Hearths are very easy to find and recognize in early prehistoric campsites.
Maya “emblem glyphs” can be linked to specific sites, which helps archaeologists to
understand the political organization of the region.
The idea that the origins of great civilizations lie in the large-scale irrigation of the
alluvial plains of great rivers is called the hydraulic hypothesis.
Although a subject of debate for many years, carbon dating performed in 1988 by
laboratories in Tucson, Oxford, and Zurich all agreed that the Shroud of Turin dated to
the time for Christ: the 1st century AD.
Unfortunately, the oral traditions of non-literate societies are just too unreliable to be of
any use at all to archaeologists.
According to Marshall Sahlins, balanced reciprocity takes place among those well
known to each other in a definite social context. Negative reciprocity operates between
strangers or those socially distant from one another.
A key point in archaeology is the idea of association. For example, if objects are found
in the same, sealed, archaeological deposit, it is probable that they were buried at the
same time.
In order to be of use, an archaeological typology must reflect the way ancient people
would have classified those same objects.
Although scientific techniques for characterization are very helpful to archaeological
studies of material sources, in most cases visual examination is sufficient.
Tertiary cultural deposits are those that have been completely removed from their
original context and have been reused.
Recent experimental work indicates that the hand axes of the Lower Paleolithic could
not serve as useful and versatile butchery tools, they could only have been used for
chopping wood.
The ancient Maya are known to have intentionally and irreversibly deformed their
children’s skulls.
Although interesting historically, the Maya calendar was not very precise.
Diatoms are useful for identifying whether ancient bodies of water were fresh, brackish
or salt, but not for finer grained analytical questions, such as the level of water pollution
or where ancient shorelines were located.
The remains of Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo in modern Zimbabwe were established
by Phoenician sea-traders, and represent the most distant evidence for their settlement.
The study of ancient dung contributes to the debate over large animal extinctions.
The earliest known glass furnace was found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, dated to about
1350 bc.
Unlike other animals, which have useful hides to make leather out of, birds have only
been hunted for their meat.
Written records form probably the greatest single source of information for ancient state
societies; they directly relate knowledge that requires no interpretation.
Although pollen grains are of little use in studies of plant domestication, molecular
genetics are now beginning to make a contribution to the question.
However interesting they may be from a cultural point of view, neither art nor literature
can provide any evidence about what people ate in the past.
From a single leg bone, one can reasonably estimate the sex, age, height and general
size of an individual.
Large mammals are not generally good indicators of vegetation since herbivores thrive
in a wide range of environments and eat a variety of plants.
In some mammals, annual rings of cementum (a mineralized deposit) form around the
tooth roots below the gumline; a thin-section of these indicates alternating seasons of
stress or plenty.
Hammering copper makes the metal brittle, but by heating the metal, some pliability
can be restored.
The Rosetta Stone was discovered during Pitt Rivers’ military expedition to India
(1798-1800).
Arid conditions encourage decay through the shortage of water, which allows
micro-organisms to thrive.
The earliest dated (using AMS) plant remains in Mesoamerica is maize and was found
at Guil Naquitz.
The reason that archaeology touches on issues of an ethical nature is that it is associated
with questions of identity.
Excavations at Pompeii during the 17th century consisted of some of the earliest, proper
methodological techniques applied to an ancient site.
Thanks to modern scientific methods, we know that no fake antiquities are being
displayed in the world’s major museums.
Some graves at Khok Phanom Di contained white fabric shrouds, made of both beaten
bark and asbestos.
Ancient fecal matter often contains evidence for parasites, but hunter-gatherers who
lived in open country in temperate latitudes were frequently parasite free.
In the systems approach, when a change in the output stimulates further growth and
change, this is known as
a) negative feedback
b) positive feedback
c) induction
d) positivism
e) stimulation
In a new examination of John Yellen’s ethnographic study of the ______________,
archaeologist Todd Whitelaw used computer modeling, producing a map based on
kinship distance that closely matched the actual original camp plan
a) !Kung San of the Kalahari Desert
b) Sherpa of the Tibetan Plateau
c) Inuit of Northern Greenland
d) Mopan Maya of souther Belize
e) Y nomam of Amazonian Brazilaa
In order to understand the sequence of creating the various elements in Upper
Paleolithic cave paintings, Alexander Marshack has used ____________ to see through
red ochre so that other pigments are visible
a) infrared film
b) thermoluminescence
c) ultraviolet light
d) fluxgate gradiometer
e) none of the above
The research objectives of Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus in the Oaxaca region
included
a) studying the effects of the Spanish conquest
b) elucidating stone tool development
c) verifying the pottery chronology for the area
d) the examination of the origins of agriculture
e) an investigation of the Secondary Products Revolution
The formation of a dynamic model to help understand change through time is called:
a) systems thinking
b) critical theory
c) morphogenesis
d) simulation
e) the multivariate approach
An approach to the analysis of decorative style that claims that patterns can be divided
into distinct groups or classes, and that these arrangements within a culture are not
random, is known as
a) symmetry analysis
b) systems thinking
c) synchronic analysis
d) cognitive analysis
e) all of the above
Non-artifactual organic and environmental remains, or ecofacts, include items such 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
The act of burial of human remains implies, at the very least,
