The most effective system ever devised by humans to describe the world around them is
a) cave art
b) mobiliary art
c) pictorial representation
d) writing
e) all of these systems are equally effective
The argument that large-scale irrigation alone leads to urbanization is known as the
a) evolutionary hypothesis
b) hydraulic hypothesis
c) New Archaeology
d) systems theory
e) culture-historical approach
Study of the patterns of wear or damage on the edges of stone tools that can provide
useful information on a particular tool’s function is known as
a) refitting
b) microwear analysis
c) scanning electron analysis
d) plating
e) none of the above
Shovel-Test Pits are small pits dug into the ground
a) that help orient aerial photography
b) for storage of food and other perishable items
c) in search of fresh water
d) which are used to gain a preliminary idea of what lies beneath the surface
e) none of the above
Because of the ethical and legal issues that come up during archaeological investigation
of Indigenous traditional cultures, especially with regard to human remains, much
archaeological work now depends on
a) ignoring local concerns and continuing to excavate
b) suing Native American groups for complete access to archaeological sites
c) disregarding federal legislation that interferes with archaeological goals
d) secrecy
e) compromise
A society with differences in social status (ranking), specialists manufacturing crafts,
surpluses, and perhaps a permanent ritual or ceremonial center would probably be
considered a
a) mobile hunter-gatherer group (band)
b) segmentary society (tribe)
c) chiefdom
d) early state
e) none of the above
In Elman Service’s typology of human societies, mobile hunter-gatherer groups are also
called
a) chiefdoms
b) segmentary societies (tribes)
c) bands
d) states
e) none of the above
The most coherent record of climate change on a global scale is obtained through
a) deep sea cores
b) calendric records
c) faunal profiles
d) lexicostatistics
e) varves
The act of burial of human remains implies at least
a) ancestor worship
b) a belief in a superior being
c) a desire to preserve the body for as long as possible
d) some kind of respect or feeling for the deceased
e) all of the above
Some archaeologists maintain that in the human mind there exists an interpretive
framework of the world that affects actions and decisions as well as knowledge. This is
known as a/the
a) interpretive lens
b) cognitive map
c) cognitive filter
d) deductive map
e) inferential frame
Which dating technique would yield a result that might read 2.25 million years before
present, plus or minus 50,000 years?
a) radiocarbon dating
b) seriation
c) assemblage typology
d) potassium-argon dating
e) uranium-series dating
Although generally less precise than radiocarbon, thermoluminescence (TL) dating has
an advantages over radiocarbon dating: it can date
a) pottery
b) human teeth
c) volcanic rock
d) carbonized botanical remains
e) all of the above.
The site of Chavn de Huantar in the Peruvian Andes flourished 850 to 200 bc. This site
is thought to represent a ceremonial center because of evidence found there including
a) a cache of over 500 broken high-quality pots containing food
b) finely carved stone sculptures, primarily of jaguars, eagles, snakes, and caimans
c) iconographic evidence for drug-induced rituals
d) canals beneath the site that could have been used for ritual cleansing
e) all of the above
In the Christian calendar (which uses the terms BC and AD), there is no year
a) 0
b) 1 BC
c) AD 1
d) AD 666
e) none of these exist in the Christian calendar
Excavation of human burials is a complex ethical issue in archaeology because
a) human remains contain diseases that can make archaeologists sick
b) many modern and ancient cultures frown on the disturbance of the dead
c) burials are usually quite hard to locate and archaeologists have to do a lot of digging
to find them
d) legally, ancient remains, like modern ones, must be thoroughly investigated for foul
play by the local police force
e) the body might be protected by an ancient curse that could endanger archaeologists
Although these devices can be of great value to archaeologists, some users of this
popular type of magnetism-based remote-sensing device illegally dig holes and destroy
archaeological sites without reporting the finds that they make
a) metal detectors
b) ground penetrating radars (GPR)
c) potassium ion detectors
d) x-ray machines
e) geographic information systems (GIS)
The technique of mixing two or more metals to create a new material, such as copper
and tin to make bronze, is known as
a) ascribing
b) annealing
c) bifurcating
d) conjoining
e) alloying
Excavations of skeletons at this site in New York City in 1991 caused much public
outrage as the local community felt that they had not been properly consulted
beforehand
a) The African Burial Ground
b) The Orkneys
c) Foley Square
d) Star Carr
e) The Slave Church
Who owns the past?
