ANTH 2203
The raw number of identified bones per species in an archaeofauna is known as the MNI.
'False'.
Factors that can affect the utility of radiocarbon dating include:
All of the answers are correct.
In reconstructing ancient environments, pollen is useful because:
All of the answers are correct.
The "New Archaeology" of the 1960s:
All of the answers are correct.
A krotovina is evidence of floralturbation.
False
Although it has proven useful in the recovery of carbonized plant remains and bone fragments, flotation is an uncommon archaeological technique because it is extremely time consuming and costly.
False
Bone breakage patterns would be good indicators of interpersonal violence and perhaps even warfare. Unfortunately, healed bone breaks are virtually indistinguishable from unbroken bone in prehistoric populations.
False
Culture history is the most frequently practiced kind of archaeology today, especially in America.
False
Ethnographic analysis makes it clear that it is safe to assume that women in the past always made the pottery, and men always made the stone tools.
False
Graviturbation is an example of a formation process in the systemic context.
False
Phytoliths are small stone tools, normally inset into pieces of bone or wood to form a long working edge.
False
Remote sensing techniques will probably completely replace archaeological excavation in the near future.
False
While useful in geology, the index fossil concept has little archaeological utility.
False
Deductive reasoning involves working from specific observations to more general hypotheses.
The correct answer is 'False'.
Archaeologists have tried to replicate, through trial and error with flintknapping, the way in which Folsom points were fluted. This research is an example of experimental archaeology.
True
Archaeology enjoys enormous public interest that suggests more archaeology will be needed in the future.
True
Coprolites provide evidence for the earliest human presence in North America.
True
In an archaeological excavation, the point from which all horizontal and vertical measurements are made is termed the datum point.
True
Potassium-argon or argon-argon dating would be useful techniques for dating a volcanic formation containing hominid fossil remains.
True
The potlatch ceremony among 19th century Northwest Coast Native Americans involved the giving away or destruction of property in order to acquire prestige.
True
Today's archaeology student should have at least some knowledge of GIS (geographic information systems).
True
An artifact's provenience is:
the artifact's location relative to a system of spatial data collection.
If stable isotope analysis is conducted on a human skeleton that during life consumed a diet rich in C4 plants such as maize and very little meat, then the isotopic ratios of the bones would show a high ratio of:
13C to 12C.
Which of the following dates is the youngest?
AD 1066
A sipapu is:
All of the answers are correct
After excavating a hearth feature you submit organic material from the hearth for a conventional radiocarbon date. The result comes back as follows: Beta-33003, 3500+/- 100 radiocarbon years BP. You know that:
All of the answers are correct.
How does sediment generally enter rockshelters?
All of the answers are correct.
If you are observing microwear, or minute, often microscopic evidence of use damage on the surface and working edge of an artifact, you are probably observing:
All of the answers are correct.
The index fossil concept:
All of the answers are correct.
The potlatch:
All of the answers are correct.
What could account for chronologically older artifacts being found above younger artifacts in a stratigraphic sequence?
All of the answers are correct.
When archaeologists dig excavation units, they are concerned with:
All of the answers are correct.
An archaeological context differs from a systemic context in that:
An artifact in an archaeological context is no longer a part of the dynamic behavioral system.
Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656) was responsible for which of the following?
Calculating the age of the earth based on biblical genealogy, and concluding that Creation occurred on October 22, 4004 BC.
A specialist from which of the four subfields of anthropology would be most likely to study ritual and kinship among people in contemporary societies?
Cultural anthropology
Which of the following is not true of science?
It always provides the right answer to a question.
How does the sciatic notch of females differ from that of males?
It is wider in females and narrower in males
The following statement is true about Postprocessual archaeology:
Less enthusiastic about scientific methods and denies possibility of objectivity.
A difference between optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and thermoluminescence (TL) is:
OSL dates the last time sediment was exposed to light, while TL dates the last time artifacts were heated.
What limits surface surveys?
Survey can only find what lies on the ground.
Archaeologists know that Folsom points date to between 10,300 and 10,900 radiocarbon years ago. If an archaeologist finds a Folsom point in a site, and assumes that the site dates to between 10,300 and 10,900 years ago, the archaeologist is using which of the following in his or her reasoning?
The index fossil concept
How is mechanical stress, or workload, detectable in the human skeleton?
Through signs of osteoarthritis in which the cartilage between joints wears away, often because of overuse of the joint
Analysis of the archaeofauna from the site of Chavín de Huántar, Peru, indicates:
a change in diet through time, with increasing reliance on domesticated llamas.
A relative date is:
a date expressed relative to another (e.g., earlier, later, more recent, etc.) rather than in absolute terms.
Deflation is:
a geologic process whereby fine sediment is blown away by the wind and larger items are lowered onto a common surface.
A "midden" is:
a refuse deposit resulting from human activities.
When we say statistical population we mean:
a set of counts, measurements, or characteristics about which relevant inquiries are to be made.
"Stratigraphy" is:
a site's physical structure produced by the deposition of geological and/or cultural sediments into layers
A stratified random sample is:
a survey universe divided into several sub-universes.
Anthropology is the study of:
all aspects of humankind.
Archaeological shovel-testing is:
an important method of identifying sites in areas characterized by soil buildup.
Culture is:
an integrated system of beliefs, traditions, and customs that govern or influence a person's behavior.
An "antiquarian" is someone who is interested in:
ancient objects strictly for their artistic value, rather than for the information they provide about the people or culture that produced them.
Coprolites from the New World that are 12,000 or more calendar years old:
are some of the earliest evidence of a presence in North America.
