Midterm 2 Study Guide
Note this study guide may not be totally inclusive of all material presented in lecture or the
textbook. You are still responsible for the remaining materials.
Each of the following questions is false. Correct the wording of the question to make the
statement true.
1. Judgmental sampling selects the first statistical unit randomly.
2. Non-probablistic sampling uses statistics to increase the chance of capturing a representative
sample.
3. Crop circles are frequently caused by extraterrestrial landings.
4. Remote sensing is destructive to archaeological sites.
5. Thermal infrared technology is highly affected by weather conditions.
6. Ground-penetrating radar is a remote sensing technique that measures the strength of
magnetism between the Earth’s magnetic core and a sensor controlled by the archaeologist.
7. Natural levels of excavation are only used when easily recognizable strata are lacking.
8. Flotation describes the process in which materials are placed on a screen/sieve and the excess
is washed away.
9. Faunalturbation is when plants affect the distribution of artifacts.
10. Systematic random sampling is not considered probabilistic sampling.
11. TIMS stands for Thermal Information Mixed Scanning.
12. TIMS is a way to identify minor variations in the intensity of Earth’s magnetic field.
13. Excavation is on average 50% percent of archaeological research.
14. Trench excavations are ideal for cave sites.
15. Argilliturbation is a type of cultural formation process.
16. Primary context describes artifacts that have been moved after cultural deposition.
17. The correct order of soil horizons is A, B, C, O, R
18. Alluvium deposits are caused by wind.
19. When animals affect the distribution of artifacts, it is known as floralturbation.
20. Seriation can tell us which objects are the youngest.
21. Seriation can be used to obtain a calendar date to a site.
22. Seriation orders artifacts chronologically according to functional similarities.
23. Seriation was an important dating method until absolute dating methods were discovered.
24. Radiocarbon dating is possible for organic remains that are younger than about 10,000 years
old.
25. Dendrochronology uses the annual growth lines in tooth cementum to assign calendar ages to
animal remains.
26. Radiocarbon dating is useful worldwide because the amount of atmospheric 14C has remained
constant through time.
