ANTHROPOLOGY EXAM 1 REVIEW GUIDE + NOTES:

I: THE NATURE OF PREHISTORY

A) HISTORY & PREHISTORY
B) METHODS FOR STUDYING PREHISTORY
C) ARCHAEOLOGY, PREHISTORY, & ANTHROPOLOGY

A) HISTORY & PREHISTORY

Prehistory & history are concerned w/ similar topics
Both are interested in delimiting cultural sequences of the past & clarifying their
importance to mankind.
Differences between History & Prehistory
- History: periods where events are chronicled. (write about themselves or other
people)
- Prehistory: deals with societies before writing, societies whose writing hasnt
been translated, societies whose documents are rare (Minoan Linear B E truscan
script), & where recording systems are selective (Incan Quipus)
When does Prehistory End?
- Its variable
- In the Old World (Near East & China) prehistory ends about 3500 BC
- In Africa, Oceania, & New World, prehistory ends in the 16 th-17th century
- IMPORTANT: means we need different methods to study prehistory
5 Approaches to Studying Prehistory:
1. Archaeology
2. Ethrohistory
3. Historical Linguistics
4. Comparative Ethnography & Ethnology
5. Bio anthropology
1. Archaeological Evidence
- Uses non-perishable evidence
- Past can be reconstructed because:
1) culture is patterned in terms of behavior
2) material remains are also patterned
3) Archaeologists work from the material patterns to reconstruct the
patterned behavior that produced them.
- Excavation provides specific information about house form & size of past
societies
- Ceremonial architecture provides insight into social rituals
- Public architecture provides insight into social & political rank
- Archaeology uses ancient art
2. Historic & Ethnohistoric Documents
- Descriptions of preliterate people
- These often are the only accounts of indigenous societies before contact
- Accuracy varies with the source & inaccuracy may be intentional
- Once educated, many natives often write their own histories
3. Historical Linguistics
- Trace relations between groups based on language similarities
- Similarities can indicate past migrations
- Differences can indicate separation in time because language changes over
time.
- Uses loan words to reconstruct contact
- Lexicon can provide info on environment
- Can look for mythical animals that dont exist

4.
-

Comparative Ethnography & Ethnoarchaeology

This is the study of cultures today & their application to the past
Look at the contemporary societies for insights about past societies
Uses contemporary behavior as an analogy of testable proposition about the
past
- Ethnoarchaeology examines the way physical remains relate to behavior
5. Bioanthropology
- Examines health, nutrition, & disease of ancient populations
- Looks at DNA & chemical composition of bone
- Burial practices can illustrate wealth & status
- Modern blood distributions can show migration
Archeology is the most used research technique
-not the most precise or fastest & cheapest
Its the most used because
- It is not time bound
- Not restricted by types of data available
- The best reconstruction of the past is one that uses all 5 approaches
Why is Prehistoric Archaeology taught in Anthropology departments?
1) Prehistory in N. America developed out of concern for the New World indigenous
groups
2) Main concern was with understanding the organization & development of
societies
- Cant rely on literature as in the Classical World
Study of prehistory in anthropology is concerned with the study of culture
- Culture: refers to the learned reactions, beliefs, habits, technology, forms of
organization, & values of behaviors that allow humans to survive in social
groups.
Components of culture:
- Culture is the primary mechanism of adaptation
- Any culture is a success if it survives over time
Culture is an information system
- Culture is learned!
- Culture consists of: technology, organization, ideology
People live & adapt to their environments in societies
- Society: an internally integrated body of individuals who interact in subsistence,
social & political activities.
B) METHODS FOR STUDYING PREHISTORY
What aspects of Prehistoric Culture can be reconstructed?
- Subsistence
- Social Structure
- Economic Systems
- Political Interaction
- Religious Organizations & Ideology
Subsistence Adaptations:
1. What did people eat & how was it procured?
2. What technology did they have?
3. How was work organized?
4. How specialized was the work?
Social Structure:
1. What were the main social units?
2. Family size & composition?
3. Did sodalities exist? (sodality is a special interest group)
4. Village composition?
Economic Systems:

