ARCH 100

MODULE 1 Occam’s Razor (“ entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity”) - Explanation or hypothesis that explains a series of observations with the fewest assumptions or leaps is the best explanation or hypothesis Cultural anthropology Study of modern social groups - Typically, these groups are people of a different cultural background than the anthropologist studying them - Cultural anthropologists frequently study social behaviors, such as belief systems, kinship systems, and ways of obtaining or producing food. Linguistic Anthropology Study of languages - Typically these are languages that are strictly verbal, and have no written form - However, linguists do work in archaeology when ancient scripts are present Biological Anthropology Biological and physiological study of humans, their ancestors, and their relatives - Frequently involves the study of human skeletons, assessing diet, disease, population genetics etc. Archaeology Study of human behavior as reflected in material culture, specifically artifacts - Although it usually is, archaeology need not to be a study of the past exclusively. Archaeological sites - Hunting stands; tool preparation sites; burial sites (whether burial was intentional or accidental); food processing and procurement sites; camp sites; rock art sites; and even cities. Finding sites - Found frequently by accident, but usually by systematic survey - Areas selected for study, and archaeologists go out and walk them, looking for traces of past activity Mapping sites - Sites are mapped and carefully gridded prior to excavation - Sometimes remote sensing is performed, which can give archaeologists a better idea of where buried items are situated Excavation - Done by digging small amounts at a time - Excavation levels are often arbitrary in depth, such as 10cm at a time - Allows archaeologists to keep better records of where materials are found Profiles - After excavation, careful records are made of the different layers of soil, their colour and consistency Screening - Excavated soils are ruin through mesh of different sizes, to ensure that small items are not missed Post excavation: lab work - Objects are sorted, cleaned, preserved, classified and analyzed - Lab analysis usually takes 5-10 times as much time and work as excavation - Rule of thumb: most interesting find(s) will always occur on the last day of work

Distinguishing between artifacts and non-artifacts a) The presence or absence of a “bulb of percussion” (created only by human activity) b) The presence of distinctive patterning Bulb of percussion - When a stone tool is produced, impact of one stone upon another produces a distinctive type of fracture - Vaguely shell-shaped, and referred to as a “conchoidal (shell-shaped) fracture” or a bulb of percussion Relative dating vs. Absolute dating - Object A is older than object B, but we do not know the age of either object - We can assign actual age to an item, such as a stone tool that is 100,000 years old, or a pueblo that was constructed in AD 1124 Methods for Absolute Dating ● potassium-Argon ● Radiocarbon ● Obsidian Hydration ● Archaeomagnetism ● Dendrochronology ● Calendar Dates Radiocarbon Dating Carbon-14 is radioactive, and decays at a known and constant rate. All living things contain carbon, and take carbon in from the atmosphere. When a living thing dies, it stops taking in new carbon, and the carbon-14 within it begins to decay. - It is possible to measure the amount og carbon-14 left in organic object, either directly, or by estimation - This allows us to estimate the age of an organic object, based on the amount of carbon-14 remaining in it. Context and Association Context - the spatial relationship between different items encountered by archaeologists - During excavations, the exact position of everything that is found is recorded in three dimensions - Everything about the relationship between items and factors like the soil they were found in, the part of the site they were in, whether they were complete, & so on. (association) Cultures Archaeologists do not know whether groups of people living in the same general area at roughly the same time considered themselves part of the same cultural group, or thought of themselves as distinct. - They define cultures on physical traces they can see and if these traces seem similar, they refer to them collectively as a culture. Systemic vs. Archaeological context - Pattern of behavior during site use will have a great influence on the nature of the site

