“Stratigraphy” is:
a. The study of a site’s artifact assemblage.
b. The thorough and detailed documentation of archaeological excavations.
c. The procedure by which archaeological sites are professionally mapped.
d. A site’s physical structure produced by the deposition of geological and/or cultural
sediments into layers.
An object or act that by cultural convention stands for something else with which it has
no necessary connection is a(n):
a. Symbol.
b. Sign.
c. Icon.
d. Artifact.
The person most responsible for the development and popularization of the “New
Archaeology” in the 1960s was:
a. Walter W. Taylor.
b. Lewis R. Binford.
c. H. Marie Wormington.
d. Kathleen A. Deagan.
Why do many archaeologists feel that oral traditions are not as reliable a source of
information as archaeological data?
a. Oral traditions can change over time; the older the events described, the more likely
that elements were dropped or added.
b. Oral traditions can be selective in what they remember, altering the nature or
sequence of events over time to suit particular political needs.
c. Oral traditions often encode cultural and religious knowledge that is not rooted in the
material world, and that therefore cannot be scientifically evaluated.
d. All of the above.
That material culture reflects symbolic meanings as well as functional behaviors
a. Makes archaeological patterning easy to understand.
b. Makes archeological patterning difficult to understand.
c. Makes it impossible infer ancient social and political organization from artifacts.
d. Makes it easy to tell if objects are best interpreted in terms of their symbolic or
functional meanings.
The theory proposed by Robert Braidwood, arguing that agriculture arose in areas
where the wild ancestors of domesticated wheat and barley grew, and resulted from
human efforts to increase the productivity and stability of their food base, is the:
a. Hilly flanks theory.
b. Density-equilibrium theory.
c. Oasis theory.
d. Optimal foraging theory.
The number of attributes recorded during artifact analysis:
a. Is limited by the number of measurements possible, which is generally very few.
b. Is generally limited to those that are necessary to accomplish the purpose of the
typology.
c. Is generally limited to those that provide an accurate description of artifact size, such
as length, width, and thickness
d. Is generally as many as possible, so that future analysts will not have to re-examine
the artifacts to obtain the data they need to answer different research questions.
Which of the following dating methods provides the most precise date?
a. Potassium-argon.
b. Radiocarbon.
c. Dendrochronology.
d. Thermoluminescence.
A. V. Kidder (1886-1963) demonstrated that potsherds are archaeologically important
because they can provide evidence of:
a. Cultural relationships among various prehistoric groups.
b. The types of food contained in the original clay storage vessel.
c. Prehistoric ceramic manufacturing technology.
d. Potsherds are of no archaeological importance; they are simply broken pieces of
pottery.
Leone’s realization that, in its early stages, the Annapolis archaeology program had
overlooked a major portion of the city, led to:
a. Archaeologists teaching the African-American community about their history.
b. A general unwillingness among the African-American community to participate in
the archaeologists’ research.
c. A dialogue between Annapolis archaeologists and the local African-American
community.
d. The ultimate abandonment of the project.
Which of the following is the most common and often the most difficult criteria used by
archaeologists to establish a site as “significant” under the 1966 National Historic
PreservationAct?
a. Site is associated with an important person in history.
b. Site is associated with an important event in history.
c. Site is an example of an important class of architecture.
d. Site is capable or potentially capable of providing information important to history or
prehistory.
In most sites, stratigraphy results from a complex interplay between
a. animals and people.
b. people and water.
c. nature and societies.
d. climate and societies.
The text argues that which of the following perspectives is the most useful for
archaeology?
a. A scientific perspective.
b. A humanistic perspective.
c. A combination of the two.
d. None of the Above.
In the 1960’s the American public became concerned about resource conservation.
According to the text, many who recognized that wilderness and wildlife refuges alone
could not stem the effects of pollution were aroused by
a. the war in Vietnam.
b. habitat threats to the whooping crane.
c. increasing corruption among SHPO officials.
d. Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring.
The year 1859 is important to archaeology because
a. Charles Lyell published the book The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.
b. Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species.
c. Classical Archaeology began as a field of archaeology.
d. Hugh Falconer visited Abbeville to examine disputed evidence from French gravel
pits.
