Old World Prehistory

Prof. Anthony P. Andrews
Office: College Hall 212
Office Hours: Wednesday, 1-3
andrews@ncf.edu

Fall 2006
Anthropology Lab
Tues & Fri: 12:30-1:50
http://faculty.ncf.edu/andrews






This course offers an intensive survey of Old World Prehistory, from the earliest hominids of the Mio-Pleistocene up to the emergence of civilization. We will focus on several topics, though specifically on the processes that led to 1) early hominid evolution and diaspora, 2) the emergence of modern humans, 3) the origins of food production, and 4) the development of regional cultures. Special emphasis will be placed on the past and present theoretical interpretations of the significance, causes, and effects of these processes.

The course will follow a seminar format, with an emphasis on class discussions of the readings; thus, it is essential that class participants stay abreast of the reading assignments. In addition to the readings from the texts, a large number of required readings, available in the library, online, or on electronic reserves, will also be assigned. Evaluation of student performance will be based on class participation and a major research paper due Friday, December 8.

Research Paper

The paper may focus on any topic of the student's choice, as long as it is pertinent to the subject matter of the course. Possible subjects may include: in depth surveys of particular regions or periods, specific problems (as long as there are available research materials), comparative studies, analyses of the history of archaeology in specific regions, etc. The topic should be cleared with the instructor; a one-page outline and preliminary list of references should be submitted before Spring Break. The paper should be carefully researched and well-written; length may vary from 20 to 25 pages, typed double-spaced, including list of references.

Texts

Bellwood, Peter

2005     First Farmers. The Origins of Agricultural Societies. Blackwell Publishers, Malden, MA.

Gibbons, Ann

2006     The First Humans. The Race to Discover our Earliest Ancestors. Doubleday, NY.

Kirch, Patrick V.

2002     On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Klein, Richard G., and Blake Edgar

2002     The Dawn of Human Culture. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.

Library Reserve

Includes the above texts and all additional assigned readings. Articles in Scientific American, National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonian, and Archaeology articles, with color graphics, are available in the journal section of the the library. Nature and Science articles are available online through the library system. Several of the Scientific American readings are available in the Lamberg-Karlovsky reader, and several other articles are reprinted in the Ciochon & Fleagle reader; these and other major reserve sources are listed below. Most other articles are available on electronic reserve.

Ciochon, Russell L., & J.G. Fleagle (eds.)

1993     The Human Evolution Source Book.

Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C. (ed.)

1979     Hunters, Farmers and Civilization.

Milisauskas., Sarunas (ed.)

2002     European Prehistory: A Survey.

Price, Douglas T., and Anne Birgitte Gebauer (eds.)

1995     Last Hunters-First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture. School of American Research, Santa Fe.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND READINGS

WEEKS 1-2: Human Origins and New Developments

Readings:

Daniel, Glynn

1959     The Idea of Man's Antiquity. Scientific American, 201 (5; Nov.): 167-76. Also in Lamberg-Karlovsky: Chap. 1.

Klein & Edgar: Chap. 2

Gibbons: Introduction and Chapters 1-15.

White, Tim D., et al.

2006     Asa Issie, Aramis, and the Origin of Australopithecus. Nature, 440 (7086; April 13 ): 883-89.

Dalton, Rex

2006     Feel it in your bones. Nature, 440 (7088; April 27 ) : 1101-01.

Optional:

Leakey, Maeve G., et al.

2001     New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages. Nature, 410 (6827; March 22): 433-40.

Haile-Selassie, Yohannes

2001     Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature, 412 (6843; July 12): 178-81.

Balter, Michael, and Ann Gibbons

2001     Another Emmissary from the Dawn of Humanity. Science, 293 (5528; July 13): 187-88.

Brunet, Michel, et al.

2002     A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature, 418 (6894; July 11): 145-151.

Wood, Bernard

2002     Hominid Revelations from Chad. Nature, 418 (6894; July 11): 133-35.

Wolpoff, Miflord H., B. Senut, M. Pickford, and J. Hawks

2002     Sahelanthropus or Sahelpithecus? Nature, 419 (6907; October 10): 581-82.

WEEK 3: Models of Human Origins

Readings:

Klein & Edgar: Chap. 3

Gibbons: Chaps 16-17

Lovejoy, C. Owen

1981     The Origin of Man. Science 211 (4480; Jan. 23): 341-50. Also in Ciochon & Fleagle: 230-43.

Isaac, Glynn L., et al.

