Q&A Hero

Q: The deductive-nomothetic form of explanation proceeds by formulating a hypothesis, establishing by deduction what would follow if the hypothesis were true, and then testing the hypothesis against fresh data.

Q: The remains of Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo in modern Zimbabwe were established by Phoenician sea-traders, and represent the most distant evidence for their settlement.

Q: Plant impressions are a) the way that humans in the past felt or perceived their natural environment b) the silica cell walls of plants that remain after the rest of the plant has decayed c) outline or shapes of plants found in artifacts such as worked clay d) another name for fossil pollen e) devices that help separate waterlogged plant remains from soil

Q: The study of the diet of larger civilizations a) is too complex for modern archaeologists to study b) is based entirely on scientific analysis and tests c) is aided by the presence of written records and/or art depicting agriculture d) can not be aided by ethnographic information e) none of the above

Q: ____________ is the idea that technology, language, and culture spread out from a single or very few points of origin a) Structrualism b) Positivism c) Diffusionism d) Marxist Archaeology e) Homeostasis

Q: Wood that is said to be desiccated has been preserved due to a) extreme wetness b) artificial polymers c) fire and charring d) extreme cold or dryness e) all of the above

Q: Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary advocate, proposed that cultural evolution is produced by the replication of _____, the analogue of the genes that are the instruments of biological evolution a) memes b) RNA c) DNA d) symbols e) mites

Q: Archaeologists working on bones from Lower Paleolithic sites found that, when looked at through a scanning electron microscope, marks on bones made by carnivores were more __________ than marks made by stone tools a) v-shaped b) rounded c) likely to have parallel lines at the bottom d) violent e) slicing

Q: Language replacement can occur in a region when: a) a trading language (or lingua franca) gradually becomes dominant in a whole region b) incoming elites secure power and force their language onto a population c) through sustained contact: adjacent communities speaking different languages start to speak the same language d) all of the above e) a and c only

Q: The study of the past human use of animals is called a) archaeobotany b) paleontology c) micromorphology d) zooarchaeology e) faunology

Q: The formation of a dynamic model to help understand change through time is called: a) systems thinking b) critical theory c) morphogenesis d) simulation e) the multivariate approach

Q: The idea that the Classic Maya collapse happened in multiple stages and was due to a combination of factors including environmental factors, overpopulation, and warfare, is an example of a: a) monocausal explanation b) multivariate explanation c) critical theory d) systems approach e) compounded explanation

Q: Experimental evidence suggests that the transition from wild to domestic plants could have been complete within a) only one seasonal cycle b) the period before the last Ice Age c) 5,000 to 10,000 years d) only 20 to 200 years e) a matter of days

Q: Interpretations which stress that human actions are guided by beliefs and symbolic concepts and that underlying these are structure of thought which find expression in various forms are known as ___________ a) functionalist b) Marxist c) scientistic d) processualist e) structuralist

Q: Insect exoskeletons are resistant to decomposition and can be considered likely indicators of past climactic conditions. The study of ancient insects is called a) phytolythology b) palonology c) micromorphology d) geomorphology e) paleoentomology

Q: The term ________ refers to what people were eating at a particular time and the term ________ refers to what people were eating over a longer period of time a) diet; meal b) diatom; meal c) microfauna; macrofauna d) meal; diet e) macrofauna; microfauna

Q: Using a traditional Migrationist approach, it is argued that each archaeological culture is the manifestation, in material terms, of a specific a) people or ethnic group b) environmental event c) religious tradition d) distribution of resource e) social inequality

Q: The concept of __________ has been introduced to permit discussion of the role of the individual in promoting change a) symbol b) cognition c) agency d) critical theory e) structuralism

Q: A belief that there is one and only one method of science, and that it alone confers legitimacy on the conduct of research, is considered by postprocessualists to be a) scientistic b) critical theory c) paradigmatic view d) Marxist archaeology e) monocausal explanation

Q: Which of the following is not an example of macrobotanical remains a) a grape pip b) a charred pumpkin seed c) a phytolith d) a piece of charcoal e) all of these are macrobotanical remains

Q: Diatoms are a) the tiny male reproductive bodies of flowering plants b) the minute particles of silica derived from the cells of plants c) the outermost protective layer of the skin of leaves or blades of grass d) single-cell algae that have a cell wall of silica e) none of the above

Q: Pollen grains are a) the tiny male reproductive bodies of flowering plants b) the minute particles of silica derived from the cells of plants c) the outermost protective layer of the skin of leaves or blades of grass d) fossilized unicellular algae e) none of the above

