NA Archaeology
Terms
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- Holocene
- modern era of climate- post 10,000 BP
- primary forest efficiency hypothesis
- 1958, joseph campbell: holocene in the east is a period of increasingly specialized adaptation to specific regional environments
- problems with PFE Hypothesis
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1. climate and environment not stable throughout the archaic
2. specialized adaptations start much earlier than this; ie, 10,000 BP Dalton culture
3. specific regional traditions develop as early as early archaic (9000 BP)
[very complex environment] - Holocene archaeology now
- period of highly flexible foragers capable of rapid adaptations to changing environments through cultural, social, and technological responses
- what are the results of population packing, 7000-2000 BP?
- smaller range of group movement, new boundaries, reliance on local stone= decline in quality of tools and prestige goods, processing of seeds for lack of easier to use food sources
- earthwork constructions begin as early as...
- 5000 to 3000 BP
- archaic period
- not so much a distinct period as another phase at root of woodland culture (2500-1000 BP).
- woodland period hallmarks
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mound building, social ranking, pottery, native horticulture, trade of prestige goods
[all began thousands of yrs earlier in the archaic] - results of buried floodplains, caves, rockshelters?
- favorable geologic conditions for site burial result in many detailed sequences of archaic culture change
- eastern archaic impact on the natural environment
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1. regular forest clearing and burning by 9000 BP reduces underbrush and encourages edible forbs and grasses
2. placement of fish weirs and traps in rivers and streams
3. over harvesting of many animal species (deer, mussels, passenger pigeons) - trends in the eastern archaic
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1. entrenching/population packing and reduction in settlement mobility
2. increase in diet breadth and taking lower ranked resources (see binford's "broad spectrum depression")
3. regional diversification in culture
4. increases in interpersonal conflict
5. increased importance of social alliances (ranking and exchange) - results of dietary change in woodland period
- lifespan changes from 22 to 40 with broader diet, decreases again as agriculture intensifies
- Adena complex
- 1000 BC- AD 100. ceremonial complex moreso than a culture (transcends tribes), burial mounds in ohio river valley, utilitarian burial goods
- woodland period politics
- big man organization. long distance trade of prestige goods, exchange networks
- woodland period religion
- mound building, monumental architecture, open spaces, solar observations, ancestor worship, mortuary rituals. eg adena, hopewell
- woodland subsistence
- cultivation of native weedy annual seed crops (sunflower, goosefoot, knotweed, marshelder...) shift from oily to starchy seeds for gruels 200-500 AD
- hopewell
- 200bc-ad400. post-adena. southern ohio is "cradle." very localised, havana and scioto, long distance exchange systems, standard symbolism
- late woodland
- ad 500-900. general decline, loss of trade networks, complex symbols, and mound building. effigy mounds persist in upper midwest. locally self sufficient villages. "little ice age" may be partly responsible. northern flint corn arrives in AD 900.