Anthropolgy final

Which of the following is an example of a cultural deposition process?

---All of these are examples of cultural deposition. When someone buries a deceased person with an ancient spearpoint that they found. When someone loses an arrow out hunting. When someone caches duck decoys in a dry cave to use them in the future.

The evidence for three social classes at Moundville in Alabama includes:

--Both of these answers are true. The fact that elite males ate more meat, and a greater variety of food, than others. The presence of certain rare types of grave goods associated with a few centrally-located burials.

Using seriation as a dating method, if you have a cemetery with about 80% Death's Head tombstones and 20% Cherub tombstones, what decade does it probably date to?

1760s

The Maya "sacred Calendar" (or Tzolk'in) consisted of:

260 days, with each day marked by one of 20 names and 1 of 13 numbers.

What is the half-life of 14C?

5,568 years but the dating method uses 5,730 years

Looking at this image, what is the dark band of sediment? (scale is marked in 10cm increments)

A buried soil (paleosol)

How did researchers at Agate Basin site determine that the bison and pronghorn remains were deposited by humans?

A cluster of antelope bones were found burned around a hearth. -Correct! All of these answers are correct Larger, denser bones had impact fractures suggesting humans were smashing bones open to access the highly nutritious bone marrow. Stone tool cut marks were present on the bones

In which of these situations might grave goods provide evidence of a ranked society with ascribed status?

A site where a few child burials have abundant grave goods and evidence of elaborate burial ritual.

Which feature of the pelvis can be used to determine age?

Answer The pubic symphysis

Relational analogies rely on cultural continuity to justify their use in _____________________, but are only useful in those areas where there is cultural continuity between the past and the present.

Archaeological inference

Why was the advent of absolute dating so important to archaeology?

Archaeologists were able to obtain dates for sites that were independent of any theory of cultural change and could move on to new research questions.

Which dating technique requires the use of a nuclear reactor to create an artificial isotope?

Argon-Argon

Why are artifacts recovered from the plow zone less useful to archaeologists than artifacts recovered from excavation?

Artifacts recovered from a plow zone have lost their spatial context, masking their association to other features/artifacts, and context is what matters

Which of the following is NOT a standard archaeological type?

Artistic Type

What do anthropologists mean by ascribed and achieved status?

Ascribed status refers to the acquisition of rank and prestige by virtue of who a person is born to, while achieved status refers to an individual who gains status by virtue of what that person does.

Why do we need to calibrate radiocarbon years to convert them to calendar years?

Because the production of 14C in the atmosphere has varied through time.

The pollen diagram shows that after about 10,900 years ago (the radiocarbon date is on the left of the diagram):

Betula (birch) increased in abundance and Picea (spruce) decreased in abundance.

A charcoal sample submitted for analysis returns a date of 3,200 +/- 30 B.P. This means there is a 95% chance that the date lies between what ages in radiocarbon years?

Between 3,140 and 3,260 BP

At the site of Chavin de Huantar, what was/were the overall trend(s) in faunal remains from the initial Urabarriu phase to the last Janabarriu phase?

Both answers are true -lama heads and feet were common in the Urabarriu phase but rare in the Janabarriu phase -Correct Answer Both of these answers are true. -The percentage of camelid (llama) remains increased while cervid (deer) remains decreased.

Which feature(s) of the skull can be used to determine sex?

Brow Ridges

Which of the following would be the least useful in creating projectile point typologies?

Color

To interpret the functions of stone tools recovered at an archaeological excavation, you might:

Conduct an experimental study of use-wear, to see relationships between microscopic scratches and polish on stone tools you make and use

Which of the following is NOT an example of paleopathology?

Epiphyses

A piece of charcoal has been radiocarbon dated to 11,900 +/- 30 BP. The "BP" stands for "Before Present", or before AD 1975.

False

A population's diet/subsistence practices (i.e. hunter-gatherer vs. agriculturalist) can be reflected in the numbers of dental caries; hunter-gatherers usually have many and agriculturalists usually have fewer.

False

After an excavation, archaeologists will conserve and catalog just the most important items, e.g., complete projectile points, whole pots, etc. Everything else is discarded.

False

An androcentric perspective focuses on women to the exclusion of men.

False

Anthropology is concerned with all aspects of humanity and therefore employs an all-encompassing holistic approach that, in America, is made up of four subfields: cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, classical archaeology, and anthropological archaeology.

False

Archaeological cultures define areas within which culture would have been entirely homogenous in the past, meaning the people in a culture area would have possessed the same language, religious traditions, etc.

False

Argon-Argon dating is a low precision dating method used to date materials younger than 400,000 years old.

