Archaic America (pre 1492)

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I.  Archaeologists believe Archaic North America settled in many waves.

A.  Most believe that Indians came by Siberian Land Bridge.

1.   Sinodonty  describes dental characteristics Indian people share.

a.  occurance

i.  found in teeth from Northern China at 20,000 BP

aa.  but suspected at least 40,000 BP

ii.  found in oldest and current American populations

iii. now found in Japanese population

b.  features of sinodonty

i.  shoveled incisors

ii.  single-rooted upper first premolars

iii.  triple-rooted lower first molars

2.  Beringia

a.  glaciation lowered sea level

i.  Alaska and Siberia were opposite ends of same land surface.

b.  hunters followed big game across land mass

B.  American Archaeology is young

1.  Farmers unearthed many artifacts, burials, etc.  Few whites cared, if they knew.

2.  American Arch starts in 1840 AD when Squire and Davis excavated a Mississippian mound. 

a.  1850 - 1890 debate of "lost people" first appears.

b.  Frederick W. Putnam first to try to prove antiquity in NA

i.  tried to argue for Pleistocene occupation 1,000,000 BP - 10,000 BP

ii.  Richard Leaky would do the same in 1970s.

3.  1880 an African-American cowboy finds Mesa Verde ruins

b.  the "lost people" theory rearrises.

C.  Early on archaeology was government funded

1.  William H. Emory in Southwest 1848.

2.  Clarence B. Moore in Southeast 1896.

3.  W. K. Morehead in Ohio 1892.

4.  John W. Dawson in Canada 1880.

5.  W. H. Dall in Pacific Coast Peru to Aleutian islands 1877.

6.  Max Uhle in Peru 1903.

7.  Manuel Gamio in Valley of Mexico 1911.

8.  Mathiassen in Arctic 1927.

II.  Earliest evidences of humans in America.

A.  Late Wisconsin caves and rock shelters

1.  Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, 30 mi SW of Pittsburgh PA

a.  12,000 BP and perhaps as early as 19,000 BP

b.  James Adavasio excavated 11 levels c.1980

2.  Boqueirao de Pedro Furada, in NE Brazil

a.  perhaps 30,000 BP as early as 47,000 BP, stone tools

b.  Niede Guidon excavated but few formally accept her findings

3.  Monte Verde in S Chile drawing from Oregon State University

a.  Similar sites found in SA but none so well documented.

b.  13,000 BP with remains.

i.  2 rows of skin-covered houses (9' to 13 ' square) with whole and split-log foundations provisioned with plenty of plant foods like wild potato, juncus seeds.  Contain clay-lined hearths, wooden mortars.

ii.  separate building with at least 14 medicinal herbs, mastodon bones, work debris.

iii.  3 stone scrapers hafted to their handles.  Possible stone bolos.

c.  Tom Dillehay excavated c. 1980.

B.  PaleoIndian Culture  Map of paleoIndian areas  

1.  Clovis best known from Great Plains but extends south to Guadalajara.

a. 11,200 BP beautiful stone points  and scrapers.

i.   found in Brazil dated from same era.

aa.  this defies Beringia migration dates.

ii.  evidence at kill sites.

aa. Naco AZ no fewer than 8 pts in 1 mammoth.

bb.  Blackwater Draw NM and Lehner AZ water traps took. mammoth, bison, horse, camel, and deer.

iii.  rehafted broken spears, rechipped points.

iv.  carried cores with them.

v.  carried tool kits with projectile points, butchering tools, knives, scrapers.

b.  big game extinction caused change in Clovis culture

i.  mammoths, sloths, horses, camels, saber-tooth tigers

ii.  overkill as extinction theory

iii.  extinction from spreading aridity and shrinking habitats

iv.  extreme mean temperature variation reduced survival of young

aa.  for young who gestate long and born at fixed times of year like large mammals

2.  Bison-Belt hunters

a.  Bison become dominant remaining species by 11,500 BP

b.  bunches of sites in arroyos and box canyons

i.  Olsen-Chubbock in CO 8,000 BP tools and 200 animals.

ii.  WY & NM similar sites but smaller kills

3.  Desert tradition 11,000 BP to 500 BP

a.  occupation remains centered in caves and rock shelters

b.  Gatecliff Rock NV 8,000 BP

c.  Santa Barbara Channel Islands 8,000 BP

d.  Lovelock Cave NV 9,000 BP

e.  Tommy Tucker Cave, CA

i.  found baskets, nets, duck decoys, sandals, mats, mummies, canoes, grinding tools, gaming sticks, arrrowshaft w/point in place, wooden knife handle, fiber cloth.