Who developed the technique of dendrochronology, or tree ring dating?
a. Nels Nelson.
b. Oscar Montelius.
c. A. E. Douglas.
d. Willard Libby.
The monument honoring the events that occurred at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
differs today from when it was erected in 1881 in that:
a. While it was initially named the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument,
opposition groups were successful in changing the name to Custer Battlefield.
b. In 1881, it was thought that Indian warriors had slaughtered Custer and his army, and
so it was that event that the monument depicted; today archaeology has shown that
Custer and his men actually won the battle, and so the monument now depicts that
event.
c. A new memorial now also honors the fallen Cheyenne, Lakota, and Arapaho warriors.
d. All of the above.
Soil development occurs:
a. Anytime soils are deposited by wind or water.
b. When sediment accumulates quickly and is deeply and rapidly buried.
c. When sediments accumulate slowly and undergo in situ chemical and mechanical
weathering.
d. Anytime sediments are subjected to intense heat or cold over a long period of time.
The Law of Superposition states that, in any pile of sedimentary rocks that have not
been disturbed by folding or overturning:
a. Stratigraphic layers cannot be used to date archaeological sites.
b. Stratigraphic layers at the bottom are younger than stratigraphic layers at the top.
c. Stratigraphic layers at the bottom are older than stratigraphic layers at the top.
d. Soil depth provides a measure of the absolute age of a stratum.
In geology, the principle of uniformitarianism asserts:
a. That the processes that modified the earth’s surface in the past are unknowable
because they cannot be directly observed.
b. That the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface are the same as those
of the geologic past.
c. That the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface cannot simply be
assumed to be the same as those of the geologic past, but must be demonstrated to be
the same.
d. That geologic processes are distinct from archaeological processes and that
uniformitarianism only applies to geologic processes.
Fort Mose, on the border of Georgia and Florida, was the site of
a. The first legally sanctioned slave auction
b. The first legally sanctioned free African-American community
c. The last legally sanctioned slave auction
d. The last legally sanctioned free African-American community
William Spence discovered the Agate Basin site
a. Similar to the way George McJunkin found the Folsom site in New Mexico.
b. Using aerial reconnaissance.
c. Using random sampling.
d. Through happenchance excavation.
Archaeologists know that Folsom points date to between 10,300 and 10,900
radiocarbon years ago. If an archaeologist finds a Folsom point in a site, and assumes
that the site dates to between 10,300 and 10,900 years ago, the archaeologist is using
which of the following in his or her reasoning?
a. Seriation.
b. Trapped charge dating
c. Relative dating.
d. The index fossil concept
In a typology abstract, descriptive properties are called
a. morphological types.
b. temporal types.
c. functional types.
d. artifact types.
Which of the following is true of the Hudson-Meng site in northwest Nebraska?
a. Taphonomic research suggests that humans played little, if any, role in the deaths of
the 500 bison at the site.
b. The presence of hundreds of projectile points among the bison bone strongly suggests
the bison were dispatched by human hunters.
c. The presence of unequivocal cutmarks on many of the bison bone provides strong
evidence of butchery by humans.
d. The fact that most of the bison bones were highly disarticulated and scattered
provides evidence of butchering by humans.
The difference between pure science and applied science is:
a. Pure science is research to acquire the knowledge necessary to solve a specific,
recognized problem, while applied science is systematic research directed toward
acquisition of knowledge for its own sake.
b. Pure science is systematic research directed toward acquisition of knowledge for its
own sake, while applied science is research to acquire the knowledge necessary to solve
a specific, recognized problem.
c. Pure science is systematic research directed toward acquisition of knowledge for its
own sake, while applied science is the application of scientific knowledge for legal
purposes.
d. Pure science has no hidden political agenda, while applied science does.
The importance of plants in prehistoric diets was largely unknown until which of the
following techniques was used?
a. Total station mapping of in situ artifacts.
b. The stratigraphic method.
c. Excavation by natural rather than arbitrary levels
d. Flotation.
Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656) was responsible for which of the following?
a. Establishing the antiquity of man by recognizing ancient handaxes associated with
extinct mammal bones.
b. Promoting the concept of organic evolution at a time when most scholars rejected
evolutionary thought.
c. Conducting intensive excavations aimed at resolving the question of human antiquity.
d. Calculating the age of the earth based on biblical genealogy, and concluding that
Creation occurred on October 22, 4004 BC.
