Review of Last Class Materials (collapses):

-Clovis:

 12.9 kya

 Pleistocene Overkill Hypothesis=overexploitation / overhunting of resources by humans

 Younger Dryas Hypothesis=big game species died due to dropping temperatures so humans changed from clovis tech to more effective tools for their new food sources

 Was the change human induced or a gradual change via natural causes?

-Skara Brae:

 2500BC

 Huge Storm=excellent preservation of artifacts and engulfed in sand

 Conditions got worse (colder/wetter)=humans forced to migrate slowly to new areas because they couldn’t keep their crops and animals alive/sufficient for their people

 Was the change gradual or acute/abrupt?

-Mohenjo-Daro:

 No evidence found of defensive/military tools or efforts=easily invaded and taken over

 Over-exploited resources=upwards of hundreds of city-centers along Indus river that were all trying to grow food for thousands of people which robbed the soil of its nutrients and they could no longer produce food in the quantity needed to keep their populations running

 Indus river’s tributaries shifted due to massive earthquakes, so the original river dried up and a new one formed east of the old one, so the city-centers had to move too

-Ur:

 Euphrates dried up around 1000BC during the long-term desertification=urban and rural centers both suffered from lack of food, so many small rural populations are thought to have flocked to urban centers for free meals, whether through peaceful trades or harsher means (burning/sacking)

-Poverty Point:  Climate change=resources in flux and it got to a point where they could no longer keep up with the demand for food that their massive population required due to the climate changing

-Knossos:

 Hammered from all sides

 Before 2000BC=recurrent fires/earthquakes that forced them to adapt through rebuilding and remodeling

 1600BC=violent volcano eruption north of Crete=within four days the palaces of Knossos were buried in ash which triggered a tsunami that devastated the North coast of the island

 After volcano/tsunami, when they were weak, it’s likely an invasion took place where the Myceneans took over=proven by evidence of a switch from Linear A writing system to Linear B (resembling Mycenean writing)

Jared Diamond:

 One of, if not the most influential scholar on the planet in dealing with human history and what we learn from it

 3-time New York Times best selling author

 Not an archaeologist=geologist

 Specializes in Papa New Guinea

 Sued by Big Men of Papa New Guinea because he singled them out by name as terrible murderers/rapists, but they claim he never set foot in their tribes so it was all lies for publicity

o Case picked up by a big hot-shot lawyer from New York and became a $10 million case, but the lawyer died and they could not find another one, nor pay for one, so the case was dropped.

Family Feud:

 World Geography:

o WPP sites located in North America=Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Clovis, Tres Zapotes, Poverty Point o WPP sites south of the equator=Monte Verde, Kow Swamp, Norte Chico, Border Cave, Lapita

o WPP sites in the middle east=Ur, Catalhoyuk, Valley of the Kings, Merimde, Qafzeh-Skhul, Jericho, Gobekli Tepe, Abu Hureyra

 People on the Move:

o WPP sites dated to before 14kya=Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Border Cave, Qafzeh-Skhul, Lascaux, Mal’ta-Buret, Kow Swamp, Cro Magnon

o Three hypotheses for the migration of the human species to the new world: Coastal Migration, Solutrean, Clovis-First

 Burial Tradition/Advanced Societies:

o WPP sites that have archaeological evidence showing they operated at state- level society=Mohenjo-Daro, Ur, Knossos, Tres Zapotes