Eolian sediments refer to materials transported
by wind.
Realizing the significance of Ötzi, the "Ice Man", archaeologists scoured the site and recovered:
clothing, tools, and stomach contents.
If you are using a skeletal collection of modern fauna, of both sexes and different ages, to identify specimens in an archaeofauna, you are using a:
comparative collection.
Documenting how material culture changed over time and space is referred to as
culture history.
The difference between inductive and deductive reasoning is:
deductive reasoning involves reasoning from theory to predict specific observational or experimental results, while inductive reasoning involves working from specific observations to more general hypotheses.
Don Crabtree's experimental flintknapping research:
discovered successful ways in which Folsom projectile points could be fluted, and stimulated additional research resulting in the discovery of more successful fluting methods.
Harris lines and dental hypoplasias can be used by bioarchaeologists to make inferences about
disease and malnourishment during infant-to-adolescent growth periods.
A settlement pattern is the:
distribution of archaeological sites across a region.
Charles Lyell's 1865 book The Geologic Evidences for the Antiquity of Man was important because it:
documented the fact that humans had lived with now extinct animals in the distant past.
A thin, sharp sliver of stone removed from a larger piece of rock during the flintknapping process is a:
flake.
Low-level theory begins with archaeological objects and
generates relevant facts or data bout those objects that will be important to later analyses.
Otzi, the Ice Man of the Alps, provides an example of:
how cold conditions can inhibit decomposition of organic material by preventing the production of microorganisms that cause decay.
The example of pithouse construction
indicates that the law of superposition does not apply.
Seriation differs from the index fossil concept in that:
instead of relying on the presence or absence of distinctive kinds of artifacts, it relies on changes in the frequencies of artifacts or styles.
Middle- level theory in archaeology:
is a logical statement linking observations on the static archaeological record to the dynamic behavior or natural processes that produced it.
The Folsom site is important in the history of American archaeology because
it proved the extent of human antiquity in the Americas.
Organic substances such as fats, oils, and waxes that resist mixing with water and are found in both plant and animal tissues are called:
lipids.
Artifacts leave the systemic context and enter the archaeological context through
loss and discard.
Formal analogies are strengthened if:
many ethnographic cases demonstrate the same pattern, and the archaeological and ethnographic cases have many attributes in common.
Based on the level of public support,
more archaeology will be needed in the future.
The analysis of past ritual behavior is archaeology's major contribution to the study of religion because:
most archaeologists agree that prehistoric religion cannot be studied because it is archaeologically invisible; it is therefore a waste of time, energy, and money to attempt such a study.
If you have a site dominated by bones from the axial skeleton, you have:
mostly cranial bones, mandibles, vertebrae, ribs, sacrum, and tail bones.
Taphonomic research at the Hudson-Meng bison bonebed in northwest Nebraska showed that:
natural processes such as incomplete burial and subsequent exposure to sunlight could have caused the tops of the bison skulls to decompose.
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, is considered the first scientific archaeologist in America based on his work involving his:
notes on the State of Virginia, which dealt in part with the aborigines of Virginia, their origin, and the question of the mounds.
In the Smithsonian site number 26CH798, the number "26" stands for the:
number of the state (arranged alphabetically) in which the site is located.
An archaeologist involved in analyzing and interpreting plant remains from archaeological sites in order to understand past interactions between human populations and plants would be a:
paleoethnobotanist.
If an archaeologist is analyzing tiny silica particles that were originally contained in plants, he or she is analyzing:
phytoliths.
Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form are known as:
relational analogies.
Flutes, or wide, shallow, longitudinal grooves on each face of a point, are made by
removing channel flakes on both sides of the point's base.
H. Marie Wormington is an important character in the development of Americanist archaeology during the first half of the 20th century because:
she is an example of a female pioneer in Americanist archaeology, and her contributions are still considered important today.
The Law of Superposition states that, in any pile of sedimentary rocks that have not been disturbed by folding or overturning:
stratigraphic layers at the bottom are older than stratigraphic layers at the top.
Matrix sorting is a technique:
that involves hand sorting of processed bulk soil samples for minute artifacts and ecofacts.
Classical archaeology is:
the branch of archaeology that studies the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean, such as Greece and Rome, and the Near East.
Bioarchaeologists study:
the human biological component of the archaeological record.
If an archaeologist is excavating in arbitrary levels
the natural strata are probably lacking or difficult to recognize, and may be more than 10 centimeters thick.
Archaeology can best be defined as the study of:
the past through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains.
In geology, the principle of uniformitarianism asserts that:
the processes now operating to modify the earth's surface are the same as those of the geologic past.
Remote sensing is:
the use of methods that employ some form of electromagnetic energy to detect and measure characteristics of an archaeological site.
Mary Leakey's discovery of fossil footprints in volcanic ash at Laetoli was important because:
the volcanic ash had preserved the footprints of at least two bipedal hominids.
Studies of some of the skeletal data of Neanderthals have concluded:
there is continuity between Neanderthals and modern Europeans.
An individual's age under 25 can be determined by
tooth eruption patterns.
Midden is a term that refers to
trash heaps created by people.
A tree ring sequence is only useful in the region in which it was developed because:
trees respond to climate and climate is regionally variable.
A total station, or EDM, is a device that:
uses a beam of infrared light bounced off a prism to determine an artifact's provenience.
The "New Archaeology" of the 1960s:
was an approach that emphasized the understanding of underlying cultural processes and the use of the scientific method and is sometimes called processual archaeology today.
Archaeologists who analyze faunal assemblages are commonly known as:
zooarchaeologists.