Mesolithic Period 

PaleoIndian Period (35,000-12,000 BP) 

Known For:

- Changing climatic conditions, cooler climate

- Migration into the New World

(Homo sapien sapien only*)

- Microlithic tools

(blades

- Change in art styles

(realistic animals to upper paleolithic geometric designs)

Peopling of the New World

Why is this an important question?

1. Case example of Human Migration and Landuse from onset, which can be studied to see human adaptive responses to new environmental conditions 

2. Allows scientists to investigate how humans impact their environment

3. Important to understading the prehistory of Native American Indians (political controversy) 

- any human remains pre-date Columbus are NA Indians 

1. Genetic Data- from NA Indians & Asian populations

2. Linguistic Data- tracing language families and their relationship to each other 

3. Skeletal Morphology Data- facial feautres and skeletal formations which are genetically specific

4. Archaeological Data- from features and artifacts associated with human occupationsand use of the areas

5. Paleoclamatic Data- recontructing when ice sheets located covered the Northern section of North America, and when the Bering Strait was exposed due to the sea level lowering 

6. Chronological Data- recontructing the timing and time span of human occupation 

Genetic Data 

1. Did humans entering the New World out-hunt the big game animals and drive them to extinction, or did they go extinct due to climatic shifts?

2. Did humans arrive before or after 11,500 BP? Was there a Pre-Clovis migration into North America or not?

3. Who "owns" ancient human remains? How should they be protected and studied? (Ethical issue)

-NAGPRA-Native American Amended Graves and 1960's Protection and Repatriation Act, 1990 Federal Law 

4. Was there more than one entrance migration from different ethnic groups in Asia? Are Native Americans a unique blend of several ancestral populations? 

1. Africa

2. New Guinea

3. Australia

4. Tasmania (conencted to mainland Australia)

5. Europe

6. North America

7. South America

1. Klasies River Site (coastal cave) 

2. Nelson's Bay (coastal cave)

3. Eland's Bay (cave)

Klasies River Site

coastal cave

(120,000-70,000 BC)

• Excavated by Richard Klein (1979)
• Homo sapien sapien found w/ animals: limpets, seals, penguins, wildebeest, roan, antelope (usually young or old-hunted)
• Wide variety of plant foods 

Nelson's Bay Site

coastal cave 

(13,000 BC)

• Homo sapien sapiens
• Eland (original antelope), hartebeest, (all ages-likely killed in drives)
• netted birds, fish hooks(tools), maybe bows

Eland's Bay

cave

(11,000-7,000 BC)

• large game hunted (11,000-9,000 BC)
• shift to smaller game (9,000-7,000 BC)-more controllable (tech. change)

New Guinea 

1. Bonogara

• (38,000 BC)
• waisted axes used to fell trees (indent circle) to increase forest fringe plants like yams and taro 

Australia 

 (all rock shelters)

1. Devil's Lair (30,500 BC near Perth)

2. Purritjarra (25,000 BC)

3. Puntutjarpa Rock Shelter (24,000-22,000 BC)

4. LAke Mungo (24,000 BC)

5. Koonalda (22,000-13,000 BC)

Australia Rock Shelters

(all sites)

• all rock shelters seasonally occupied
• have hearths
• light artifact scatters
• animal bones 

Tasmania

(connected to mainland of Australia) 

all rock sheters 

1. Parmerpar Meethaner (32,000 BC)

2. Wareen (33,000 BC)

3. Kutkian (18,000 BC)

• emu eggs and wallaby bones
• at time of contact, Tasmnians LACKED shafted tools, boomerangs, spear throwers, shields, axes/adez
• believed to be  GEOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED from Mainland because SEA LEVELS ROSE  by 30,000 BC (traits would've moved) 

Europe

Holocene (after 10,000 BC, 12,000 BC)

• Microlithic tools (blades) set in shafts for for composite tools

  1. Star Carr, England 
  2. Natufian Culture 

• excavated by Grahame Clark of Cambridge (14c)
• environmental archaeology focus
• pollen by Harry Goodwin/Donald Walker
• 14c(chronmetric dating)  by William Libby 
• later excavated-shows greater time range(8,000-7,100 BC)
• site along lake shore-reeds burned down to allow better visibility to hunt birds and to moor boats

Natufian Culture

(10,000-8,000 BC)

• Mediterranen Hill country
• sedentary foragers (stay in one place)
• wild barley, emmer wheat, acorns, almonds, pistachios
• sickle blades (microlithic tool) for grain harvesting 
• by 9,000 BC climate become DRYER,-SHRINKING wild grain habits just as population was EXPANDING and sedentary villiages LIMITED by water holes
  -dry>shrink>pop. grew>limited to water holes 

North America 

1. Broken Mammoth, Mead and Swan Point Sites

2. Dry Creek (I-11,500 BC, II-8,700 BC)

3. Walker Road Site

4. Meadowcroft Rocker Shelter

5. Clovis and Folsom Sites

• all just SE of Fairbanks, Alaska
• stratified occpations (11,700 BC)
• artifacts similar to D'uktai tradition of Siberia

