A.D. 50-----Rome is the largest city in the world with a population of one million. |
ANASAZI On the Colorado Plateau of northeastern Arizona, south- western New Mexico, southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado the Archaic was followed by a culture termed the Anasazi. This was a generalized village dwelling group which relied primarily on the cultivation of corn, beans and squash. Hunting did remain as part of the food gathering process throughout the Anasazi era. There is growing evidence that warfare may also have played a small role in Anasazi society. The Anasazi era has been separated into two major divisions: (1) the Basketmaker, and (2) the Pueblo. Each of these is further subdivided into social organizations. The Anasazi era is usually considered to fall between A.D. 1 and A.D. 1300. This time was followed by further development of a pueblo dwelling culture which is still existing today in New Mexico and Arizona. PUEBLO KNIFE (cast)---This knife was expertly crafted by its maker who used superb percussion thinning. This blade is a Pueblo II-III knife that dates approximately A.D. 900 - 1300. SIDE-NOTCHED POINT (cast)---This Anasazi point dates to the Pueblo III Period between A.D. 1100 and A.D. 1300. TANGED ARROW POINT (cast)---This point represents the beginning of the Pueblo I Period during the Anasazi era. It was made from a beautiful piece of green Morrison Siltstone and it measures 1 11/16 inches (4.3 cm) long. |
HOHOKAM The Hohokam people were prehistoric farmers who lived on approximately 45,000 square miles of land in the Sonoran Desert of south central Arizona. The name Hohokam is usually reserved for the pottery-making people who lived between A.D. 200 and 1450. Many of their houses were built together in small clusters or on isolated locations. They also built large settlements that were well organized around plazas, ball courts and platform mounds. The Hohokam people also built the largest prehistoric canal system in North America. Mexico had a strong influence among the Hohokam in both trade and culture. Rubber from the Mexican lowlands was used to make balls that were used on their elaborate ball courts. The game may have been similar to the one played in 14th century Mexico. It was similar, in some ways, to soccer and basketball but with no hands allowed. HOHOKAM POINT (Cast)----A "classic" example of a Hohokam arrow point from south central Arizona. HOHOKAM POINT (Cast)----A serrated Hohokam point made of Obsidian from south central Arizona. |
WOODLAND PERIOD As the population began to increase in the eastern United States during the Woodland period lifestyles began to change and became different in many ways from the previous Archaic period. These people began to experiment with the cultivation of plants and by the end of the period were growing corn. They also developed extensive trade routes. The farthest traveled material was Obsidian from the Yellow Stone park area that was traded as far east as eastern Ohio. During the Hopewell tradition which occurred half way through this period and was their "golden age" they made elaborate and very large burial mounds. In these mounds they sometimes placed finely crafted tobacco pipes, large Ross blades, ear spools, and numerous other burial objects that can only be described as art. Nothing so well made had appeared in North America up to this time. These people still hunted with spears thrown with throwing sticks but are credited with the invention of the bow and arrow just before the end of this period. *DICKSON POINTS---Some of the most colorful & skillfully made examples ever found in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. *EFFIGY HOPEWELL PIPES--Fine examples of Hopewell platform animal effigy pipes. Hopewell Ross point 8 1/2 inches long and made of translucent orange Kaolin chert----Illinois. PLUMMET AND RED OCHRE GRINDING STONE---A large sandstone grinding stone is described. It was found on a site in St. Charles Missouri. ROSS POINT---Large picture of the translucent orange Kaolin Ross point from Illinois. |
24,000 B.C.---Earliest evidence of storage pits on Late Paleolithic sites in eastern European plain. |
UPPER
PALEOLITHIC
The most significant innovations of stone tool development that occur at
this time are in Europe, the Near East and northeastern Africa. A more sophisticated
stone tool technology is developed round 35,000 years ago which produces
large blades struck off prepared cores. This same technique is also being
used later in this period in the New World by the Clovis culture. The
Neanderthals disappear sometime around 30 to 35 thousand years ago. The
first art also appears about this time 35 thousand years ago with
engravings and carvings of animals. Towards the middle and end of this
period microliths appear which are tiny geometric shaped stone tools that
were probably attached as side-blades to wood or reed shafts to make
composite arrows. Sometime between 10 and 20 thousand years ago the spear
thrower and bow and arrow were developed. In France and Spain the
Solutrean complex appears 21,000 years ago and continues to about 17,000
years ago. These people began to use for the first time the edge-to-edge
or "outré passé" technique of percussion flaking. This
manufacture process is the same used by the Clovis people in the New
World. To this day some of the most skillfully flaked bifaces (large
points) ever made were made in the Solutrean complex. Aurignacian End Scraper-Burin (Cast) from a site in southern France called Tempo-Pialat. Aurignacian Double End Scraper (Cast) from a site in southern France called Tempo-Pialat. Aurignacian Dihedral Burin (Cast), from a site in southern France called Tempo-Pialat. PIERCED STAFFS OR BATONS---Several examples from Upper Paleolithic sites in France. |
48,000 B.C.-----Homo
sapiens sapiens has populated virtually every part of he world
except
North & South America. |
MIDDLE
PALEOLITHIC
During the Middle Paleolithic period stone tools become increasingly more
complex. Homo erectus dies out about 300,000 years ago but not before
making very fine bifacially flaked hand axes using soft hammers made from
antler, ivory or bone. The Neanderthals appear in Europe and the New East about 135,000
years ago and died out about 35,000 years ago. During this time they
produce a wide variety of stone tools that were used within an ever
increasing intelligent world. Approximately sixty different stone tool
types were developed during this period. Homo sapiens sapiens appears probably sometime
before 120,000 years ago and like the Neanderthals also make a wide
variety of stone tools. ATERIAN POINTS, 40,000 year old tanged Aterian dart points that were propelled through the air with a spear thrower (atlatl). Collected on sites in northwestern Africa. |
1.5 million---The controlled use of fire is suspected this far back in time in Africa but not proven. |
LOWER
PALEOLITHIC The Early or Lower Paleolithic period represents a time when the oldest and simplest stone tools were being made. The appearance of the genus Homo coincides roughly with the beginning of the archaeological record approximately 2.5 million years ago. These early artifacts were just simple flakes that were struck off chopper cores. It's believed that Homo habilis was making these flakes for the sharp edge they produced and probably using them to cut open the hides of animals and other cutting purposes. There are three main types of artifacts from this period. They are flakes for cutting, chopper cores from which the flakes were removed and spheroids. Spheroids are round stone objects that were used and shaped this way as a result from hammering to remove flakes. Research studies using a Bonobo chimp named "Kanzi" illustrates very well how these animals are able to make a simple flake using various fracturing techniques then cut the ropes off a food box. Homo erectus appears sometime later in this period about 1.5 million years ago. This early hominid carried on stone tool manufacturing traditions with more complex tools such as hand axes, cleavers and large flakes for cutting or scraping. Homo erectus develops about a dozen different types of stone tools and continues to make them for many hundreds of thousands of years. *Kanzi the chimp shown making stone tools and his tool kit. Oldowan Chopper Cores and Flake Tools from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania Africa. OLDOWAN FLAKE TOOL (Cast), From Olduvai Gorge and the University of California Berkeley Collection. THE TIDE-LOCK CHOPPER CORE, It was discovered in Virginia and identified, with considerable effort, as a Lower Paleolithic tool from Europe. A ship ballast stone. |
2.5 to 3 million---Earliest
flaked-stone tool technology begins sometime during this period
in Africa. |
REFERENCES Bahn, Paul G. 1996.
"The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology", Cambridge
University Press. |