Intro Archaeology mid term

Similarities between processual and post processual

Aim to move away from only a descriptive account of the past

Processual

Aims to explain change following general laws and processes. Bases research on the building and testing of hypotheses.

Postprocessual

Aims to highlight the subjectivity of interpretation Accepts the possibility of plural pasts

Identify the statements that correctly describe the field of anthropology.

Anthropology is the study of humanity. Anthropology includes the subdiscipline of archaeology.

Which of the following statements correctly describe culture history and culture process?

Culture history is descriptive and culture process is explanatory. Culture process was adopted by a new generation of archaeologists in the later twentieth century.

Aerial images clearly reveal the presence of archaeological sites.

False

LiDAR has been extremely valuable to archaeologists in recent years. Identify the advantages of LiDAR over conventional aerial photography.

Ground features can be viewed under optimal lighting. Tree canopies can be eliminated.

Define the main issues and institutions involved public archaeology and CRM.

In the United States, archaeological work that is undertaken in order to mitigate damage to sites due to construction or commercial works is called Cultural Resource Management.

Which of the following things did Thomas Jefferson do in his excavation of the mound on his property in Virginia?

Jefferson suggested that ancestors of present-day Native Americans could have built the mound. Jefferson adopted a scientific approach. Jefferson excavated the mound using careful methods.

As an archaeologist, if you wished to build a model of a landscape surface but you were obstructed by thick rainforest, which survey technique would be most effective?

Lidar

Identify the reasons why reconnaissance survey is important for the field of archaeology.

Nomadic peoples leave only a sparse archaeological record. It is cheaper than excavation. It puts archaeological sites in their regional context.

Pompeii remains one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. Identify the reasons why Pompeii is important.

Pompeii ignited public interest at the time of its discovery. Pompeii was one of the first archaeological excavations.

Imagine that you are an archaeologist who has obtained documentary source information that there is likely to be an archaeological site on the land of a large farm. At which time of year would it be best to take aerial images of the area?

Summer

The New Archaeology, developed from the 1960s, aimed to change the way archaeologists worked with evidence. Which of the aims described here can be attributed to New Archaeology?

The New Archaeology should use scientific methods. The New Archaeology should be explanatory, not only descriptive. The New Archaeology should emphasize culture process, not culture history.

While people collected ancient artifacts in the past, these were not scientific undertakings. Identify the statements that describe the excavation that has been called "the first scientific excavation in the history of archaeology."

The first scientific excavations took place in the eighteenth century. Thomas Jefferson conducted the first scientific excavation. The first scientific excavations were on burial mounds in the United States.

Key Principle of Public CRM

The organization or company that initiates the damage to the material record is financially responsible for the archaeological investigation. When damage to the material record is inevitable, steps should be taken to mitigate the impact. The material record of the past is a public resource.

prehistory

The period before written records and history (meaning the study of the past using written evidence) is known as

uniformitarianism

The principle of - ------states that geologically ancient conditions were similar to those that exist today.

What happens when damage to an archaeological site is inevitable due to practical circumstances?

The site is carefully excavated, researched, and recorded before the damage occurs.

Mary Leakey

archaeologist famous for work at the early Paleolithic site at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers

brought military experience to excavation methods (including making models) and insisted on the excavation of all objects

Dorothy Garrod

discovered the skull of a Neanderthal child, which was key to understanding the relationship between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Ground-breaking professor of archaeology at the University of Cambridge

Identify which objectives archaeology tries to answer about past peoples.

how people exploited their environment how people's material culture took a particular form how people lived and why they lived that way

What actions should archaeologists take to ensure the involvement of descent communities?

include input from descent communities right from the beginning of an archaeological project consulting relevant communities when human remains are discovered

Which bodies write and enforce legislation protecting archaeological sites?

international governments national governments

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), aerial

is a type of - -----survey that produces detailed high-----resolution images using radar.

Archaeology is the study of former societies through the remains of their

material culture.

The past two centuries have seen many scientific and theoretical developments in archaeology. Which of these developments can be attributed to the twentieth or twenty-first centuries?

radiocarbon dating ancient DNA processual archaeology

The past two centuries have seen many scientific and theoretical developments in archaeology. Which of these developments can be attributed to the twentieth or twenty-first centuries?

radiocarbon dating processual archaeology ancient DNA

The layers of an archaeological site are also referred to as

strata

Archaeology

study of former societies through their material culture

linguistic anthropology

study of how speech varies with social factors and over time

physical anthropology

study of human biological characteristics and their evolution

cultural anthropology

study of human culture and society

Which of the following is an example of rescue archaeology or cultural resource management?

survey of a field through which a road is going to be built excavation in advance of building a new parking garage in a city