a) archaeologists
b) museums
c) Indigenous people
d) collectors
e) there is no clear answer to that question
The term ________ refers to what people were eating at a particular time and the term
________ refers to what people were eating over a longer period of time
a) diet; meal
b) diatom; meal
c) microfauna; macrofauna
d) meal; diet
e) macrofauna; microfauna
One way of investigating cognitive behavior in early hominins is to consider planning
time, which is defined as
a) the time it takes carefully to develop an archaeological research plan
b) the time between the development of tools and the development of language
c) the time it takes for a raw material to be converted into a commodity
d) the time between the planning of an act and its execution
e) all of the above.
So-called “Preservation Laws” in the United States
a) force the complete preservation of all archaeological sites
b) will always value archaeological sites, even minor ones, over development
c) do not guarantee that archaeological remains will be preserved
d) do not call for archaeological excavation in any case
e) do not exist
The underlying premise of _____________ is that particular kinds of archaeological
sites tend to occur in the same kinds of place
a) imaginative models
b) predictive models
c) hypothetical models
d) raster models
e) futuristic models
The reason the illegal excavation of antiquities is so devastating for archaeological
research is
a) illegally excavated antiquities lack contextual information
b) archaeological sites are destroyed to extract these antiquities
c) no published record of the excavations exist
d) objects held in private collections are often not accessible for scientific research
e) all of the above
So-called Harris lines, detected by X-rays on bones, indicate
a) malnutrition
b) disease
c) arrested growth development
d) all of the above
Archaeomagnetic (paleomagnetic) dating is contingent upon a number of factors. If a
clay structure is heated beyond a certain temperature (650-700o C), is not reheated, and
remains in situ, this dating technique may then be used to measure the
__________________ of the iron particles, which may then be compared to a master
sequence that has been built up for that region
a) magnetic pulses
b) magnetic intensity
c) magnetic direction
d) magnetic half-life
e) all of the above
Centralized societies typically exhibit disparities between rich and poor, and thus they
offer the potential to study social ranking and organization. Which of the following
would you suggest offers strong evidence of social ranking?
a) Group residences, similar burials, short-term occupation of sites
b) Dispersed hamlets, equitable residences and few specialists
c) Elite residences, rich burials, and craft specialists
d) Villages, some rich group burials, few specialists
e) Cave sites, evidence for butchering, and fine hunting equipment
The Sevso Treasure, an assemblage of late Roman silver, was acquired by the Marquess
of Northampton, but is considered too obviously looted to be sold. The Sevso Treasure
has been claimed by
a) Russia
b) Hungary
c) The U.K.
d) France
e) Italy
The best indicator of an individual’s age at death is based on study of the
a) clavicle
b) innominate bone
c) patella
d) teeth
e) radius
The American Antiquities Act of 1906 was entirely focused on the preservation and
conservation of sites located on
a) private land
b) Native American reservations
c) federal land
d) public, federal or private land that was being developed
e) the act applied to all land in the USA
The concept that geological layers are laid down, one on top of the other, according to
processes that still continue is known as
a) seriation
b) stratification
c) typology
d) assembly
e) preservation
C.J. Thomsen, a Danish scholar, was responsible for classifying artifact collections and,
based on those classifications, he created a conceptual scheme known as
a) uniformitarianism
b) the Three Age system
c) cultural ecology
d) processualism
e) none of the above
Cause of death for skeletal remains can be ascertained
a) frequently; most leading causes of death leave traces on the bones
b) rarely; most causes of death leave no trace on bone
c) in the case of particularly aggressive disease
d) never
Plant impressions are
a) the way that humans in the past felt or perceived their natural environment
b) the silica cell walls of plants that remain after the rest of the plant has decayed
c) outline or shapes of plants found in artifacts such as worked clay
d) another name for fossil pollen
e) devices that help separate waterlogged plant remains from soil
Groups of artifact or building types at a particular time and place are termed
a) traits
b) assemblages
c) cultures
d) attributes
e) characteristics