Dry Creek

I (11,5000 BC)

II (8,700 BC)

• foothills of Alaskan Mt. Range 
• artifacts similar to D'uktai tradition of Siberia

• 16 km N of Dry Creek
• (11,400-11,100 BC)
• similar artifacts inventories as Dry Creek

Meadowcroft Rock Shelter

(14,000 BC- 1,300 AD)

• SW of Pittsburgh
• stratified rock shelter
• excavated by James Adovasio
• -11 levels
• -70 14c dates from various levels
• 17,600 BC-HOTLY DEBATED by scientifically sound 

Clovis(longer) and Folsom(shorter/wider)

Sites

• New Mexico
• (10,500-9,000 BC)
• distinctive Fluted Lithic points-define tradition (chest punch)
• hunting/processing sites scattered in SW of US over a wide time period 

1. Taima-Taima

2. Guitarrero Cave

3. Lauricocha Cave

4. Pikimachay Cave

5. Monte Verde

6. Los Toldos

7. Pedra Furada

8. Pedra Pintata

Taima-Taima 

(11,860-14,000 BP)

• Venezuela
• early nomadic hunting water hole kill site
• Mastadon, Glypton (big armadillo), horse, sloths, bears

Guitarrero Cave 

(12,560 BP)

• Peru
• seasonally occupied during rainy season
• nomadic foraging camp
• deer, viscacha (rodent), rabbit, skunk, duck, frogs

Lauricocha Cave

(9,500 BP 4000m ASL)

• 7 human burials
• llama, guanaco (camelids), vicuna (smallest, fur finer than cashmere)
• start of pastoral domestication on Puna plains
• foragers following herds 

Pikimachay Cave

(14,700-20,200 BP)

• Peru
• excavated by MacNeish (late 1960's)
• 4 strata levels, 80 artifacts, debate on human made
• associated with butchered sloth, deer and horse bones, with butcher marks (most accept human occupation) 

Monte Verde

(30,000-13,000 BP)

• 12 rectangular wood/skin huts w/ fire pits
• sling-stones for bolas, Mastodon Hunting
• excellent preservation
• bone & wood tools, wood lance projectile points, plant foods (potatoes, seeds, nuts, berries, greens)
• occupied year-round given seasonality of foods 

Los Toldos, Argentina 

(10,500-13,100 BP)

• Rock Art (ghost hands & animals)- represents commnunity- 1 hand per person
• plant remains, guanaco, extinct horse & camelids
• foraging society w/ diverse resource base
• likely used boat for transport

Pedra Furada, Brazil 

Rock Shelter

(32,000-45,000 BP)

• wall paintings on rock shelter mixed paint in artifact deposits
• big debate on 14c carbon smaples, wind blown questions, ambiguous contexts
• Guidon excavated 3m down into stratified layers
• blunt tools, stone pebble cores, 2 painted lines on rocks 15,000 BP date, debate over stone tool human manufacture

Pedra Pintata, Brazil 

(9,000 BC)

• Anna Roosevelt excavated in 1980's
• stone projectile points, charred foods (plant & animal)
• humid tropical foraging settlement 

Beringia Gateway

Ice Age

1. Boutellier

2. Duvanny Yar

3. Birch 

1. Boutellier (60-30,000 BP)- Warm, good crossing

2. Duvanny Yar (30-14,000 BP)- Severe glacial, poor, low-no migration

3. Birch (14-8,500 BP)- Warming, good until 10,000 BP (resubmerged)

• no remain directly from floor (underwater) if coastal routes followed, all sites underwater as sea levels rose by 10,000 BP
• Underwater archaelology may answer question 

• Neolithic (12,000 BP) marked the development of agriculture and setled villages 
• agriculture is the single most impportant development in human prehistory, w/o it urban cities & civilization could not have formed 

• Selectively changed by humans from their wild forms
• Plants become more dependent upon humans for the reproduction
• i.e. corn 

• vonfined in human environment (pens)
• selected biological change occur through controlled breeding (today-biotechnology i.e. spider genes in goats)
• become dependent upon humans for survival 

Theories on Origin of Agriculture- Neolithic "Revolution" (slow)

Conditions of Agricultural Growth- Ester Boserup (1970's)

diseriation (INDIA)

A. Forrest Fallow- (20-100 yr. fallow pd.)-low densities  

B. Bush Fallow (5-10 yr fallow pd.)-hoes, hand tools

C. Plough Cultivation (2-4 yr fallow pd.)-grasses

-required animal labor(cattle), simple irrigation systems

-problem of fodder(animal feed) too much labor for animals, too much of a cost

D. Irrigated Agriculture(1-2 yr fallow pd.)

-some areas reduced to 2 crops a yr

-leave poorest lands in pasture

-intensify remaining agr. land(irrigation & fertilization)

-increases area to be cropped ev. yr., may raise yeilds

-system usually doubles to dry crop

-signifcantly reduces cost (fooder cost)

