Post-processual archaeology has completely replaced the New Archaeology.
Multi-period, deep sites, such as village mounds in the Near East, show few if any
traces of their deepest levels on the surface.
The main difference between optical dating and thermoluminescence dating is that
optical dating is used to date minerals that have been exposed to light and
thermoluminescence is used to date minerals that have been exposed to heat.
Secondary sexual characteristics include breasts and facial hair.
A sign of archaeology’s popularity is the increase in archaeology students in university
courses.
The principal source of information about early societies comes from written records.
The development of units of measurement was not a fundamental cognitive step. Even
our earliest hominin ancestors measured things: we do it naturally.
We know now that the mysterious body in Tomb 55 is Tutankhamen’s father,
Ankhenaten.
Unfortunately no organic remains, such as food, wreaths or funerary bouquets, survived
in the tomb of Tutankhamen.
Excavations at the site of Khok Phanom Di in Thailand proved that the insights about
an ancient society gained from excavating a single grave are exactly the same as the
insights gained from excavating a whole cemetery.
A large area of central Mexico City has been turned into a museum because the ruins of
the Great Temple of Tenochtitln were found there: development was halted on that spot.
Small fragments of bones cannot be recognized as human: there are no diagnostic
features that differentiate them from other animal bones.
One of the weaknesses of the interpretive approach to archaeology is that the actions
and thoughts of individuals in the past are not brought into central focus.
Archaeology has the unique advantage of being able to study processes of change over
thousands of years.
The destruction of archaeological remains during war is always purely religious, not
ethnic or nationalistic.
The Moundbuilders, long thought to be a “vanished race,” were actually the ancestors
of modern Native Americans.
Deposition of artifacts with the dead always indicates a belief in the afterlife.
Handheld GPS units are considered too inaccurate to be useful to archaeology and are
not useful where regions are unmapped or where the maps are old or inaccurate.
Sea water is potentially very destructive, but artifacts recovered from under the sea that
are coated with a thick hard casing of metallic salts can often be preserved through the
use of electrolysis.
It is usually impossible to tell more about a skeleton’s age at death beyond whether the
individual was either young, adult or old.
CRM work in the United States rarely results in the production of an excavation report.
Overall, Lindow Man was not very healthy and he had suffered through hard labor.
The typological idea that change in artifact style is gradual over time is associated with
Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Despite our best efforts, it is nearly impossible to tell if an adult skeleton was male or
female.
Occupation deposits at cave sites tend to be deep and suffer less erosion than open sites;
they are therefore valuable for studying early hunter-gatherer societies.
Archaeology still faces a variety of ethical dilemmas and thus the study of
archaeological ethics is on the rise.
Warfare is always undertaken with the objective of permanently occupying the lands of
the vanquished in a process of territorial expansion.
One of the best things about radiocarbon dating is that the samples are resistant to all
contamination: other organic material can come in contact with a radiocarbon sample
without contaminating it.
Stone tools typically survive very poorly in the archaeological record, and stone
artifacts rarely date from before 5000 years ago.
A common criticism of the early New Archaeology (functional-processual archaeology)
was that the importance of ideological and symbolic aspects of societies was ignored or
undervalued.
Analysis of plant residues on artifacts can help to define the function of the vessels
being studied.
When provided with a radiocarbon figure such as 3700 + 100 BP, the first number
(3700) is the number of years before the year 1950.
The beliefs of the modern Druids and their use of Stonehenge for rituals are not
supported by archaeological evidence.
Reconstructions of ancient faces based on information from skulls have achieved a
greater degree of accuracy in recent years.
The first type of remains used by 19th-century archaeologists to understand climate in
prehistoric periods were
a) animal remains
b) fossil pollen remains
c) phytoliths
d) isotopes in human tooth enamel
e) deep sea cores
A fundamental principle of heritage management is
a) the conservation of the archaeological record
b) the prevention of commercial and industrial development
c) the repatriation of archaeological objects
d) the publication of archaeological findings
e) all of the above
A distribution map
a) is the most natural and obvious way to plot distribution
b) can be used to find important centers of consumption
c) may not always be the best way to study distribution in a given situation
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
An important method used to gain an understanding of a past society involves the study
of the present-day use and significance of artifacts, buildings, and structures, and the
way these things become incorporated into the archaeological record when they are
abandoned. Such an approach is known as
a) ethnic studies
b) archaeozoology
c) archaeobotany
d) ethnoarchaeology
e) ethnology
In North America, the influential anthropologist Julian Steward emphasized the
importance of environmental adaptation in cultural change. This approach was termed
a) environmentalism
b) cultural ecology
c) eco-archaeology
d) diffusionism
e) processualism
At the site of Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley, a series of carefully worked cubes of
colored stone is recognized as a system of weights. This discovery allows us to infer
that
a) they had developed a concept equivalent to our own about weight
b) there was a system of numeration involving hierarchical numerical categories
c) the weight system was probably used for practical purposes
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
Assessments in advance of development require mapping with the aid of
a) GPR
b) NAGPRA
c) GIS
d) LANSAT
e) all of the above
Scholars began to study and collect the relics of Greece and Rome
a) during the Renaissance
b) after the discovery of radiocarbon dating
c) in the 1960s
d) after World War I
e) after the publication of John Lloyd Stephens’s travel accounts
Historic buildings in England were deliberately targeted in bombing raids during
a) The Irish troubles
b) The War of the Roses
c) The British Civil War
d) World War I
e) World War II
Tree-ring growth varies with the climate and is known to
a) be strong in winter but decline to nothing in the spring
b) be strong in spring but decline to nothing in the winter
c) be quite consistent all year round
d) only occur in the middle of summer
e) only occur during the typhoon
An example of religious extremism leading to archaeological destruction, the giant
Buddhas carved into the cliffs of Bamiyan were destroyed by
a) the Taliban
b) the Nazis
c) the Crusaders
d) the Romans
e) the Mongols
In 1996 a human body radiocarbon dated to 9300 BP was found in Washington State:
this find sparked a decade long battle between archaeologist and Native American
groups, mostly because it was so very old. This body is known as
a) Peking Man
b) Kennewick Man
c) The Taung Child
d) Lucy
e) Piltdown Man
How did scientists determine that the body found in Tomb 55 was closely related to
King Tutankhamen?
