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Archaeology
Q:
The delineation of patterns in material culture through time and space and the patterns of which are what the archaeologist will eventually try to explain or account for is referred to as
a. types.
b. context.
c. matrix.
d. space-time systematic.
Q:
Typology is/are
a. the systematic arrangement of material culture into types.
b. the catalogued artifacts in a museum.
c. another term for stone artifacts.
d. a form of conservation technique.
Q:
The novice's first job in the lab of an archaeological investigation is almost often
a. piecing together ceramics.
b. writing down minute number on artifacts or labels and entering the information into a database.
c. analyzing pollen or residues of blood, plants, or other materials.
d. reconstruction of skeletal remains.
Q:
Archaeology differs from ethnology in that archaeology
a. studies cultural evolution and culture change over a century or two.
b. can address the entire history of humanity.
c. deals with the space of continents or hemispheres.
d. can address the entire history of humanity and deals with the space of continents or hemispheres.
Q:
The following were concerns regarding the excavation and conservation of the Hunley:
a. The location of the Hunley was a mystery until a magnetometer was used to locate it.
b. The ship would have quickly corroded unless it was sprayed with water after it was raised.
c. Keeping the carbonate layer intact was critical to the preservation of the vessel.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Characteristics of the Mousterian culture include:
a. A culture from the Middle Paleolithic period.
b. Appeared throughout Europe between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago.
c. Mousterian artifacts are frequently associated with Neanderthal human remains.
d. Both A and C
Q:
Which of the following is known to be true of Shoshone pottery?
a. It appears suddenly in many parts of the Desert West at about AD 1300 and similar pottery is manufactured until about AD 1860.
b. The pottery was introduced by a migrating Shoshone population that replaced existing desert populations.
c. The shift to pottery manufacture by Shoshone people was a direct result of changing environmental conditions that made ceramic vessels more efficient.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Which of the following is true of the space-time systematics of North American archaeology?
a. Space-time systematics is still the main focus of archaeological research, as basic spatial and temporal changes in material culture remain undocumented for much of North America.
b. Space-time systematics has been largely worked out, and no longer preoccupies archaeology as it did in the first half of the 20th century.
c. Space-time systematics is not very useful for North American archaeology, because material culture remained unchanged for long periods of time in many places.
d. While space-time systematics has dominated European archaeology for the past century, its utility for North American archaeology is just now being recognized.
Q:
Why is an understanding of space-time systematics a crucial first step in understanding why people did what they did in the past?
a. Space-time systematics automatically explains why prehistory took the course that it did; in other words, explanatory hypotheses are built into space-time systematics.
b. Research questions generated by space-time systematics are easily answered because the necessary data have already been collected.
c. It is impossible to understand why cultures change without first documenting temporal and spatial change in artifact types.
d. All of the above.
Q:
If the frequencies of morphological types change significantly through time, and can be demonstrated to be restricted in time, the morphological types can be also be useful as:
a. Evidence of migration and subsequent population replacement.
b. Evidence of a shift in ancient peoples' "mental templates."
c. Temporal types.
d. Functional types.
Q:
Which of the following Great Basin projectile point series are arranged in the correct chronological order from youngest to oldest?
a. Desert Side-notched, Rosegate series, Elko Corner-notched, Gatecliff Contracting Stem.
b. Rosegate series, Elko Corner-notched, Gatecliff Contracting Stem, Cottonwood Triangular.
c. Gatecliff Contracting Stem, Elko Corner-notched, Desert Side-notched, Rosegate series.
d. Cottonwood Triangular, Elko Corner-notched, Rosegate series, Desert Side-notched.
Q:
Total length, axial length, maximum width, basal width, maximum thickness, midsection thickness, proximal shoulder angle, notch opening, and neck width are examples of projectile point:
a. Phases.
b. Components.
c. Attributes.
d. Types.