● “Old man” had lost molar teeth & would have needed someone to process his food for him Speech & Symbolic Behaviour - Neanderthals appear capable of articulate speech based on skeletal anatomy - Different language capabilities than modern Homo Sapiens - Ability to speak controlled argely by the position of the hyoid bone to which the vocal chords attach - Skeleton at Kebara Cave had an intact Hyoid bone, the position of which suggested vocal capabilities similarto modern humans Recent analysis of auditory structures of neandertalos suggests that they had the ability to percieve sounds in largely the same frequencies as modern humans - Argued as possible reflection of need to hear the types of sound patterns used in human speech, althouigh it does not definitively demonstrate the cognitive ability to use language Subsistence ● Tar, extracted, from birch bark, used as glue to hold point in place on spears ● Patterns of trauma in Neandertal remains match those of conetemporary rodeo performers, indicating close proximity to prey ● Bone chem sh0ws neandertals were essentially meat eaters ● Research suggest that rotting meat may be partially responsible for the isotopic signatures seen in neandertal skeletons Martitime subsistence? ● Study in portugal shows presence of Neandertal camp sites dating between 86,000 - 106,000 years old - sopme 2k from coast ● Remains of molluscs, crustaceans, fish, birds, & marine mammals like dolphins & seals appear to comrpise 50% of the diet from these sites Neandertal Hunting ● Studies of animal bones show close-up hunting by Neandertals ● Bone fracctures indicate an upwayrd-thrusting motion of Neandertal weapons ● Ballistic stuydiues & replication confrim this approach\suggests close coordination by groups of hunters, with ability to plan and communicate ideas - Hunting at longer distances also appears to have been part of the Neandertal repertoire Fire Use? - Recent discovery in Italy indicates Neandertals using fire 170,000 years ago - Evidence from a series of probable digging sticks - wooden artifacts that had been intentionally shaped & burned to harden them - Unclear however whether Neandertals were able to start fires on their own Neandertal Construction Dates 176,000 years ago - Situated 300m inside Bruniquel cave - Nearly 400 stalagmites & fragments stacked into several structures - Two with semicircular shapes - 1 structure contructed of four layers of stalagmite fragments, 30cm in length, with smaller elements stuck obliquely in between - Reddening, blackening, & cracking of many stalagmites suggest structures heated/lighted by small fires - Charred materials not found outside structure, & no red or black clolored material observed ob the cave ceiliong above structure Eagle feather & Talon Jewelry? - Neandertals may have targeted eagles for both feathers and talons

- Eagle bones & talons found in many sites in central & western Europe occupied by both Neandertals & modern humans - Golden eagle remains were present at 26 sites - Cut marks along the wing bones suggest feather extraction - Cut marks on leg & foot bones suggest claws & talons were carefully separated from the rest of their bodies - No golden eagle jewelry discovered, but modified talons of white-tailed eagle thought to be part of necklace or other ornament - Deposits of raptor bones pre-date modern human appearance in Europe - May indicate that later modern migrants learned about making jewelry from raptor bones from their Neandertal cousins Neandertal Cave art ● Long believed Neandertals did not make (or were incapable of making) cave paintings ● Impossible to date cave paintings directly ● Possible to date carbomate layer that forms over paintings, giving minimum age ● Three cave sites in Spain all date minimally to 64,800 years ago - at least 20,000 years arrival of modern humans Neandertal Sailors ● Neandertal style tools discovered on Crete date to 130,000 years ago ● Other tools discovered throughout the region are of types manufactured from 200-50,000 years ago ● Unclear whetgher all of thee areas were islands at these times, but suggests ability of Neandertals to cross over water Denisovans ● Gene sequencing of a fossilized finger bone found in Siberia reveals a sister group to Neandertals ● Grroup lived in central Asia until about 40,000 yrs ago ● Close related to Neandertals - mDNA more like Neandertals than modern humans ● People of Papua New Guinea carry the ancient Denisovanm genome ● Indicates there was gene flow from Denisovans into modern humans - Mandible discovered decades ago in a Tibetan Cave has proven to be Denisovan - At least 160,000 years old, has distinctive large molars & premolar roots - Amino acid sequence distinct from both Neandertals & modern humans ● Denisova cave occupied from roughly 287,000 to 55,000 years ago ● Inhabited by Denisovans, neandertals, & modern humans over time. ● Neandertals appear to replace Denisovans at some point ● Skeletal fragments show a young female whos mother was nendertal & father was denisovan. DNA from natives of Papua New Guinea show surprising connections, they carry strains of at least two different Denisovan genetic groups. - May indicate that some members of the Denisovan population survived until as recently as 15-30,000 years ago Dragon Man Skull - Discovered along Songhua River in Harbin during 1930s, but hidden until recently - Classified as Homolongi, argued to be a very close relative to modern humans - Lone tooth remaining in skull is similar in size to that found in the Tibetan mandible Ghost Lineage Statistically derived phenomenon where DNA clearly belongs to a distinct population, but we do not know which population

