile, the archaeology is not simple either. There have been Upper Paleolithic tools found with Neanderthal skeletal remains and Middle Paleolithic artifacts with modern humans. The question of whether Neanderthals or even earlier hominids could talk is also difficult to solve. How could Homo erectus have made it across the hemisphere without language? Can you teach someone to chip fancier stone tools without talking? There is even debate on whether skeletal remains can demonstrate that the vocal apparatus was present in earlier hominids; it is not there in apes. What behavior can we attribute to Neanderthals from the archaeological remains? Mousterian tools of the Middle Paleolithic were made on flint flakes; they were scrapers and gravers and many other types, including triangular, unifacial points. Deliberate burials are known, possible evidence for cannibalism, and many features that are interpreted as “ ceremonial,” often including deposits of cave bear bones or other items. What evidence is known from Shanidar Cave? This famous site in Iraq produced, among other things, a Neanderthal skeleton of an older adult male who had been severely disabled from birth yet apparently cared for within his society. Another burial had pollen from plants in different kinds of environments, suggesting the placement of flowers over the dead. This has been disputed lately too, however.
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In Conjunction with the INTRODUCTIO
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USF's public archaeology program. T
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Same as Midterm, above, but coverin
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Students seem to like all the exerc
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Student Exercise 10: ETHNOGRAPHER A
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Page 43 and 44: What is AMS radiocarbon dating? The
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INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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