Deck 1: Getting Started in Archaeology

Question 1

How does radiocarbon dating work? What are the advantages and limitations of this technique?

Answer 1

No Answer.

Question 2

________ comparisons examine differences between two or more sites.

A) Synchronic
B) Intersite
C) Diachronic
D) Intrasite

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following statements characterizes relative dating techniques?

A) They allow archaeologists to assign a range of calendar years to artifacts and deposits.
B) They can be expressed on a number of different time scales.
C) They include dendrochronology.
D) They include seriation.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is an absolute dating method?

A) relative chronology
B) seriation
C) radiocarbon
D) regional chronology

Question 5

What is a list of artifact types for a particular archaeological context called?

A) typology
B) chronology
C) taphonomy
D) attribute

Question 6

In zooarchaeology, MNI estimates are calculated by __________.

A) counting the most numerous unique skeletal element of each species
B) counting the number of identifiable specimens
C) estimating the number of bones per excavation unit
D) taking the total number of bones and dividing by the number of different species

Question 7

Which of the following is a method of quantifying animal bone from an archaeological site?

A) counting the number of identifiable specimens (NISP)
B) calculating the maximum number of species present (MNS)
C) determining the season of occupation based on geographic index of seasonality (GIS)
D) estimating the age at death for each animal body recovered (AD)

Question 8

Lithic analysis is the study of __________.

A) lithium artifacts
B) stone tools
C) ceramic dishes
D) metal weapons

Question 9

________ are natural objects that provide information about the environmental context of past human activity.

A) Artifacts
B) Ecofacts
C) Features
D) Fossils

Question 10

What are some methods that archaeologists employ in a stratigraphic analysis?

Question 11

Discuss the application of ethnoarchaeology to archaeological interpretation. What areas of past human behavior can it help the archaeologist understand? What are the limitations of ethnoarchaeology?

Question 12

A human body is buried in a peat bog one thousand years ago. Discuss the taphonomic processes that might have occurred and how they might affect the interpretation of the burial.

Question 13

You have discovered a 1,000-year-old site that was occupied for only a year before being covered by a mudslide. What techniques will you employ to excavate the site? How will you record the data you collect?

Question 14

What are the eight principles of archaeological ethics set out by the Society for American Archaeology? What is their purpose?

Question 15

Describe two ʺliving archaeologyʺ techniques used by archaeologists to help interpret archaeological remains.

Question 16

How are typologies used in archaeology?

Question 17

How can an archaeologist get an accurate quantitative picture of the relative frequency of different animals in the faunal assemblage?

Question 18

What is the goal of archaeological recording and what are some of the recording methods employed by archaeologists?

Question 19

Any object that shows traces of human manufacture is referred to as a/n __________.

A) ecofact
B) artifact
C) site
D) feature

Question 20

To recover the charred botanical remains (wood and seeds), it is often necessary to employ a method known as __________.

A) filtration
B) flotation
C) dry screening
D) piece plotting

Question 21

Typology is the study of the layers of the earth.

Question 22

Frost heave is an example of a climate-related post-depositional process that affects the archaeological record.

Question 23

Wet screening is used to recover items from submerged sites.

Question 24

To understand how a feature such as a burial pit relates to the surrounding strata, it is necessary to determine the surface of origin for the pit.

Question 25

The Harris matrix is a method for quantifying artifacts from depositional units.

Question 26

Anthropogenic deposits are the result of insect disturbances on an archaeological site.

Question 27

The goal of horizontal excavation is to expose large areas of a site to reconstruct a single point in time.

Question 28

Radiocarbon dating can only be used on organic materials, such as charcoal and bone.

Question 29

Experimental archaeology uses scientific techniques, such as DNA analysis, to interpret the past.

Question 30

Floral analysis is the study of animal bones from archaeological sites.

Question 31

The ________ is used as a reference for all vertical measurements on an archaeological site.

A) datum point
B) ground surface
C) keystone
D) stadia rod

Question 32

The sequence of depositional units at a site is referred to as the siteʹs __________.

A) archaeology
B) geology
C) occupation
D) stratigraphy

Question 33

Geological strata can be classified by __________.

A) the type of rock they consist of
B) the diversity of fossils found within them
C) the length of time it took to dig through the layer
D) the moistness of the soil

Question 34

Which of these statements best describes the law of superposition?

A) Sediments will be deposited in horizontal layers.
B) In any undisturbed sedimentary deposits, each layer is younger than the layer beneath it.
C) In any undisturbed sedimentary deposits, each layer is older than the layer beneath it.
D) The uppermost sediments are the most important for archaeological analysis.

Question 35

The goal of vertical excavation is to __________.

A) collect as many artifacts as possible
B) dig as deeply as possible
C) expose a sequence of occupation at a site
D) obey the law of superposition

Question 36

________ refer to software applications that allow spatial data to be brought together and consolidated.

A) U.S. Geodetic Surveys (USGS)
B) Geographics Positioning Systems (GPS)
C) Universal Transverse Mercators (UTM)
D) Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Question 37

Artifacts that are found in the place where they were originally deposited are said to be__________.

A) in situ
B) commonplace
C) ex post facto
D) geologically stable

Question 38

An archaeological survey maps the distribution of __________.

A) the oldest stones in the region
B) only sites over 100 years old
C) the physical remains of human activity
D) only those sites deemed to be ""significant""

Question 39

The goal of archaeology is to __________.

A) find treasure
B) dig square holes
C) understand past human lives by studying the objects they left behind
D) more fully understand dinosaurs

Question 40

The most important archaeological sites are found within a foot of the ground surface.