Q:
In discussing temporal types, the text mentioned Cottonwood Triangular projectile points, which are essentially un-notched Desert Side-notched points. Why were Cottonwood Triangular points left un-notched?
a. They were "war arrows", left un-notched so that they would remain in a body even after the shaft was pulled out.
b. They were unfinished, intended to be later notched.
c. They were made by novices or children who were not adept at notching points.
d. None or any of the above; we do not know for certain why they were left un-notched.
Q:
If you are excavating a culturally homogeneous stratum or set of strata within a single site, you are excavating a(n):
a. Component.
b. Assemblage.
c. Temporal type.
d. Period.
Q:
If you are analyzing a collection of artifacts of one or several classes of materials (stone tools, ceramics, bones) that comes from a defined context such as a site, feature, or stratum, you are analyzing a(n):
a. Component.
b. Assemblage.
c. Phase.
d. Period.
Q:
Which of the following is true of archaeological phases?
a. They are defined by temporal types.
b. They are blocks of time characterized by one or more distinctive artifact types.
c. They further divide and refine archaeological periods.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Archaeologists divide prehistory into periods based on:
a. The appearance of a new cultural group in the area of interest.
b. The appearance of trade goods and exotic raw material types that indicate interaction between groups.
c. Changes in a culture's ideology, as reflected in ceremonial items.
d. Changes in observable material culture, such as house form, pottery, or subsistence.
Q:
An archaeological culture:
a. Is the same thing as an ethnographic culture.
b. Is an accurate reflection of how prehistoric people viewed themselves.
c. Is a region within a culture area whose material culture differed from that of other regions.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Which of the following do we know to be true about Desert Side-notched points and Cottonwood Triangular points?
a. They both post-date AD 1300.
b. Desert Side-notched points were designed for hunting bighorn sheep, while Cottonwood Triangular points were designed for hunting rabbits.
c. Cottonwood Triangular points were unfinished, intended to be later notched, while Desert Side-notched points were already finished.
d. Each represents a different cultural group living side by side at Gatecliff.
Q:
The morphological projectile point types defined at Gatecliff became temporal types when:
a. Surface projectile point finds corresponded to point types found in stratified deposits.
b. A series of radiocarbon dates determined the geological sequence at Gatecliff, and time ranges could then be assigned to the projectile point types.
c. Dendrochronological dating assigned exact years to projectile point types.
d. Thermoluminescence dated the stratified deposits in which the different projectile points were discovered.
Q:
The typology of the French archaeologist Franois Bordes classified Mousterian tools into 63 types which occurred in set frequencies, creating four fundamental patterns. Bordes argued that these four patterns reflected four different cultural groups of Neandertals. Bordes' typology:
a. Assumed that the stone tools were in their final intended form, rather than in forms that resulted from resharpening.
b. Was completely wrong, illustrating how poorly constructed typologies can lead a researcher astray.
c. Has stood the test of time; different "tribes" of Neandertals are still thought to have been responsible for the different patterns of Mousterian artifacts.
d. Categorized morphological variation improperly; proper categorization would have resulted in a correct interpretation of the assemblages.
Q:
The "Frison Effect" explains the change in the shape of stone tools as a result of:
a. Different cultural groups occupying the same site at different times.
b. Different mental templates of different flintknappers within the same cultural group.
c. Tool resharpening.
d. Differences in stone tool typologies.
Q:
Which of the following measurements could provide useful information about an artifact's size?
a. Length.
b. Width.
c. Weight.
d. All of the above.
Q:
The number of attributes recorded during artifact analysis:
a. Is limited by the number of measurements possible, which is generally very few.
b. Is generally limited to those that are necessary to accomplish the purpose of the typology.
c. Is generally limited to those that provide an accurate description of artifact size, such as length, width, and thickness
d. Is generally as many as possible, so that future analysts will not have to re-examine the artifacts to obtain the data they need to answer different research questions.
Q:
If you are defining measurable or observable qualities or characteristics of an artifact that distinguish it from another on the basis of its size, surface texture, form, material, method of manufacture, or design pattern, you are defining:
a. The Frison Effect.
b. Projectile point types.
c. Components.
d. Attributes.