a) X-rays showed that their crania were nearly the same shape and size
b) Blood typing showed that they belonged to the same blood group, which was rare in
ancient Egypt
c) Fingerprints taken from both mummies were almost exactly the same
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
__________ did not exist anywhere in the New World until after European contact
a) The potter’s wheel
b) Agriculture
c) Weaving
d) Writing
e) Corn
Archaiokapiloi, huaqueros, and tombaroli are all regional terms for
a) the looters of archaeological sites
b) archaeologists
c) archaeological site museums
d) museum curators
e) believers in Indigenous religions
The earliest well-dated example of _____________ is a piece of incised red ochre from
Blombos Cave, South Africa, dated to 77,000 years ago
a) trade
b) medicine
c) money
d) weight measurement
e) art
Religious rituals usually contain four main components. Which of these is not one of
those components
a) the focusing of attention, such as through visiting a sacred location
b) the delineation of a boundary zone between this world and the next
c) the belief in the presence of a deity
d) the participation in worship
e) all of the above are components of religious ritual
The introduction of _____________ is considered an “aerial revolution” since it offers
all archaeologists and even the public the chance to examine aerial images for
archaeological sites
a) Google Earth
b) Ground Penetrating Radar
c) LIDAR
d) LANDSAT
e) Space Imaging Radar
By 10,000 BC the only parts of the world that were not populated by Homo sapiens
were Antarctica, the deserts, and
a) South America
b) Polynesia
c) the Indian subcontinent
d) Central Africa
e) North America
Pollen grains are
a) the tiny male reproductive bodies of flowering plants
b) the minute particles of silica derived from the cells of plants
c) the outermost protective layer of the skin of leaves or blades of grass
d) fossilized unicellular algae
e) none of the above
To an archaeologist, examples of relative dating methods include
a) seriation
b) studying the stratigraphy of a site
c) pollen dating
d) using layer data from deep-sea cores
e) all of the above
Grave-goods associated with a burial can reveal
a) information about the individual’s rank
b) information about the individual’s social status
c) information about the individual’s personal thoughts
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
Sedentary societies are societies that
a) no longer are nomadic
b) have developed some form of agriculture or pastoralism
c) are best investigated at the settlement level
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
Artifacts produced by the Mimbres culture in the American Southwest are sought by
collectors and the sites of that culture have been heavily looted to meet the demand. The
type of Mimbres artifact that is most valued by collectors is
a) stone idol carvings
b) painted bowls
c) intricate textiles
d) gold jewelry
e) human mummies
For many years, archaeologists puzzled over the method used to create the flute or
channel on Folsom points, a Paleo-Indian tool of North America. Based on textual
observations and experimentation, it was determined that the flute was created by
a) the block-on-block technique
b) pressure flaking using a small, pointed tool
c) an antler billet
d) pressure flaking using a T-shaped crutch, placed against the chest
e) an unknown process
The idea that the quality of materials tends to decline as the distance from the source of
those materials increases is the basic tenant behind
a) The Wheeler box grid
b) thin-section analysis
c) emissary trading
d) geomorphology
e) fall-off analysis
The Italian government tried Marian True, the former Curator of Antiquities of the J.P.
Getty Museum in Los Angeles, on charges of
a) theft from a museum in Rome
b) falsely impersonating a trained archaeologist
c) knowingly purchasing antiquities that were illegally excavated in Italian territory
d) displaying fake antiquities as real
e) all of the above
Whose work at Pecos Ruin, New Mexico was largely responsible for putting the
archaeology of the Southwest on the map?
a) Max Uhle
b) Alfred Maudslay
c) Flinders Petrie
d) Leonard Woolley
e) Alfred Kidder
Although it was less applicable in places where bronze or iron were not used, the Three
Age System was conceptually significant to the study of the prehistory of
a) North America
b) Europe
c) South America
d) Africa
e) Mesoamerica
Non-ferrous metal is metal that does not contain
a) iron
b) gold
c) lead
d) copper
e) zinc
When artifacts or features are in situ, archaeologists mean that they are
a) where they were originally used or discarded
b) in the same country where they were discovered
c) derived from the local environment
d) originally from the same city under excavation
e) none of the above