| Term | Definition |
|---|
| prehistory | the era before writing, before things were being recorded by writing |
| cultural anthropology | the branch of anthropology that deals with human culture and society, living societies |
| linguistic anthropology | focuses on languages & when/how they evolved |
| Physical/Biological Anthropology | biological/genetic aspects of people and evolution of humans, earliest fossil record, hominins - human ancestors, deals with the evolution of a species |
| Archaeology | study of ancient things that are the byproducts of human activites |
| Excavation | the site of an archeological exploration |
| Artifacts | any object or material that has been made or used by a human being in the past |
| Ecofacts | Results of human subsistence (eating) ex, clam shells, bones.. |
| Features | Objects that can't be picked up or carried ex. Building |
| Writing | technology for storing, manipulating, and communicating data. It was invented independently in three places. |
| material culture | physical manifestations of culture in the form of artifacts, features & sites |
| site | accumulations of artifacts, features, ecofacts and/or human skeletal remains that represent places where people lived, died or carried out certain activities in the past |
| fossil | petrified remains of a once living organism |
| midden | deposit of prehistoric garbage, food |
| human skeletal remains | remains of humans or human ancestors resulting from either accidental or intentional burial or some other preservation activity |
| association | the proximity of an archaeological artifact of feature to other artifacts or features in the same matrix |
| context | the relationship between an artifact and its setting |
| stratigraphy | layering of soil deposites |
| law of superposition | the deepest levels are the oldest |
| relative dating | Dating technique, for example, stratigraphy, that establishes a time frame in relation to other strata or materials, rather than absolute dates in numbers. (and rule of superposition) |
| Three Age System | a system that used relative dating in which human history is divided into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages |
| Stone Age | oldest of the three age system, 2.5 MYA - 5000 BP |
| Bronze Age | middle of the three age system, 5000 BP - 3200 BP |
| Iron Age | youngest of three age system, 3200 BP - Present |
| Paleolithic | old stone age |
| Neolithic | new stone age (farming, tools for growing crops) |
| Cenozoic | era; 65 MYA - Present |
| Quaternary | period; 2 MYA - Present |
| Miocene | epoch; 25 - 5.5 MYA |
| Pliocene | epoch; 5.5 - 2.0 MYA |
| Pleistocene | epoch; 2.0 MYA - 12,000 BP |
| Holocene | epoch; 12,000 BP - Present |
| dendrochronology | tree ring dating; only useful when wood is preserved, most accurate and useful for dating of structures |
| Radiocarbon Dating | invented in 1949, first form of absolute dating, based on an unstable isotope of carbon, carbon14, which humans intake at the same rate as it is in the atmosphere |
| Potassium-Argon Dating | used to date rocks, uses radioactive decay, dates when a rock was formed |
| biological evolution | the evolution of homo sapiens sapiens |
| colonization | the movement of colonies, long distance voyages |
| adaptation | process of adjusting to new environment |
| technological evolution | most impressive/amazing inventions, people inventing things to adjust to environmental changes; ex. stone choppers, bow and arrow, fire, agriculture |
| social complexity | more complex social organizations; distribution of labor, labor specialties & small amount of people with power |
| bipedalism | the ability to walk fully erect on two legs |
| endocast | A cast of the inside of a skull; helps determine the size and shape of the brain. |
| cannibalism | skulls processed like animal bones suggests... |
| incest taboo | since we cannot have relations with relatives, therefore must find a mate in another group and therefore must care about well being of other groups |
| diluvium | results of a great flood, gravel left over due to a flood |
| natural selection | in the struggle for survival, those organisms most well adapted to prevailing conditions will pass on their superior characteristics to succeeding generation with more frequency |
| interglacial | warmer periods in between glacials |
| glacial | marked by a series of cold periods, vast expanses of glacial ice which were barriers to human colonization |
| last glacial maximum | 20,000 yrs ago, last glacial |