1. Few societies produce all the commodities they need.

2. Reciprocal household to household trade.
3. Redistribution, Market exchange
Political Interaction:
1. Formal Offices or Central Authority?
2. Formal means of coercion?
3. What is the size of the population & how is it organized?
Religious Organizations & Ideology:
1. What is the role of religion in the organization of society?
2. What is the world view?
How Are Things Measured in Archaeology?
- We need to differentiate between description & inference
- We describe & measure things in archaeology
1. Location
o Placement of artifacts in horizontal & vertical space.
o Law of Superposition: relative location of artifacts in undisturbed
context is a result of their chronological history
o This permits inferring temporal relationships
2. Context
o The relationship between artifacts in the setting where theyre found
o Features are contexts of special importance
o 2 Types of Context -> primary & secondary associations
o Law of Association: objects found in primary context in most cases
things were used at the same time.
3. Physical Form
o Shape/stylistic information
o Form can be influenced by:
- available raw material
- technology used
- function
- ideational constraits
4. Physical Condition
o Preservation
o Condition used to interpret function
Inferences About Time:
- Look at: artifact form (shape)
- Artifact condition (wear)
- Artifact association (assemblage)
C) ARCHAEOLOGY, PREHISTORY, & ANTHROPOLOGY
Prehistorians are interested in 2 Questions:
1. How was ancient society organized?
- This is a synchronic question
2. Why did cultures change?
- This is a diachronic question
Prehistorians examine both these questions using Periods & Stages:
Cultural Classification:
- Egalitarian Societies (2 Types)
- Ranked Societies (Cheifdoms)
- State Societies (like ours today)
Egalitarian Societies: Main features (equal is key):
- As many positions of prestige & leadership as there are capable people
- Power based on personal abilities
- Have ways to diminish ego so everyones talents can be recognized
- 2 Types:

1. Egalitarian Bands
o 30-100 persons
o Hunting & Gathering
o Lack permanent headmen (no permanent leaders)
o Marry outside the group (no marriages inside because small population
-> family ties to close -> incest which = problems)
2. Egalitarian Tribes
o Have social mechanisms for groups to stay together longer
o Includes hunting/gathering & food producers
o More sedentary
Ranked Societies:
- Ranked societies are societies with fewer positions of power & prestige than
people capable of filling them.
- 5,000-100,000 persons in size
- More formal means of mediating disputes
- Cheifdoms: positions of prestige are ranked, rank is inherited, & integration
through kinship links
Archaic State Societies:
- Organization through non-kinship means
- Institution with exclusionary right to power
- Territorial in structure
- Social classes
- Greater internal complexity
- Often > 100,000 persons in size
- Frequently have permanent leaders
- Have economic complexity
- Market Systems

II: LATE UPPER PALEOLITHIC: 40,000-10,000 BC:

A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
F)
G)
H)
I)

Environment
Chronology
Population
Technology (food, clothing, shelter)
Substance
Settlement Patterns
Social Organization
Ideology (portable art, cave art)
Pleistocene Extinctions
The Upper Paleolithic:
- The period of fully modern humans
- Hunting & Gathering primary adaptation
- Populations during this time are spread out over the world
o Traveled to New World via Alaskan Bridge
- The key to getting to the New World was how much snow there was
- The needle was important
o Sewn clothes to help with the cold environment
Pleistocene Environment:
- Glaciers at the top of Europe & Asia
o These glacial zones were above the ancient cities
- Upper Paleolithic is known as the Ice Age
- Glaciers lowered sea levels & produced new dry land
o Determine dropage of sea level via Pleistocene coral
- Northern Europe was under ice
- Central Europe was tundra

