South American Archaeology: Cultural Context for the Northwest

Cultural Context for the Northwest

Overview of North American Prehistory
1. Peopling of the new world
  1. Homo sapiens evolved in the old world
  2. Earliest homonid ancestors about 5 MYA
  3. Stone tools about 2.5 MYA (Oldowan)
  4. 200 KYA anatomically modern humans
  5. 40 KYA elaborate stone, bone, and wood tools
  6. 35 KYA Africa, Asia, Europe (including NE Europe) all populated
    1. Hunters and gatherers
    2. First plant and animal domestication about 10 KYA
  7. NE Europe 35-40 KYA
    1. Last period of global glaciation
    2. People adapted to treeless arctic plains
    3. Large game hunters, mammoth, wooly rhino, steppe bison
    4. Large ranges and rapid expansion, including into new world
    5. Three types of evidence
      1. Biological
        
        Teeth
        
        DNA
      2. Linguistic, three "migrations"
        
        Amerind > 11KYA
        
        Na-Dene +/- 9 KYA
        
        Aleuts and Eskima (Inuit) +/-4KYA
      3. Archaeological, two areas of debate
        
        When
        
        Route taken
  8. 25-14 KYA (and maybe again about 9 KYA)
    1. Sea level 300 ft. lower than present
    2. Vast, flat land bridge "Beringia"
    3. No clear agreement on climate and vegetation of Beringia (most now under water)
    4. No clear agreement on whether people would have moved through interior or along coast of Beringia
      1. Different climates, vegetation, animals
        
        Interior expect more megafauna
        
        Coast more marine fauna
    5. Once across Beringia two different routes to interior
      1. "Ice free corridor"
        
        Laurentide and Cordilleran (Rocky Mountain) ice sheets
        
        Open between 25-15 KYA
        
        Habitat of area not clearly understood; hospitable or inhospitable?
        
        Older idea/earlier finds
      2. Coast (now under water)
        
        Continental shelf exposed at same time Beringia open
        
        Average 25 miles wide
        
        Warmer than interior
        
        Marine mammals/intertidal resources
        
        Skin boats?
    6. Current contender for oldest site in new world, Monte Verde
      1. Southern Chili
      2. 12.5 KYA
2. Earliest, well defined American culture, Clovis
  1. Tight dates 11.5-11 KYA
  2. Widespread
    1. All over new world
    2. Not present in the old world
    3. Distinctive projectile point style, Clovis Type point
      1. "Ordinary" and "Extraordinary" Clovis caches
    4. Large game hunters, mammoth, etc.
3. 11-8 KYA "Paleo-Indian"
  1. Many different regional variations in point types
    1. Eg., Folsom, Hell Gap, Windust
    2. Mega-fauna extinctions

General Trends of the Early Period

1. Relatively small population density
2. Highly mobile small groups of hunters and gatherers
3. Maybe a greater large game hunting focus
4. Highly skilled stone tool manufacture
5. No clear evidence of significant dwelling construction
6. No evidence of significant food preservation and storage

8-2 KYA "Archaic"
1. Population increase
2. Climatic variation
  1. Eg., "Younger Dryass" and Mid-holocene warm period "altithermal"
  2. Effects varied by nature and degree
  3. May have influenced rise of regional cultural variation
    1. Localized environments
3. Greater regional specialization
  1. Plains bison hunting
    1. More complex hunting strategies through the archaic
    2. No sophisticated food processing/storage
  2. Great Basin
    1. No large herds of game like bison
      - Mountains
        
        Mountain sheep
        
        Plant resources, especially pinon nuts
        
        Focus on pluvial lakes (large, shallow, undrained) with abundant birds and fish
        
        Cave sites around lake shores
  3. Southwest
    1. Highly mobile hunters and gatherers
      - "Large game," ie., deer, antelope, mountain sheep
      - Small game, ie., rabbits
      - Wild seeds
    2. Late archaic, increased sedentism
      - Pit houses
      - +/- 2KYA beginnings of maize cultivation
        
        Corn cultivation in Mexico +/- 7 KYA
        
        Idea or people came north, no evidence for independent domestication

General Trends of the Archaic Period

1. Greater diversity of resources exploited in all regions
2. Some degree seasonal "sedentism" at favored locations
3. Technology often included substantial dwellings, pit houses
4. Trade evident, stone/shell/finished goods
5. Dogs domesticated
6. Spear and atlatl technology, stemmed or leaf to notched points

2 KYA to proto-historic period and contact
1. Many people still practicing "Archaic" lifeways
  1. But a tendency toward more complex
    1. Technologies
      - Bow and arrow
        
        Much older in old world
        
        Maybe imported, maybe independent invention
        
        Maybe associated with different hunting strategies
        
        Maybe associated with warfare
    2. Hunting and gathering strategies
      - Decreased mobility
      - Some sedentary and semi-sedentary hunters and gatherers
    3. More well defined territories
    4. More sophisticated food processing and storage techniques
    5. Social organization, more complex
2. Others became farmers
  1. Eg., Southwest
    1. Corn, beans, and squash
    2. Sedentary villages
      - Pueblos with kivas
      - Uniform architectural plans
    3. Far ranging exchange
      - Central large settlements with satellite communities and road systems

General Trends of the Late Period

1. Decreased mobility and increased sedentism
2. Increased population
3. Increased economic specialization (individuals and groups)
4. Increased resource intensification (ie., acquire and process more than needed for immediate, or personal consumption)
5. Increased technological repertoire
6. Increased social complexity

BUT NONE OF THESE ARE UNIDIRECTIONAL CHANGES, ESPECIALLY ON A LOCAL BASIS