- Neandertals argued to have survived until 35,000 years ago - recent dates suggest Neandertals gone by 47,000 year ago Recent computer simulations suggest that only factor that can explain the rapid demise of Neandertals is their being out-competed by modern humans ● Analysis simulation suggest possibility that Neandertals never really became extinct, rather they were absorbed into the broader human population Earliest Homo sapiens - At least 5 individuals from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco first discovered in early 1960s, 300,000 years old Omo, Ethiopia Herto Ethiopia - Discovered in early 2000’s, Herto skulls represent one of the earliest known anatomically modern humans - Represent a position anatomically & chronologically between Archaic Homo sapiens and fully modern humans - Materials date to 160,000 years ago - Suggests Neandertals were not a direct modern human ancestor - Found in association with sophisticated stone tools, & butchered animal remains, indicating hunting. ● Herto childs skull is probably 6 or 7 years old, may represent population on the verge of being anatomically modern, but not quite fully modern Oldest Modern Human outside of Africa - Two skulls discovered 1970s; both highly fragmentary - Originally both interpreted as Neandertals, recent analysis now suggests that one is actually an anatomically modern human, and dates to 210,000 years ago - Suggests that migration out of Africa may have occurred multiple times rather than single wave of migration Out-of-Africa model: ● Modern humans dispersed out of Africa into Europe & Asia in single wave roughly 60,000 years ago New Model: ● Multiple dispersion events beginning as early as 200,000 years ago ● Multiple cities with modern humans in china from 70-120,000 years ago ● Modern humans in SE Asia & Australia by 60,000 years ago Anatomically vs Culturally Modern Humans - Specimens between roughly 100-300,000 years old are anatomically modern humans - Skeletally, they are the same as us - Do not appear to share similar types of behavioral distinctions until more recently - Evidence for modern behavior begins roughly 70-130,000 years ago Es Skhul, Levant Region ● Es Skhul Mount Carmel, Levant Region 119,000-81,000 years ago ● Remains of 7 adults & 3 children; several may have been deliberate burials ● Some skeletons were had collections of perforated marine snail shells, suggesting shells were used as beads or ornaments Jebel Qafzeh, Levant Region - 15 individuals (8 children) dating 92,000 years ago probable intentional burials - Site has several hearths, human graves, flint artifacts, animal bones, a collection of sea shells, and limps of red ochre, which is used as a pigment Marine shells

