The Human Past. World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies

786 Pages·36.48 MB·English

by  Scarre C. (edit.)

f>fr
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. • www.NortonEbooks.com
T H E HUMAN P A S T
THIRD EDITION
Edited by Chris Scarre

e
B I ma n
pasi

hu man
past
World Prehistory
& the Development of
Human Societies
Edited by Chris Scarre
With 788 illustrations, 296 in color
THIRD EDITION
Thames & Hudson
Half-title Two dancers, carved from ivory and originally part of the Acknowledgments
decoration of the back of chair; from Begram, Afghanistan, c. ist-jrd
I should like, first and foremost, to acknowledge the individual
century ad, now in the Musee Guimet, Paris.
contributors to this volume, who have provided an excellent series of
texts and have patiently responded to a seemingly endless sequence
Title page Detail of painted mural at the Moche site of Huaca Cao
Viejo, Trujillo, Peru. of questions and comments. The success of the book is a testimony
to this teamwork. My thanks go to them also for their ongoing
commitment to the project, and for their co-operation, inspiration,
and hard work. In preparing this new edition it is my pleasant
duty to record once again my gratitude to all the team at Thames &
Hudson for their support and hard work. I also owe a large vote of
thanks to my colleagues at Durham for their knowledge and advice,
and for providing a lively academic environment. I would like in
particular to thank Dr Kate Sharpe for her assistance.
Copyright © 2005, 2009, 2013 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other
information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publisher.
First published in 2005 in paperback in the United States
of America by Thames & Hudson Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10110
thamesandhudsonusa.com
Third edition 2013
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2012939666
ISBN 978-0-500-29063-7
Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Co. Ltd.
BRIEF CO N TEN TS
9 Origins of Food-producing
CONTRIBUTORS 17
PREFACE 19 Economies in the Americas 306
TIMELINE 22
10 Holocene Africa
350
1 Introduction: The Study ofthe
Human Past
24 11 Holocene Europe
392
PART I • THE EVOLUTION OF
12 Peoples and Complex Societies
HUMANITY
6 million to 11,500 years ago 44
of Ancient Southwest Asia
432
2 African Origins
46 13 The Mediterranean World
472
3 Hominin Dispersals in the
14 South Asia: From Early Villages
Old World
84 to Buddhism
518
4 The Rise of Modern Humans
124
15 Complex Societies of East and
Southeast Asia
PART II • AFTER THE ICE 552
11,500 years ago to the Early Civilizations 174
16 Mesoamerican Civilization
594
5 The World Transformed: From
17 From Village to Empire in
Foragers and Farmers to States
South America
and Empires 640
176
18 Complex Societies of North
6 From Foragers to Complex
America
Societies in Southwest Asia 678
200
19 The Human Past: Retrospect
7 East Asian Agriculture and its
and Prospect
Impact 716
234
GLOSSARY 721
8 Australia and the Pacific Basin
BIBLIOGRAPHY 724
During the Holocene
264
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 759
INDEX 762
CO N TEN TS
What is a Primate? 49
Overview of Primate Evolution 50
• Early Anthropoid Features 51
• Old World Monkeys and Apes 51
Our Ape Ancestry: The Comparative Anatomical and
CONTRIBUTORS 17 Genetic Evidence 52
• Anatomical Evidence 52
PREFACE 19
KEY CONTROVERSY Classifying the Primates 52
TIMELINE 22 • Genetic Evidence 53
KEY METHOD Reconstructing Paleoenvironments 55
1 INTRODUCTION: THE STUDY OF The Environmental Background 55
THE HUMAN PAST Climate Change and Early Hominin Evolution 55
24
KEY DISCOVERY Ardipithecus ramidus and Other Early
Chris Scarre, Durham University
Fossils 56
What is Archaeology? 25
The Rise ofthe Earliest Hominins 57
Prehistory vs. History 26
The Australopithecines 58
The Relevance ofWorld Archaeology 27 KEY SITES Hadar and Laetoli: “Lucy,” the “First Family,”
and Fossil Footsteps 59
The Origins of Archaeology 28
The Emergence of Homo 61
Renaissance Beginnings 28