Q: The idea that European Megaliths were used by elders and community leaders to manipulate the members of society into the continued recognition of their social status is an example of a a) Postprocessual explanation b) Functional-processual explanation c) Neo-Marxist explanation d) Migrationist or Diffusionist explanation e) New Archaeology explanation

Q: Emphasizing the scientific methodology of problem statement, hypothesis formulation, and subsequent testing, ______________ is an approach that stresses the dynamic relationship between the social and economic aspects of culture and the environment in understanding culture change a) Marxist archaeology b) structuralist archaeology c) culture-historical archaeology d) postprocessual archaeology e) processual archaeology

Q: The most favorable sediments for the preservation of pollen are a) arid loess sediments b) frozen tundra c) acidic and well-watered tropical sediments d) sandy sediments e) acidic and poorly aerated peat bogs and lake beds

Q: In contrast to the functional-processual approach that seeks to create generalizing explanation, a _________________ explanation, influenced by structuralism, critical theory, and neo-Marxist thought, favors an individualizing approach a) hypothetico-deductive b) culture-historical c) refutationist d) postprocessual e) positivist

Q: This method used in archaeological investigations separates organic material from soil based on the general principle that the lighter organic material floats in water a) flotation b) submersion c) inundation d) irrigation e) pallonization

Q: Tree-ring growth varies with the climate and is known to a) be strong in winter but decline to nothing in the spring b) be strong in spring but decline to nothing in the winter c) be quite consistent all year round d) only occur in the middle of summer e) only occur during the typhoon

Q: An approach that seeks to find universal laws in the structure and transformation of human institutions, and which states that explanations must be empirically verifiable, might be called a) positivistic b) a culture-historical approach c) functional-processual approach d) postprocessual approach e) voodoo

Q: Although ice core analysis suggests that the next ice age should be 15,000 years in the future, _________ appears to be having an effect on the normal cycle of the earth's temperature a) the tilt of the earth b) human activity c) solar flares d) continental drift e) changes in the orbit of the earth

Q: In the systems approach, when a change in the output stimulates further growth and change, this is known as a) negative feedback b) positive feedback c) induction d) positivism e) stimulation

Q: After retrieving a core, the layers may be analyzed in two ways. First, scientists study the presence or absence and fluctuations of different foraminiferan species. Second, using a mass spectrometer, they analyze the a) fluctuations in the ratio of stable oxygen isotopes 18 and 16 in the calcium carbonate of the foraminiferan shells b) fluctuations in the ratio of nitrogen isotopes 15 and 14 in the calcium carbonate of the foraminiferan shells c) fluctuations in the ratio of pollens to foraminifera through time d) fluctuations in the amino acids of bone collagen in the foraminifera e) all of the above

Q: In the systems approach, a process that acts to dampen or counter the effects of external events, thus acting as a stabilizing mechanism, is known as a) positivism b) positive feedback c) the multiplier effect d) negative feedback e) negativism

Q: If, in your explanation for a cultural change (for example, the origin of the state), you stress the importance and interaction of several different factors operating at the same time, this would be considered a(n) a) monocausal explanation b) multiplier effect explanation c) idealist explanation d) multivariate explanation e) critical theory

Q: In order to understand the stratigraphy of sediment on the ocean floor, ships use a ___________ to extract a thin column of sediment for later laboratory analysis. a) sounding drill b) paleomagnetometer c) piston-corer d) varve corer e) none of the above

Q: Relying on a single dominant explanatory factor, or "prime mover," to account for a cultural change is known as a(n) a) idealist explanation b) multivariate explanation c) hypothetico-deductive explanation d) monocausal explanation e) postprocessual explanation

Q: Change in the archaeological record is sometimes attributed to struggles between social classes, a result of contradictions that arise between the forces of production and the relations of production (mainly the social organization). Such an approach to understanding the past would be considered a) communist archaeology b) culture-historical archaeology c) postprocessual archaeology d) Marxist archaeology e) processual archaeology

Q: Excavations at the Boarding School site in northern Montana, carried out with help from the local Blackfoot tribe, found evidence of a typical hunting practice used for thousands of years in North America, with three layers of bones, each representing one episode. This site was a a) bison drive site b) moose corral c) antelope kill site d) jackrabbit snare e) quail snare

