Peopling of the Americas
True or False? The available evidence for the initial peopling of the Americas supports the hypothesis that humans first entered the Americas from Northeastern Asia.
True
Near East
Africa
Asia
Europe
Mexico
South America
United States
Who first united Upper and Lower Egypt into a state?
Narmer, the first pharaoh
True or false - after the Classic Maya Collapse, Maya people mysteriously disappeared.
false! Maya people did not disappear – there are millions of people of Indigenous Maya descent alive today.
* study hint: review reasons underlying the Classic Maya collapse
Ivory objects like these, found on the European mainland, have been analyzed and found to be from Greenland
A big reason why the Norse settled Greenland in the first place was to exploit ivory, especially from walruses
Walrus ivory was in high demand across the medieval world, and as Europe underwent a population and economic boom, demand for ivory goods increased
This demand made marine hunting even more unsustainable over time.
How does the Pacific coast route explain the peopling of the Americas?
People moved from NE Asia into NW North America by following along the Pacific Coast – generally milder climate than in the interiors – and incredibly resource-rich
"Kelp highway"
Rafts, canoes, or other forms of water transport
Explains why there is archaeological evidence of humans in South America so rapidly
Removes the time pressures of the Bering land bridge hypothesis
Most archaeological evidence is likely underwater now
Name two cultural changes that accompanied the dramatic environmental changes at the end of the Ice Age/Pleistocene.
Great variability – people adapted to diverse ecological niches
Humans ate a much wider range of edible species, and adapted new technologies to help them (nets, canoes, bags)
Seasonality and resource scheduling
New technologies for food storage
What is the difference between achieved rank and ascribed rank?
Achieved - status earned over the course of your life
Ascribed - status you inherit at birth
The Norse Greenlanders initially responded to the climate changes of the Little Ice Age by doing what?
Relying more on hunting seals and other marine animals, instead of on livestock and cereal farming
How does the Bering land bridge model explain the peopling of the Americas?
NE Asia and NW North America separated by only 50 miles of ocean
Sometimes the sea level lowered to the point that the floor of the Bering Sea was exposed
In periods of maximum glaciation, this land bridge was passable to animals – and the humans who hunted them
Humans coming from NE Asia would have crossed between 25 – 11 kya and then continued to follow ice-free corridors further into the Americas – though researchers don't all agree on the timing
This term describes: An evolutionary process that creates a state of interdependence between humans and selected plant or animal species, leading to permanent genetic change.
domestication
*study hint - review key terms associated with agriculture, domestication, and how archaeologists study plants and animals in the past
What are the two main regions of the early Egyptian civilization and where are they located?
Upper Egypt - southern Nile
Lower Egypt - northern Nile, in the delta
Name a practice that ancient Maya rulers might do to legitimize/maintain/perform their power.
Elaborate building projects - monumental pyramids, plazas, ball courts
Commission hieroglyphic texts recounting their accomplishments
Lie about where they came from - make their origins seem more mysterious
The Ancient One / Kennewick Man
Skeletal remains of a Paleoamerican man found in Kennewick, Washington in 1996
About 8900-9000 ya
Suffered multiple violent trauma and other health problems during his 40-50 years of life
We know as of 2015 that Kennewick Man is genetically closer related to modern Native Americans more than any other population
Repatriated to tribal coalition for reburial in 2017 after a long legal battle
For a long time, the oldest stone tool technology in the Americas was believed to be ___________.
Clovis – North American archaeological complex characterized by distinctive fluted projectile points, dating roughly to 13.5-13 kya
How long did the "Neolithic Revolution" take?
Thousands of years - maybe 150 generations or more!
This remote sensing technology is allowing archaeologists to realize that some tropical civilizations, like the Maya and Angkor, fed their cities through a form of urban agriculture.
LiDAR (light detection and ranging)
Why did the Norse colonies on Greenland ultimately collapse?
Stormier seas made hunting on the high seas much more dangerous.
The Norse Greenlanders doubled down on hunting seals and other marine animals.
The seal and walrus populations suffered declines.
The demand for ivory in mainland Europe drove the Norse Greenlanders to even more unsustainable hunting practices.
Altar Q at Copan
Ruler 16 had this monument made when he became king
Ruler 16 is a usurper and so is going the extra mile to legitimize his claim to the throne by showing himself receiving power from Ruler 1, the founder of Copan
The monument shows an unbroken chain of 16 Copan rulers, going back to the founderRuler 1 is shown as a foreigner with symbols showing he came from far-away Central Mexico - but he was also a usurper, he lied about where he was from (we know he was from the Maya lowlands from analysis of his teeth)
propaganda!
What does the archaeological site of Monte Verde tell us about life at a campsite in the Pre-Paleo-Indian age Americas?
Monte Verde in southern Chile – pre-Paleo-Indian age campsite
Remnants of wooden huts, covered with animal hides
Separate building storing stone tools and animal bones – stone points, perforating tools, wooden lance, digging sticks, mortars, fire pits, mastodon bones
More than 100 species of nuts, fruits, berries, wild tubers, firewood
Nine kinds of seaweed brought from the coast to this inland site for food and medicine
14,500 years old! Support for Pacific Coast hypothesis
What is teosinte? Give a few teosinte facts.
Teosinte is a grass that is the wild ancestor maize/corn.
Loves "disturbed environments" - like old campsites
What three traits characterize a state?
Social classes
Administrative bureaucracies
Monopoly in the use of force
Unlike the Norse, the Inuit were nomadic – they moved around, and hunted native seals that lived close to the land
This reduced Inuit vulnerability to the extreme climate changes affecting the Norse, who hunted seals from boats on the high seas
Narmer palette
5300 ya – increasing political and social cohesion brought some Upper Egyptian settlements together as local chiefdoms
Over the next few centuries, a strong territorial state developed
One of Upper Egypt's early chiefs, Narmer, seized control of both Upper and Lower Egypt
Unification of the Nile Valley by Narmer around 5000 ya (3000 BC) marks the beginning of the First Dynasty of Egyptian civilization
This unification is celebrated on the Narmer palette, which shows Narmer wearing both the white crown (Upper Egypt) and the red crown (Lower Egypt). From that point on, pharaohs combined the two crowns into one (Double Crown) to show the unification of Egypt.