4.  Eastern Woodland traditions - Nova Scotia to FL

a.  Little Salt Spring FL 12,000 BP

i.  a guy fell in a sinkhole, managed to get to a ledge, caught a turtle, impaled it and roasted it in its shell, then man starved to death.

b.  Modoc tradition, Mississippi River 10,000 BP to 4,000 BP

i.  fish and nut harvests permitted year round dwelling

c.  Central Riverine Archaic Koster tradition Illinois River Valley 9,500 BP to 1,300 BP

i.  fish, waterfowl, mussels; houses of brush plastered in clay

ii.  imports

aa.  copper from Lake Superior

bb.  shells from Atlantic and Gulf coasts

cc.  jasper from E PA

d.  Poverty Point LA 3,600 BP to 3,100 BP

i.  giant earthworks (35,000 cu.m) at confluence of 6 rivers

ii.  materials imported more than 600 miles.

e.  Adena-Hopewell 2,500 BP to 1,600 BP OH Valley-state organized

i.  farmers with many rich imports

aa.  copper from lake superior

bb.  shells from Atlantic and Gulf coasts

cc.  mica from TN

dd. silver

ii.  earthworks and burial mounds

aa.  rich interred whole, poor cremated and interred

f.  Mississippian 2,000 BP to 600 BP state organized

5.  Eskimo and Aleut

a.  Paleoarctic 11,000 BP to 6,000 BP

i.  stone microblades

b.  Aleutian tradition 8,700 BP to now; didn't start as Islands

i.  fish, sea mammals, fowl

c.  Arctic Small-Tool 4,300 BP to 3,500 BP

i.  caribou and musk ox eaters

ii.  first group to settle E arctic, gave rise to O.S. in W

d.  Old Bering Sea (Okvik) 2, 300 BP to 1,000 BP, W.

i. 1 figurine known, special emphasis on genitals, vagina dentatum.

ii.  developed a reliance on sea mammals

e. Thule 1,000 BP emerged from O.S. culture and spread rapidly E then again W.

i.  Cultural diffusionists, dog sled, visors, etc.

ii. Some say influence by Vikings.

f.  Dorset culture at Hudson's Bay, Baffin Island, Greenland, Labrador from 1,000 B.C. - 300 A.D.

i. Ashquimoid.

ii.Tiny figurines of weasel and bear and maskettes.

g. Ipiutak culture 350 BP Point Hope AK

i.  Brief, isolated copious numbers of objects 1939.

ii. 600 houses, subterranean coastal, 138+ burials.

6.  Mexico

a. Tehuacan 11,000 BP Valley of Mexico

i.  clay figurines

ii.  maize cultivation 7,500 BP

b. Guila Naquitz 9,000 BP to 7,800 BP Oaxaca Valley

i.  hunter gatherers

c.  Olmec 3,500 tp 2,500 BP Vera Cruz

i.  state organized

ii.  introduced the were-jaguar

d.  Monte Alban 2,400 to 1,300 BP Valley of Oaxaca

i.  state organized

ii.  city more than 15 miles square with outliers

iii.  heavy duty farming

e.  Teotehuacan 2,200 to 1.350 BP

i.  largest state so far in Mexico

ii.  huge city, fresh water and sewage system

iii. deliberately burned 1,350 BP

f.  Mayans 3,000 to 1,100 BP Yucatan Penninsula

i.  huge state

ii.  farmers, hunters, and traders

iii.  related culturally to Teotehuacan

iv.  Mayans still exist but are under genocidal attack

g.  Toltecs 1,000 to 850 BP Valley of Mexico

i.  small state organization

h.  Aztecs 700 to 500 BP Valley of Mexico

i.  tribute state.

ii.  Spanish conquer.

III.  Many Native Americans believe they were created on their traditional homeland. 

A.  Ethnologists record from native point of view.       

B.  Oral tradition provides evidence.

1.  many anthro and archaeos refuse to believe oral tradition.