● Shells not associated with burials, but scattered randomly throughout deposit, some stained with red, yellow, and black pigments of ochre and manganese ● Each shell perforated, with perofrations either natural and enlarged or human-made Niah Cave, Malaysia Famous for single hominid - 15-17 yo adolescent, probably a girl, and mosrt definitely a full modern human - Known as “deep skull” due to the depth of its burial - Dates to 40-44,000 years ago, making it the oldest established presence of anatomically modern humans outside of Africa ● At time of discovery, the oldest dated example of a fully modern human was the 33,ooo year-old cro-magnon Man. Cro-Magnon was the basis of two key ideas about human evolution: 1. Homo sapiens had evolved in Europe 2. The fully developed species was directly descended from the Neandertals ● Deep skull older than cro-magnon, indicates there were odern humans in southeast Asia when Europe was still populated by Neandertals Homo luzonensis Newly described speciues discovered in the Philippines - Consists largely of teeth, fingers, toes, along with a femur of a child - specimens at least 50,000 years old; unclear how much earlier - Other excavations in the same cave yielded butchered rhinoceros bones dating to 700,000 years ago Dolni Vestonice, Czech republic Dates from 27,000 to 20,000 BC - Along with tools, artifacts include carved representations of animals, men, women, oersional ornaments, enigmatic engravings - May be earliest known representation of an actual person - Figure carved in mammoth ivory, is roughly three inches high, appears to be a young man with heavy bone structure, thick long hair and traces of a beard ● Artifacts include some of earliest examples of fired clay sculptures, including famous Venus of Dolni Vestonice ● Thousands of clay figurines have been recovered, one burials revealed a human demle skeleton, placed beneath a pair of mammoth scapulae. ● Bones and earth surrounding it contained traces of red ochre Venus of Dolni Vestonice: - Among the earliest exampkles of fired clay sculptures - Could represent spirits, mythical animals, or similar phenomena Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal Child skeleton graded as modern human having Neandertal ancestry - Remains bring up controversial queries about how widely Neandertals & modern human groups of African descent apparently interbred when they came to Europe Similar to several other skeletons from sites such as: - Mladec in Czech republic - Pestera cu Oase & Pestera Muierii in Romania - Les rois in France Shows that early modern humans were “modern” without being fully modern Cro-Magnon

Seeing in the Dark - Cave art & stone age culture gives us the notion of primitive people invariably burning torches to do their painting - Although torches were likely used, stone oil lamps have been found in many sites Chauvet Cave (France) ● Among the earliest if painted caves, with two clusters of dates: 1. 30,000-32,000 BP 2. 26,000-27,000 BP ● Chauvet is famous for overlapping paintings, which may have been “animated” by the use of flickering fire light ● Unlike many decorated caves, paintings are concentrated in dark areas, away from natural slight sources - In the end chamber is a natural rock feature known as the pendant or Sorcerer Pendant - Painted in a combined human-animal form, appearing to depict a human female vulva an the head of a buffalo - Mythological combinations of humans & animals are common, and this may be a similar type of representation Complete replacement model: Recent African Evolution ● Proposes anatomically modern populations arose in Africa 200,000-300,000 years ago

● They migrated from Africa, completely replacing populations in Europe and Asia ● Does not account for the transition from pre-modern forms to Homo Sapiens anywhere except Africa Regional Continuity Model: Multiregional Evolution ● Populations in Europe, Aisa, and Africa continued evolutionary development from archaic Homo sapiens to anatomically modern humans ● Argument is that Homo erectus is the species that colonized the entire Old World, and that all modern humans evolved from Homo erectus in different parts of the world ● Researchers argue that it is unlikely that the same types of evolutionary changes would be seen in all hominid populations Partial replacement model - Suggest that modern humans originated in Africa and then, when their population increased, expanded out of Africa into other areas of the Old world - Model claims that interbreeding occurred between emigrating Africans & resident pre-modern populations - Fits well with skeletons such as the Lagar Velho child & others that show traits of Neandertals mixed with anatomically modern humans Also fits with current DNA evidence that indicates: ● Modern humans have Neanderthal DNA, with 1% considered a minimal amount ● All modern ethnic groups, other than Africans, have Neanderthal DNA in their genomes ● Chinese & Melanesians are as closely related to Neanderthals as Europeans due to Denisovan DNA in these populations Neanderthal DNA in African Populations? - Reanalysis shows most African populations show 3% of their genome to be Neandertal - It is thought that this may have arisen from European migrations into Africa over the past 20,000 years, bringing traces of Neanderthal DNA with them. MODULE 3 Homo Floresiensis - New type of hominid - Possibly as old as 90,000 to 100,000 years - Crainian capacity 380cc, comparable to chimpanzee or early hominin ancestor Other traits similar to Homo erectus: ● Brow ridges ● LAck of a chin Rounded cranial vault & general lack of prognathism is similar to modern humans Was extremely small bodied - Avg height 3’6” - Modern pygmies avg 4’5” - 4’11” - Body weight estimated 55 lbs well outside range of any modern human - Post cranial skeleton is similar to Homo erectus - Pectoral girdle suggest more limited range of movement than in modern humans - Bones of wrist argued to be more similar to modern apes that humans Recent discovery of probable ancestor to Hobbits on same island - 700,000 yo, hominins inhabited a savannah-like open grassland habitat with a wetland component - Fossils occur alongside the remains of insular fauna and simple stone technology