Q: Microscopic abrasion on human teeth provides clues to general types of food intake. Abrasive particles in food leave striations on the tooth enamel that a) form the core of phytolith analysis b) eventually cause the enamel to decay c) show if a person prepared their own food d) are directly related to the meat and vegetation in a person's diet e) tell the exact location of a food source

Q: The quest for food is also known as a) domestication b) macrofauna c) subsistence d) pallonology e) taphonomy

Q: Structuralist archaeologists stress that human actions are guided by beliefs and symbolic concepts, and that the proper object of study is the structures of thoughtthe ideasof the human actors who made the artifacts and created the archaeological record. Several archaeologists have been influenced by the structuralist ideas of the anthropologist a) Charles Darwin b) Claude Lvi-Strauss c) Michel Foucault d) I. M. Pei e) Jacques Derrida

Q: An approach that lays great stress on the search for the ideas and motives of the individuals involved in the historical circumstances leading up to an event is known as a(n) a) inductive explanation b) functional-processual explanation c) idealist explanation d) empathetic explanation e) monocausal explanation

Q: Once people began to cultivate cereals, they preferentially selected varieties that a) retained their seeds until they could be harvested b) lost their seeds easily in wind or rain c) had small or tough seeds d) were less nutritious than their wild ancestors

Q: _______________ is a form of explanation based on the formulation of hypotheses and the establishment from them by deduction of consequences that may then be tested against archaeological data a) Hypothetico-deductive (H-D) explanation b) Deductive nomological (D-N) explanation c) Methodological individualism d) Monocausality e) Hypothetico-nomological (H-N) explanation

Q: Commonly found preserved in ash layers, pottery, and on stone tools and even teeth, minute particles of silica derived from plant cells that survive after the rest of the organism is decomposed are known as a) pollen grains b) phytoliths c) eoliths d) coprolites e) foraminifera

Q: In the systems approach, when a system is maintained in a constant state through the operation of negative feedback, this is known as a) synchronicity b) holism c) homeostasis d) a monocausal explanation e) none of the above

Q: Isotopic analysis of human tooth enamel or bone collagen relies on a) the presence of phytolithis b) whether the person ate sugar or not c) reading the chemical signature left in the body by different foods d) the amount of calcium a person consumed in later life e) how well an individual cared for their teeth

Q: In the 1960s, the "loss of innocence" that came with the realization that there was no well-established body of theory to underpin current archaeological methods sparked the development of a) Cognitive Archaeology b) Post-Processual Archaeology c) the New Archaeology d) the Diffusionist approach e) the culture-historical approach

Q: There are various indicators useful for the identification of domesticated animals in archaeological contexts, such as a) the presence of such tools as plows and yokes b) the presence of certain deformities and diseases among the animal remains c) changes in animal DNA d) all of the above e) a and b only

Q: Similar to traditional methods of historical investigation and the culture-historical approach, this form of explanation is based primarily on descriptive historical frameworks a) Structuralist approach b) Ecological determinism c) Marxist archaeological approach d) Processualist approach e) Historiographic approach

Q: The study of pollen grains, developed by Norwegian geologist Lennart von Post, is commonly known as a) geomorphology b) palynology c) archaeobotany d) paleoethnobotany e) microbotany

Q: Robert Carneiro, a major proponent of ______________, emphasized the importance of environmental constraints and territorial limitations to explain the origins of the state a) ecological determinism b) environmental circumscription c) punctuated equilibria d) structuralist approaches e) systems thinking

Q: Animal sex may be identified based on bone remains of a) antlers b) large canines c) penis bone d) female pelvic structure e) All of the above

Q: The remains of large animals, such as sheep or cows, found on archaeological sites help us build a picture of past human diet. These remains are known as a) Microfauna b) Macrobotanical c) Macrofauna d) Geomorphs e) Phytoliths

Q: The sheer number of man hours required to build Stonehenge (estimated at 30,000,000 hours of work) indicated that at that time the Wessex area of Britain a) was in contact with ancient Egypt b) was centrally organized c) was populated by bands of hunter-gatherers d) was overpopulated e) all of the above

Q: Phylogenetic methods are increasingly being used by historical linguists to investigate relationships between languages with the aid of a) DNA testing of remote and isolated populations b) new communication tools such as the internet and mobile phones c) historical documentation and bi-lingual texts d) computer programs that can process large quantities of data e) all of the above

Q: Explanations based on testing hypotheses derived from general laws is known as a) deductive-nomological (D-N) explanation b) hypothetico-deductive (H-D) explanation c) monocausal explanation d) multivariate explanation e) none of the above

