Holocene updated

End of the ice age (increase in Global Temp. Beringia land bridge overflows) The early Holocene: From Epipaleolithic/Mesolithic hunter gatherers to Neolithic farmers Between 30-40 years ago Beringia was used to cross into Spread of Upper Paleolithc People  Beringia Land Bridge o Northern Asia (Siberia) to Alaska o Open by 30,000 ya o Ice sheets covered  Western Canada (Cordilleran)  Eastern Canada & Northern U.S. (Laurentide)  Pacific Coastal Route o Moved along Pacific Coast from Asia on boats o 17-15,000 ya o H2O transport along Pacific Rim o Diverse coastal ecosystems The Paleoindians of North America  13,000 ya  Fluted projectile points  Hunters of megafauna  Kennewick Man Holocene (still living in the Holocene)  10,000 ya to present  End of Ice Age (Pleistocene)  Glaciers melted  Rising global temperatures  Temperate forests  Seasonality  Regional diversity in ecosystems (tundra’s give way to deciduous forests)  End of megafauna  Seasonality Holocene hunter gatherers (2 types: foragers and collectors. Foragers move around more and don’t have settlement permanently, they travel in groups and set up camps in different locations and have secondary burials so take parts of dead to different places. Collectors are more sedentary aka stay in one place, show more occupation through time, permanent housings, middence/garbage and burial grounds.)  Foragers o Small groups o Move camp frequently o Little investment in shelters, storage facilities  Collectors o Less mobile o Stay in camps for long periods of time o Middens o Storage facilities o Cemeteries, mounds Cultural Regionalization ( hallmark of the beginning of the Holocene) 1. Epipaleolithic (Near East) 2. Mesolithic (Europe) 3. Archaic (New World)

End of the ice age (increase in Global Temp. Beringia land bridge overflows) Increase in global temperatures you get different regional diversities in different places in the world, small mamals in deciduous forests)  Approximately 12,000-10,000 ya  Last glaciation nearly over  Increase in global temperatures  Glaciers receded  Sea levels rose  Beringia flooded o Tundra replaced by deciduous forests o New game o New lakes & rivers o New edible plants The Middle Stone Age Microliths Characteristic mesolithic/epipaleolithic tool o Small, hard, geometric sharp flint blade  Ground stone tools (grind tools down now, advancement because increase sharpness and allows for reusability of a tool aka increases longevity) o Axes & adzes (Axe - cutting down wood for boats. Sickles/adzes - good for cutting down grains and grasses which we now start to see)  Advance: o Mass produced (increase in diversity of tools) o Wider array of composite tools  1st appear 40,000 ya in Africa  t/o Old World 12000 ya Epipaleo/mesolithic advances  Regionalization  Worldwide shift in subsistence  Unique adaptations to local environments  Ground stone tools o Axes & adzes  Boats (to fish)  Permanent dwellings  pottery Regional Cultures  Maglemosian (N. Europe)  Azilian (France)  Tardenosian (N of Mediterranean)  Capsian (N. Africa)  Archaic (Americas) o More collectors than foragers o Rock shelters o Totems o Potlacks Epipaleolithic Culture (Near East, Levant) (hunter gathering to low level food production)  Kebaran o Late Pleistocene foragers o OHALO II o 23,000 ya

