The principle of uniformitarianism states that the stratification of rocks is due to
processes which have stopped entirely and are no longer occurring in modern seas,
rivers, and lakes.
The excavation area at Khok Phanom Di was chosen by the Abbot of the local Buddhist
temple.
Not a single Egyptian royal tomb completely escaped the activity of grave robbers.
There is only one SHPO and he or she oversees the archaeological activities of all 50
US States.
At Khok Phanom Di, burials indicated that only adults had grave-goods.
Domestication rarely takes place near where the wild forms of a plant or animal exist.
To an archaeologist, the term provenience refers to the
a) origin of an idea or innovation
b) origin of an artistic technique or motif
c) history of an artifact’s owners
d) vertical and horizontal position of an artifact
e) none of the above
Groups of artifact or building types at a particular time and place are termed
a) traits
b) assemblages
c) cultures
d) attributes
e) characteristics
One of the principle archaeological enigmas that the researchers at Upper Mangrove
Creek hoped to investigate was that there was an increase in the number of
archaeological sites over time but
a) a decrease in the physical size of the sites
b) those sites seemed to be occupied by a different culture
c) also an increase in the population of the region
d) a decrease in the number of artifacts at the site in the last thousand years of
occupation
e) a decrease in the amount of food consumed in the area
In the case of public archaeology, the natural order of archaeological response to a
threat to heritage (such as the construction of a road) is
a) survey, conservation, mitigation
b) conservation, mitigation, survey
c) mitigation, survey, conservation
d) mitigation, conservation, survey
e) survey, mitigation, conservation
Inorganic materials that frequently survive well archaeologically are
a) plant fibers
b) stone tools
c) animal bones
d) wood tools
e) none of the above
The most favorable sediments for the preservation of pollen are
a) arid loess sediments
b) frozen tundra
c) acidic and well-watered tropical sediments
d) sandy sediments
e) acidic and poorly aerated peat bogs and lake beds
____________ erodes the bones of the face and the extremities in a distinctive manner
and, thus, can be identified in ancient remains
a) Lung cancer
b) Tuberculosis
c) Leprosy
d) Measles
e) Rubella
The study of skeletal remains in order to estimate fertility rates, mortality rates,
population structure, and life expectancy is known as
a) paleopopagraphy
b) censusography
c) ancient actuation studies
d) paleodemography
e) paleoactuation
The bone and ivory pipes from Upper Paleolithic sites in the Ach Valley, Germany,
represent the early accepted evidence for
a) glass blowing
b) chimneys with flues
c) music
d) indoor plumbing
e) irrigation
Clues to ancient human preference for right-handedness have been found in
a) bones
b) teeth
c) tools
d) handprints
e) all of the above
At the site of Atapuerca in Spain, over 3000 human bones from as many as 32
individuals were recovered. Juan-Luis Arsuaga, one of the directors, believes that the
archaic Homo sapiens at this site were
a) depositing their dead in some kind of mortuary ritual
b) living in the cave year round
c) not using the cave; the bones were deposited by carnivores
d) not burying their dead, rather the bones were buried by later occupants of the cave to
clear space
e) not using the cave; the bones were washed in by later flooding
In order to understand the stratigraphy of sediment on the ocean floor, ships use a
___________ to extract a thin column of sediment for later laboratory analysis
a) sounding drill
b) paleomagnetometer
c) piston-corer
d) varve corer
e) ground penetrating radar
Excavations at York, England, produced a large amount of wood and leather remains, a
result of the ______________ conditions
a) cold
b) dry
c) hot
d) aerobic
e) anaerobic
Anaerobic conditions preserve organic materials well and such conditions are often
present in
a) swamps
b) bogs
c) fens
d) marshes
e) all of the above
_________ come into being through the interactions between individuals in the
performance of shared activities, such as rituals or the construction of communal
buildings
a) Languages
b) Thiessen polygons
c) XTENT models
d) Central places
e) Social identities
In the past, the city that we now know as York was called
a) Eburacum
b) Eoforwic
c) Jorvik
d) York
e) all of the above
If, in your explanation for a cultural change (for example, the origin of the state), you
stress the importance and interaction of several different factors operating at the same
time, this would be considered a(n)
a) monocausal explanation
b) multiplier effect explanation
c) idealist explanation
d) multivariate explanation
e) critical theory
Dating the eruption of Thera (Santorini) has proved difficult, and a host of methods
have been applied to determine the date, including
a) tephra studies
b) radiocarbon dating
c) tree-ring sequences
d) ice cores
e) all of the above
Although GIS has been referred to as “the biggest step forward … since the invention of
the map,” GIS applications have also been criticized as being environmentally
deterministic. This accusation means that
a) environmentalists have taken control of research, setting a political agenda within
science
b) environmental data (soil, rivers, altitude, etc) are given priority over other data
c) environmental data (soil, rivers, altitude, etc) are ignored in favor of others
d) environmentalists were fundamental in GIS program design
e) none of the above
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) Stone Age
b) Bronze Age
c) Iron Age
d) Industrial Age
e) Medieval Age
Cahokia, located near modern day St. Louis, was the principal settlement of one of the
most complex societies that ever existed in North America.
Darwin’s work on evolution, in particular the mechanism of “natural selection,” served
as an important catalyst to the concept
a) that humans had emerged as part of the same process
b) that living things do not really change
c) that human origins were much too early for archaeology to have any relevance
d) none of the above
e) all of the above
Analyses that attempt to calculate the proportions of resources such as arable or pastoral
land within an area around a site in order to understand what would have been exploited
by the inhabitants is known as
a) Site Exploitation Territory
b) Pollen Zone Analysis
c) Oxygen Isotope Curves
d) Central Place Theory
e) Thiessen Polygons
Inclusions in the clay used to make pottery that act as a filler, creating strength and
counteracting cracking and shrinkage during firing, are known as
a) slag
b) temper
c) microliths
d) faience
e) debitage
The expensive public feasting of Northwest Coast American Indians, the potlatch, is an
example of conspicuous consumption that would best be described as
a) symbolic entrainment
b) ceremonial exchange of valuables
c) flow of commodities
d) competitive emulation
e) market domination
Exceptional preservation of “tzi,” or the “Iceman,” found in the Alps in 1991, allowed
documentation of his health, past injuries, tattoos, and diet. Radiocarbon dates suggest
he lived at about __________
a) 1300 bc
b) ad 300
c) 3300 bc
d) 10,000 bc
e) 13,000 bc
Although faience originated in Egypt before 3000 bc, true glass, in the form of beads,
was not developed until 2500 bc in
a) Mesopotamia
b) Italy
c) South America
d) Britain
e) China
Which of the following is a UNESCO world heritage site
a) the Maya city of Uxmal in Mexico
b) the Bamiyan Valley and the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan
c) the 16th century capital of the emperor Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri, India
d) all of the above
e) a and c only
Using an analytical electron microscope, Rosalie David’s team studied lung tissue from
an Egyptian mummy and found that particles in the lung contained a high proportion of
silica, probable evidence for
a) tuberculosis
b) pneumoconiosis
c) trichuris
d) bilharzia
e) leprosy
Two depictions of ________ on the rock shelter paintings within the Upper Mangrove
Creek study area indicate that the area was visited by Aboriginal people in the period
after British settlement
a) the queen
b) guns
c) horses
d) books
e) sailing ships