The computer simulation model designed by R. G. Reynolds for the adoption of an
agricultural way of life in the Valley of Oaxaca suggested that the rise of agriculture
resulted from
a) climate change
b) population growth
c) the need to even out the effects of annual variation in food supplies
d) the need for a surplus during times of warfare
e) none of the above
The ___________ of many recently emerged nations are taken from archaeology
a) national emblems
b) government structure
c) voting system
d) caste system
e) political alliances
By studying the animal figures in Paleolithic cave art, Andr Leroi-Gourhan argued that
the most common representations were of
a) felines and cave bears
b) horse and bison
c) rhinoceroses and bears
d) humans and horses
e) none of the above
Radiocarbon dates obtained from __________ showed that before about 1000 BC dates
expressed in radiocarbon years are increasingly “too young.” thus radiocarbon dates
must be calibrated
a) tree rings
b) Maya calendars
c) varves
d) obsidian
e) tephra from the Thera eruption
New settlers to the Polynesian islands brought with them pigs, fowl, and crop plants, as
well as stowaways such as the rat, geckos, and weeds. These were new competitive
predators to the indigenous species, but probably the most drastic effects on the
landscape were caused by
a) natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tidal waves
b) dogs, which had no natural predators and soon wiped out many indigenous species
c) rapid deforestation by people, which led to open grassland and erosion
d) over-exploitation of mineral and water resources
e) a meteorite that caused a temporary “miniature” Ice Age and years of poor harvests
An example of a climactic cycle that has had a strong effect on human affairs in parts of
the world is
a) river meandering
b) macrofaunal extinction
c) geomorphology
d) El Nio
e) loess sedimentation
The main agencies of destruction of the past include
a) construction
b) agricultural intensification
c) armed conflict
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
An example of religious extremism clashing with archaeological preservation, the
Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed by __________ in March of 2001
a) the government of Saudi Arabia
b) Maoists
c) the Taliban
d) the Catholic Church
e) purist Buddhists
Excavations at the Calusa site of Pineland recovered ___________, indicating either
direct or indirect contact with Native American groups as far away as southeast
Missouri
a) galena
b) murex dye
c) silver
d) gold
e) pipestone
A chinampa is
a) fertile land reclaimed through dredging mud from canals made by the Aztecs
b) a tortilla-like sandwich invented by southern Californians
c) the outermost protective layer of skin from a leaf or blade of grass
d) fertile land created by diverting water into irrigation canals by the ancient Egyptians
e) Bronze Age stone boundary walls, best known from the British Isles
Commonly found preserved in ash layers, pottery, and on stone tools and even teeth,
minute particles of silica derived from plant cells are known as
a) pollen grains
b) phytoliths
c) eoliths
d) coprolites
e) foraminifera
In Elman Service’s four-fold classification of human societies, mobile hunter-gatherer
groups are sometimes called _________________
a) bands
b) segmentary societies (tribes)
c) chiefdoms
d) states
e) none of the above
Archaeologists must always remember that their artifact sample might be biased. Stone
tools may be overrepresented in the archaeological record because:
a) people naturally like stone more than materials like wood
b) stone preserves better than such materials as wood
c) people tend to reuse wood but they always throw away old stone tools
d) stone tools were only used for a short time in human history
e) archaeologists traditionally have not looked for wooden tools
According to Henri Frankfort and his colleagues, a(n) ________ may be described as a
narrative of significant past events with such relevance for the present that it needs to be
re-told and enhanced in dramatic or poetic form
a) ethnology
b) cognitive map
c) religion
d) parietal art
e) myth
There are various indicators useful for the identification of domesticated animals. These
attributes for the identification of domesticated animals from archaeological contexts
include
a) decrease in overall size
b) reduction in tooth size
c) high number of adolescent and young adult animals (in a meat herd)
d) high number of adult females (in a dairy herd)
e) all of the above
Open-area excavations typically involve
a) a complex series of intact baulks of earth between grid squares
b) a series of crossing baulks of earth for walking and wheelbarrows
c) The use of a cofferdam to hold back earth or water
d) very little actual excavation and a limited number of shovel test pits
e) opening large areas, with few baulks of earth
Using attributes such as slope and distance, GIS can map catchment areas and site
territories to understand the energy expenditures for moving across a landscape. This is
known as
a) plus/minus analysis
b) surface benefits analysis
c) cost-surface analysis
d) cost-benefits analysis
e) trend-distance analysis
In the field, flotation techniques are used to retrieve
a) human burials
b) macrofaunal remains
c) varves
d) microbotanical remains
e) plant DNA
One of the initial major goals of the Khok Phanom Di project was to investigate
a) the origins of bronze working
b) the development of the Secondary Products Revolution
c) the origins and development of rice cultivation
d) community kinship through graves
e) the establishment of state societies
Archaiokapiloi, huaqueros, clandestini, and tombaroli are all local terms for
a) the museums that display illegal antiquities
b) archaeological excavations
c) fake archaeological objects
d) archaeologists
e) the looters of archaeological sites
An acoustic underwater survey device that uses the principle of echo-sounding to locate
submerged landforms is known as a
a) paleo-magnetometer
b) X-ray diffraction spectrometer
c) seismic reflection profiler
d) proton magnetometer
e) sidescan sonar
When social status or prestige are the result of inheritance or hereditary factors, this is
known as
a) achieved status
b) ascribed status
c) evolved status
d) egalitarian status
e) free agent status
The entire 3-D landscape of the site of Caracol in Belize can now be viewed thanks to a
LIDAR survey. Why was LIDAR needed to survey the full extent of this site?
a) Caracol is almost entirely submerged under the Caribbean Sea and the laser signals
can detect ruins under the water
b) Caracol had been dismantled entirely in ancient times and now only cropmarks
remain
c) Modern Belize City now covers all of Caracol
d) Much of Caracol is covered by dense tropical forrest that laser signals can penetrate
e) Caracol is located in a militarized area making survey from the air the only option
To an archaeologist, examples of relative datingmethods include
a) seriation
b) linguistic dating
c) pollen dating
d) faunal dating
e) all of the above
The technique whereby a thin layer of one metal is bonded to another metal, such as
silver with copper or copper with gold, is known as
a) annealing
b) granulation
c) cold hammering
d) filigree
e) plating
Maya glyphs are now known to
a) identify persons, usually rulers
b) commemorate events in the reign of rulers
c) represent syllables, not concepts
d) all of the above
e) a and b are correct
Structuralist archaeologists stress that human actions are guided by beliefs and
symbolic concepts, and that the proper object of study is the structures of thoughtthe
ideasof the human actors who made the artifacts and created the archaeological record.
Several archaeologists have been influenced by the structuralist ideas of the
anthropologist
a) Charles Darwin
b) Claude Lvi-Strauss
c) Michel Foucault
d) I. M. Pei
e) Jacques Derrida
Temperate climates are not usually conducive to organic preservation at archaeological
sites because of
a) variable temperatures and fluctuating precipitation
b) steady humidity
c) hyper-aridity
d) water saturation
e) constant ice cover
Evolution, associated with Charles Darwin and highly influential on many other
thinkers (such as Karl Marx, Oscar Montelius and others), also set the groundwork for
the study of
a) geology
b) artifact typology
c) biblical topography
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
Using a traditional Migrationist approach, it is argued that each archaeological culture
is the manifestation, in material terms, of a specific
a) people or ethnic group
b) environmental event
c) religious tradition
d) distribution of resource
e) social inequality
GIS systems are designed for the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and display of
spatial data.