Fallow- amount of time land rest in between crops 

Theories on Origin of Agriculture 

Conditions of Agricultural Growth- Ester Boserup 

• intensify agr. systems only when population densities require it
• humans employ LEAST EFFORT to meet population needs 
• labor increases, work hours increase, yields per unit of land(feed more people) increase, but population not "capped" by carrying capacity- rather a feedback technology loop
• put humans into changing environment-fluid carrying capacity
• alter substinence system based on what is needed 

Climatic Change Role

Younger Dryas cooling period (10-8,000 BC)

really cool, really fast 

• foraging populations were becoming more sedentary and dependent upon wild grain resources (wheat, barely) by 12,000 BC, just as populations increasing

• then severe, rapid cooling trend resulted in reduction of wild grass habitat, just when populations were concentrated (poor for wheat & barely

1. Plant Domestication

2. Animal Domestication

3. Ceramic Analysis 

Plant Domestiation 

Method to recontruct Neolithic 

A. Pollen Analysis- sediment cores

B. Paleolithnobotanical analysis- Light fraction from flotation samples (dump soil into bubbles)

C. Morphological Studies of crop complexes- determination of domestication traits/taes of change (seeds change_

D. Phytoliths*- silica formations around plant parts, characteristic of plant species usually taken from soil

E. Ceramic/Basketry forms consistent signifcant pant foods in diet-graters, storage jars, etc. (residue analysis, lipid analysis, narrow or wider neck)

F. Ground Stone Tools- mortars, mano/metates-grinding grains to flour (calcified woman's knees, shoulders & toes)

G. Diet from chemical studies on bone

-C3 (non-tropical-wheat) vs. C4 (tropical, corn)

H. Motion Studies on skeletons-grinding, hoeing (calcification) Depictions(images) in ceramics or sculptures 

I. Animals- deer w/ high chemical diets of domesticates

Animal Domestication 

(Faunal analysis)

Methods used to recontruct Neolithic 

A. Basic Species Identification 

B. Trace morphological changes over time in wild/domesticated species (i.e. chickens chest)

C. Kill ratios- young/old- wild populations young, and few males-herding or managed population (% of young, adults, old, infants % gender- ratios)

D. Age Distribution of population (young/old)

E. Diet/Fodder Evidence-diff. food diff. animals, intentional growth of crops to feed animal (Ester Foster)

F. Teeth Ware Patterns- size of muscle attachments (turkey breast attachment)

G. Butcher Marks- green(fresh)/burned(decomposed) bone

H. Bone tools used, Fish Scales, Hooks, Nets Stone

I. Roasting Pits or other Cooking Features

J. Evidence in Ceramics, Textiles, Basketry of animal products- decoratively or functionally

K. Chemical analysis of lipids-milk products (ferment=yogurt, butter or cheese-clarified= shelf safe)

Ceramic Analysis 

(cooking, storing, processing of food changed over time)

Method to Recontruct Neolithic

1. Production 

2. Distribution 

3. Consumption Rates 

1. Location of clay resources and tampering agents(shell, sand, cotton)

2. Firing fuel soruces

3. Tools used in ceramic production (celts-chisels, burnishing stones-smoothing, pignments, brushes)

4. Method of construction (hand coiled, modified wheel, foot wheel)

5. Mass produced, mold made (many alike, leave lines)

6. Ceramic Vessel Forms (utensils, cups, bowls, plates)

1. Household production (less uniformed, moe localised materials)

2. Surplus/Trade items (vessles or items inside)

3. Elite wares, specialized ceramics (jars for beer in men's houses)

4. Changes over TIME-seriation

5. Changes in diet (nutrition value changes over time created by processing methods)

-corn into Chica in Peru (remove protein)

-bitter manioc v. sweet (labor 200% more, depends on soil)

-cooked v. raw

1. Breakage rates vary by form (fragile or hearty)

2. Population estimates based on serving bowl capacity

3. Breakage of vessels withing a house over time (estimates of labor required to produce-low)

4. Personal Adornments (ear spools, pubic coverings, necklaces, beads, spindle whorls, figurines, toys/whistles)- start to show when people are sedentary/settled 

Distribution of Earliest Domesticates 

(MATCHING QUESTION)*

• Mesopotamia- rye,wheat, barley, lentils 
• China/Asia- rice, millet, peanuts
• Africa- millet 
• North America- Eastern Agricultural Complex (EAC), Chenopodium, sunflower, march elder, erect knotweed 
• South America- potato, quinoa, maize, manioc, cocoa 
• Mesoamerica- maize, beans, squash 

Old World Neolithic Site Data

1. Mesopotamia-Jarmo, Abu Hureyra, Catalhoyuk Turkey, Jericho

2. Europe-3 stages, Bandkeramik Culture 

3. Egypt

4. Africa

5. China- Huang He or Yellow River (Northern), Yangzi River (Sourthern)

6. Japan 

7. Sourtheast Asia 

1. American Southwest-Hohokam, Mogollon, Anasazi

2. Eastern North America- Poverty Point, Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian SE

MesoAmerican and South American Origin of Agriculture 

(New World)

1, Mesoamerica-2 seq. Tehuacan & Guila Naquitz, Oaxaca seq.

2. South America-highlands, foothills, coastal river valleys