The following were concerns regarding the excavation and conservation of the Hunley:
a. The location of the Hunley was a mystery until a magnetometer was used to locate it.
b. The ship would have quickly corroded unless it was sprayed with water after it was
raised.
c. Keeping the carbonate layer intact was critical to the preservation of the vessel.
d. All of the above.
Leroi-Gourhan’s maps of 66 French caves suggests that cave elements clustered into
four major sets of images that do not include
a. Small herbivores
b. Rare species
c. Dangerous animals
d. Domesticated animals
Remote sensing is:
a. The use of methods that employ some form of electromagnetic energy to detect and
measure characteristics of an archaeological site.
b. Any technique that is capable of subsurface exploration with little to no disturbance.
c. A technique that involves aerial photography and/or the use of color infrared film.
d. Any technique that measures geophysical features on the scale of hundreds to
thousands of meters.
Organisms that obtain carbon from a source that is depleted or enriched in 14C relative
to the atmosphere may return ages that are considerably older or younger than they
actually are. This is due to:
a. De Vries effect.
b. The reservoir effect.
c. The effect of different photosynthetic pathways.
d. Problems with calibrating the radiocarbon curve.
The Classic period (AD250-700), when the lowland Maya took on the characteristics of
the archaic state, was characterized by continuous population growth. Survey data
indicate that as many as ___________ people lived in the lowland Maya area at this
time.
a. 10 thousand.
b. 500 thousand.
c. 1 million.
d. 10 million.
A relative dating method that orders artifacts based on the assumption that one cultural
style slowly replaces an earlier style over time is:
a. Dendrochronology.
b. The index fossil concept.
c. Seriation.
d. The Law of Superposition.
Which of the following is not used as non-invasive, below ground archaeological
survey techniques?
a. Aerial photography.
b. Proton magnetometer.
c. Ground penetrating radar.
d. Excavation.
The U.S. passed laws such as the 1983 Cultural Property Implementation Act and
signed treaties with several countries that specifically prohibit the importing of artifacts
without established “pedigrees.” Some of these “grandfather in” artifacts excavated
before the treaty’s date. This means that
a. there is no longer control over the artifact trade networks and illegal transfer of
artifacts across national boundaries.
b. an importer cannot be held responsible for artifacts that they did not know were
illegal.
c. an importer must now prove that artifacts were excavated prior to the treaty’s date or
were otherwise obtained in ways not prohibited by the treaty.
d. it will become easier and easier for someone to import illegally acquired artifacts.
Written records document the historic past. So why do archaeologists do historical
archaeology?
a. Documentary sources can be selective and biased toward the interests of particular
cultural, political, or ethnic groups.
b. Documentary sources do not exist for most of the historic past.
c. Archaeological excavations can demonstrate that historical records are wrong, and
thus useless for inferring anything about the past.
d. None of the above; if written records exist, archaeologists do not bother with
historical archaeology.
You are surveying in the Near East for archaeological sites, and come upon several
artifacts on the ground surface. Historical documents suggest there was once a temple
in this area. You think you have found the site. Because of the sacred nature of the site,
you decide to excavate the least amount possible and thus want to know where the
temple lies before getting out the shovels. How might you map the site without
excavating it?
a. Use ground penetrating radar to detect the walls.
b. Use aerial photography to detect the outline.
c. Use random sampling to excavate a series of test pits across the site.
d. Use A or B depending on their potential utility in this specific case.
The level of theory that includes the observations and interpretations that emerge from
hands-on archaeological field and lab work is called:
a. Low-level theory.
b. Middle-level theory.
c. High-level theory.
d. None of the above.
The name of the cultural tradition that was widespread across much of the eastern
United States from AD 800-1500, engaged in intensive village-based maize
horticulture, and constructed earthen platform mounds is:
a. Mississippian.
b. Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.
c. Moundville.
d. All of the above.
Seriation differs from the index fossil concept in that:
a. Instead of relying on the presence or absence of distinctive kinds of artifacts, it relies
on changes in the frequencies of artifacts or styles.
b. Instead of relying on changes in the frequencies of artifacts or styles, it relies on the
presence or absence of distinctive kinds of artifacts.
c. Seriation applies only to pottery styles, while the index fossil concept can apply to all
artifact facts.
d. None of the above; seriation is the same thing as the index fossil concept.
Culture history is the most frequently practiced kind of archaeology today, especially in
America.
Where are the Laetoli footprints today?
a. The footprints were stolen by a looter shortly after their discovery, and their
whereabouts are still unknown.
b. The footprints were covered with sediment and left in place, preserved in the ground
where they were discovered.
c. The footprints are on display in a Tanzanian museum, where they have been
preserved and stabilized.
d. They are gone, completely destroyed by root activity.