Advances in the 17th and 18th Centuries 30 The First Stone Tools and the Oldowan 61
Developments in the 19th Century 30 Technology 66
KEY SITE Olduvai Gorge: The Grand Canyon
Social Evolution 32
of Prehistory 67
Developments in Methodology and Techniques 33 Who Made the Oldowan Tools? 68
KEY CONTROVERSY Modern Apes as Oldowan
Archaeology and Human Evolution 34
Tool-makers? 69
Explaining Change: Archaeological Theories 36
The Nature ofthe Sites 69
Cultural Ecology and Agency Theory 36
KEY DISCOVERY Australopithecus garhi: The First
Mechanisms and Patterns of Change 37
Tool-maker? 70
• Innovation, Diffusion, Emulation, and Migration 37
KEY SITES Regional Overview of Major Oldowan Sites 71
• Linear and Cyclical Patterns 38
Processual and Postprocessual Archaeology 38 Food Procurement and Diet 72
Hunters or Scavengers? 72
Humans in Long-term Perspective 40
KEY METHOD Dating Early Hominins and their
Humans and the Environment 40
Archaeology 74
Demographic Growth 41
KEY CONTROVERSY What Were Oldowan Tools Used
Symbols and Cognition 42
For? 76
Summary and Conclusions 43 Food for Thought: Diet and Encephalization 76
Further Reading and Suggested Websites 43 The Behavior of Oldowan Hominins 77
Social Organization 78
Diet 78
PART I • THE EVOLUTION OF Technology 78
HUMANITY Fire 79
6 million to 11,500 years ago 44
Site Modification 79
Art, Ritual, and Language 79
2 AFRICAN ORIGINS
46
Recent Trends in Approaches to the Oldowan 80
Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, Indiana University Experiments in Site Formation Processes 80
Isotopic Studies 81
Evolution and Human Origins 47
Landscape Archaeology 82
Models of Evolutionary Change 48
The Human Evolutionary Record 49 Summary and Conclusions 82
The Primate Ancestors of Apes and Humans 49 Further Reading and Suggested Websites 83
contents
3 HOMININ DISPERSALS IN THE KEY METHOD Luminescence Dating 118
Diet and Food Procurement 119
OLD WORLD
84
• Plant Foods: Foraging 119
Richard Klein, Stanford University KEY CONTROVERSY Is Homo erectus Represented by
DNA from Denisova Cave 120
Homo ergaster 85
• Animal Foods: Hunting and Scavenging 120
Anatomy 85
• The Turkana Boy 86 Summary and Conclusions 122
• Human Evolution and the Inferences from the Turkana
Further Reading and Suggested Websites 123
Boy 88
KEY DISCOVERY The Discovery of the Turkana Boy 89
The Relationship of Homo ergaster to Other 4 THE RISE OF MODERN HUMANS
124
Hominins 92
Paul Pettitt, University of Sheffield
TheAcheulean 93
The Acheulean Hand Axe Tradition 93 The Climatic Background 127
KEY DISCOVERY The Acheulean Hand Axe Tradition 94 Competing Hypotheses for the Origin of Homo
Hand Axe Function 95
sapiens 127
Variation within the Acheulean Tradition 95 The Multi-Regional Evolution Hypothesis 128
Homo erectus 96 The Out of Africa Hypothesis 128
The Discovery and Dating of Homo erectus in Java 96 Other Hypotheses and Attempts at Consensus 129
KEY CONTROVERSY The Dating of Javan Homo KEY CONTROVERSY The Complex Fossil Record in Asia
and Modern Human Emergence 130
erectus 98
The Discovery and Dating of Homo erectus in China 98
The Anatomy of Homo sapiens 131
The Archaeology of Chinese Homo erectus 100
Evolution in Low Latitudes: Evidence for the Rise of
The Dispersal of Homo ergaster and the Fate of
Modern Humans in Africa 132
Homo erectus 101
Earliest Homo sapiens 132
The Initial Expansion of Homo ergaster from Africa 101
KEY CONTROVERSY The “Hobbit”: Homofloresiensis, Transitional Homo sapiens 133
Anatomically Modern Humans 136
a Unique Species? 102
The Expansion of Homo ergaster to Eurasia: Genetic Keys to theOrigins ofModern Humans 137
The Dmanisi Discoveries 103 Mitochondrial DNA and the Theory of an Early African
• Dating the Dmanisi Fossils 104 "Coalescence" 138
• Evidence that Homo ergaster Persisted to 1 Million Years Other Theories and Potential Consensus 138
Ago or Later 106 Mitochondrial DNA and the Evolution of Homo
The Persistence of Homo erectus in Java 106 neanderthalensis 140
KEY METHOD Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) Dating 107
Archaeology and the Emergence of “Modern”
