Much Olmec pottery contains images of this important motif.
a. human-quetzal
b. human-butterfly
c. human-snake
d. human-jaguar
Perhaps the most famous ax quarries are located here.
a. western Siberia
b. western Europe
c. southern China
d. northern Siberia
According to one authority, what percent of African soil is moderately fertile enough to
support gardens?
a. 5%
b. 10%
c. 40%
d. 90%
The Maya lowlands are located at
a. the Yucatn.
b. Veracruz.
c. the Valley of Oaxaca.
d. the Valley of Mexico.
What step of the archaeological process pulls together all the data, tests the propositions
in the research design, and represents the conclusion?
a. data acquisition
b. analysis
c. research design
d. interpretation
The Late Horizon of Peruvian archaeology
a. dates from A.D. 1476 to 1534.
b. is the period of the Inka Empire.
c. is the shortest horizon of Peruvian archaeology.
d. all of the above
The view developed by Julian Steward that states that similar human adaptations may
be found in widely separated cultures in similar environments.
a. general systems theory
b. cultural ecology
c. postprocessual archaeology
d. processual archaeology
Stonehenge reflects the distinctive idea of
a. cyclical seasons.
b. the movement of the sun and moon.
c. time.
d. the cosmos.
Maize was domesticated in Mesoamerica
a. by transforming earlier teosinte into maize.
b. at about the time the pyramids of Giza were built in Egypt.
c. as the game population declined.
d. all of the above
For most of the year, Cro-Magnons lived
a. individually.
b. in cities.
c. in small groups.
d. in large, articulate communities.
Archaic humans lacked one vital component of the human mind:
a. emotion.
b. intelligence.
c. a conscience.
d. cognitive flexibility.
Which is NOT a characteristic of the environment of early Harappan civilization?
a. low-lying
b. hot
c. sterile soils
d. no metals in the soil
Which best defines the concept of culture history?
a. Cultural anthropologists have built up a picture of the past through time.
b. The record of the human past described and classified in a context of time and space.
c. This process is the secondary stage to any archaeological investigation.
d. Culture history represents a stratigraphic survey.
A squat, massively built primate with a crested skull.
a. Ardipithecus ramidus
b. Sahelanthropus tchadensis
c. Australopithecus africanus
d. Australopithecus robustus
For reasons that are not understood, the great megafauna that inhabited the
Americas during the Ice Age were extinct by
a. 8000 B.C.
b. 9000 B.C.
c. 10,000 B.C.
d. 11,000 B.C.
What type of technology did archaeologist Payson Sheets use to locate houses buried
underneath the ash at Cern in El Salvador?
a. subsurface radar
b. dendrochronology
c. excavation
d. mortar and pestle
Undergraduate and graduate training is dominated by
a. academic archaeology.
b. government and private sectors.
c. research archaeology.
d. field archaeology.
Moche civilization collapsed within a half century of a
a. great earthquake.
b. huge fire.
c. persistent drought.
d. failed coup.
Angkor Wat
a. is the largest religious building in the world.
b. is located in Pakistan.
c. served as the palace for the king and his family.
d. took 100 years to build and was finally destroyed by foreign invaders.
At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Inka controlled the lives of as many as
a. 60 million.
b. 6 million.
c. 600,000.
d. 60,000.
Gordon Hillman’s work on plant remains shows that these people exploited nut harvests
in nearby pistachio and oak forests.
a. Jarmo
b. Jericho
c. Netiv Hagdud
d. Abu Hureyra
This chronological method can reach back to 3,000 B.C.
a. dendrochronology
b. obsidian hydration
c. cross-dating
d. historical records
Removed in a series, then trimmed and shaped further.
a. flake
b. core
c. block
d. rock
What branch of science or social science is the scientific study of ancient human
behavior based on the surviving material remains of the past?
a. history
b. archaeometry
c. archaeology
d. anthropology
The inland basin of this area was the center of political and economic life in highland
Mesoamerica.
a. the Yucatn
b. Veracruz
c. Valley of Oaxaca
d. Valley of Mexico
Neanderthals had to attack game
a. at night.
b. during the winter.
c. from above.
d. at close quarters.
The big game that formed a staple part of the American diet was extinct by
a. 5,000 B.C.
b. 7,000 B.C.
c. 11,000 B.C.
d. 15,000 B.C.
NOT a fine-grained rock used for blade cores by Cro-Magnon people.
a. chert
b. granite
c. flint
d. obsidian
The objects of primary interest to a culture historian.
a. oral traditions
b. myths
c. artifacts and structures
d. written histories
As local populations rose at the Koster site, so food supplies became scarcer. The next
logical step was
a. fishing and collecting marine animals along the coast.
b. developing smaller arrow points to hunt large game.
c. the deliberate cultivation of native grasses.
d. gustatory cannibalism.
Which subdiscipline of archaeology studies the culture and artifacts of the earliest
humans, including stone technology and art?
a. prehistoric archaeology
b. paleoanthropology
c. classical archaeology
d. Egyptology
After 30,000 years ago, Homo sapiens finally mastered
a. fire.
b. winter.
c. art.
d. language.