Deck 8: The Archaeology of Early Human Societies: Theories and Methods in Studying Prehistoric Archaeology

Question 1

Prehistory begins with the advent of writing.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Artifacts are portable objects made and used by humans in the past.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

One thing all archaeology "features" have in common is that they cannot be moved.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Matrix is the three-dimensional location of any and all archaeological objects.

Question 5

Extreme cold, wet, and dry conditions are poor for the preservation of artifacts.

Question 6

Ground-penetrating radar is used to detect crop marks.

Question 7

GIS allows data to be collected, stored, manipulated, retrieved, and presented in visual form.

Question 8

Theoretically each stratum in a stratigraphic sequence should be older than the stratum covering it and younger than the one on which it rests

Question 9

The use of flotation has enabled archaeologists to recover small seeds.

Question 10

Deep sea cores provide information on farming techniques in the past.

Question 11

Because of the habitats they inhabit, beetles and land mollusks can be good indicators of changes in climate and environment

Question 12

The main job of the palynologist is to identify the species of animal in bone residue.

Question 13

Post processual archaeologists argue that there can be various interpretations of archaeological evidence

Question 14

Artifacts are only useful for the information they provide on past technology.

Question 15

Relative dating techniques establish calendar dates for artifacts and sites.

Question 16

FUN dating was used to show that Piltdown Man was a fraud.

Question 17

¹⁴C (and AMS) technically can date anything that was alive between 40 kyr ago and AD 1500.

Question 18

Fluorine is used as a control in the calibration ¹⁴C dates.

Question 19

Potassium Argon (K-Ar) is useful to date archaeological sites in volcanic regions.

Question 20

Dendrochronological dating is useful in all regions of the world.

Question 21

The primary aim of prehistoric archaeology is to

A) excavate sites
B) collect artifacts
C) describe the life of people in the past
D) date sites

Question 22

Archaeological features include

A) pits
B) walls
C) hearths
D) all of the above

Question 23

By definition, ecofacts allow archeologists to reconstruct

A) any and all material culture items
B) human diets
C) the world of the supernatural
D) communication in the past, mostly in the form of language and speech

Question 24

Provenience is the

A) exact horizontal location of finds
B) exact vertical location of finds
C) exact horizontal and vertical location of finds
D) none of the above

Question 25

The context of finds comprises

A) matrix
B) provenience
C) association
D) all of the above

Question 26

Which of the following is a cultural transformation process?

A) meandering rivers mixing layers
B) animal burrows
C) bacteria decaying organic artifacts
D) recycling wooden house beams

Question 27

Which conditions aided the preservation of organic material in the Windover burial site in Florida?

A) ice
B) water
C) arid
D) charring

Question 28

All of the following sites were preserved because of natural disasters EXCEPT

A) Pompeii
B) Akrotiri
C) Danger cave
D) Ozette village

Question 29

The most common way archaeologists find sites is by

A) remote sensing
B) ground survey
C) GIS
D) electrical resistivity

Question 30

Archaeological sites are usually revealed in urban areas by

A) construction and development work
B) aerial photography
C) crop and soil marks
D) ground penetrating radar

Question 31

Identifying the species of animal in bone remains is the job of the

A) palynologist
B) archaeobotanist
C) GIS expert
D) zooarchaeologist

Question 32

The lithic analyst studies

A) bone
B) pottery
C) stone tools
D) plants

Question 33

Processual archaeology that began in the 1960s focused primarily on

A) describing past cultures
B) scientifically explaining culture
C) using symbols to interpret cultures
D) predicting culture change by climate

Question 34

The first technique ever used to date artifacts or bones was

A) ¹⁴C
B) K-Ar
C) stratigraphy
D) coins

Question 35

All of the following are examples of relative dating EXCEPT

A) fluorine
B) typological sequencing
C) stratigraphy
D) dendrochronology.

Question 36

Ethnoarchaeology is the

A) study of organic material
B) study of stone tools
C) observation of existing traditional societies from an archaeological perspective
D) study of landscapes

Question 37

Typological dating is based on the premise that

A) early artifacts are generally of one type, while later ones are not
B) types or kinds of artifacts change as a whole group at the same time
C) artifact traits usually change through time
D) certain features of artifacts change but others remain the same

Question 38

Of the following, the dating technique with the highest level of confidence in its accuracy is

A) K-Ar
B) TL
C) OSL
D) FUN

Question 39

If you had a bone that might be 1.3 myr old, what would you use to try to date it?

A) 14 carbon / AMS
B) K-Ar
C) TL
D) OSL

Question 40

The unit of dating in dendrochronology is

A) tree trunks
B) annual tree rings
C) pollen from plants
D) bark burning

Question 41

Why is it important to understand cultural and natural transformation processes?

Question 42

Your job is to locate archaeological sites without disturbing the surface of the ground. Discuss two ways you could do this.

Question 43

You are about to begin an archaeological excavation. What would you do in your research design to keep track of the stratigraphy and under what circumstances would you do a vertical or a horizontal excavation?

Question 44

How do archaeologists approach the reconstruction of past environments?

Question 45

Differentiate the goals of early archaeologists, processual archaeologists, and post processual archaeologists.

Question 46

Discuss three of the major ways artifacts can be preserved for long periods of time, citing what is preserved and why.

Question 47

Evaluate the techniques archaeologists use to find sites.

Question 48

Differentiate between relative and chronometric dating and give one good example of each, citing what can be dated, the range of possible dates, and its limitations.