According to Andrew Sherratt there was a second, later stage of domestication that he
calls the Secondary Products Revolution. Sherratt argues that the Secondary Products
Revolution was defined by the intensified use of animals for
a) milk and cheese
b) wool
c) animal traction (plowing)
d) all of the above are correct
e) a and b are correct
One method of examining settlement patterning evidence is Central Place Theory.
Although such perfect examples do not exist in the real world, the basic feature of this
theory is:
a) that centers (towns or settlements) would be scattered randomly across a landscape
and would control vastly different amounts of territory
b) all human settlement in a geographic area would worship at one central place, as
governed by their religion
c) at a certain stage of development, all societies will leave their small towns or
settlements and come together in a vast urban area (the central place)
d) humanity evolved in Africa (the central place) and spread outward from there
e) that centers (towns or settlements) of the same size and nature would be situated
equidistant from each other and would control a similar amount of territory
C.J. Thomsen, a Danish scholar, was responsible for classifying artifact collections and,
based on those classifications, he created a conceptual scheme known as
a) uniformitarianism
b) the Three Age system
c) cultural ecology
d) processualism
e) none of the above
Other indicators of age may be based on
a) fusion of cranial vault sutures
b) skull thickness
c) the ends of ribs
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
Villages during the Early Formative period in the Valley of Oaxaca were typically
a) permanent settlements of wattle-and-daub houses
b) small encampments representing microbands
c) seasonal camp sites with some specialized production sites
d) semi-permanent settlements in a three-tier settlement hierarchy
e) major centers with large stone houses
Metallographic examination involves the
a) examination of a polished section cut from a metal artifact under a light microscope
b) examination of a polished section cut from a metal artifact under a petrographic
microscope
c) examination of a polished part of a metal artifact, for abrasions and cracks, as well as
annealing and soldering
d) the use of radar technology to search for metal objects under the ground
e) all of the above
Visible differences in vegetation growth resulting from a sub-surface wall or ditch
affecting the available moisture, nutrients, or soil depth, appear in aerial photographs as
a) damp marks
b) soil marks
c) crop-marks
d) UFO marks
e) residual marks
A lock of hair found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen is thought to belong to
a) his father whose identity is unknown
b) his grandmother, Queen Tiye
c) the person for whom Tutankhamen’s grave goods were originally intended for
d) tomb robbers that had entered the tomb in antiquity
e) King Rameses II
If the core of a ceramic sherd is dark (gray or black),
a) the firing temperature was too low to fully oxidize the clay
b) the duration of firing time was not long enough
c) the amount of temper in the clay was too high
d) a or b could be the cause
e) b or c could be the cause
Generally larger than mobile hunter-gatherer groups, these societies are typically
sedentary, rarely number more than a few thousand people, and lack permanent
differences of social status between people. These are
a) bands
b) segmentary societies
c) chiefdoms
d) early states
e) all of the above
Assume that you receive a radiocarbon date that reads 500 years before present and has
a standard deviation of 25 years. Which of the following statements is true?
a) There is a 66% chance that the date is between 475 and 525 years before present
b) There is a 95% chance that the date is between 450 and 550 years before present
c) There is a 98% chance that the date is between 480 and 520 years before present
d) all of the above
e) Answers a and b are correct
Taking steps to research and record archaeological remains in advance of unavoidable
construction is known as
a) protectionism
b) mitigation
c) qualification
d) preservation
e) reconstruction
Using the CAT-scan technique on an Australopithecus africanus skull known as “Mrs
Ples,” from Sterkfontein, South Africa, Frans Zonnevold and Jan Wind determined that,
based on the semicircular inner ear canals, “Mrs Ples”
a) walked with her head at a similar angle to that of modern humans, implying a similar
capacity for bipedalism
b) walked with her head at a greater forward sloping angle than modern humans,
implying mixed tree-climbing with bipedalism
c) walked with her head at a forward sloping angle more like that of chimpanzees,
implying almost exclusive tree-climbing
d) walked with her head at a greater forward sloping angle than modern humans,
implying a severe deformity of the cranial vault
e) none of the above
Applicable beyond the time range of radiocarbon dating, amino-acid racemization is
used primarily to date samples of
a) bone
b) tooth enamel
c) obsidian
d) rocks rich in calcium carbonate
e) ceramics
Examination of the 154 burials at Khok Phanom Di revealed that anemia may have
produced thickening of skulls, probably caused by the blood disorder ___________
which may have provided some resistance to malarial mosquitoes
a) thalassemia
b) lymphocytosis
c) neutropenia
d) cirrhosis
e) diabetes
Typically, the most destructive type of climate for organic materials tends to be
a) tropical
b) polar
c) temperate
d) desert
e) it makes little difference
