The Pazyryk bodies, found in ________________, were so well preserved by their
constant frozen state that archaeologists not only recovered linen shirts, aprons, and
stockings but could also see tattoos
a) southern Siberia
b) southern Sinai
c) South Africa
d) southern Botswana
e) South Carolina
Which of the following is not an example of macrobotanical remains
a) a grape pip
b) a charred pumpkin seed
c) a phytolith
d) a piece of charcoal
e) all of these are macrobotanical remains
In contrast to the functional-processual approach that seeks to create generalizing
explanation, a _________________ explanation, influenced by structuralism, critical
theory, and neo-Marxist thought, favors an individualizing approach
a) postprocessual
b) culture-historical
c) refutationist
d) hypothetico-deductive
e) none of the above
The idea that the human mind evolved under the selective pressures faced by the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle of Ice-age humans is an important aspect of
a) the hydraulic hypothesis
b) cataclysm studies
c) Marxist archaeology
d) evolutionary archaeology
e) the empathetic method
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
The widespread acceptance in the later 20th century that the material remains of the
past should be protected and conserved has inspired the development of
a) public archaeology
b) cultural ecology
c) typology
d) sequence dating
e) dendrochronology
Pollen is a useful tool for archaeologists because
a) from it archaeologists can construct detailed sequences of past vegetation and climate
b) pollen is not very durable and thus can reflect subtle changes in seasons and climate
c) pollen is almost indestructible: it survives for thousands of years
d) a and b only
e) a and c only
Absolute dating methods
a) supply only a relative date for the object in question compared to other objects
b) do not yet include the scientific methods of the later 20th century
c) are not considered important to archaeology
d) supply a calendar date for the object in question
e) include such methods as seriation and pollen dating
Generally speaking, this is who pays for the archaeological work needed in advance of
development
a) the archaeologist
b) the institution that the archaeologist works for
c) the body that is proposing the construction or development
d) US taxpayers
e) private individuals who love the past
Our clearest glimpse at what people looked like in the past is from
a) written records
b) marks on skulls
c) ethnology
d) DNA analysis
e) preserved bodies
Bog bodies, primarily individuals who met a violent death (such as Tollund Man, from
Denmark), are best known from northwest Europe and typically date to the
a) Paleolithic
b) Renaissance
c) Iron Age
d) Industrial Age
e) Medieval Age
The study of material remains to understand how people thought in the past is what type
of archaeology?
a) linguistic
b) cognitive
c) Prehistoric
d) investigative
e) reflexive
Proponents of the New Archaeology argued that archaeology should do which of the
following?
a) explain rather than describe
b) test hypotheses
c) use scientific approaches
d) design research to answer specific questions
e) all of the above
The most effective way that commercial development in sensitive archaeological areas
can be avoided is through
a) effective planning legislation
b) protest and resistance
c) clandestine digging
d) a long series of suits and other litigation
e) all of the above
Observing the wear patterns on ancient stone tools is an aspect of microwear analysis;
experimental archaeology provides added information on the specific activities the tools
might have been used for by
a) using modern copies of stone tools in a variety of specific tasks
b) studying the traces of polish on modern copies of tools after use
c) creating categories of tool use according to wear patterns created on modern copies
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
The most obvious and conspicuous traces of Neolithic farmers in the Wessex area of
Britain are
a) long barrows
b) village settlements
c) early field systems
d) a series of roads
e) individual farmsteads
The term __________art is used for engravings and carvings on small objects of stone,
bone, antler, and ivory of the Ice Age
a) parietal
b) mural
c) mobiliary
d) iconic
e) referential
A ranked society is a society the members of which have unequal access to status and
prestige. An example of a ranked society is
a) a segmentary society
b) an early state
c) a band
d) a hunter-gatherer group
e) all of the above
Silted-up ditches or filled-in pits, which retain more moisture than such features as
stone walls, will therefore display lower
a) electrical resistivity
b) time slicing
c) ground penetrating radar (GPR)
d) GIS
e) standing wave measurement
Despite the monumental nature of the megalithic tombs found in the Orkneys in
Scotland, archaeologists believe that the people who built the tombs represented a
a) hierarchical society
b) state-level society
c) very socially stratified society
d) society of invaders from abroad
e) segmentary society
The 1954 Hague Convention is meant to protect sites of historic significance during
a) natural disasters
b) peacetime
c) major political transitions
d) major festivals and holidays
e) times of war
The time taken for half of the atoms of a radioactive isotope to decay is called its
a) radiocarbon
b) thermoluminescence
c) half-life
d) half-decay
e) isotope deterioration rate
It is important that archaeological information be disseminated to the wider public.
Which of the following have been used by archaeologists to popularize the human past
a) museum exhibits
b) the internet
c) television
d) all of the above
e) a and c only
Some survey techniques use squares when conducting regional surveys, but ________
are easier to locate and walk along, in order to record artifact densities across the
landscape
a) transects
b) circles
c) triangles
d) parabolas
e) none of the above
NAGPRA, a significant piece of legislation passed in the United States in 1990, stands
for
a) National Archaeological Grant Program Record Agency
b) Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
c) National Archaeological Graves Purchasing and Restoration Act
d) Native American General Program for Recovery Agency
e) Native American Group Program for Recording Archaeology
GIS, which stands for ______________, is a significant new development in
archaeological mapping
a) Geological Igneous Systems
b) Geological Information Systems
c) Geographic Information Systems
d) Geographic Ignorance Systems
e) Geneological Information System
After retrieving a core, the layers may be analyzed in two ways. First, scientists study
the presence or absence and fluctuations of different foraminiferan species. Second,
using a mass spectrometer, they analyze the
a) fluctuations in the ratio of stable oxygen isotopes 18 and 16 in the calcium carbonate
of the foraminiferan shells
b) fluctuations in the ratio of nitrogen isotopes 15 and 14 in the calcium carbonate of
the foraminiferan shells
c) fluctuations in the ratio of pollens to foraminifera through time
d) fluctuations in the amino acids of bone collagen in the foraminifera
e) all of the above
Many 19th century scholars were obsessed with the Moundbuilders, a mythical
civilization that supposedly built the mounds and earthworks located in what is now
a) the United States
b) Greece
c) Eastern Europe
d) China
e) South Africa
When a thin-section of an object is prepared for study, it is made thin enough to
______________ so that specific minerals can be seen in it through the use of a light
microscope
a) transmit light
b) fold and bend
c) block light
d) allow water to pass through it
e) none of the above
Marija Gimbutas has argued that the ______________ of the European Neolithic and
Copper Ages demonstrate the important status of women at that time
a) epic poetry
b) female figurines
c) oversized hearths
d) women warriors
e) mosaic images
_______ retains its central role in fieldwork because it yields the most reliable evidence
for human activities in the past and changes in those activities from period to period
a) aerial photography
b) carbon dating
c) excavation
d) probing
e) electrolysis
Only just a century and a half ago, before the development of modern archaeology,
most well-read people in the Western world thought the world had been created
a) in the year 1 AD
b) in the year 1000 AD
c) 4.54 billion years ago
d) 2 million years ago
e) in 4004 BC
From about 2.5 million years ago until 14,000 BC at the earliest, the archaeological
record is dominated by artifacts made out of
a) bone
b) ceramic
c) stone
d) metal
e) plant remains