L27: Cultural Evolution
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what are the names of the 3 major cultural phases?
Paleolithic Mesolithic Neolithic
what is a brief timeline of the major cultural transitions in Europe?
Middle Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic Mesolithic Neolithic Bronze age
when was the Holocene?
11,600 years ago
what is the meaning of lithic?
means the tools are lithic- made of rock
the longest period of homo sapiens occupation on Earth has been … in character
Paleolithic (later phases much shorter by comparison)
what type of instrument is associated with the Paleolithic period?
hand axes
what type of instrument is associated with the Mesolithic period?
spears
what type of instrument is associated with the Neolithic period?
arrow heads
why has flint been incredibly important in terms of human cultural evolution?
because ice deposited the material as it ingested and eroded the flint, a sought after material for making tools in early occupation
what type of tool was associated withe the collapse of the megafaunal populations? (not in Africa) and why?
spear heads that can be thrown through the air
why were spear heads not responsible for the extinction of megafaunal populations in Africa at the time?
because the animals likely evolved and developed strategies to defend against this technology
what were the meatal ages?
bronze age and iron age
what represents the boundary between the lithic and metal ages?
stone henge
what is bronze an alloy of?
tin and copper
what area was a major source of the metals used to make bronze?
Cornwall
what artifact is reckoned to be the earliest representation of the cosmos?
Nebra Sky Disk
what period was the Nebra Sky Disk from?
the bronze age
what was significant about the Nebra Sky Disk?
it was found in Germany but the gold was sourced from Cornwall as discovered through detailed chemical fingerprinting
what does the Neolithic represent?
the origins of farming and domestication of plants
what period was associated with the devastation of the megafauna?
the Mesolithic
what type of farmers/hunters were people form the Mesolithic?
hunter gatherers
where did the transition to the Neolithic start?
Europe in the Middle East and Turkey and in South East Asia, China
what are some features of Neolithic communities?
defensive boundaries (land ownership/demarcation), crop harvesting, differentiation of function (activities/occupation e.g. some engaged in farming whilst others are engaged in engineering), settlements/urbanisation
are the Mesolithic and Neolithic communities genetically different from each other? and if so, what does this indicate?
yes that it wasn’t the passing of material culture that triggered this transition but instead the removal of the earlier people