Homo heidelbergensis and the Initial Occupation of Behavior in Middle Stone Age Africa 140
Europe 107 Artifactual Evidence 141
KEY CONTROVERSY When Did Humans First Colonize Hunting and Dietary Evidence 141
Europe? 110 KEY SITE Klasies River Mouth: Middle Stone Age
KEY SITE The Gran Dolina TD6 and the History of Hunters? 142
Cannibalism 111 Evidence of Site Modification and Art 143
Brain Expansion and Change within the Hand Axe
Evolution in High Latitudes: The Neanderthals 145
Tradition 111
The Anatomy of Homo neanderthalensis 145
The European Origin of the Neanderthals 112
Exploitation of Resources: Hunting, Gathering, and
KEY METHOD Uranium-Series Dating 112
Scavenging 146
Evidence for Early Human Behavior apart from KEY CONTROVERSY The Evolution of Language 147
Stone Artifacts 113 The Mousterian Lithic Industry 149
Raw Materials besides Stone 113 KEY DISCOVERY The Neanderthal Genome 150
Site Modification 114 Neanderthal Behavior 151
Fire 116
Early Dispersals of H omo sapiens into the Levantine
Art 117
Corridor 152
contents
KEY CONTROVERSY The Initial Upper Paleolithic and the Domestication by Hunter-gatherer Groups 184
Emergence of Modern Behavior 154 The Development of Domesticates 185
The Geography of Domestication 185
The Colonization of East Asia and Australia 155
KEY CONTROVERSY Explaining Agriculture 186
The Colonization of Europe, and the Middle to Why Agriculture? 188
Upper Paleolithic Transition 156
TheSpread of Agriculture 189
The Aurignacian 156
KEY METHOD Radiocarbon Dating 157 The Consequences of Agriculture 190
Relations between Neanderthals and Incoming Homo Settlement 190
sapiens? 158 Social Complexity 191
Material Culture 191
Developments in Human Behavior: The European
Warfare 192
Mid- and Later Upper Paleolithic 159
Agricultural Intensification 192
The Gravettian 159
KEY SITES Four Sites with Upper Paleolithic Art 160 Cities, States, and Empires 193
Gravettian Behavior 161 The Development of States 194
KEY CONTROVERSY The Meaning of “Venus” • The Geography of State Formation 194
Figurines 162 • Archaeological Features of States 195
The Magdalenian 163 KEY CONTROVERSY Cities, States, and Civilizations
Defined and Explained 196
Late Pleistocene Dispersals: Colonization of the
Toward History: The Adoption of Writing 196
Americas 166
States and Empires 198
Possible Source Populations 166
• Archaeology and Human Remains 166 Summary and Conclusions 199
• Linguistic and Genetic Evidence 167
Further Reading and Suggested Website 199
The Archaeological Evidence for Pre-Clovis Sites 167
• Interpreting the Evidence 169
The Clovis Phenomenon 169
6 FROM FORAGERS TO COMPLEX
Summary and Conclusions 170 SOCIETIES IN SOUTHWEST ASIA
200
KEY SITE Monte Verde 171
Trevor Watkins, University of Edinburgh
KEY CONTROVERSY Big-game Extinctions in North
America 172 The Environmental Setting 201
Further Reading and Suggested Websites 173 New Strategies of Settlement and Subsistence:
Epipaleolithic Hunter-gatherers 204
The Early Epipaleolithic in the Levant,
PART II • AFTER THE ICE
c. 20,000- 12,000 bc 205
11,500 years ago to the Early Civilizations 174 • Ohalo II, Neve David, ‘Uyun al-Hamman, and
Kharaneh IV 206
KEY SITE Ohalo II: Epipaleolithic Lifeways in the
5 THE WORLD TRANSFORMED:
Levant 207
FROM FORAGERS AND FARMERS TO
The Late Epipaleolithic in the Levant,
STATES AND EMPIRES 176 c. 12,000-9600 bc 208
• The Discovery of the Natufians 208
Chris Scarre, Durham University
• Evidence for Natufian Lifeways 209
Climate Change and Faunal Extinction at the End of The Late Epipaleolithic Beyond the Levant 210
the Pleistocene 177 An Epipaleolithic Summary 211
KEY SITE Abu Hureyra: The Transition from Foraging
The Early Holocene Environment 179
to Farming 212
Coasts and Islands 179
Forests and Deserts 181 Culture Change in the Aceramic Neolithic,
Hunter-gatherer Adaptations to the Holocene 182 c. 9600-6900 BC 214
A Note on Terminology 182 New Stoneworking Technologies 214
Innovations in Art and Ideas 215
The Beginnings of Agriculture 183
The First Large Settlements Discovered:Jericho and
What is Agriculture? 183
Qatalhoyuk 215