SW Europe was a warm forest belt

SE Europe was dry steppes
Faunal Resources:
o Wooly Mammoth
*These animals decreased
o Pleistocene Bison & Horse
in size due to Hunting/ Loss
o Reindeer
of Grasslands
o Wooly Rhinoceros
o Muskox
o Irish Elk
Origins Of Upper Paleolithic Human Populations:
- Human Populations in West Europe via migration from Africa
- Early Populations had dark skin color
4 Upper Paleolithic Cultural Traditions in Europe:
1. Magdalenian (18,000-10,000 BP)
2. Solutrean
(22,000-18,000 BP)
3. Gravettian
(29,000-22,000 BP)
Timeline
4. Aurignacion (40,000-30,000 BP)
Aurignacion
- Earliest stone tool tradition
- First Portable art (flutes, music, jewelry)
Gravettian
- Small stone blades
- Earliest cave art
- First aspects of trade
- Seasonal festival encampments
Solutrean
- Peak of glaciation
- Fine laurel leaf projectile points
- Learned how to modify stone (change chemistry of stone -> fire)
Magdalenian
- Peak of cave art
- Skillful bone & antler working
- Glaciers are retreating -> grassland animal fauna are becoming scarce
- 80% of cave art dates back to 12,000-15,000 BP
Population: General Features:
- Light population density
- Lived in groups of 30-100 people
- Mortality rates are high
Upper Paleolithic Technology:
- UP stone tool technology used flint blades (parallel sided flakes)
- Blades for bone tool manufacture
- Blades were an increase in efficiency
- Stone tools
o Burins
o Backed blades
o Tanged points
o Knives
o Bone & Antler tools
o Pins
o Bone & ivory bodkins
o Needles w/ eyes
o Barbed spear points
o Fish hooks
o Detachable harpoons

o Shaft straighteners
o Carved batons & adornments
- Appearance of spear throwers
- Appearance of the boomerang
- Bow & arrow at the end of the period
Upper Paleolithic Subsistence Patterns:
- Subsistence based on Hunting & Gathering
- Specialization in diet during UP
- New Hunting Skills Introduced:
o Jump Kill -> driving animals off cliffs
o Surround Kill -> driving animals into a dead end/trap
- Aquatic Resources also exploited:
o Fish found in some cave paintings
o Mussel shells found in sites
No evidence for Animal Domestication:
- Horse domestication suggested from cave paintings
- Selective raising of young possible
Upper Paleolithic Clothing:
- All clothing made from hides (no lice on them)
- Needle used to stich hides
- Clothes were decorated with small beads/shells
Caves & rock shelters used for shelter in Southern France
- Rock Shelters show repeated use over time
- Caves are abundant & dry
- Screens used to close entrance against cold
- Permeant shelters made of animal bone
- Semi-subterranean tent-like structures used
First Settlement Patterns:
- Settlement Patterns during the UP include:
o Seasonal Migration (hunting large herd animals)
o Year-Round Sedentism (mammoth hunting)
- Groups exploiting year round species were sedentary
o Difference between 2 strategies is the degree of specialization
o Sedentism has ramifications
1. Higher Fertility -> less movement
Sedentism = high movement -> so low fertility
2. Sedentism -> lots of storage
Group Social Organization:
- Groups were organized as Egalitarian groups
- Structured in loose tribes with microband & macroband residence patterns
- Macroband camps are group sites
- Microband-Macroband relations yearly subsistence & social activities
Macroband

Microband
Microband
- Microband groups have less art & artifacts than Macroband camps
- Tied to large group hunts
Mortuary Treatment:
- Difference in status found in burials
- Sungir, Russia has elaborate burials

2 children had 10,000 beads on their clothing

Elaborate male burial with evidence for fitted clothing: cap, tunic, moccasins,
trousers, & 2,600 beads
- Mortuary Treatment Indicates:
1. Concern for status of dead in afterlife
2. Concern with spirits of the dead causing problems for the living
3. Its not just hygienic removal of a dead body
Tribal Organizations Linked to Reproduction:
- Need a group of 475 to avoid inbreeding problems
- In Tundra areas, ceremonial meetings needed to bring people together
- Why Prince Charles? -> small populations = more mutations
Tribal Organizations Provided A Larger Survival Network For Small Hunting Groups:
- Evidence for tribal organization: Large meeting sites
- Meetings provided:
o Social Interaction
o Information Exchange
o Ritual Activity
o Opportunities for large communal hunts
o Resource Exchange
o Mate Selection
Tribal Organization & Exchange Networks:
- Evidence in trade goods
- Bands linked through exchange partnership
- Long distance exchange: exotic stone, shell, amber
- Evidence for Ritual Craft Production
Exotic Stone for Lithic Tools:
- Most flaked stone within 20 km of UP sites
- Some exotic materials come from 100-400 km away
Exotic Shell Moved Longer Distances From Shore
- Ukraine sites contain shells only found in the Mediterranean
- Represents trade of 600-800 km
Amber Moves Further Than Shell
- Amber from the Baltic Sea found in UP sites in Southern Europe
- This represents trade of 600-800 km
Ritual Craft Production:
- Evidence in rich portable art assemblages
- Venus & animal carvings are a dimension of RCP
Venus Female Representations (2-4 inches tall):
- Carved
- Modeled from clay & bone
- Believed to have fertility & ritual associations
Specialized Production of Ceramic Venuses at Dolni Vestonice I & Pavlov:
- Sites located in Czechoslovakia
- Date to 26,000 BP
Over 6,750 Fragments of Portable Art Found at Dolni Vestonice I:
- 3,500 additional fragments found at Pavlov I (venus)
Dolni Vestonice I & Pavlov:
- Production consist of venus & animal figures & circular clay pellets
- Recovery
o 707 animals
o 14 venuses
o >2000 pellets (may be used in divination rituals
o 40 slabs & spheres
Special Production Facilities:

- Venus figurines fired in special kiln structures

- Kilns located in 2 buildings 80 m upslope from residential structures
Kiln 1 Was Located Inside A Structure:
- Contained 2,300 frags
- Ceramics made from loess
Kiln 2:
- Kiln is 1 m x 60 cm & is horseshoe shaped & surrounded by a loess wall
Production Goals???:
- Production exceeds internal use
- Probably for export or ritual use
- Finished pieces were exported
- Fragmented pieces may be for ritual performance -> intentional breakage
Upper Paleolithic Ideology:
- Concern for the spirit of the individual evident in burial practices
- Rich ritual life evident in cave art & ritual
- 2 categories of UP Art:
1. Portable Art
2 types
Engravings & Venus Carvings
2. Cave Art
Cave Bear Art
Engravings Mostly Embellish Bone & Antler Tools:
- Individual animals & scenes found
- Rock Art Carvings
Venus Figurines:
- France to South Russia
- A few inches tall & usually carved in ivory or stone
- Emphasis on pregnant females with prominent breast & buttocks
- Steatopygia may have been present during the UP
- Faces never usually portrayed
- May not have wanted life-like representation to avoid spirit capture
- Over 20,000 km these are distributed
3 Theories For What Venuses Represent:
- Theory 1.
Venus as Fertility Representations
o Focuses on the mystery of female transformation
o Emphasis on ideal & not realism
o Weight gain idealized because its critical in fetal development
- Theory 2.
Venus as Self-Representation
o Emphasis on fertility of self
o Represent self-portraits by women
o Disproportions a result of foreshadowing
- Theory 3.
Tactile Hypothesis
o Many figurines perforated & worn as pendants or amulets
o Exaggerated anatomy could be physical features prayed for
o Amulets may have been for protection during pregnancy
Conclusions:
- All theories agree fertility is important
- These mobile societies produce lean bodies
- Fatness would be desirable to promote ovulation
Cave art is concentrated in Europe: (This is the area of high UP population density)
Paintings found deep in caves (floor, walls, & roof)
Areas with paintings are never very accessible
Some are around corners & intended to surprise
Cave art occurs as paintings, bas-relief, & engravings
Can also model it in clay
Natural shape may suggest the figure

Human hands are popular:

- Many have missing fingers
- Paint colors are usually red or black
- Leroi-Gourhan believes UP cave art changed over time
- He proposes 4 stages:
o Stage 1.
30,000-23,000 BP, Geometric Paintings
o Stage 2.
23,000-17,000 BP, Simple Silhouettes
o Stage 3.
17,000-13,000 BP, Era of Polychrome Paintings (greater
depictions of movement)
o Stage 4.
13,000-8,000 BP, Naturalistic Proportions
Interpretations:
- Cave art part of systematic cult activity
- Paintings are functional, not aesthetic
- Superposition common