The _____________ hypothesis, proposed by Robert Carneiro, attributes the origin of
the state to a combination of population growth and limited agricultural resources
which leads to increased warfare, which in turn fosters centralized political
organization.
a. Irrigation hypothesis.
b. Warfare and circumscription hypothesis.
c. Hilly flanks hypothesis.
d. Density-equilibrium hypothesis.
Anthropology embraces four primary fields of study:
a. Biological, cultural, linguistic, and archaeology
b. Economic, cultural, linguistic, and archaeology
c. Religion, biological, linguistic, and archaeology
d. Biological, cultural, social, and archaeology
While today the comparative method refers to the testing of hypotheses against a range
of human societies, in the 19th century the comparative method:
a. Tested hypotheses only within the same types of societies; in other words, only
egalitarian hunter-gatherers of arctic environments, or only stratified desert
agriculturalists would be examined.
b. Was a political tool used to argue against the racist idea that some living peoples had
made it further up the evolutionary ladder of progress than others.
c. Translated cultural diversity into an evolutionary sequence in which different living
peoples represented different stages in humanity’s march towards progress.
d. Referred to the same thing; there has been little change in how the comparative
method is used since the 19th century.
Which of the following is true of the Elgin marbles?
a. They were willingly given to the British museum by Greece because Greece at the
time could not protect them from damage cause by pollution; however, Greece now
wants them back.
b. They were stolen from Greece by the British Museum, and the British Museum
refuses to return them.
c. They were legally purchased from Lord Elgin by the British Museum; however, there
is much controversy over whether Elgin’s acquisition of them was ethical, and whether
or not the marbles should be returned to Greece.
d. The British Museum has finally returned them to Greece in the spirit of “the unity of
the European cultural heritage.”
Which of the following is true of Kodiak Island archaeology today?
a. The Alutiiq people refuse to allow any archaeological investigations on the island.
b. The Alutiiq people have granted permission and provided resources for
archaeological investigations, and actively promote educational programs on Alutiiq
culture, language, and arts.
c. Only Alutiiq people are allowed to conduct archaeological investigations on the
island.
d. The archaeological record of the island has been entirely lost due to winter storms
and vandalism.
Organic materials can only be preserved in extremely dry or cold conditions, such as in
dry cave or a glacial environment.
Historic archaeologists can use the length of old clay pipes to determine the age of a
historic site.
Ethnographic analysis makes it clear that it is safe to assume that women in the past
always made the pottery, and men always made the stone tools.
Although much could have been learned about the lives of early American slaves,
archaeological research at the African Burial Ground in New York City was never
allowed to take place; the City honored the wishes of descendant communities by
immediately repatriating and reburying the remains prior to analysis.
Frequencies of dental caries (cavities) are expected to be higher in hunter-gatherer
populations than in agricultural populations.
Quality of life or overall health in a burial population can be assessed by an individual’s
stature because height is closely related to diet.
An antiquarian is a person concerned more with the people of the past than with the
objects of the past.
The raw number of identified bones per species in an archaeofauna is known as the
MNI.
Agriculture developed only once roughly 10,000 years ago in the Near East, and from
there spread rapidly throughout much of the world.
Science is the best way to examine the material world because it is always objective,
and therefore cannot be influenced by the social or political climate of the times.
The most effective technique to date organic material older than 75,000 years is
radiocarbon dating.
Although archaeology can provide important information about what has happened in
the past, the usefulness of archaeology is limited to largely intellectual pursuits;
practical applications of archaeology that actual benefit the modern world are extremely
rare.
Screen size is an important consideration when processing dirt from excavations
because the size of the screen affects what is recovered as well as how fast it is
recovered.
Tobacco was introduced to the New World by Spanish explorers in the late 15th century.
A krotovina is evidence of floralturbation.
Anthropologists who argue that an adaptive perspective is the best way to study culture
would argue that the driving forces shaping human behavior are ideas, symbols, and
mental structures.
A tree ring sequence developed in the southwestern United States would be equally as
applicable in a region such as the Mediterranean.