● Melanesia (“dark islands”): New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, solomons, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji ● Micronesia (“small islands”): north of Melanesia, from Palau to the Marshall Islands ● Polynesia (“many islands”): Hawaii to Easter Island to New Zealand - Western Polynesia (Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa) - Eastern Polynesia (everything else) - Melanesia settled during the Pleistocene ● Bismarck Archipelago - 35,000 years ago ● Solomon Islands - 28,000 years ago - Resource-rich area: abundant marsupials, reptiles, birds, wild plant foods, fish, shellfish - referred to as Near Oceania Beyond Melanesia: ● Situation different in Remote Oceania ● Populations fragile ● Limited plants with edible seeds, fruits, tubers - Bulk of Pacific settled 4,000-3,500 yrs ago ● Includes remainder of Melanesia, all of Micronesia, all of Polynesia Polynesians may have discovered Antarctica before the 1300s AD Intruders - The Austronesians - Origins from Island SE Asia 4000-5000 BP - Austronesian - largest language family in the world - 1200 plus languages - Expansion into Bismarck Archipelago 3300 yrs ago. Off-shore island settlements - Development of a maritime adaptation - Develops highly distinctive ceramic complex referred to as LAPITA Settlement of the Pacific: Lapita Appears 4000-3500 years ago. Marine adaptation (fishing) with addition of farming: - Chickens, pigs, dogs - Roughly 28 cultigens ● Permanent orchard gardens of perennial tree crops, combined with swidden agriculture ● Mainly yams and taro ● Coconut, banana, certain apples ● Almonds, Tahitian chestnut ● Breadfruit ● Shallow water reef fish, tuna, shark, green sea turtle, crabs, some porpoise Lapita culture Quickly spreads eastward into the Pacific: ● Tonga: 2,800 yrs ago ● Samoa, cook & society Islands 2,500 yrs ago ● Hawaii & Easter Island 1,600 yrs ago ● New Zealand 1,000 yrs ago Sometime post 1,000 yrs ago: introduction of Sweet Potato from South America - no genetic evidence of South American people traveling into the Pacific Islands Lapita Pottery Decoration - Applied with dentate stamp, incised, shell impressed, notching - On pots, motif fields bordered & bounded - Variety of geometric & curvilinear motifs - Clearly tracks expansion of Austronesian peoples across Oceania - Disappears by 2500 yrs ago in different areas throughout Oceania The Long Pause - Tonga/Samoa - 1800 yrs in Tonga/Samoa