3 Theories for UP Cave Paintings:

1. Sympathetic Hunting Magic
2. Sexual Duality
3. Identity Ritual & Group Initiation
1. Sympathetic Hunting Magic:
- Animals w/ darts
- Group herd scenes
- Lascaux Hunting Scene. Magic may be implied to predict the outcome of a hunt
2. Sexual Duality:
- Different figures represent male & female duality
- Based on patterning within caves
3. Identity Ritual & Group Initiation:
- Paintings designed to pass along information
- Shamans represented
Pech-Merle Paintings Modified over time
Ritual Behavior Associated With Paintings:
- Paintings at Le Tucd Audoubert have footprints associated with paintings
- 6 children in 2 rows
- Suggests an initiation ritual
Ritual Behavior at Niaux, France:
- 500 footprints found 3000 ft beyond paintings
- Footprints of adolescents 13-15 years old
- Fragments of flutes with footprints
Initiation Rites Common in Many Societies:
- Formalities changes in status of individuals
- Occurs at birth, marriage, & death
- Male initiation often associated with trials
- Female initiation focus on passing on information
End Of Pleistocene:
- Animals disappear gradually
- Big herd animals disappear as tundra is replaced by forest
- Did human play a part in megafauna extinctions?
- Post-Pleistocene extinctions are a combination of natural & man-induced change
III: THE EPI-PALEOLITHIC PERIOD: (12,000-9,250 BP or 10,000-7,250 BC):

2 Major Changes:
1. Disappearance of mega-fauna
2. Northward Shift of climatic zones
Humans adapted by broadening environmental exploitation

Subsistence diversification was a major feature of the Epi-Paleolithic:

- Continued exploration of grasslands
- Broadened Forest Adaptation
Coastal Adaptation: increased fishing & shellfish collection (boats are discovered
during this time)
- Include Epi-Paleolithic Riverine fish weir
- Ground stone tool technology appears
Ground stone tools reflect intensive plant collecting 7 processing
Epi-Paleolithic Technology:
- Micro-blade or Microlith Industries
- Blades set in wood to form composite tool in a diversity of forms
Adaptation During The EP involved 3 Subsistence Processes:
1. Specialization
2. Diversification
3. Intensification
Specialization:
- Focus: obtain maximum caloric return for least amount of energy
- Results in focusing on a narrow spectrum of resources
Diversification:
- Focus: obtain predictable caloric return
- Results in broadening the spectrum of resources exploited
- Diversification seen in Magdalenian coastal adaptation
Intensification:
- Focus: manipulate the environment to increase the scale & predictability of
caloric capture
- It is intentional & a response to multiple conditions
- Hunters & gatherers manipulate the environment using fire (Australian
aborigines)
The Important Issue Is That Plant Communities Respond Differently To Manipulation
By Humans:
- Some have become more productive
- This can attract humans to specialize in them
- This brings us to the threshold of food production & domestication
Process of Food Production:
Specialized UP Hunters

Diversified EP Hunters
& Gatherers

Specialized Intensifiers
& Cultivators among
Others

Intensifying EP Hunters
& Gatherers

Epi-Paleolithic To Neolithic: (after 7,250 BC):

- EP: Initial food production & cultivation of grasses
- Intensive Hunting & gathering to agriculture & pastoralism in the Neolithic
(Tibetan tribal sheep herders)
Cultivation & Domestication:
- Cultivation: is the intensification process of planting & collecting seeds
- Domestication is the intentional selective breeding of plants & animals
Plant Domestication Resulted In More & Larger Seeds:
- Prepackaging of seeds into harvesting units (corn & husk)
Plant Domestication Resulted In The Loss Of Some Wild Characteristics:

- Food production resulted in more sedentary communities (wheat)

Eli-Paleolithic Was A Period Of The Food Production Revolution:
- Food production occurred in 7 regions around the world at the end of the
Pleistocene
The 4 Important Characteristics of Food Production & Domestication:
1. Food Production was Purposeful:
o It was not discovered
o It was not accidental
o It was purposeful & involved intentional activities
2. Food Production was a Systematic Change:
o Food Production fits well in a Hunter & Gatherer strategy for 4 reasons:
1. FP of plants always starts with intensive collecting of wild form
2. Cultivation of wild plants fit well into micro/macroband social organization
3. Less productive activities abandoned in favor of more productive one
4. Involves shifts in food collection strategies in relation to new food production
strategies
3. Food Production Results in Changes In Social Organization:
o More time can be spent in the macroband camp
4. Demographic Consequences of Food Production:
o Domestication increases the carrying capacity of the land
o Less space required
o Population grew & pressure emerged
Immaculate Theories Of Plant Domestication & Food Production:
1. Immaculate Discovery
o Idea: seeds got into the trash
o People saw the growth & started cultivating
o Error: assumes had to discover plant growth
2. Religious First Fruits Theory
o Idea: early religions sacrificed special items to their gods
o Error: faulty correlation, early temple fields, supported priests
3. Cuisine/Population Fitness Model
o Idea: changes in cuisine focused on cultigens
o The Beer Theory
o Error: doesnt account for original cultivation of grain
o Accounts for intensification after human cultivation
4. Sedentism & Population Pressure
o Plant domestication a response to intensive collecting
o Sedentism the result of collecting storable grains
o Question: What is found in the Near East where plant domestication took
place?
The Epi-Paleolithic Period In The Near East:
- Fertile Crescent region is where early domestication took place
- Main Questions:
1. Where did food production occur?
2. What was the Epi-Paleolithic like in SW Asia?
- Much of the research has focused on where intensive research & collection gave
rise to cultivation:
1. Oasis Areas
2. Fertile River Valleys
3. Upland Regions (actual areas where FP took Place)
Results Of Research:
- Oasis Regions & Fertile River Valleys:
o Does not have early occupation
o Early cultivated plants do not occur in either of these areas

