ANT100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sedentism, Fertile Crescent, Mortar And Pestle
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Upper Paleolithic Period: Lecture Four.
Australia
Colonization of Australia by at least 40kya; watercraft
Willandra Lakes region (SE Australia, NSW)
Earliest evidence for cremation („Mungo Lady‟) ca. 40kya
Nearby ochre burial of „Mungo Man‟, same time period
The First Americans
- Some debate as to when people first arrived in the Americas
- Arch. Evidence –ca. 15 to 13 kya; likely more than 1 migration
- Beringia (landmass linking NW Asia with Alaska)
- Now under the Bering Sea
- Passage south by 14 kya – „ice free corridor‟
Paleoindians
- Dated to between ca. 13,599 and 8,000 ya
- Famous for fluted-point technology known as -Clovis
- Originally associated with big-game hunting, now believed they also took bison
and caribou, fish and sea-mammals
- Opportunistic and very mobile; settled in a diverse array of environments (for
reasons such as salmon runs and other such environmental opportunities)
- Early Site: Monte Verde (Chile)
- Occupied by ca. 14,500 kya; may have been occupied as early as 31 kya.
good preservation of bone and wooden artifacts; wooden houses covered with
hides.
- Emphasis on plant foods (e.g., potato)
After the Paleolithic
- Between ca. 20 and 14 kya, we see the following changes:
Glaciers retreat / sea levels rise
Temperatures increase
Humidity increases
Some plant and animal species disappear (e.g., megafauna in the Americas)
After the Pleistocene
- Many groups adapted by broadening their resource bases
E.g., Mesolithic groups in Europe, Near East
- Increased use of fish, shell fish, small mammals, seeds and nuts
- Later, people began to intensify their exploitation of certain resources
E.g., 8.000 BC in the Near East (SW Asia)