Q:
The goal of the Gatecliff projectile point typology was:
a. To distinguish between arrow and dart points (in other words, to determine functional differences).
b. To determine differences in the frequencies of raw material types used in projectile point manufacture through time.
c. To define temporal types that could then be used to estimate the age of surface assemblages.
d. None of the above; the Gatecliff typology had no goal and illustrates the problems inherent in typologies that are not associated with particular research questions.
Q:
A good typology will:
a. Minimize differences within each created type and maximize differences between each type.
b. Maximize differences within each created type and minimize differences between each type.
c. Result in abundant overlap between types.
d. Only be replicable by the archaeologist who created it.
Q:
If ceramic vessels are grouped together based on the fact they were all used as storage containers, in spite of the fact that design elements indicate they are from different time periods, then they have been grouped according to:
a. Functional type.
b. Morphological type.
c. Temporal type.
d. Space-time systematics.
Q:
You are excavating a site in the Great Basin and you find a stratum that contains only Elko points. This indicates to you that the stratum dates to a particular period. The Elko point, in this example, can be referred to as a(n):
a. Functional type.
b. Temporal type.
c. Seriated type.
d. Morphological type.
Q:
A descriptive and abstract grouping of individual artifacts whose focus is on overall similarity rather than function or chronological significance is a:
a. Temporal type.
b. Functional type.
c. Morphological type.
d. Stylistic type.
Q:
Which of the following is true of archaeological types?
a. Archaeological types are assigned with the goal in mind of classifying objects in the same way that prehistoric populations would have classified them.
b. Archaeological types are abstractions; the same object could be classified in many different ways.
c. The most useful archaeological types are based on similarities in morphology.
d. The most useful archaeological types are based on similarities in function.
Q:
A class of archaeological artifacts defined by a consistent clustering of characteristics is a(n):
a. Type.
b. Attribute.
c. Component.
d. Phase.
Q:
The classification of artifacts into types that organize and simplify artifact variability is termed:
a. Attribute analysis.
b. Typology.
c. Phase designation.
d. Component designation.
Q:
After excavation, recovered artifacts must be conserved. Conservation can involve:
a. A simple cleaning of the artifacts.
b. Stabilization of artifacts to prevent decomposition.
c. Reconstruction of artifacts, such as broken pottery vessels.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Historic archaeologists can use the length of old clay pipes to determine the age of a historic site.
Q:
Potassium-argon or argon-argon dating would be useful techniques for dating a volcanic formation containing hominid fossil remains.
Q:
Because different plants use different photosynthetic pathways that discriminate against carbon-13 in different ways, plants that are the same age can produce different radiocarbon ages.
Q:
A tree ring sequence developed in the southwestern United States would be equally as applicable in a region such as the Mediterranean.
Q:
The "battleship" shape that the text mentions when discussing seriation refers to changes in the "popularity" of a morphological type.
Q:
At an extremely old site (greater than 500,000 years), such as the older levels at Olduvai Gorge, the best type of dating technique to use would be Potassium-Argon or Argon"Argon.
Q:
You have excavated a site, but have recovered no organic remains. The only material recovered from the site is pottery. Using the Argon-Argon technique would be the best way to date the site.
Q:
If an archaeologist uses thermoluminescence to date stone tools that appear to have been burned, the date will indicate when the tools were last burned, but not necessarily how long ago the tools were made.
Q:
Radiocarbon dating is useful worldwide because the amount of atmospheric 14C has remained constant through time.
Q:
One strength of the AMS dating technique is that it requires a much smaller sample of organic material than needed in the standard radiocarbon technique.
Q:
The most effective technique to date organic material older than 75,000 years is radiocarbon dating.
Q:
While useful in geology, the index fossil concept has little archaeological utility.
Q:
We can expect that continual advances in dating methods
a. will permit a greater understanding of the chronology of the past.
b. will confuse scholars and lead to disputes among the academic community.
c. will help create new paradigms and new ways of understanding the past.
d. will permit a greater understanding of the chronology of the past, and create new paradigms and new ways of understanding the past.
Q:
Dating techniques tell us _____________ about cultural activities.
a. everything we need to know.
b. nothing directly.
c. nothing at all.
d. how to speculate.