Wild forerunners of cultivated plants found in the Upland Zagros Mountains of

eastern Turkey
- Zagros mountains have a seasonal rainy season
Zagros Mountains During The Epi-Paleolithic:
- Heavily settled
- Intensification collecting
- Experimenting led to cultivation
3 Grasses Are Important For Domestication:
1. Wild Einkorn: is restricted to the Zagros Mountains
2. Wild Barley: is widely distributed from the Zagros down through the Levant
3. Wild Emmer: is restricted to Syria & the area around the Levant Hills
Legumes (lentils) also exploited in the EP
Wild peas are distributed in the same area
Sheep & goats were important early animals domesticates
Change in domesticated goat horns
Pigs & Cattle are not important early domesticates
Epi-Paleolithic Found In Fertile Crescent:
1. Zagros Mountains
2. Levant
o 4 Sites:
1. Mureybit
2. AbuHureyra
3. Karim Shanidar
4. Zawi Chem Shanidar
o Time Period In Zagros Mountains:
1. 11,000-9,000 BC
2. 9,000-8,200 BC
Zawi Chem & Karim Shanidar: (11,000-9,000 BC):
- Hunting & Gathering was main adaptation
- Groups moved over a small home range
- Hunting covered a wide spectrum of animals
o 90% are sheep, goats, cattle, & pigs
- Collecting wild grain & barley & einkorn
Zawi Chem & Karim Shanidar: (9,000-8,200 BC):
- Zawi Chem has round semi-subterranean structures
- Hunting & Gathering continues
- Possible sheep domestication begins (selective eating)
- Wild barley & einkorn being exploited still
Abu Hureyra: An EP site in N Syria:
- 2 Occupations:
1. Epi-Paleolithic: 9,000-8,000 BC
2. PPN Pre-Pottery Neolithic: 8,200-6,00 BC
Abu Hureyra: Specialized Intensifiers During EP:
- Plant & animal domestication during PPN Pre-Pottery Neolithic
- Located at upper reaches of Syria
- Abu Hureyra is located between a fertile flood plain (collecting) & a grassy
steppe (hunting)
Abu Hureyra: 9,000-8,000 BC:
- Community size: 200-300 persons
- Large settlement covered 11.5 ha (28 acres)
Subsistence: Specialized Intensifiers:
- Intensive hunting of wild animals
- Intensive collection of cultivation of wild grasses/pulses
- Hunting: gazelle represents 80% of the total meat in their diet