| pleistocene climate | glacials & interglacials, glacial coverage & lower sea levels |
| levallois technique | a middle paleolithic technique that made use of prepared cores to produce uniform flakes |
| knuckle walking | contrasts with bipedalism, allows for excellent power thrust for jumping tinto treees and short sprints, arms are much longer |
| Primates | ORDER: which includes all lemurs, monkeys, apes, humans, and human ancestors. |
| Classification of humans and their ancestors | order - primates, family - hominidae, tribe/subfamily - hominini, genera - sahelanthropus/ardipithecus/australopithicus/home |
| hominidae | FAMILY: Gorillas, chimps, Human and human-like ancestors represented in the fossil record back to ca. 6-7 million years ago. |
| Hominini | TRIBE/SUBFAMILY: Human and human-like ancestors represented in the fossil record back to ca. 6-7 million years ago. |
| Sahelanthropus, Ardipithecus, Australopithicus, Homo | GENERA: There are four hominin genera that we will be mentioning from oldest and most ape-like to youngest they are: |
| Core | an artifact; the objective piece, the piece that is struck |
| Flake | an artifact; thin piece that is removed from the core |
| Hammerstone | an artifact; the stone that is used to hammer, to hit the core |
| Oldowon Tool (Pebble Tool) | pebble tools like those found at Olduvai Gorge & near Australopithecus garhi |
| pebble tool | pebble from which 2 -3 flakes were removed to make a tool |
| brixham cave | excavations conducted through diluvium, found a "flint" and remains of an extinct animal |
| Raymond Dart: Australopithecus Africanus | "taung Bab" fossil, endocast of brain, cranial capacity bigger than a chimp, 6 yrs old, species in between chimps and humans, disregarded b/c of piltdown hoax |
| Sahelanthropus tchadensis | Reported by Michel Brunet. The fossil consists of a remarkably complete skull (cranium). Much less prognathic profile, small canines and many other traits of the teeth distinguish it as a hominid not an ape. Small cranial capacity (380 cc) Dated 6-7 MYA |
| Michael Brunet | discovered the Sahelanthropus tchadensis |
| Ardipithecus ramidus | Several examples and subspecies . Found in the Awash area of the Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia. Dated 5.8- 4.5 MYA . First reported in 1994, by Tim White from U. C. Berkeley who argues that the species was bipedal. |
| Laetoli (SITE) | At this site in Tanzania in the southern Rift Valley Mary Leakey found three sets of footprints dating about 3.5 million years ago--probably left by Australopithecines (3). Found in 1976, dated by potassium argon. Demonstrate bipedal walking. |
| "Killer Ape Hypothesis" | RAYMOND DART: that Australopithecines hunted and killed animals and ate their flesh. |
| scavenging hypothesis | ROBERT BRAIN: early hominims were scavengers and often eaten themselves, brain w/2 puncture marks and leopard jaw = punctures |
| Medevial Concept of Order | everything had been unchanged for 1600 years |
| uniformitarianism | james hutton, the processes that are observable today shaping the earth's surface are the sames ones that have been in effect throughout time |
| gracile australopithecines | Found only in south africa, aka australopithecus africanus - TAUNG BABY by Robert Dart, small skulls and jutting out faces |
| Robust Australopithecines | found in eastern and southern africa, very heavy build, large teeth and small brains. Australopithecines aethiopicus/boisei/robustus |
| basal paleolithic | 2.6-1.8 MYA australopitheciens, homo habilis and oldowan tools |
| mousterian | the tool industry found among Neanderthals in Europe and Southeast Asia, and their human contemporaries in northern Africa, during the Middle Paleolithic, generally dating from about 40,000 to 125,000 years ago |
| upper paleolithic | last part of stone age, tools with long slim blades and creative symbolic forms |
| middle paleolithic | the middle part of the old stone age characterized by the development of the mousterian transition of tool making and the early levalloisian traditions |
| lower paleolithic | the oldest part of the Paleolithic Age with the emergence of the hand ax |
| early homo - homo habilis | homo - 2.5-2.0 MYA "handy man" don't think they could speak, found in OLDUVAI GORGE |
| Hadar, Ethiopia | australopithecus afarensis "LUCY" Donald Johanson 3MYA |
| trinil | fossil remains of homo erectus 1.8 mya |
Combine with other sets
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