Q:
When documentary evidence is not available, known ages of artifact types are generated to create age-range or median ages for historical features or sites using
a. TPQ.
b. mean ceramic age dates.
c. radiocarbon dates.
d. TPQ and mean ceramic age dates.
Q:
Argon-argon dates volcanic rock, especially ash, in layers that are _______________years old.
a. thousands.
b. tens of thousands.
c. hundreds of thousands.
d. millions.
Q:
Absolute dates are absolute in that they
a. can only say how much older or younger one site or artifact is than another.
b. places sites in relative order.
c. provides specific ages or age ranges.
d. cannot be disputed.
Q:
_______________ evidence usually provides dates for historical sites.
a. Geomorphological
b. Faunal
c. Documentary
d. Floral
Q:
Ichtucknee Blue on White ceramics were manufactured from AD 1600 to 1650. Excavating a historic site in Georgia, you find bits of broken Ichtucknee Blue on White plates. Therefore, you know that the terminus post quem date on this site is:
a. AD 1650.
b. AD 1625.
c. AD 1600.
d. sometime after AD 1650.
Q:
If the date of a historic site is undocumented, archaeologists might use which of the following techniques to provide a date?
a. Pipe stem dating.
b. Terminus post quem dating.
c. Radiocarbon dating
d. A and B
Q:
Electron spin resonance is a trapped charge dating method primarily used to date:
a. Bone organic matter.
b. Tooth enamel.
c. Volcanic ash.
d. The last time sediments were exposed to light.
Q:
A difference between optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and thermoluminescence (TL) is:
a. OSL dates the last time sediment was exposed to light, while TL dates the last time artifacts were heated.
b. OSL dates the last time artifacts were heated, while TL dates the last time sediment was exposed to light.
c. OSL relies on radiocarbon dating while TL is a trapped charge dating method.
d. OSL is a trapped charge dating method while TL relies on radiocarbon dating.
Q:
In trapped charge dating methods, the amount of gamma radiation emitted by sediments is measured by:
a. Optically stimulated luminescence.
b. Thermoluminescence.
c. A dosimeter.
d. Beta decay.
Q:
Which of the following is not a trapped charge dating method?
a. Accelerator mass spectrometry.
b. Thermoluminescence.
c. Optically stimulated luminescence.
d. Electron spin resonance.
Q:
Radiocarbon dating was able to determine that the Shroud of Turin:
a. Was a modern forgery, created sometime in the 20th century.
b. Dates to the time of Christ.
c. Dates to medieval times, between AD 1260 and 1390.
d. Was created long before the time of Christ, although the exact date is uncertain because it lies at the practical limit of radiocarbon dating.
Q:
Radiocarbon dating cannot reliably date anything older than about:
a. 25,000 years.
b. 45,000 years.
c. 125,000 years.
d. 245,000 years.
Q:
An advantage of the accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) method of radiocarbon dating is:
a. Although not as precise as standard dating methods that count beta decays, AMS dating is less subject to problems caused by atmospheric fluctuations in 14C.
b. AMS dating is much cheaper than standard dating methods that count beta decays.
c. AMS dating requires much smaller carbon samples than standard dating methods.
d. AMS dates are easier to calibrate than standard radiocarbon dates.
Q:
Plants that are of similar ages and that grew in the same soil could produce different radiocarbon ages due to:
a. Use of different photosynthetic pathways.
b. The reservoir effect.
c. De Vries effect.
d. Problems with calibrating the radiocarbon curve.
Q:
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:
a. Beta represents the Laboratory.
b. 3500 represents the years before present.
c. +/- 100 represents the standard error.
d. All of the above.
Q:
The radiocarbon date 2850 +/- 40 BP suggests that there is a 66% chance that the true age:
a. Lies between 2810 and 2890 BP.
b. Is 2830 BP.
c. Lies between 2810 and 2850 BP.
d. Lies between 2850 and 2890 BP.
