Deck 1: Introducing Archaeology and Prehistory

Question 1

Modern archaeologists use the remains of a civilization to

A)study the human past.
B)reconstruct ancient city plans.
C)enrich themselves and their benefactors.
D)confirm existing hypotheses about the origin of the species.

Answer 1

study the human past.

Question 2

World prehistory evaluates the prehistory of humankind from the perspective of a

A)single region.
B)single person.
C)person living during prehistoric times.
D)global perspective.

Answer 2

global perspective.

Question 3

Which subdiscipline of archaeology is the study of the earliest human beings before written history?

A)prehistoric archaeology
B)paleoanthropology
C)classical archaeology
D)Egyptology

Answer 3

prehistoric archaeology

Question 4

Which subdiscipline of archaeology is the study of the culture and artifacts of the earliest humans, including stone technology and art?

A)prehistoric archaeology
B)paleoanthropology
C)classical archaeology
D)Egyptology

Question 5

Which subdiscipline of archaeology is the study of the remains of the great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome?

A)prehistoric archaeology
B)paleoanthropology
C)classical archaeology
D)Egyptology

Question 6

Which subdiscipline of archaeology would require knowledge of hieroglyphics?

A)prehistoric archaeology
B)paleoanthropology
C)classical archaeology
D)Egyptology

Question 7

Biologists Charles Darwin and Stephen Jay Gould both hypothesized that humanity originated in

A)Africa.
B)the Middle East.
C)Australia.
D)North America.

Question 8

Explain why it is important to study archaeology. How could the lessons learned from archaeology be applied to modern-day race relations?

Question 9

Define garbagology. How do the lessons learned from this modern archaeological method compare with those learned from archaeological digs in ancient Rome?

Question 10

List the four major developments in human prehistory. Which of these developments do you believe is the most significant? Why?

Question 11

Discuss whether archaeologists be allowed to dig up burial sites and settlements of places considered holy.

Question 12

Radiocarbon dating is a method of determining the age of an artifact based on

A)the decay rates of radiocarbon isotopes.
B)the number of nuclei present in organic matter.
C)the radiocarbon spectrum of the geological record.
D)in situ clues from surrounding artifacts.

Question 13

Cultural resource management (CRM)of archaeological sites and artifacts

A)has always been mandated by law in all countries of the world.
B)is a way to protect the past.
C)is the method used by countries to prevent archaeologists from other countries from excavating.
D)has largely been discredited in recent years.

Question 14

He was a businessperson-turned-archaeologist who discovered the remains of the city of Troy.

A)Archbishop James Ussher
B)Charles Darwin
C)Austen Henry Layard
D)Heinrich Schliemann

Question 15

Prehistory is the period before the

A)advent of written records.
B)period of the dinosaurs.
C)archaeological record.
D)publication of On the Origin of Species.

Question 16

British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley reconstructed

A)an Ur funeral.
B)Noah's ark.
C)Abu Simbel.
D)Tenochtitlán.

Question 17

Copán, Guatemala, was a major Maya center during the

A)15th century.
B)16th century.
C)mid-first millennium A.D.
D)American Revolution.

Question 18

Which late 19th-century German archaeologist and his colleagues are credited with transforming excavation from hunting for treasure to a careful scientific process of chronicling the past?

A)Augustus Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers
B)Howard Carter
C)Arthur Evans
D)Alexander Cross

Question 19

Which two early women archaeologists bucked the stereotype of male excavators and worked in the field in the Syrian desert and in Crete, respectively?

A)Gertrude Bell and Harriet Hawes
B)Christian Hillaire and Jean-Marie Chauvet
C)Amelia Botta and Mildred Austen Layard
D)Virginia Apgar and Alice Hamilton

Question 20

Before he was a treasure hunter, Giovanni Battista Belzoni was a(n)

A)army general.
B)historian.
C)circus strongman.
D)priest.

Question 21

The library of Assyrian King Ashurbanipal contained an account of

A)a flood similar to the one described in Genesis.
B)manna falling from the skies.
C)the founding of the ancient city of Carchemish.
D)the first Olympic games.

Question 22

Archbishop James Ussher of Ireland calculated the date of Creation at

A)7004 B.C.
B)6004 B.C.
C)5004 B.C.
D)4004 B.C.

Question 23

On the Origin of Species was written by

A)Archbishop James Ussher.
B)Charles Darwin.
C)Jacques Boucher de Perthes.
D)Gregor Mendel.

Question 24

Who excavated the ancient city mounds of Nineveh and Nimrud?

A)Archbishop James Ussher
B)Charles Darwin
C)Austen Henry Layard
D)Giovanni Battista Belzonia

Question 25

Discuss how archaeology compares to oral histories as an approach to understanding history. Should one approach be trusted more than the other? Why?