Through seriation, assemblages of artifacts are arranged in serial order, which is taken
to indicate
a) their relative worth
b) what year they were excavated
c) their relative ordering in time
d) where they were discovered on the site grid
e) where the object originally came from
Isotopic analysis of lead is not only used on objects made of pure lead, but on artifacts
made out of ___________ as well
a) copper
b) glass
c) bronze
d) silver
e) all of the above
At the Early Paleolithic site of Koobi Fora, Kenya, Glynn Isaac’s team recorded the
exact coordinates of all artifacts and was able to fit some fragments of bone and stone
back together. From this they were able to identify _____________ or parts of the site
where specific tasks were performed
a) kill sites
b) villages
c) secondary deposits
d) activity areas
e) none of the above
Although the creation of a typology may enable an archaeologist to understand gradual
changes in design or decoration, to discover exactly when these changes occurred
archaeologists must employ
a) absolute dating methods
b) relative dating methods
c) parallels to other artifact typologies
d) stratigraphy
e) none of the above
________ grows at a regular measurable rate and a careful study of its microscopic
growth lines can help determine how long an individual lived
a) tooth enamel
b) hair
c) fingernails
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
The science of morals is called
a) law
b) theory
c) conscience
d) theology
e) ethics
Who is considered to be the first person to have conducted a scientific excavation of an
ancient site?
a) Thomas Jefferson
b) General Pitt-Rivers
c) Sir William Flinders Petrie
d) Willard Libby
e) Charles Darwin
Lindow Man is the body of a man that was preserved in a peat bog in
a) Denmark
b) the Alps
c) the high Andes
d) England
e) Nova Scotia
The introduction of pottery generally seems to coincide with the adoption of a more
sedentary way of life. Paleolithic people may not have created pottery because
a) they were not really very smart
b) mobile hunter-gatherers would not want to carry heavy fired clay containers around
c) clay sources were difficult to find during the Paleolithic because they were often
buried under glaciers and ice
d) mobile hunter-gatherers were generally too busy hunting to make pottery
e) none of the above
Commonly found preserved in ash layers, pottery, and on stone tools and even teeth,
minute particles of silica derived from plant cells that survive after the rest of the
organism is decomposed are known as
a) pollen grains
b) phytoliths
c) eoliths
d) coprolites
e) foraminifera
The study of the past human use of animals is called
a) archaeobotany
b) paleontology
c) micromorphology
d) zooarchaeology
e) faunology
A notable feature of Lewis Binford’s work on the origins of farming was its generality:
he was seeking to explain the origins of agriculture worldwide. His is an example of a
_________ approach to archaeology
a) post-modern
b) Marxist
c) diffusionist
d) processual
e) all of the above
The ancient Greeks used _______, or broken fragments of pottery, as ballots or voting
tickets
a) ostraka
b) osteons
c) bronze plaques
d) papyrus
e) bronze charms
The ecological approach to archaeology developed by Grahame Clark and his
contemporaries could not only build up a picture of what prehistoric environments were
like, but could also provide information about human activities such as
a) what language people spoke in the past
b) why people believed in certain gods
c) what style of clothing people wore
d) what people ate in the past
e) all of the above
When sites associated with this type of society are ranked according to size and
displayed on a histogram there will only be a narrow range of variation in site size and
all the sites will be quite small
a) early states
b) complex societies
c) cities
d) archaic states
e) hunter-gatherer groups
In the UK, where metal detecting for artifacts is not illegal, a national scheme has been
set up to encourage metal detectorists to
a) give up this destructive hobby
b) to sell their finds on the open market
c) to confine their detecting to areas that have already been excavated
d) report their finds
e) be more discrete and not talk about their finds
There are certain areas where archaeological reality and evidence clashes with harmless
popular belief, and archaeologists must question whether they should respect these
beliefs or focus on refuting. An example of just such an ethically challenging situation
is
a) when an author is trying to sell a book that makes false claims about the past and
accuses archaeologists of keeping secret information about the public
b) when false ideas about the ancient past are being used to fuel racism and hate
c) when a major archaeological site is destroyed because those in charge of the country
belong to an extremist religion
d) when aboriginal and Indigenous religions or oral history are at odds with
archaeological interpretation
e) none of the above
Many Maori groups in New Zealand as well as some Native American groups prefer
that human remains be________ instead of excavated by archaeologists
a) put on museum display
b) sold to collectors
c) removed from their territory
d) destroyed by construction workers and developers
e) allowed to decay naturally
In the United States, CRM programs are run in
a) state governments
b) federal agencies
c) academic institutions
d) private consulting firms
e) all of the above
Archaeologists can usually identify the minimum number of individuals in a multiple
burial from
a) the part of the body that is most abundant
b) the number of skulls present
c) the depth of the burial
d) none of these
Radiocarbon dating methods can only be used on
a) inorganic materials
b) organic materials
c) volcanic rocks
d) well-fired pottery
e) objects exposed to sunlight
______________ is a theoretical approach developed by the “Frankfurt School” of
German social thinkers. This approach stresses that all knowledge is historical, biased
communication, and thus all claims to objective knowledge are illusory
a) Critical Theory
b) Conjunctivist Theory
c) Catastrophe Theory
d) Structuration Theory
e) Scientism
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 generally referred to as
a) bands
b) segmentary societies (tribes)
c) chiefdoms
d) early states
e) none of the above
The alloying of copper with tin produces
a) gold
b) bronze
c) silver
d) aluminum
e) iron
Organic and environmental remains, or ecofacts, which were not made by humans but
still provide information about the past include such items as
a) animal bones, plant remains, pottery fragments
b) soils, sediments, animal bones, plant remains
c) stone tools, weapons, pottery
d) soils sediments, animal bones, stone tools, weapons, pottery
e) none of the above
It is impossible for archaeological sites to be protected if
a) they are located in an area that people want to develop
b) their locations are not known or recognized
c) in times of war
d) they are located in developing countries
e) they are located on federal land
The study of pollen grains, developed by Norwegian geologist Lennart von Post, is
commonly known as
a) geomorphology
b) palynology
c) archaeobotany
d) paleoethnobotany
e) microbotany
The grave goods associated with the Princess Vix burial from central France were
surprising because
a) they dated to a completely different time than the body
b) they represented items usually only seen in male burials
c) they were made of materials that could only have come from the Americas
d) they were far less fine than items that normally accompany a princess
e) they contained pollen from as far away as the Middle East
Landscape descriptions in Homer’s The Iliad inspired Heinrich Schliemann to search for
and successfully find the city of _____, located in modern Turkey
a) atalhyk
b) Atlantis
c) Troy
d) Minoa
e) Smyrna
The study of the arrangement of superimposed layers of rocks or soil is called
a) processualism
b) the Three Age system
c) cultural ecology
d) stratigraphy
e) the praxis approach
In the United States, the survey or assessment in reference to a phase of major
development includes
a) archaeological survey
b) studying the impact to wildlife
c) research into the recent history of the area
d) all of the above
e) a and c only
The study of traded goods is an important part of the investigation of
a) exchange
b) our hominin ancestors
c) the development of agriculture
d) long-term climate change
e) none of the above
Before the New Archaeology, changes observed in the archaeological record were often
explained by the idea of
a) migration
b) the environment
c) class struggle
d) cognition and identity
e) all of the above
Typically, the most destructive types of climate for organic materials are
a) tropical climates
b) polar climates
c) temperate climates
d) it makes little difference
The part of the National Historic Preservation Act that requires federal agencies to
identify historic places is
a) Section 106
b) The Preamble
c) Section 1
d) Clause 243
e) none of the above