Q: A state-level society is usually described as consisting of a) more than 20,000 people b) 5,000 to 20,000 people c) up to a few 100 people d) less than 100 people e) at least over 200,000 people

Q: A process of reasoning by which more specific consequences are inferred by rigorous argument from more general propositions or antecedent circumstances is known as a) induction b) deduction c) positivism d) systems thinking e) culture-historical approach

Q: The Classic Maya kings portrayed themselves as great guarantors of prosperity and stability, but during the critical 8th and 9th centuries leading up to the Maya collapse they were unable to deliver on these promises because of a) the superior technology of the conquering Spanish b) the degradation of an ecosystem already pushed beyond its limits by overpopulation c) the superior technology of the conquering Aztec d) their need to continue to provide human sacrifice victims e) the arrival of Quetzalcoatl from central Mexico who brought a new religious cult to the area

Q: ______________ is a theoretical approach developed by the "Frankfurt School" of German social thinkers. This approach stresses that all knowledge is historical, biased communication, and thus all claims to objective knowledge are illusory a) Structuration Theory b) Conjunctivist Theory c) Catastrophe Theory d) Critical Theory e) Scientism

Q: Stone monuments, often collective tombs, from Europe's Neolithic period are often referred to as a) megalithic b) chalcolithic c) megahenges d) stone-tied e) paleolithic

Q: Written records may supply an incomplete picture of the society that produced them because a) records written on perishable materials may not have survived over time b) only certain types of activity, such as business transactions, may have been recorded in writing c) not everyone in a society may have been able to read or write d) all of the above e) b and c only

Q: A good example of how social ranking can be seen in the archaeological record, careful analysis of over 3000 burials at the site of Moundville in Alabama showed that the higher a person's rank was a) the farther he or she would be buried from the mound b) the lower the quality of his or her associated grave goods c) the more likely it would be that he or she would have been mummified d) the closer he or she would be buried to the mounds e) the more likely he or she would display cranial modification

Q: It is harder to determine the sex of a child's skeleton than an adult's skeleton.

Q: A group claiming descent from a common ancestor is called a a) lineage b) polity c) ethnicity d) cult e) band

Q: Nearly all early claims for cannibalism in the past have been shown to be true.

Q: The ancient Maya are known to have intentionally and irreversibly deformed their children's skulls.

Q: A ranked society is a society the members of which have unequal access to status and prestige. An example of a ranked society is a) a segmentary society b) an early state c) a band d) a hunter-gatherer group e) all of the above

Q: Ancient fecal matter often contains evidence for parasites, but hunter-gatherers who lived in open country in temperate latitudes were frequently parasite free.

Q: The most obvious and conspicuous traces of Neolithic farmers in the Wessex area of Britain are a) long barrows b) village settlements c) early field systems d) a series of roads e) individual farmsteads

Q: Grave-goods associated with a burial can reveal a) information about the individual's rank b) information about the individual's social status c) information about the individual's personal thoughts d) all of the above e) a and b only

Q: A reliable chronology for the site of Moundville in Alabama was achieved through careful analysis of a) tooth enamel b) obsidian blades c) fossil pollen d) waterlogged plant remains e) pottery

Q: Much evidence for malnutrition in the past can be found in art and literature.

Q: The footprints discovered at Laetoli, Tanzania, by Mary Leakey and dated to about 3.6"3.75 million years ago suggest that the early hominins who made them could walk upright, but only in extreme situations and in a very different way than we do today.

Q: The grave goods associated with the Princess Vix burial from central France were surprising because a) they dated to a completely different time than the body b) they represented items usually only seen in male burials c) they were made of materials that could only have come from the Americas d) they were far less fine than items that normally accompany a princess e) they contained pollen from as far away as the Middle East

Q: Whether or not an earlier hominins walked upright may be determined from a number of fossilized skeletal remains, but paleoanthropologists require more than the skull.

Q: For archaeologists trying to understand social ranking, the individual burial of a child with rich burial goods and a well-built funerary monument would suggest that a) there may have been a system of hereditary ranking. b) there may have been an egalitarian system with no ranking c) the child had achieved a high social status through his or her own actions d) there was a high rate of infant mortality e) none of the above

Q: Despite advances in modern technology, it is impossible to extract any DNA evidence from Neanderthal remains: they are simply too old.

Q: Marija Gimbutas has argued that the ______________ of the European Neolithic and Copper Ages demonstrate the important status of women at that time a) epic poetry b) female figurines c) oversized hearths d) women warriors e) mosaic images