- No further expansion - Ancestral Polynesian homeland - Development of distinctive Polynesian cultural template - Ancestral Polynesian Society - Template later transported eastward - common features of Polynesian Cultures Rapa Nui (Easter Island) ● Long thought that some statues were discovered where they had been left standing - awaiting transport to a preferred location - research indicates that Moai statues are frequently encountered in areas with very fertile soil, ideal for agriculture - thinking some statues were placed to mark fertile land as sacred, perhaps as guardians Argued by many that Easter Islanders outstripped available resources on the island - This led to warfare, environmental collapse and depopulation by about 1600 AD - long before European arrival on island - Research suggests that this is incorrect - Easter island society was successful until at least later 1700s, when it collapsed after contact with Europeans Some Terms: PaleoAmerican : term used to describe earliest peoples in the Americas - Referred to as Paleoindian in older literature Ice-Free Corrido r: an area between the eastern & western glaciers, connecting modern Alaska and the continental USA Glaciation & Glacier : enormous ice sheets covering northern North America Beringia & Bering Land Bridge : landmass connecting modern Alaska and Siberia, caused by lower sea levels during glaciation Clovis : earliest named PaleoAmerican culture, famous for distinctive spear points Megafauna : giant, ice-age animals, now extinct, but present during earliest occupations of the Americas Migration Routes to the Americas Considerable debate about how people migrated into the Americas, and where these people originated Primary explanations of entrance routes: 1. Beringia Refuge Hypothesis : people entered land bridge areas and stayed there for perhaps several thousand years before moving into the rest of the Americas. Resulted in genetic isolation 2. Ice-Free Corridor : People entered North America from Asia over the land bridge and followed the IFC into the rest of North America. Long argued to be the only possible migration route 3. Coastal Migration : people followed the Pacific coast, island hopping and following coastal resources from Asia to multiple points on the Pacific Coast Beringia Refuge Hypothesis Phylogenetic structure suggests the ancestors of Native Americans paused when they reached Beringia ● Allowed New world founder lineages to differentiate from their Asian sister-clades ● Pause in movement was followed by a swift migration southward that distributed the founder types all the way to south America Ice-free Corridor ● Earliest peoples moved across Beringia near the end of the Pleistocene ● Used the Ice-free corridor to move through the glaciated areas of North America and into the southern interior Coastal Route Over last 30 yrs, a coastal migration route along the pacific Northwest has gained favour - No real reason that people had to be restricted to any particular land route - Australia settled by at least 45,000 yrs ago

- Dates to 16-20,000 yrs ago - Wide variety of stone tools in use - Heavy dependence not on big game, but on small animals and plant resources - 150,000+ artifacts found from early occupation Friedkin Site in texas - Has yielded multiple examples of projectile points that predate clovis - stemmed , rather than fluted - Between 3-4 inches in length, date to approximately 15,500 yrs, predates clovis by 2,000 yrs Cerutti Mastodon Site Argued to provide evidence for mastodon butchery & dismemberment i California as early as 130,000 yrs ago ● Argument is that damage to deeply buried mastodon bones are the result of these being struck with direct or indirect blows with heavy stone tools ● Results in distinctive types of bone breakage, consistent with human activities of dismemberment & marrow extraction - Interpretation has been criticized by archaeologists - Most argue that authors ignored several key line of evidence, particularly the fact that the mastodon site was directly below an area of ongoing highway construction, with lots of heavy equipment in use. Monte Verde, Chile Small site excavated in 1980s - Amazing preservation of organic artifacts and ecofacts - Radiocarbon dates to at least 15,000 yrs ago - Some dates as early as 30,000 yrs ago ● New excavations provided new evidence of human occupation ● Data include stone artifacts, faunal remains, & burned areas ● In combination these suggest discrete horizons of ephemeral human activity in a sandur plain setting radiocarbon & luminescence dated between at least 18,500 and 14,500 cal BP Pilauco, Chile - Human footprint dating to 16,5000 yrs ago

- In similar area to Monte Verde site - Footprint found in association with a variety of bone, wood & stone tools - Might suggest a habitation site - Footprint interpreted as that of a barefoot male weighing 70kg Coxcatlan Cave, Mexico - Several specimens of hare, rabbit, & deer bones yielded dates as early as 33,000 yrs ago - Would potentially place human occupation of the cave during the last glacial max, at a time when much of NA would have been uninhabitable by humans - Bones found in association with what might be minimally worked stone tools, possibly suggesting very early use of this cave by humans White sands, New Mexico D ● Biological anthropologists argue that race does not exist, as there is more variatiom within races, than between them Forensic anthropologists recognize 3 races from skeletons: - Caucasoid - Mongoloid - Negroid First nations/Native americans are classified as Mongoloid ● Mongoloid individuals typically have shovel shaped incisors ● Caucasoid individuals generally lack this particular trait ● Some of early skeletal remains from America's lack shovel shaped incisors, which are typical features of indigenous people Only a handful of skeletons older than 9,000 yrs ago from North America All have on trait in common: - Few look similar to indigenous peoples in North America today - Cranially, they look vaguely Caucasoid, rather than Mongoloid - Caused controversy among archaeologists & native groups, led to arguments that Europeans were first to colonize the Americas - Analysis of numerous early skeletons from Mexico & Brazil show two surprising patterns: 1. Earliest inhabitants of both regions look different from each other - the South American remains do not resemble those from Mexico 2. Earliest population from Brazil shows consistency in physical appearance, but does not resemble modern native population of South America Genetic data indicates Asian ancestry for all of these skeletons ★ Why early skeletons look so different from later skeletons, when both have same genetic background Genetic history of First Americans