False

As demonstrated by the Chaco Canyon study, it is only possible to fully characterize the nature of an archaeological landscape (in terms of proportion and distribution of site types) by surveying 100% of its area.

False

Because the Gatecliff Projectile Point Typology was constructed through detailed measurements and complex statistical analysis, it can be used for a Puebloan culture in the American Southwest as well as for the Great Basin, for which it was originally created.

False

Bioarchaeology is the study of the animal, not the human, biological component of the archaeological record.

False

Gender ideology is the same among all societies both past and present.

False

If we take evidence of intentional burial rituals as evidence of a belief in the afterlife, and if we take evidence of a belief in the afterlife as evidence of religion (of some kind) then religious beliefs first appear about 250,000 years ago.

False

If you were excavating a buried house that a test excavation told you contained a high density of discarded artifacts you would probably use a backhoe to speed up artifact recovery

False

In order to avoid destroying artifacts at the site of Ozette, archaeologists used a system of pressurized hoses, such as fire hoses, to clean the excavation equipment of mud.

False

In the late 18th and early 19th century, archaeology focused on the precise collection of provenience data through controlled excavations

False

It is only necessary to excavate a single site to understand the entire settlement system.

False

Kill sites refer to archaeological sites where human mass graves are located.

False

King Richard III of Great Britain was an example of a person with achieved status.

False

Low-level archaeological theory, which focuses on observations about artifacts and their contexts, is a simple, unimportant part of the process of archaeological analysis

False

Most archaeologists should just use simple analogy to make inferences from archaeological data.

False

Most archaeologists today would use some sort of judgment sample since the goal of survey is to find the site that will provide the most artifacts.

False

Paleopathology is the study of ancient pollen and what it can tell us about regional ancient environments around sites.

False

Palynology is the study of animal bones.

False

Processual Archaeology emphasizes the role of individuals in understanding the paths that cultures take in their development over time and downplays the search for universal "laws" in human behavior

False

The explanation of Paleolithic cave art as "hunting magic" appears to be correct since most of the faunal remains found in Paleolithic sites are those of aurochs, bison and horses.

False

Lidar is best at mapping:

Features hidden under dense tree canopies such as Maya ruins

Imagine you are excavating a site within a forested environment. Artifact vertical distribution will be impacted to the greatest extent by which formation process?

Floralturbation

Cyroturbation is one of several post-depositional processes that can move artifacts; it can be defined as:

Freeze-thaw action that results in vertically size-sorted artifacts in a site.

The application of the techniques of the geosciences to helping solve archaeological problems can be defined as:

Geoarchaeology

The first archaeologist to excavate a village site in Egypt and display an interest in the everyday life of ancient peoples (as opposed to recovering treasures from tombs) was:

Gertrude Caton-Thompson

In what way did Thomas Jefferson contribute to the field of archaeology?

He tested the Moundbuilder hypothesis by systematically excavating a burial mound on his property, demonstrating the mound was for burials, not war.

The ultimate goal of archaeology is to answer the "why" questions about human behavior. This includes the "big questions" about the development of agriculture, or the nature of humanity. This kind of thinking is characterized as

High-level theory

What did the analysis of Otzi's 5000-year-old remains reveal to researchers studying his body?

How he died, and such detailed information such as what he had eaten in the 24 hours before his death.

Culture, as anthropologists understand it, is an integrated set of beliefs, customs, and traditions whose characteristics include all of the following EXCEPT:

It is genetic

What pathology is shown in this picture?

Linear Enamel hypoplasia

Given this table, calculate the MNI of the assemblage (assume all fully adult male bison remains).

MNI = 13

How are the settlements of the Mikea usually organized?

Mikea settlements are usually composed of members of two patrilineages, united by a female tie or through marriage ties.

An accurate and useful typology must:

Minimize differences within each artifact type and maximize differences between artifact types

Calculate the NISP using this table.

NISP = 28

This dating method requires the excavator to cover oneself with a blackout cape to ensure sediment is collected in complete darkness.

Optically-stimulated luminescence dating of eolian sediments

What process involves human behaviors that move artifacts from an archaeological context back to the systemic context?

Reclamation process

What led researchers to believe the bison and pronghorn remains found at the Agate Basin site were deposited during the same occupation of the site?

Remains were found in anatomical position and all the bones were equally weathered.

What can we broadly learn about past populations from their bones?

Residential mobility Age-at-death and sex profiles Correct! All of these answers are correct Health

Finding a greenish-brown ceramic sherd that you know dates to the 17th century in a layer of sediment that lies below another layer containing Native American pottery dating to AD 800-1200 might be evidence of:

Reverse stratigraphy.

