Neolithic transition to postglacial world

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Neolithic transition to postglacial world

• Rise of civilization after 8000BCE

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Glacial period

• Ice covers most of Europe, Asia, North America.
  15,000 -11,000 years ago
• The sea is at least 300 feet lower.
• North America and Asia joined by wide land
  bridge.
• Animal and human populations are compressed into
  less open land.

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Retreat of the Ice

• 11,000 years ago large game animals in Europe and
  Asian began to decline
• Many species go extinct
• Human populations gradually change diet toward
  more plant species, smaller game, and a new
  subsistence pattern.

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Foraging Societies

• Human subsistence strategy involved hunting and
  gathering. Probably dominated by gathering.
  Hunting is energy intensive and yields less
  calories than foraging supplies.
• Human diet became diverse.
• Examples by general analogy to modern foraging
  societies

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Modern foragers and limited horticulturalists

• Dobe Johansi San (Kalahari, Botswana)
• Netsilik, Inuit (Arctic Canada, Greenland)
• Yanomamo (Venezuela, Brazil)
• Mbuti (Congo)

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Dobe Juhoansi
See pages 68-75
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Yanomamo
Foragers and horticulturalists
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Models for change

• Old
• Huntersherdersoasis gatheringaccidental seed
  dispersalconcentrated populationsagricultureset
  tled villagescities and states

• New
• Huntersseed dispersal in campslimited
  agriculturedomestication of herdssettlementslim
  ited farmingwater resource managementagriculture
  cities and states

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Archaeological evidence

• As postglacial period advanced, sea levels rose
  again societies emerge taking advantage of
  plentiful and diverse resource base.
• Evidence of cultures adapting to particular
  resources.
• Evidence of specialized technological and
  cultural adaptations.

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Adaptive strategies include

• Specialized technologies
• Tools for different purposes
• Shaministic practices
• Masks, bundles, religious observances of sky
• Art
• Painting, jewelry/personal adornment , sculpture
• Social stratification

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• Each adaptation technological, spiritual, and
  behavioral played a role in survival.

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Some archaeological sites of the early
postglacial period outside Near East

• Vedbeck Denmark 5000 BC
• Star Carr England 8800 BC
• Gatecliff Nevada, USA 7000 BC until 0

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Vedbeck (late mesolithic)

• Retreating ice sheets in northern Europe allowed
  people to exploit a wider range of resources.
• Cemetery dating to about 5000 BC (radiocarbon).
• Settlement near marine resources.
• Diet includes shellfish, fish, deer, rodents

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Trade evidence

• Mediterranean shells found in burial sites
  excavated in Germany.
• Other exotics also recovered obsidian and
  other non native minerals.

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Starr Carr

• Late Mesolithic (radiocarbon dated to 7538 /-
  350 BC (more than 9000 years ago)
• Excavated (1949-51) by Grahame Clark
• First time experts in environmental archaeology
  dug an early site.
• Wet bog site with fantastic preservation of
  organics.
• Dendrochronology suggests older dates.

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Starr Carr continued

• Diverse diet of roe deer, moose, red deer, fish,
  boar, seeds.
• Large timber houses built over lake edges
• Wooden plank walkways.
• Seasonal use March-July (evidence from deer,
  pollen,
• Axes, flint knives, microliths, other tools for
  leatherworking

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Gatecliff Shelter

• Probably a seasonal camp
• Cave site (rock shelter or large overhang)
• Strong evidence of humans at site date to 5500
  years ago.
• Dry conditions preserved organic artifacts
  coprolites, and ecofacts.
• Diet of bighorn sheep, pinon nuts,seeds.

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Modern Foragers

• Case study in current world
• Dobe / San / !Kung Kalharai desert region
  Botswana, Namibia, South Africa

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Resource Issues

• Modern political boundaries constrict the
  resource base to marginal lands
• Specialized survival strategies.
• Band reciprocity
• soft territories
• Trade
• Diet
• Egalitarian social structure

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Knowledge of elders plays significant role.
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• Assumptions challenged recent research reveals
  that forgers work less, not more, than farmers to
  gain food supplies and often have a more balanced
  diet. Lots of leisure time for socializing as a s
  result.
• Hunting provides 20-30 of food.

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Settlement patterns

• Resource based
• Uneven distribution across landscape
• Restricted movement
• State intervention limited, but pressure
  increasing to force Dobe to abandon way of life
  and move to government villages.

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Traditional skills transmitted through
generations.
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Many Dobe today take part-time jobs with
neighboring herding tribes and ranchers in order
to participate in a cash-based economy.
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Innovative means of helping Dobe maintain
cultural identity on traditional landsas game
trackers. Expert trackers create records of
animal movements and habits.
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Questions to ponder

• Can the Dobe maintain their cultural identity if
  they change their subsistence strategy (shift
  from hunters to cattle herders for instance)?
• What will necessary for the Dobe to survive to
  the end of this century?

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Necessary conditions

• Cultivation begins in places where at least four
  conditions are met
• Water
• Available cultigens (plants which can be
  domesticated)
• Mild climate
• Critical population threshold

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Origins of Agriculture

• Early domestication of plants appears to have
  been independently invented in several places
  globally.
• Was it an accident or due to thoughtful
  observation?

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The skeleton is a treasure trove of environmental
information

• Bone chemistry
• Possible to reconstruct diet, nutrition, episodes
  of illness, and general health using bone and
  teeth.
• Evidence suggests greater use of terrestrial
  animals in diet after 4000 BC than was common in
  earlier millennia.