Q:
Factors that can affect the utility of radiocarbon dating include:
a. Contamination (e.g., by coal).
b. Atmospheric fluctuations of 14C.
c. The length of time wood is useful after it dies ("old wood" problem).
d. All of the above.
Q:
Organisms that obtain carbon from a source that is depleted or enriched in 14C relative to the atmosphere may return ages that are considerably older or younger than they actually are. This is due to:
a. De Vries effect.
b. The reservoir effect.
c. The effect of different photosynthetic pathways.
d. Problems with calibrating the radiocarbon curve.
Q:
Which of the following dating techniques helps to bridge the dating gap between radiocarbon and potassium argon dating?
a. Thermoluminescence
b. AMS dating
c. Argon-argon.
d. None of the abovethere is no gap as radiocarbon and potassium-argon date the same age range of materials.
Q:
Which carbon isotope is the rarest?
a. 12C
b. 13C
c. 14C
d. None of the above; carbon isotopes exist in the same proportions.
Q:
The radiocarbon dating technique was discovered by:
a. Nels Nelson.
b. Oscar Montelius.
c. A. E. Douglas.
d. Willard Libby.
Q:
Which of the following dating methods provides the most precise date?
a. Potassium-argon.
b. Radiocarbon.
c. Dendrochronology.
d. Thermoluminescence.
Q:
What exactly does dendrochronology attempt to date?
a. The year wood was last burned.
b. The year that the tree was the healthiest, thus providing a signal of climatic amicability.
c. The year a tree was used in to build a structure.
d. The year a tree was cut or died.
Q:
A tree ring sequence is only useful in the region in which it was developed because:
a. Trees respond to climate and climate is regionally variable.
b. Researchers tend not to share their data with one another, and thus each area needs its own specialist.
c. Tree rings are partially conditioned by soil chemistry which can be highly variable over small distances.
d. In order to be useful, tree rings must be calibrated using radiocarbon dating, and calibration curves are regionally specific.
Q:
Tree ring dating is possible because:
a. Variable tree ring widths preserve information about past climatic change and can be fit into a long-term chronological sequence.
b. Tree rings can simply be counted and subtracted from the present to determine the calendar date of the tree's death.
c. All trees respond to climatic variability in the same way.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Trees have alternating dark and light rings. The dark rings are:
a. A year's late summer/fall growth.
b. A year's spring/summer growth.
c. A result of fire scarring.
d. A result of quick cell growth in climatically favorable conditions.
Q:
Who developed the technique of dendrochronology, or tree ring dating?
a. Nels Nelson.
b. Oscar Montelius.
c. A. E. Douglas.
d. Willard Libby.
Q:
When faced with a choice of wood to use in tree-ring dating, which of the following would yield the best results?
a. Cottonwood.
b. Sagebrush.
c. Pine.
d. All types of wood are equally useful, making tree-ring dating such a powerful tool.
Q:
Dendrochronology provides a(n) _________ measure of time, while the Law of Superposition allows for a(n) ________ measure of time.
a. Relative/absolute.
b. Calibrated/corrected.
c. Long-term/exact.
d. Absolute/relative.
Q:
Seriation diagrams resemble battleships because:
a. An artifact or style catches on slowly in the beginning, then becomes popular and widespread, and then gradually falls out of favor.
b. The popularity of an artifact or style tends to remain constant through time.
c. The popularity of an artifact or style fluctuates wildly through time, showing no particular pattern.
d. They follow a relative chronological sequence.
Q:
What was revolutionary about Nelson's 1914 excavation methodology at San Cristobal Pueblo in New Mexico?
a. Nelson was aware of the effect of screen mesh size on artifact recovery, and adjusted his screening methods accordingly.
b. Nelson used the newly discovered radiocarbon dating technique to provide an absolute date for the occupation of the pueblo.
c. Nelson was the first to use dendrochronology, and was able to obtain absolute dates for the construction of the pueblo.
d. Nelson excavated in arbitrary stratigraphic levels and developed a master ceramic sequence which allowed for chronological control through the index fossil method.
Q:
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?
a. Seriation.
b. Trapped charge dating
c. Relative dating.
d. The index fossil concept