- Left caches of exquisite over-sized bifaces that may not have been intended for secular use - Use of exotic raw material and caching of superbly made large bifaces were also part of clovis cultural behavior Solutrean Hypothesis Rebuffed ● Clovis points are almost always fluted on both faces; 92% of >400 known Texas Clovis points are fluted on both faces ● Solutrean points are not fluted ● Proponents of solutrean hypothesis dismiss fluting in Clovis as nothing ‘special’, merely part of the thinning process ● Claim is odd, given the ubiquity of this feature in Clovis, & its nearly universal absence in all other north American lithic assemblages, save those of Folsom groups who immediately followed. Haplogroup X and Migrating Europeans Genetic study of PaleoAmericans showed a distinctive genetic sequence unknown in east Asia but found near the Mediterranean in extreme west Asia - Led to argument that Europe may have been the point of origin of some of the first colonizers of the Americas - More recent aDNA studies show that his same distinctive genetic grouping is indeed found in east Asia & is likely the source of the pattern seen in the Americas - Studies conclude that first americans did not originate in Europe Migrations and Ancient DNA Recent study indicates some of south American Natives have genetic ties to Australasians - native peoples of Australia, New Guinea, & the Andaman Islands - Timing of DNA migration unknown - Researchers argue that Australasian DNA admixture is relatively recent - Others suggest it is ancient, originating in an extinct population called “population Y” - Population Y argued to have contributed genes to both Paleoamericans and Australasians Comet Impact & End of Clovis? Evidence for comet impact or impacts roughly 12,800 yrs ago - Major climate shift, leading to megafauna extinctions - Appears to have had major impact on Clovis culture/technology, which largely disappears at the same time - Geologically event known as Younger Dryas impact hypothesis Folsom (12,900 to 12,000 yrs ago) - Rapid transition from Clovis to Folsom, maybe less than 100 yrs - No transitional point forms between Clovis and Folsom , folsom persists until 12,200 - 12,000 yrs ago - Fluted point manufacture becomes very highly refined - almost elevated to an art-form - Much smaller, finer flaking than clovis points - Highly oriented toward bison hunting PaleoAmerican to Archaic Transition 1950s, Gordon Willey & Philip Phillips proposed series of criteria that distinguished Archaeic & PaleoAmerican periods : - Shift toward increased reliance on small animal and plant foods - New tech for food processing and cooking develop - Reduced mobility - Systematic burial of dead Today, many of these adaptations seem to be a far less dramatic change - Paleoamericans were indeed using small animals & plants, in some cases, probably just as much as some early archaic cultures - Food storage and bulk processing do seem to be big changes - Paeloamericans may not have been as mobile as we thought

- Recent discovery of paleoamerican period burials are beginning to suggest that systematic burials were not so new after all Archaic Vaguely defined cultural period ● Begins with demise of big game hunters of the paleoamerican period - some archaic cultures hunt bug game, like bison ● End with beginning of agriculture in some areas, onset of non-agricultural chiefdoms in others, European contact in still others ● Onset of archaic culture roughly corresponds with end of the PLeistocene ● Corresponds to a warmer and wetter period than previously, along with the extinction of the megafauna Archaic Transition Archaic is when we begin to see truly regional patterns of material culture - Localized projectile point sequences that are distinct from those in different regions - Major change from Paleoamerican period, where most projectile points looks very similar, regardless of geographic point of origin Food storage is another hallmark of the archaic - Little evidence for food storage during the paleoamerican period - Sites generally appear to be occupied for longer periods of time than during the paleoamerican period - Recognized by accumulation of midden or refuse deposits PaleoAmerican to Archaic Changes