a) some kind of respect of feeling for the deceased
b) a belief in a superior being
c) a desire to preserve the body for as long as possible
d) ancestor worship
e) all of the above
__________ is difficult to recognize in the archaeological record: features such as
pottery decoration or differences in toolkits do not necessarily separate different cultural
groups
a) Age
b) Genetic relation
c) Artistic talent
d) Ethnicity
e) Craft-making ability
Bernard Knapp and Michael Given designed a survey of northern Cyprus to investigate
the relationship between the production and distribution of agricultural and
metallurgical resources through time. Their survey strategy included
a) walking transects and entering the data daily into a GIS program
b) stratified areas according to vegetation, with random sampling squares in each
c) random squares, determined with a random numbers table, for intensive survey
d) nearly 100% survey coverage, with data entered into a GIS program
e) none of the above
Scientific analysis of DNA sequences may indicate the relationships between members
of royal families and determine whether or not members of a dynasty practiced
a) incest
b) cannibalism
c) exogamy
d) polygamy
e) necrophagy
Relying on a single dominant explanatory factor, or “prime mover,” to account for a
cultural change is known as a(n)
a) idealist explanation
b) multivariate explanation
c) hypothetico-deductive explanation
d) monocausal explanation
e) postprocessual explanation
At Ozette, the extraordinary preservation of organic materials such as wooden
containers, baskets, weaving equipment, and fishing and hunting equipment, was the
result of
a) a glacier covering the village
b) a mudslide covering the settlement
c) a volcano burying the settlement in ash
d) a lava flow burying the village
Frequency seriation relies upon measuring
a) the width of tree growth rings
b) aligning radiocarbon dates from earliest to latest
c) changes in the proportional abundance of artifact attributes
d) pollen zone sequences
e) all of the above
After 10,000 years ago, as the farming way of life took root in different parts of the
world, the introduction of new agricultural methods such as plowing, terracing, and
irrigation, as well as the use of poorer quality land, suggest that there was a gradual
a) intensification of food production
b) domination of state organizations
c) spread of egalitarian societies
d) intensification of non-religious behavior
e) increase in rainfall
Archaeology has been popularized through
a) books
b) television
c) the internet
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
The process of cutting out a piece of bone from the skull, probably to alleviate pressure
on the brain caused by a skull fracture dates back at least 7000 years and is called:
a) boring
b) probing
c) trepanation
d) osteonization
e) scalping
Ethics is the science of:
a) emotion
b) feeling
c) conflict
d) cooperation
e) morals
Interpretations which stress that human actions are guided by beliefs and symbolic
concepts and that underlying these are structure of thought which find expression in
various forms are known as ___________
a) functionalist
b) Marxist
c) scientistic
d) processualist
e) structuralist
Chemical and infrared spectroscopic analyses of a yellowish residue found inside a
pottery jar from the Neolithic site of Hajji Firuz Tepe, Iran, was identified as tartaric
acid. Dating to about 5400″5000 BC, this represents the earliest evidence for
a) beer
b) a malt beverage
c) resinated wine
d) opium
e) milk
Proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) has similar analytical possibilities as scanning
electron microscope (SEM) analysis, but is better for analyses of
a) small areas of light materials (such as paper, pigments, or soldering of alloys)
b) samples in the form of a prepared or pressed powder or glass pellet
c) alloys and major components of pottery, faience, glass, and glazes
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
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
Due to ethnic tensions in ____________, the Old Bridge at Mostar, was constantly
shelled and was eventually destroyed
a) the former Rhodesia
b) the former Yugoslavia
c) the former Soviet Union
d) the former Zaire
e) the former Siam
Although the Spanish razed the standing structure of the Great Temple of the Aztecs in
1521, ______________ were preserved underneath
a) parts of Colonial Mexico City
b) Maya sites
c) earlier temples that were in that spot
d) Olmec houses
e) all of the above
_________________ is a particularly useful method used in distinguishing between
different sources of amber
a) Electron probe microanalysis
b) Infrared absorption spectroscopy
c) Fall-off analysis
d) Geochemical analysis
e) X-ray diffraction analysis
Although palynology is very useful for the reconstruction of past vegetation in forested
regions, grass pollens are typically indistinguishable from one another. In grassy
environments an alternative is the study of the protective layer of the skin or epidermis
of leaves or blades of grass that retain the characteristic shapes of the underlying
epidermal cells known as
a) phytoliths
b) diatoms
c) fossil cuticles
d) plant DNA
e) coprolites
The cargo of over 350 copper four-handled ingots from the Uluburun shipwreck
appears to have originated in Cyprus. This was determined using
a) side scanning sonar
b) lead isotope analysis
c) infrared absorption spectroscopy
d) atomic absorption spectrometry
e) optical emission spectrometry
A disadvantage of some geophysical techniques based on magnetism is that their use in
urban areas may be subject to distortion resulting from power lines and metals in the
immediate vicinity. One method that can be used in such areas relies on soil moisture
and is known as
a) proton precession magnetometry
b) ground penetrating radar (GPR)
c) fluxgate magnetometry
d) electrical resistivity
e) metal detectors
Immanuel Wallerstein used the term __________ to designate an economic unit
articulated by trade networks that extended far beyond the boundaries of each
individual political unit, linking them together in a larger functioning unit
a) reciprocal emulation
b) kula network
c) globalization
d) potlatch system
e) world system
Historical accounts show that some of the Upper Mangrove Creek area’s hill tops were
maker traveling routes and that people often came together across great distances to
________ as part of male initiation ceremonies
a) fight
b) trade
c) participate in tattooing
d) take wives
e) learn to hunt