Deck 2: The Record of the Past

Question 1

Which best defines the concept of culture history?

A)Cultural anthropologists have built up a picture of the past through time.
B)The record of the human past described and classified in a context of time and space.
C)This process is the secondary stage to any archaeological investigation.
D)Culture history represents a stratigraphic survey.

Answer 1

The record of the human past described and classified in a context of time and space.

Question 2

What term relates to food remains, such as animal bones, seeds, and other finds, that offer insight into human activities of the past?

A)artifacts
B)ecofacts
C)middens
D)tailings

Answer 2

ecofacts

Question 3

Context is the

A)two-dimensional measurement of an artifact.
B)three-dimensional location of an artifact.
C)exact position of a find in time and space.
D)cultural model necessary for understanding the usefulness of an artifact.

Answer 3

exact position of a find in time and space.

Question 4

What type of technology did archaeologist Payson Sheets use to locate houses buried underneath the ash at Cerén in El Salvador?

A)subsurface radar
B)dendochronology
C)excavation
D)radiocarbon dating

Question 5

Which fundamental principle of archaeology comes from stratigraphic geology?

A)association
B)time and space
C)secondary context
D)superposition

Question 6

When a group leaves the dead unburied until the corpse has decomposed, then buries the remaining bones in a communal burial chamber, the context is

A)primary.
B)secondary.
C)tertiary.
D)quaternary.

Question 7

Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Cerén were all preserved because of

A)sand drift.
B)water.
C)ice.
D)volcanic ash.

Question 8

Name the three important goals of archaeological research. Of these, which do you think is the most important?

Question 9

List the five general stages of archaeological research. Of these, which is an archaeologist's primary ethical responsibility?

Question 10

Explain culture history. How is it important to our understanding of the past? What were its failings? What do we do now to improve on that process?

Question 11

Define subsistence. What types of subsistence activities might be discovered by archaeologists in dry conditions? What can subsistence activities tell us about the society?

Question 12

Changes caused by humans and those naturally occurring in an archaeological site are known as

A)cultural and environmental processes.
B)societal and climatic processes.
C)transformation processes.
D)temporal processes.

Question 13

All members of the family Hominidae are

A)Homo sapiens.
B)Hominins.
C)Australopithecus.
D)Neanderthals.

Question 14

What is the most important part of any archaeological project, large or small?

A)data acquisition
B)analysis
C)research design
D)interpretation

Question 15

Tollund Man was a human sacrifice of the early

A)Protestant era.
B)Christian era.
C)Minoan era.
D)Jewish era.

Question 16

What definitive proof did Jesse Figgins have for the habitation of North America as early as 10,000 years ago?

A)pottery
B)a projectile point
C)baskets
D)written records

Question 17

Anthropologists Thomas Blackburn and Travis Hudson were able to build a replica of a Chumash canoe thanks to a lifetime of careful data collection by

A)John Harrington.
B)William Blackmore.
C)Henry Beasley.
D)Sir Edward Taylor.

Question 18

Which is the village site by the Euphrates River known for botanical evidence that points to its agricultural origins?

A)Pompeii
B)Lake Turkana
C)Abu Hureyra
D)Isamu Pati

Question 19

All of the following are examples of transformation processes EXCEPT

A)flooding
B)windblown sand
C)war
D)agriculture

Question 20

The archaeological record is

A)perishable and vanishing daily.
B)sustainable.
C)archived in the Museum of London.
D)ever-changing.

Question 21

Which is the Inka cemetery near Lima, Peru, famous for its mummy burials?

A)Ozette
B)Nevado Ampato
C)Mimbres
D)Puruchucho-Huaquerones

Question 22

Which city in the Valley of Mexico was a trading center for the Mesoamerican world?

A)Lima
B)Cuzco
C)Teotihuacán
D)Tuzigoot

Question 23

Which of the following chronicles the correct order for the process of archaeological research?

A)discovery, research design, analysis, data collection, publication, interpretation
B)discovery, research design, data collection, publication, analysis, interpretation
C)research design, discovery, analysis, data collection, publication, interpretation
D)discovery, research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, publication

Question 24

What process requires knowledge of culture history, environment, and lifeway data?

A)culture process
B)data acquisition
C)analysis
D)interpretation

Question 25

Describe the law of association in archaeology. How can this principle be used to better understand an archaeological site?