End of the ice age (increase in Global Temp. Beringia land bridge overflows)  e.g. The HADZA  The myth that food-producing communities are better nourished.  Didn’t do so because it requires too much work and energy (constant vigilance. Less energy to forage and watch natural cycle of prey)  The myth that food production is a more secure means of subsistence than food foraging. (domesticated plants lack a lot of nutrients. Reliant on less diverse food supplies making food production insecure)  The myth that domestication had one place of origin (independently in number of places in the world at the same time. 6 different theories – 2 in the exam (3 stress models- environmental stressors and 2 convenience models – out of convenience through sedentary living) THEORIES OF THE ORIGINS OF FOOD PRODUCTION STRESS MODELS (environmental determinisn)  Desiccation or Oasis Theory (desertification), V. Gorden Childe o Increase in deserts in Africa. Animals congregating around oasis. Stressor of shortage of water resulted in plants and animals congregating in certain areas.  Population Pressure Theory (packing model) (popular in 1960’s) o Lewis Binford o Feed growing population they domesticated the population CONVENIENCE MODELS (cultural)  Sedentism Theory, CARL SAUER (1969) o Started in costal environments. Huge flip fish supply and started to remain sedentary. Once started to catch fish they started to plant certain plants as bait, leading to plant domestication .  Hilly Flanks Theory, Robert Braidwood o So much diversification in plants and animals that they start to experiment with their diet and food production.  Social Theory, Barbara Bender & Brian Hayden o Dependent on competitive feasting. Individuals will accumulate resources to re-distribute. Started to control food supply. the NATUFIAN CULTURE SW ASIA ( 15,000 – 12,500 y.a.)  best known & perhaps world’s first case of the origins of domestication and agriculture  Consequence of a chance convergence of separate natural events & cultural developments.  By 6000 ya village life & agricultural economy are established o -growing wheat, barley (peas & lentils later) o -goats, sheep, pig, cattle, dog What led to Natufian plant domestication?  Environmental Changes: o extreme seasonality o Unstable climate o End of the Ice Age and into the Holocene. Start to see huge amount of seasonality. Cold winters and hot and dry summers therefore vegetation changes. (get transhumunance, cull and manage the herds)  Cultural Changes: o probably fired the landscape o increased the collection of wild seeds (cull population and when they bring them back they start to drop the seeds and those plants then grow closer to their home base. These populations will be the ones they cut down. Beginnings of low level food production) o storage of food o sickles to harvest grain; o seed dispersal in disturbed areas (latrines; dump heaps) o Abu Hureya, Syria o 13,000 ya

End of the ice age (increase in Global Temp. Beringia land bridge overflows) SW ASIA Animal Domestication DOG  between 22,000 – 10,000 B.C.  between 40-20,000 B.C  probably served as watchdogs, assisted in hunting, eaten as a starvation food.  Other important domesticates by 6000 y.a. : cattle & pigs  Brought to the Americas from Asia  Not great fight or flight system  Territorial but not strongly so, therefore will move with the Alpha  Loyal, good hunters and in times of low food resources they can be eaten (godammit Angela you have food) Sheep & Goats (most economically important) o 10,000 y.a. o Hills of N. Iraq, Zagros mountains of Iran, & Jordan Valley o Economic importance o no morphological changes o sheep and goats are not native to this area o transhumanance o supply huge food source after initial stages of transhumanance (they move away from their homes) ASIA Plant Domestication 8800-5000 ya  RICE: earliest domesticated plant (in pottery dated 8500/ 8000 ya)  earliest farmers in SE Asia were probably fishermen who began to grow root crops  Vegeculture  cultivating of domestic root crops (yams, taro, nuts)  grow many different species in one field  more stable than seed crops  cultivate different root crops in the same field so if one crop fails you still have other crops growing (greater diversity)  root crops are hardier than grain crops in diverse environmental Situations Characteristic Chinese Neolithic Cultural Tradition:  cultivation of millet, rice & soy  domestication of pigs, cattle, sheep, dogs, chickens  complex, wooden houses on stilts  ceramics with a cord mat basket design  domestication of silkworms and the possible weaving of silk and hemp on looms  complex jade artifacts  distinctive style of art SE Asian Domestication YELLOW RIVER VALLEY (N. CHINA)  Early Neolithic begins 6000 ya  Millet  Soybean (tofu, edamame beans)  chicken, cattle, water buffalo YANGSHAO CULTURE, China (4000 – 3000 BC)  self-sufficient large villages  began as slash & burn agriculture  complex houses & communal buildings

End of the ice age (increase in Global Temp. Beringia land bridge overflows) NEOLITHIC CULTURE (tool production)  Permanent Village  Tool Technology o Polished stone tools o Scythes, forks, hoes, plows, pestles & mortars  Arts & Crafts o Pottery – good indicator of sedentary community  New Trade Networks  New forms of Social & Political organization o Probably egalitarian o Minimal division of labor Sedentary - Planting and harvesting these plants, we see home bases, an accumulation of garbage (middens) and storage facilities, burial mounds and farming implements. Ground tools (Mesolithic)- polishing them (Neolithic) Neolithic village- Genetically related and had an interest with each other. Major decisions made by group elder. Egalitarian probably had a voice. Spiritual control of agricultural cycles of production? Supernatural?