1982     Models of Human Evolution. Science 217 (4557;July 23): 295-306.

Allen, L.L., et al.

1982     Demography and Human Origins. American Anthropologist 84 (4): 888-96.

Zihlman, Adrienne L., and Nancy Tanner

1978     Gathering and the Hominid Adaptation. In Female Hierarchies (L. Tiger and H. Fowler, eds.): 163-94. Also in Ciochon & Fleagle: 220-29.

Fedigan, Linda M.

1986     The Changing Role of Women in Models of Human Evolution. Annual Review of Anthropology 15: 25-66. Also in Ciochon & Fleagle: 243-62.

Shipman, Pat

1983     Early Hominid Lifestyle: Hunting and Gathering, or Foraging and Scavenging? In Animals and Archaeology (J. Clutton-Brock and C. Grigson, eds.), Vol. 1: 31-49. Also in Ciochon & Fleagle: 279-87.

Wrangham, Richard

2005     The delta hypothesis: hominoid ecology and hominin origins. In Interpreting the Past: Essays on Human, Primate and Mammal Evolution in Honor of David Pilbeam. (D.E. Lieberman, R.J. Smith, R. J. & J. Kelley, eds..): 231-42. Brill Academic Publishers, Inc., Boston.

Wrangham, Richard, and Nancy Lou Conklin-Brittain

2003     Cooking as a Biological Trait. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 136: 35B46

WEEK 4: Origins of Modern Humans

Readings:

Klein & Edgar: Chapters 1, 7 and 8

Templeton, Alan R.

2002     Out of Africa again and again. Nature, 416 (6786; March 7): 45-51.

Shreeve, James

2006     The Greatest Journey. National Geographic, 209 (3; March.): 60-73.

Mellars, Paul

2006     A new radiocarbon revolution and the dispersal of modern humans into Eurasia. Nature, 439 (7079; February 23) : 931-35.

Ambrose, Stanley H.

1998     Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution, 34 (6; June) 623-51.

Henshilwood, Christopher S.

2002     Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. Science, 295 (5558; Feb. 15): 1278-79.

WEEK 5: The Neanderthals and the Hobbits

Readings:

Klein & Edgar: Chaps. 4 through 6.

Hublin, Jean-Jacques

2000     Brothers or Cousins? Archaeology, 53 (5; Sept-Oct.): 49-54.

Wong, Kate

2000     Who were the Neandertals? Scientific American, 282 (4; April): 98-107.

Zilhao, Joao

2000     Fate of the Neandertals. Archaeology, 53 (4; July-Aug.): 24-31.

Morwood, Mike, et al.

2005     The People Time Forgot. National Geographic, 207 (4; April.): 2-15.

2005     Further evidence for small-bodied hominins from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature, 437 (7061; October 13): 1012-27.

Dalton, Rex

2005     Looking for the Ancestors. Nature, 434 (7032; March 24 ) : 1012-27.

WEEK 6: Modern Humans of the Ice Age

Readings:

Jochim, Michael

2002     The Upper Paleolithic. Chapter 4 in European Prehistory: A Survey (S. Milisauskas, ed.): 55-113. SKIM

Gore, Rick

1997     Dawn of Humans. Tracking the First of Our Kind. National Geographic, 192 (3; Sept.): 92-99.

2000     Dawn of Humans. People Like Us. National Geographic, 198 (1; July): 91-117.

Clottes, Jean

2001     Chauvet Cave. France=s Magical Ice Age Art. National Geographic, 200 (2; Aug.): 104-21.

White, Randall

1993     The Dawn of Adornment. Natural History, 102 (5; May): 60-67.

WEEK 7: The Near Eastern Mesolithic and Neolithic I

Readings:

Bellwood: Chap. 3

Cambel, Halet, and R.J. Braidwood

1970     An Early Farming Village in Turkey. Scientific American, 222 (3; March): 51-56. Also in Lamberg-Karlovsky: Chap. 15.

Moore, Andrew M.T.

1979     A Pre-Neolithic Farmer's Village on the Euphrates. Scientific American, 241 (2; Aug.): 62-70.

1985     The Development of Neolithic Societies in the Near East. Advances in World Archaeology, 4: 1-69. SKIM

Simmons, Alan H., et al.

