INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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How far did people go during the Upper Paleolithic? The earliest people in Australia and in the “New World,” North and South America, arrived during the Upper Paleolithic. How did they get there? Walk or take the boat. Australia has archaeological evidence dating back at least 40,000 years, and it was an island then, so it required knowledge of boats to cross some 100 km of water. Coastal and inland forager sites and rock art are common here as well. People were still hunting and gathering, with no development of agriculture, when Western culture “discovered” Australia (in the person of Captain Cook). Does this mean that there was no culture change since the Pleistocene? No, of course not. There is always culture change. The direction, speed, and characteristics of change are different from place to place, however. People reached North America at least 13,000 years ago and maybe much earlier; we will discuss this when we return to the North and South American archaeology sections later in the class. What does the archaeology of the Mesolithic look like? What environmental changes might be tied to culture change? The end of the Ice Age began around 10,000 years ago, or 8000 B.C. (“before Christ,” which can also be written B.C.E., before the common era, or 10,000 B.P., before the present; what values are expressed in different ways of writing dates?). Was the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna at this time due only to climate change? Probably humans helped along the extinctions of various species, as we do today. Archaeological evidence from Pacific islands shows clearly that shortly after humans arrive, just a couple centuries, the largest game animals, whatever they are (usually large terrestrial birds) disappear from the middens because they have already been hunted to extinction. Is there some lesson here for us today? So what did people eat during the Mesolithic? Modern fauna were hunted after about 8000 B.C., the spectacular cave art apparently disappears, and different distinctive regional traditions emerge around the world. The New World time period equivalent to the Mesolithic is the Archaic. During this time it appears that hunter-gatherer peoples expanded the diversity of species that they used and exploited smaller regions more intensively. There are more plant remains in general, but that may just be from better preservation, not necessarily an indication that Paleolithic meat-eaters were now getting a different diet with more fruits and vegetables! Similarly, the higher number of coastal sites does not necessarily mean a sudden change toward favoring saltwater fish and clams, but results from the elimination of earlier coastal evidence under rising postglacial sea levels. In addition, the rising water backed up river mouths to create estuaries and bays, much like we have in the Tampa area, with more environmental niches and thus more diverse species available to collect. Many shell midden sites appear during this time period. These are ancient trash piles with animal bone and plant remains and shells left from harvesting various molluscs or gastropods; the shell makes the sites more visible and easier to find. What is the evidence for postglacial foragers in the Old World? In Ireland, for example, there was no Paleolithic occupation because it was under or too near the ice (go back to map, p. 76). By 7,000 years ago, people had arrived. The Mount Sandel site shows posthole patterns of round, possibly sod-covered huts, with animal bone and seeds and other
plant remains that suggest year-round occupation of this favorable coastal location. Page 165 shows a very nice frequency seriation chart of what species were available at what times of year, indicating that there was always something that could be harvested from the wild resource base. This is an important aspect of the Mesolithic/Archaic—that sedentism is becoming possible, often in coastal locations. What subsistence and ceremonial materials were found at Vedbaek site in Denmark? Another nice diagram (p. 169), this time a cross section of the coastal landscape, shows the range of species from land, water, and air that were utilized at camps in this region, according to the faunal remains. The Mesolithic cemetery dated to 4800 B.C. included many graves with decorative items and things we can interpret possibly as giving social and ceremonial information. The man’s skeleton with a bone point in the throat, accompanied by skeletons of a woman and child, p. 161, are described as evidence for nuclear families. The child burial on the wing of a swan next to an adult woman’s skeleton is interpreted as a mother and child. What could the swan wing symbolize? Belief of the flight of the soul up to heaven, or just a soft baby bed? Can we assume these family relationships? How could we test these very Western assumptions? DNA studies might at least give genetic family data, but if the child was adopted, they would not! How was subsistence and seasonality interpreted and tested at Elands Bay Cave in South Africa? Interpretation of inland and coastal hunter-gatherer sites discovered during a large survey suggested to the researcher that people established a pattern of transhumance, moving across the landscape annually to take advantage of available resources. Both faunal assemblages of animals available only during certain times of the year and stone tool assemblages with different diagnostic artifacts suggested that people wintered on the coast and moved inland during the summer. But bone chemistry studies did not show any marine diet in the carbon isotopes of their skeletons, providing negative support for the model. A frequency seriation chart (p. 176) nicely shows the change through time in the faunal assemblage at the site, with more fur seals and smaller bovids (horned terrestrial mammals such as antelope and cow) through time. What notable characteristics mark the Jomon culture? Dating from 10,000 to 300 B.C., Jomon sites in eastern Japan have similar evidence of terrestrial hunting and coastal gathering and fishing, with elaborate gear including net weights and floats, harpoons, fishhooks, and dugout canoes. There is also evidence of early plant cultivation and much wild plant gathering, as judged from the various species recovered archaeologically and also the mortars, pestles, and other grinding stones and chipped stone hoes. There are circular house patterns and faunal evidence of year-round settlement on the coast. The earliest pottery known so far appears in Jomon. Remember that the technology of fired clay artifacts was known, since people made figurines in the Upper Paleolithic, perhaps 25,000 years ago. But then it disappeared until earthenware vessels appeared in Japan. Origins of Food Production
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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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Student Exercise 10: ETHNOGRAPHER A
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traditionally studying non-Western
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consideration landowners, descendan
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INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY Nancy White - Touro Institute

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