Conclusion: coordinated hunting of gazelles migrating north after birthing from

April-May
Hunting Used Specialized Enclosures Called Desert Kites:
Ground stone artifacts at Abu Hureyra indicate involvement in nut & grass
processing
- Wild einkorn was a primary plant source
- Barley was also found
PPN Abu Hureyra: 8,000-6,000 BC:
- Gazelle hunting declined to 20% of total bone
- Goat & sheep increase to 80%
- Animal husbandry adopted after hunting was no longer viable
- Represents food production after specialized intensification was no longer
possible
Epi-Paleolithic Sites Rely On Intensive Plant Collecting:
- 3 Characteristics of EP Sites:
1. Sedentary populations
2. Communities of 200-300 people
3. Intensive Collecting of grass environments
- Question: Could intensive collecting productive support large populations or was
cultivation necessary?
- Experiments have measured productivity of wild einkorn collection:
o 1 kg/hour by hand
o 1.2 kg/hour by sickle
- Ripens differentially by elevation
Einkorn Productivity Calculation:
- Work 12 hours a day x 1.2 kg/hour = 14.4 kgs/day
- Family of 5 have 3 workers
o 14.4 kgs x 3 = 43.2 kgs/day
- Collection over 3 weeks:
o 43.2 kgs/day x 21 days = 907.2 kgs
- How Important Is This?
o Family of 5 requires only 1000 kg of grain for the year
o Need only 23 days to collect a years worth of food!
Intensive Collection vs Cultivation?:
- Intensive collecting was important
- Was cultivation practiced during the Epi-Paleolithic?
- Suggested by large Sedentary Communities
- The Question: How to identify cultivation?
- Seed size doesnt help
Identify cultivation from the natural distribution of plants & where they occur in
archaeological times
Mureybet, Syria: (9,000-8,000 BC):
- Sedentary community with semi-subterranean houses
- Mureybet is 150 km outside the natural Eikorn distribution
2 Alternatives:
1. People traveled 150 km to collect Eikorn
2. Eikorn was cultivated around the site
- Human manipulation changes the genotypes through manipulation of the
phenotype
- Yearly collection recovered more seeds with poor dispersal mechanisms
Have incidental changes of the genotype through changes in the phenotype ever
been historically documented in grain?
- Yes, Rye was originally a weed in wheat
- The 1st possibly genetically altered plant was rye

- Found at Abu Hurerya & dates to around 9,000-8,600 BC

The Era Of Domestication:
- The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) -> (8,200-6,000 BC)
The Era Of Domestication Is Complicated For 3 Reasons:
1. Cultural Development over the wide area
2. Variation in how people adapted to opportunities
3. Development proceeds at different rates in different places
- Reduced to 2 periods:
o PPN Pre-Pottery Neolithic
o PPN Pottery Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic:
- Good evidence for domestication
o Intensive collecting & cultivating of wild plants
o Best evidence for domestication in change in rachis
- True sedentary villages occur
o Sedentary villages before domesticates
o Theyre year round settlements
PPN Major Features:
- Rectangular houses appear
- Large villages appear
o Mega-villages of 20-30 acres
o Populations: 1000-1500 people
Most Large Villages At The End Of PPN (6000 BC):
- Regional population relocation
- Special ritual buildings
Important New Technology:
- Copper metallurgy appears
- Ceramics begin
Ritual Developments:
- Skull cult
Egalitarian Tribes Appear:
- Evidence for social cohesion
Trade Is Important:
- Craft production for exchange
2 Paths To Domestication:
1. Plant collection with Animals
2. Adding Domesticated Plants after Animals are Domesticated
- Sequence of Development:
o Settled Villages (9,000-8,000 BC)
o Domestication (8,500-7,000 BC)
o Introduction Of Pottery (7,000-6,250 BC)
Nine PPN Archaeological Sites:
- Eastern Zagros Mountains
o Ali Kosh
o Ganji Darch
o Anatolia
o Cayonu Tepsei
- Levant
o Beidha
o Nevalicon
o Jericho
o Gobekli Tepe
o Ain Ghazal

Ali Kosh Economy:

- Collected wild seeds & legumes
- Herdsmen at 7,250 BC
- Focus on goats with some sheep
Long distance exchange of obsidian, copper, shell, & lapis lazuli
Ganj Darch has the earliest pottery at 7,000 BC
Beidha Was A Well Known Village:
1. Looks like it has a building at the middle of the community
2. Has the earliest commencement around it (wall around village)
Several houses have evidence for bone tool production
Natu Fian Jericho is an impressive site during the PPN:
- Is a big oasis
- 8,000 BC Jericho is a large sedentary village
- Jericho covered 4 hectares & contained 500 persons
- PPN houses are mud-brick structure with cisterns for storing water
- PPN Jericho involved in long distance trade
- Has Large Walls; circular towers were constructed onto the list
- Wall indicates community conformation
Little Evidence For Genetically Altered Plants:
- Cultivated wild grains
Emmer & Barley at Levant sites
- Evidence for cultivation is indirect from the size of the community
The Ain Ghazal Is A Large Sedentary Village:
- Mud sculptures found in houses
- Ain Ghazal was 1 of the largest PPN Mega-sites in the southern Levant
- Size: 35-40 acres
- Population: 1,323 people