1988     'Ain Ghazal: A Major Neolithic Settlement in Central Jordan. Science, 240 (4848;April 1): 35-39.

McCorriston, Joy, and Frank Hole

1991     The Ecology of Seasonal Stress and the Origins of Agriculture in the Near East. American Anthropologist, 93 (1): 46-69.

SPRING BREAK

WEEK 8: The Near Eastern Mesolithis and Neolithic II

Readings:

Crabtree, Pam J.

1993     Early Animal Domestication in the Middle East and Europe. Archaeological Method and Theory, 5: 201-45. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Bar Yosef, Ofer

1995     The Origins of Agriculture in the Near East. In Last Hunters-First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture (Douglas T. Price and Anne Birgitte Gebauer, eds.): 39-94.

Mellaart, James

1964     A Neolithic City in Turkey. Scientific American, 210 (4; April): 94-104. Also in Lamberg-Karlovsky: Chap. 13.

Hodder, Ian, et al.

1995-06  Çatalhöyük. Excavations of a Neolithic Anatolian Hoyuk http://www.catalhoyuk.com/    Read section on the History of the Çatalhöyük Excavations and SKIM website -- the Newsletters are particularly informative. Then, read Ian Hodder's paper Glocalising Catal: towards postprocessual methodology.

WEEK 9: Origins of Agriculture & Settles Life: Theoretical Framework

Readings:

Bellwood: Chaps. 1,2 and 12.

Watson, Patty Jo

1995     Explaining the Transition to Agriculture. In Last Hunters-First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture (Douglas T. Price and Anne Birgitte Gebauer, eds.): 21-37.

Hayden,. Brian

1995     A New Overview of Domestication. In Last Hunters-First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture (Douglas T. Price and Anne Birgitte Gebauer, eds.): 273-99.

Diamond, Jared

2002     Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication. Nature, 418 (6898; August 8): 700-07.

Balter, Michael

1998     Why Settle Down? The Mystery of Communities. Science , 282 (5393; Nov 20): 1442-44.

Flannery, Kent V.

2002     The Origins of the Village Revisited. American Antiquity, 67 (3): 417-33.

WEEK 10: The European Neolithic: Villages and Megaliths

Readings:

Bellwood: Chap. 4

Milisauskas., Sarunas (ed.)

2002     European Prehistory: A Survey. Skim chaps. 6 (Milisauskas), 7 and 8 (Milisauskas & Kruk).

Jacobsen, Thomas W.

1976     l7,000 Years of Greek Prehistory. Scientific American, 234 (6; June): 76-87. Also in Lamberg-Karlovsky: Chap. 14.

Muller-Beck, Hansjurgen

1961     Prehistoric Swiss Lake Dwellers. Scientific American, 205 (6; Dec.): 138-47. Also in Lamberg-Karlovsky: Chap. 25.

Roberts, David

1993     The Iceman. Lone Voyager from the Copper Age. National Geographic, 183 (6; June): 26-67.

Wernick, Robert

1996 Malta's Rock of Ages. Smithsonian, 27 (6; Sept.): 62-68.

Malone, Caroline, et al.

1993     The Death Cults of Prehistoric Malta. Scientific American, 269 (6; Dec.): 110-17.

Rose, Mark

1997     Celebrating an Island Heritage. Archaeology, 50 (4;July/Aug): 40-49.

Renfrew, Colin

1983     The Social Archaeology of Megalithic Britain. Scientific American, 249 (5; Nov.): 152-63.

WEEK 11: Neolithic Africa and East Asia

Readings:

Bellwood: Chap. 5

Barnes, Gina L.

1993     China Korea and Japan. The Rise of Civilization in East Asia. Read Chaps. 4 to 6.

Bellwood: Chap. 6

Barnes, Gina L.

1993     China Korea and Japan. The Rise of Civilization in East Asia. Read Chap. 7

WEEK 12: Peopling of the Pacific

Readings:

Kirch, Patrick V.

2002     On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. University of California Press, Berkeley. Read Chaps. 1-6.

Bellwood: Chap. 7

WEEK 13: Island Ecosystems: Collapse & Survival

Readings:

Kirch: Read Chaps. 7 through 9

Diamond, Jared

1995     Easter's End. Discover, 16 (8; August): 63-69.

WEEK 14: Class Presentations

PAPER DUE Friday, December 8.