Gertrude Caton-Thompson's conclusion about the origins of the archaeological site of Great Zimbabwe upset many white South Africans. Why?

She argued that Great Zimbabwe was of African origin, an interpretation that did not support colonial rule of southern Africa.

H. Marie Wormington's book, Ancient Man in North America was not only important because it was one of the first written for the general public, but also because:

She illustrated the growing maturity in the field of archaeology over time through its four editions

If you were doing a survey of a region densely covered in grass and had a very limited budget, which of the following methods would you use to determine if there were archaeological materials beneath the surface?

Shovel Testing

Phytoliths are

Silica nodules that form in cell walls or between cells in plant stems

Which remote sensing technique measures differences in how easily soil conducts electricity?

Soil resistivity

Alfred Vincent Kidder is best known for encouraging which fundamental archaeological technique?

Stratigraphic excavation

Middle-level theory attempts to link the material culture found in the archaeological record with the behaviors/forces that produced them through which of the following:

Taphonomic studies Experimental archaeology -Correct! All of these answers are potential places to build middle-level theory Ethnoarchaeology

Which of the following is an example of an egalitarian society?

The Mikea

What are the carvings of polar bears reflective of in Dorset culture?

The carvings reflect Polar Bear behavior and the use of Polar bear behavior to justify Dorset Behavior.

A magnetometer helps locate buried archaeology by measuring:

The differences in the earth's magnetic field and buried magnetic anomalies

Professor Kelly's ethnoarchaeological study in Madagascar suggested that the presence or absence of food sharing is reflected in:

The distribution of hearths: where hearths are close, food sharing can be inferred.

At Stillwater Marsh in Nevada, what bioarchaeological evidence supports the hypothesis that men primarily hunted and women primarily gathered?

The greater prevalence among males of osteoarthritis in their ankles and hips, and the greater prevalence among women of osteoarthritis in their lumbar vertebrae.

You are working at the summer field school and during excavation you uncover an artifact. Excited, you pop it out of the ground with your trowel before mapping it in and sprint over to graduate assistant McKenna to show her, but she is not happy. Why is she upset with you for doing so?

The provenience and context of that artifact has been lost.

Which of the following BEST defines taphonomy in archaeology?

The study of everything that happens to an organism between death and recovery by the archaeologist.

While excavating a site a few years from now, you come across a juvenile (less than 12 years old) human skeleton. To determine the individual's age at the time of death, you could look at:

Tooth eruption

How did researchers determine that the Agate Basin site was occupied in the spring?

Tooth eruption patterns in the two young bison present.

A paradigm is like an archaeologist's culture in that it provides the perspective from which we approach both the collection and interpretation of data.

True

A relational analogy is justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases, such as between prehistoric Puebloan peoples and their living descendants in the American Southwest.

True

A sample universe is a region that contains all possible sites that could be included in a statistical sample.

True

A time marker is a distinctive artifact that is diagnostic of a particular phase.

True

According to the Law of Superposition, each bed of undisturbed sedimentary rock is older than the layers above and younger than the layers below.

True

Any condition that limits the availability of water and/or oxygen in sediments promotes the preservation of organic materials.

True

Archaeological sites are created by human and natural processes working together in complex ways.

True

Archaeologists are not treasure-hunters. It's not what you find that is important, but rather what you find out

True

Archaeology as a discipline grew out of the field of "antiquarianism," an example of which is the pilfering of valuable Egyptian artifacts for museum displays by Giovanni Belzoni

True

As defined in anthropology, symbols do NOT need to have a necessary connection with the object or idea they represent.

True

At Chavin de Huanter, archaeologists used a knowledge of bone taphonomy to show when ch'arki was the primary way that llama meat entered the site.

True

Bone decay is something that zooarchaeologists need to take into account when analyzing bones found in the archaeological record: for example, low-density bones like vertebrae or pelves are expected to last less time in the ground than teeth that are made of 97 percent mineral.

True

Cognitive archaeology focuses on aspects of human life that are a product of the mind.

True

Context is the relationship of an artifact, ecofact, or feature to other artifacts, ecofacts, features, and layers of earth in a site.

True

Coprolites are desiccated feces, often containing macrobotanical remains, pollen, and the remains of small animals.

True

Cultures that recognize patrilineal descent only consider people who are linked through a male line as members of their lineage.

True

Elites in a ranked society accumulate (and are often buried with) exotic items they acquire through trade because such items represent the reach of their power and the social connections they maintain.

True

For an elderly person who has lost their teeth, the jaw bone(s) will undergo a process where the sockets that held the teeth will close and the bone will retract (resorb).