Archaeological evidence has shown that the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in the past was
used as:
a. An astronomical observatory.
b. A directional aid for travelers.
c. A burial ground; the rock cairns were graves, each one marking where a powerful
person was buried.
d. None of the above; we de not know what the Medicine Wheel was in the past.
Which of the following is true about the ancient Chacoan road system?
a. Although once thought to be an extensive network of roads, aerial photography has
shown the roads to be much less extensive than initially believed.
b. Although once thought to be an extensive network of roads, aerial photography has
shown that they were not roads, but were in fact part of a vast canal system.
c. It was an elaborate and extensive network of roads, covering more than 250,000
square kilometers within New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
d. We now know that they were built strictly for economic purposes, to move goods to
markets in Chaco Canyon.
The duck decoys of Lovelock Cave, Nevada illustrate:
a. that caves were important habitation sites throughout Great Basin prehistory.
b. the importance of context in archaeological excavations.
c. the amazing degree of preservation possible in dry caves.
d. all of the above.
When analyzing the origins of agriculture
a. There is a single prime mover to account for the development
b. There is no single prime mover to account for the development
c. Various paradigms each contribute something to a final explanation.
d. B and C
Matrix sorting is a technique:
a. that involves hand-sorting of processed bulk soil samples for minute artifacts and
ecofacts.
b. in which large, obvious artifacts are removed prior to screening to prevent the
artifacts from being damaged by the screening process.
c. that uses fluid suspension to recover tiny burned plant remains and bone fragments.
d. in which sediment is placed in a screen and the matrix is washed away with hoses.
When digging test pits, archaeologists
a. maintain three-dimensional control of the finds.
b. record only horizontal coordinates.
c. record only vertical coordinates.
d. dig round holes.
Why were Leone and Potter disappointed with the results of the public archaeological
tours that they designed, where tourists often have a chance to walk through the
ongoing archaeological excavations in historic Annapolis?
a. The tours were not popular with tourists or local residents.
b. The tours did not seem to provide the public with any greater awareness of the
modern oppression and victimization caused by capitalism.
c. The public tours were damaging the archaeological site, and were shut down before
Leone and Potter could spread their message.
d. All of the above.
Archaeologists divide prehistory into periods based on:
a. The appearance of a new cultural group in the area of interest.
b. The appearance of trade goods and exotic raw material types that indicate interaction
between groups.
c. Changes in a culture’s ideology, as reflected in ceremonial items.
d. Changes in observable material culture, such as house form, pottery, or subsistence.
Which of the following is true of archaeological phases?
a. They are defined by temporal types.
b. They are blocks of time characterized by one or more distinctive artifact types.
c. They further divide and refine archaeological periods.
d. All of the above.
If you live in a society in which two or more local groups are organized under a single
highly ranked individual, you live in a(n):
a. Egalitarian society,
b. Patrilineal society.
c. Chiefdom.
d. Any or all of the above.
A marker bed is:
a. An easily identified stratum that is found in multiple sites in the same region.
b. A stratum unique to a particular archaeological site that is not found anywhere else
throughout the region.
c. A stratum that is easily dated by the potassium-argon dating method.
d. A stratum marked by distinctive soil horizons.
The “New Archaeology” of the 1960s:
a. Insisted on the contribution of archaeology to general anthropological theory.
b. Advocated the importance of scientific methods.
c. Argued that archaeologists should always work from representative samples.
d. All of the above.
The radiocarbon dating technique was discovered by:
a. Nels Nelson.
b. Oscar Montelius.
c. A. E. Douglas.
d. Willard Libby.
Why does historical archaeology occupy such a prominent position within archaeology?
a. A large number of historical sites are uncovered by construction projects driven by a
growing population, and cultural resource management laws require that they are dealt
with.
b. Many people are interested in the colonial and post-colonial history of the United
States.
c. The histories of people who were oppressed or victimized in the past are often only
discovered through historical archaeology; knowledge of these histories can empower
living descendant communities.
d. All of the above.
Archaeology can best be defined as:
a. The study of humans in all times and places.
b. The study of the biological aspect of humans.
c. The study of the past through the systematic recovery and analysis of material
remains.
d. The study of past and present human cultures through written records and oral
history.
Waterlogged sites such as Ozette on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula demonstrate:
a. how water can destroy structures and organic remains that would normally be
preserved in dry conditions.
b. how organic remains can be remarkably preserved if saturated by water and sealed in
an anaerobic environment.
c. that archaeologists cannot excavate these kinds of sites.
d. the relative ease of underwater excavation compared to excavations on dry land.
If stone is chert or quartzite, you might improve the raw materials for stone tool making
by
a. Burying the flakes or cores.
b. Burning a fire on top of the stones.
c. Soaking the stones in water.
d. Burying the flakes or cores and burning a fire on top of the stones.
Which of the following is not a trapped charge dating method?
a. Accelerator mass spectrometry.
b. Thermoluminescence.
c. Optically stimulated luminescence.
d. Electron spin resonance.