| Term | Definition |
|---|
| When was the MP? | 200,000 years ago to about 40,000 years ago. |
| Who appeared in the MP? | Homo sapiens sapiens + Neanderthals |
| Where were HSS and N? | HSS—Africa. Neanderthals—Europe. |
| Klasies | Cave site in Africa. Remarkable because it has some of the earliest dated skeletal remains that are clearly SS. 125,000 years ago. Hunting large game, small game, shellfish, deep water fish—implies boats. Very sophisticated broad spectrum adaptation |
| broad spectrum adaptation | supporting a broad range of activities rather than just a narrow range. |
| Mousterian tradition | toolmaking tradition in MP |
| Levallois technique | Goal is to produce flakes of a certain size. Invest a fair amount of effort in creating those flakes by modifying the core. Strike core to create flat platform. Strike it with something softer than the rock—peel flake after flake off the core, getting flakes of about the same size. Work those flakes into different shapes. |
| What is the fly in the mousterian ointment? | We have always presumed that different shapes = different functions. More efficient. Recent work has been looking at form + preserved signs of use. Find evidence of multiple functions of specialized tools. Different forms, overlapping functions. |
| What does the complexity and spread of the technology imply? | both groups conveying info to each other—using same technologies—technology is CULTURAL, not BIOLOGICAL. Conveying tradition across group boundaries implies language |
| Burial | Symbolizing. Seeing something in that body more than the body. Death doesn't end social connections. At least for a brief period after death, you still owe those people something, because of the meaning you attribute to them/their remains. Implies complex emotional connections. Love, friendship, companionship, etc. Social bonding transcends death. |
| Shanadar + flowers | Iraq. Cave site. Neanderthal. One interment: one man, two women, and a child. Covered with earth. Pollen from soil covering variable analyzed—dense concentration of pollen from flowering plants. Flowers would not normally get that far back in the cave. Not only burying the dead, but memorializing them by offerings of flowers. |
| La Chapelle aux Saints | 60,000 years ago. France. Remains of a fairly old (60s) individual. Severe, crippling arthritis. He had reached an age at which his jaw had reabsorbed most of his teeth. To keep him alive, the Neanderthals had to give him the food he could not hunt and gather for himself, and process the food he couldn't chew. He lived for a while like this; other people taking the time and energy to get him the food he needed to survive, although he couldn't reciprocate in kind |
| Shanadar + Arm | Individual with a withered left arm—from birth or from later arm. Bad injury over left eye—probably blind in that eye. Fairly bad arthritis. Died in a cave fall, in his 40s. IMPLIES attachments not based on economic calculations. Just because people can do things does not mean they will do things. The choice goes back to issues of motivation. We can keep the people we like/need alive. |
| What happens as bonds within groups get stronger? | As bonds within groups are more develop, more animosity toward other groups. |
| Shanadar + rib | Individual with a groove in the rib. Almost certainly result of interpersonal combat which is usually with other groups. |
| Hortus + Krapina | 60,000 years ago. Eastern and western Europe. 20 individuals in each site. Bones mixed with bones of animals. Plausible to interpret these remains as evidence of cannibalism. Eating the remains of Neanderthals from other groups. This kind of behavior speaks to issues of intergroup violence. This kind of conflict strengthens in-group bonds. |
| 50,000 years ago, Major HSS Migration out of Africa | They are found very soon (10,000 years later) all over the Old World. Siberia, Asia, Australia, Europe. To get to Australia, people had to sail out of sight of land. |
| What were two possible encounters between HSS and N? | 1. they interbred, eventually N. characteristics got bred out. 2. SS edged out or killed N. SS had an intellectual advantage. |
| How striking are the differences between HSS and N? | Differences between the two aren't as striking as we used to think they were. Also, they were prob. communicating. |
| Blade Technology | Take rock, shape it with another rock. Polyhedral core. Remove flakes from it. Peel flakes off around the edges. Takes a lot of skill. Have to choose high quality materials. Once flake is off, you can use it as it is or shape it. At least 92 different kinds of specialized tools off of these flakes. |
| Did blade technology give the HSS an advantage over the N? | Archaeologist have always assumed that this technology gave the HSS enough of an edge to out-compete the Neanderthals. BUT HSS were more than capable of communicating this technology to N and that the N were more than capable of learning it. They don't seem to have been in opposition to each other. |
| Bone, Antler, and Wood tools | More common, greater variety of tools. HSS and maybe N were capable of using many different media. |
| Composite tools | Tools made out of several different parts, often combining different media. |
| Atlatl | Spear thrower. Piece of narrow board, artificial extension of the human arm. Allows you to throw farther, hit target with greater force, be more accurate. You don't need to get as close to wild game as you did before. |
| Focal economies | Focal—focused on a narrow range of resources which are hunted or gathered intensively. |
| diffuse economies | Diffuse—Exploit a wide range of resources but don't exploit any one of them to a great extent |
| Are most economies focal or extreme? | Most economies fall between extremes. To make these economies work, we have more efficient tools for getting food AND more efficient methods of processing it. |
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