The only country to have been named specifically after an archaeological site is:
a) Bolivia
b) Greece
c) Zimbabwe
d) Egypt
e) Ireland
Many of the principal features of modern archaeology, particularly chronology and
description, were established in the 19th century and continued to develop through the
first half of the 20th century; this initial approach to archaeology is described by
Gordon Willey and Jeremy Sabloff as
a) processual
b) classificatory-historical
c) “New Archaeology”
d) postprocessual
e) environmental determinism
Uranium-series dating is based on the radioactive decay of uranium isotopes, and is
very useful for the period 500,000-50,000 years ago, which is outside the limits of
radiocarbon dating. This method is used to date
a) teeth
b) rocks rich in calcium carbonate
c) rocks rich in volcanic minerals
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
_____________ is a method that measures a thin layer that accumulates due to
absorption of water on the surface of obsidian when it is first exposed to air. By
comparing the thickness of this layer to a graph that predicts how long it takes for water
to accumulate on such material a chronometric date can be calculated
a) Radiocarbon
b) Amino acid racemization
c) Obsidian hydration
d) Obsidian oxidation
e) Hydrospheric lamination
GIS, which stands for ______________, is a significant new development in
archaeological mapping
a) Geological Igneous Systems
b) Geological Information Systems
c) Geographic Information Systems
d) Geographic Ignorance Systems
e) Genealogical Information System
The Popol Vuh manuscript, found among the living Maya of the Guatemalan highlands
during the 19th century, can be associated with
a) a 2000-year-old epic concerning the Maya Underworld
b) pictorial references on Classic Maya pottery
c) he establishment of the site of Mayapan and the coming of the god Kulkulkan
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
All of the following are absolute dating methods except
a) frequency seriation
b) tree-ring dating
c) radiocarbon dating
d) the use of historical chronologies
e) the use of calendars
One of the first ways in which people modified their living places was by
a) the controlled use of fire
b) irrigation techniques
c) sweet potato planting
d) domestication of goats
e) building of stone monuments
In the context of studying ancient distribution, down-the-line trade is the movement of a
commodity
a) across successive territories through successive exchanges
b) via exchange at a common boundary
c) to a central place (as tribute) where something is received, then or later
d) by an independent middleman, who exchanges with others
e) through an emissary, who is under the control of a larger entity
Which dating technique would yield a result that might read 2.25 million years before
present, plus or minus 50,000 years?
a) radiocarbon dating
b) electron spin resonance
c) thermoluminescence
d) potassium-argon dating
e) optically stimulated luminescence
A process of reasoning by which more specific consequences are inferred by rigorous
argument from more general propositions or antecedent circumstances is known as
a) induction
b) deduction
c) positivism
d) systems thinking
e) culture-historical approach
Another term for CRM is
a) geoarchaeology
b) indigenous archaeology
c) ethnoarchaeology
d) managerial archaeology
e) applied archaeology
Systematic surface survey tends to be preferred to unsystematic for a number of
reasons, primarily because in unsystematic surveys there is a tendency for
a) survey walkers to get tired and hide under bushes
b) survey walkers to concentrate on areas where artifacts are concentrated
c) survey walkers to walk in circles
d) survey walkers to veer off the survey grid
The Butser Experimental Farm in southern England is a long-term research project to
replicate a functioning version of a farmstead dating to about 300 BC, that is, in the
a) Stone Age
b) Copper Age
c) Bronze Age
d) Iron Age
e) Medieval Period
The Portable Heritage Scheme in the UK is a voluntary system in which ____________
are encouraged to report their archaeological finds
a) deep sea divers
b) archaeologists
c) returning Iraq war veterans
d) metal detectorists
e) museums
Artifacts found with “tzi” or the “Iceman” discovered in the Alps in 1991 included
a) a long bow, wooden backpack, copper axe
b) a flint dagger, skin shoes (filled with grass), birchbark containers
c) a leather belt, bone awl, leather leggings
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
By measuring the hydration layer on obsidian tools, known to increase over time, an
estimate of age may be established. Such a technique, known as obsidian hydration, is
considered a(n) ___________ method for dating
a) calibrated relative
b) calibrated absolute
c) relative
d) absolute
e) inaccurate
A belief that there is one and only one method of science, and that it alone confers
legitimacy on the conduct of research, is considered by postprocessualists to be
a) scientistic
b) critical theory
c) paradigmatic view
d) Marxist archaeology
e) monocausal explanation
Observing the wear patterns on ancient stone tools is an aspect of microwear analysis;
experimental archaeology provides added information on the specific activities the tools
might have been used for by
a) using modern copies of stone tools in a variety of specific tasks
b) studying the traces of polish on modern copies of tools after use
c) creating categories of tool use according to wear patterns created on modern copies
d) all of the above
e) none of the above