True

In archaeology, the principle of uniformitarianism argues that contemporary observations on natural processes and contemporary human behavior can aid archaeological inference because of necessary relationships between the process or behavior and its effect on material remains.

True

In his ethnoarchaeological work with the Mikea, Dr. Kelly found support for the hypothesis that posts with more variable diameters are associated with houses that people expect to have shorter "lives" than houses that will be occupied for many years.

True

Indigenous people of the U.S. are sometimes at odds with archaeologists because any effort to test or verify oral traditions is seen as no different than questioning or challenging them.

True

Men hunt and women gather in almost all known hunter-gatherer societies because women must have their children with them at all times in order to breastfeed them and children are incompatible with the activity of large game hunting.

True

Middle Level Theory differs from analogy because it uses the principle of uniformitarianism to build bridges, backed by theory, between material remains and the natural processes or human behavior that produced them.

True

Pack rat nests provide an excellent record of their local environment.

True

Radiocarbon years are NOT the same as calendar years.

True

Saying archaeologists "think from things" means they contribute to anthropology through the systematic recovery, analysis and interpretation of ancient material remains

True

Science prides itself on being both self-critical and open to scrutiny.

True

Terminus post quem dating is one of the dating methods used in historical archaeology.

True

The antiquity of humanity was determined by the discovery of stone tools, such as handaxes, in association with the bones of extinct animals in France

True

The explanation of Paleolithic cave art as "hunting magic" is an example of "sympathetic magic."

True

The ideational perspective focuses on ideas, symbols or mental structures as the driving force in shaping human behavior.

True

The past helps inform the present, and the future. This is why archaeology is often tied up in political and social issues

True

There are modern human populations that contain Neanderthal DNA.

True

When environmental variation occurs in a survey region, archaeologists might use stratified random sampling.

True

While the pelvic bones are some of the first bones to decay, they are also an excellent feature to determine a skeleton's sex.

True

Why is cognitive archaeology more difficult than other forms of archaeology?

Understanding past mental processes is indirect, thus difficult.

David Lewis-Williams's shamanistic explanation for Upper Paleolithic Rock Art is based on:

Universal human neurological traits and reactions to induced trance. Correct! Both of these answers are true. The fact that ethnographically-known hunter-gatherers largely practice shamanism.

Which of the following is the major difference between CRM (Cultural Resource Management) archaeologists and University archaeologists?

University archaeologists conduct original research and teach while CRM archaeologists ensure companies adhere to Federal and other laws, regulations, and statutes

Radiocarbon dating uses decay of the radioactive isotope 14C to date organic materials that are:

Up to 45,000 years old

How might one best determine whether a past society followed a matrilineal or patrilineal kinship system (or something else entirely)?

Use mtDNA genetic analysis to determine whether the men are related through a female line, as this could suggest matrilineal descent

Why did religious thinking of the 19th century not allow for ancient human antiquity as proposed by Jacques Boucher de Crevecoeur de Perthes?

Using genealogies in the Bible and working backwards from what were thought to be known dates, Christian belief held that the earth was created in 4004 BC.

A total station (or EDM) is:

a device that records provenience accurately using a prism and a beam of light.

One of many prehistoric structures built on the Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge served:

as a giant clock to track the movement of Venus through the seasons.

Hypothesis testing in science consists of:

attempting to prove your idea wrong

The flotation technique is used to retrieve:

carbonized plant remains

A fire hearth (the hearth itself, not anything that might be found within it) is an example of a class of finds that archaeologists call a(n):

feature

Hudson-Meng is a controversial site in Nebraska. Taphonomic studies contributed to its interpretation by showing:

how the decay patterns of large animal carcasses suggest many of the bison died natural deaths, rather than from human hunting and butchering.

The most important aspect of an artifact found during its excavation is:

its provenience, which gives us its context

The difference between arbitrary and natural levels is:

natural levels are defined by characteristics of the sediments; arbitrary levels are a pre-determined thickness, e.g., 5 or 10 centimeters.

As a primary architect of processual archaeology, Lewis Binford argued that American archaeology as a discipline should more closely align itself with the practices and theory of

science

Ground-penetrating radar is best at locating:

solid buried features, such as walls.

The first professional archaeologist, Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae is remembered for:

the idea that an artifact's context is important to its interpretation

A datum, used in excavation, is

the point from which all measurements are made, in three dimensions

One undertakes test excavations for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

to quickly recover the maximum number of artifacts

Let's say you are excavating a site near a river, and the site's very clayey and sticky sediments contain many small artifacts. Which recovery technique might you use to recover as many of these small items as possible?

water-screening