ANT100: Lecture_24

Australia and the Americas §

March 25

Peopling of Australia: 50-60KYA §

• Older than stated in textbook, due to recent evidence
• Wallace Line means boat travel (first peoples came by boat, there was no land bridge in recent history)

What do these early sites look like? §

• Rock shelters; seem to be among earliest peoples in the world to process grasses into flour and meal
• Built landscapes and plant and animal management: shellfish harvesting; most commonly used fire to remove unwanted brush/vegetation
• Rock Art: oldest rock art ca. 17 KYA; oldest dated rock art is a kangaroo; dates acquired by C14 dating of wasp nests on top of and beneath painting; pigments: minerals (such as ochre) and plant materials or wax

Clovis-First Hypothesis: §

• Idea that people arrived in Americas during late Pleistocene, ca. 13.5 KYA; big-game hunters; making projectile points called Clovis points
• Components to this hypothesis:
  1. Bering Land Bridge (Beringia): Russia and Alaska used to be connected by land until about 11 KYA
  2. Ice Free Corridor: about 14 KYA glaciers begin to melt; people travelled through the corridor; believed to be impossible for any human activity in North America before 13.5 KYA

Monte Verde at least 14.5KYA: §

• Chile; pre-dates Clovis points (such sites known as pre-clovis); evidence for woodworking, skins; not big-game hunters, rather harvested plants; wood tools, not stone
• Pedra Furada: Brazil; elaborate rock art panels; rock art ca. 12KYA; site often considered problematic (one hearth produced a date of 30 KYA)

Many sites in the Americas that seem to predate 18KYA §

Coastal Migration Hypothesis: §

• Coastally-adapted people arrive by boat; kelp highway; glacial refugia (little islands of unglaciated land; appear to be habitable)

Domestication of Plants in the Americas §

• Earliest domesticates are gourds, squashes; two locations: coastal plain of Peru (ca. 8-10KYA) by sedentary peoples; highland Mexico (ca. 10KYA) incorporated into practice of mobility

• Maize; highland Mexico ca. 6KYA; sedentary villages begin about 3500 years ago

• From Teosinte to Maize, changes in: stalk; single male inflorescence (tassel); development of husks; tough rachis; multiple rows of kernels; soft glumes

• Caral: ca. 6200 years old: maize spreads into South America in semi-domesticated form; example: Caral and other Cotton Pre-ceramic sites; maize agriculture and marine resources

Large Centres in Mesoamerica Olmec §

• Legal-ritual centres (may or may not be cities); examples: La Venta and San Lorenzo
• La Venta: monumental architecture and statuary (large pyramid, and basalt faces); likely inhabited only by elites, around 1000 people
• Mesoamerican Ball Game: played by elites; shaped like “I”
• The Americas North of Mesoamerica: importance of mast forest resources (like acorns); evidence of controlled burns
• Mounbuilding: begins 7000 years ago in a number of locations; Lower Mississippi

Poverty Point (Louisiana): built to incorporate pre-existing mounds §

• Poverty Point Construction Sequence: construction begins here ca. 3600 years ago; built in stages; Mound B and ridges (after 3400 cal. BP); Mound A (3200 cal. BP); BP = before present
• Mound A (Bird-shaped mound): estimated to have been built in 30-90 days
• Poverty Point as Pilgrimage Centre: materials coming from all over North America
• Newark Earthworks: ca. 2000 years ago; part of “Hopewell”; one example of many earthworks that were constructed in the Ohio valley (and elsewhere); mostly wild resources, but some Eastern Agricultural Complex plants
• Maize in North America: in southwest ca. 3.6KYA; Eastern Woodlands 2.3KYA; maize becomes focus of many economies ca. 1200-1000 years ago
• Chaco Canyon: Ancestral Pueblo fluorescence in building great houses ca. AD 1050; at least 12 such great houses inside the canyon, over 100 outside the canyon

Great Houses §

• Multi-storied structures (largest is up to 5 stories tall with over 500 rooms); plazas; kivas (one structure has around 17)
• Built with astronomical alignment (align with phases of the sun/ cycle of the moon); seen as important trade centre for Mexican goods (copper, cacao, macaws)
• No evidence for domestic activities; found evidence for storage; likely houses for a few elite families; enormous amounts of turquoise found

Influence of Mexico §

• Similar architectural style to that of northern Mexico; evidence of cacao plant
• Chaco Influence: Northeast and Eastern extremes marked by Great Houses; example: Chimney Rock
• Cahokia: 3 sprawling urban centres near border of Illinois/Missouri; AD 1054; “Big Bang”; 10k to 15k people in Cahokia; surrounding area: 40k
• Downtown Cahokia: Monks Mound and Plaza; laid out among cosmological principles; surfaces alternate between clay and sand; thought to improve durability

Cahokia believed to be at centre of Mississippian world §

• Mississippian Material Culture: Ramey-incised vessels; triangular points: serrated edge points; shell from Gulf Coast; sinistral or lightening whelk