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Anth 335 Old World Prehistory
Dr. Darlene Applegate
Spring 2008
Introduction: Archaeology Terms and Concepts


TECHNOLOGY


aibi.gospelcom.net/tt/ MATERIAL CULTURE refers to the tools and other fabricated items used by humans to interact with the natural/cultural environment

http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/a_tools.html LITHIC is a tool or other item made of stone

www.e-yakimono.net/html/jomon-dogu.html POTTERY is a tool or other item made of sun-dried or fired clay



SUBSISTENCE OR FOODWAYS

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/archeo/cvh/maritim/v65-5.htm FOOD COLLECTING is the reliance on wild plants and/or animals for the majority of the group's subsistence;
 also called hunting-gathering or hunting-gathering-fishing



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/tv_radio/monsterswemet/extinctions/index.shtml FOOD PRODUCTION is the reliance on domesticated plants and/or animals for the majority of the group's subsistence;
 includes agriculture, farming, horticulture, gardening, stockbreeding, herding, pastoralism



www.wildlifearchives.com/index.php?2006/09 WILD plants and animals are those that exist in nature without human intervention and exist in a natural home range

www.aspkin.com/my-ranting-on-cows-for-food/ DOMESTICATES are plants and animals whose form is the result of human intervention in the breeding process,
 plants and animals that cannot survive without human intervention, and/or plants and animals that live outside their
 natural home ranges; plant domesticates called "cultigens"


http://doggy.blogsome.com/2007/04/10/speed-of-domestication/ DOMESTICATION is the selective breeding process by which a wild plant or animal becomes a domesticate





SETTLEMENT
 

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/pub/year_review06/darfur.htm MOBILITY is residential movement on a continual basis without significant settlement permanence



http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/pub/year_review06/darfur.htm SEDENTISM is year-round, permanent residence in one location



http://www.intrazc.nl/vakken/biologie/evolutie/evolutietekst.html VILLAGES are early sedentary settlements with low population densities



http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/994631/page/0/vc/1 CITY or URBANISM is a relatively high density of people living within a limited space on a permanent basis; characteristics are (1) nucleation (living close together in a limited area), (2) high population density (at least 100 people per square kilometer), (3) non-farming sector of society, (4) craft or occupational specialization, (5) social stratification or social ranking, and (6) surrounding subsistence area to support urban center



SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

http://www.terragame.com/downloadable/civilization_iii_gold_edition/index.html COMPLEX SOCIETIES or STATES or CIVILIZATIONS have some combination of the following characteristics
 (based on V. Gordon Childe and Elman Service)



1. agricultural basis (subsistence economy is based on food production and a surplus economy)

2. urbanized  (based on cities, majority of population lives in cities)

3. complex social organization  (permanent, hierarchically arranged social class system based on economics, religion or ethnic background)

4. full-time occupational specialization or craft specialization  (food producers versus nonproducers; nonproducers include leaders, priests, merchants, members of the armed forces, craftspeople and artisans)
 
5. territorial basis  (communities within the area have some form of allegiance, borders are defended)

6. concentration of surpluses by the state   (usually food but also other materials; related to state control of exchange and trade, redistribution and taxation)

7. strong, centralized government with a professional ruling class  (inclusion in ruling class is often, but not always, separate from kinship)

8. force as a means of social control  (military, police, judicial system)

9. true law  (a codified set of rules of behavior)

10. monumental public works of architecture  (pyramids, temples, irrigation systems, roads)

11.  standardized artworks  (flags, clothing, artistic icons, and related artwork that symbolize the state or social classes within the state)

12.  writing systems  (hieroglyphic, alphabetic, iconographic)

13.  advances in math, geometry and astronomy  (to lay out cities, to build monumental works, to keep records of taxes or trade, and to follow agricultural cycles)

14.  large population size (greater than 20,000)


www.dilos.com/location/13370  there are FOUR TYPES OF COMPLEX SOCIETIES: theocratic states, city states, nation states, and empires

 



THEOCRACY
is a state in which power is held by religious specialists, persons with primarily religious duties, or persons viewed by the society as non-mortals

CITY STATE is an autonomous city with sphere of influence

NATION STATE is a centralized economic and political power organized along political and  territorial lines, with hierarchical and differential access to resources, and with monopoly on power; more unified than city states; has a city that serves as capital

EMPIRE is a centralized economic and political power that crosses political and territorial lines; groups are subjugated politically, militarily, economically, socially, religiously; tribute/ taxation


www.yct.co.za/tours2.asp KINGDOMS may be considered complex or semi-complex societies but they differ from states in that leadership is not coercive,
 leadership tends to be based on kinship, urbanism is lacking, and monumental public works are usually absent or less elaborate



TIME UNITS IN ARCHAEOLOGY


1550 B.C.  NUMERICAL TIME UNITS
are expressed in number format


Shang Dynasty PERIOD TIME UNITS are expressed in non-numerical format but in relative order from oldest to youngest


CULTURE AREAS



www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/anth7_ca.html  CULTURE AREA is a geographic region in which the people shared in common a set of cultural traits and behaviors


  originally defined by cultural anthropologists but adopted by archaeologists, with some minor changes


Old World culture areas covered in this class are those (with one exception) where complex societies were an indigenous development: Near East, Mediterranean-Aegean, lower Nile, tropical Africa, temperate Europe, Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and China



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