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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
Q:
If you were interested in examining trends in pottery style change through time which of the following methods would you use?
a. Seriation.
b. Reverse stratigraphy.
c. Potassium-argon dating.
d. Argon-argon dating.
Q:
Seriation differs from the index fossil concept in that:
a. Instead of relying on the presence or absence of distinctive kinds of artifacts, it relies on changes in the frequencies of artifacts or styles.
b. Instead of relying on changes in the frequencies of artifacts or styles, it relies on the presence or absence of distinctive kinds of artifacts.
c. Seriation applies only to pottery styles, while the index fossil concept can apply to all artifact facts.
d. None of the above; seriation is the same thing as the index fossil concept.
Q:
A relative dating method that orders artifacts based on the assumption that one cultural style slowly replaces an earlier style over time is:
a. Dendrochronology.
b. The index fossil concept.
c. Seriation.
d. The Law of Superposition.
Q:
The index fossil concept was introduced to archaeology by:
a. Oscar Montelius.
b. A. E. Douglas.
c. Willard Libby.
d. Jeffrey Dean.
Q:
The index fossil concept:
a. Allows widely separated strata to be correlated and assigned to the same time period if they contain the same fossils.
b. Is the idea that strata containing similar fossil assemblages are of similar ages.
c. Enables archaeologists to characterize and date strata within sites using distinctive artifact forms that research shows to be diagnostic of a particular period of time.
d. All of the above.
Q:
A relative date is:
a. A date expressed as a specific unit of scientific measurement, such as days, years, centuries, or millennia.
b. A date expressed relative to another (e.g., earlier, later, more recent, etc.) rather than in absolute terms.
c. A date based on the occurrence of distinctive fossil assemblages in distinct strata.
d. No longer useful for archaeology; absolute dates are necessary in order to provide a meaningful interpretation of an assemblage.
Q:
Mary and Louis Leaky were famous historic archaeologists who worked in East Africa.
Q:
The "Law of Superposition" is also known as "Steno's Law".
Q:
Geoarchaeology is the geological study of landforms and landscapes, for instance, soils, rivers, hills, sand dunes, deltas, glacial deposits, and marshes.
Q:
Artifacts leave the systemic context and enter the archaeological context through
a. loss.
b. discard
c. animals.
d. loss and discard.
Q:
In most sites, stratigraphy results from a complex interplay between
a. animals and people.
b. people and water.
c. nature and societies.
d. climate and societies.
Q:
The example of pithouse construction
a. upholds the law of superposition.
b. indicates that the law of superposition does not apply.
c. indicates archaeological sites can be frozen in time.
d. is not valuable to a discussion of geomorphology.
Q:
Ice core records tell us all of the following except:
a. that the last 10,000 years have been cooler than the past 100,000 years.
b. that the last 100,000 years have warm.
c. that the last 10,000 years have been the warmest time of the past 100,000 years.
d. that the last 10,000 years have not been stable.
Q:
Soils are developmental sequences, distinctive layers that develop in place. B horizon refers to
a. the topsoil layer where organic material and rock undergo chemical and mechanical decomposition.
b. the layer where clays accumulate as rainfall and snowmelt transport them downward.
c. a mineral horizon consisting of parent material.
d. the cultural layer between the topsoil and mineral horizon.
Q:
Sediments deposited primarily through the action of gravity on geological material lying on hillsides are called
a. eolian sediments.
b. marker beds.
c. colluvial sediments.
d. soil.
Q:
The benefit of marker beds is that
a. they can provide clues to the age of sites with new sediments.
b. they can provide clues to the age of sediments in a new site.
c. they can be used to estimate the date of human materials.
d. they are easily transported back to the laboratory for analysis.
Q:
Eolian sediments refer to
a. materials transported and accumulated by water.
b. materials transported and accumulated by geological movements of the earth.
c. materials transported by wind.
d. materials transported by humans.
Q:
In Gatecliff's master stratigraphy there are 16 living surfaces resulting from
a. human activities.
b. natural flood deposition.
c. geological origin.
d. alluvial sediments.
Q:
The law of superposition gives us the information that the "story" of the past
a. begins at the surface, with succeeding "chapters" lying below.
b. begins at the bottom, with succeeding "chapters" lying above.
c. cannot be read merely from the strata of the earth.
d. is interpreted only through the patient work of the archaeologist.
Q:
What information do ice cores taken from several places in the world indicate?
a. The last 10,000 years have been the warmest time on the earth out of the last 100,000.
b. The climate over the last 10,000 years has been surprisingly stable.
c. Both A and B.
d. Global temperatures have decreased significantly in the last 100 years.
Q:
How could an archaeologist tell if flowing water rather than human behavior was responsible for the deposition of artifacts at an archaeological site?
a. Artifacts and unmodified rocks might be imbricated.
b. Artifacts and unmodified rocks might be oriented to the direction of flow.
c. Both A and B.
d. There is no way to tell, and therefore the artifact assemblage is likely to be misinterpreted.
Q:
Imbrication is a process that results in:
a. An extremely well-preserved archaeological record that directly reflects human behavior.
b. Clay-rich soils pushing artifacts upward as the sediment swells and then moves them down as cracks form during dry cycles.
c. Stones in a riverbed lying with their upstream ends slightly higher than their downstream ends.
d. Stones in a riverbed lying with their upstream ends slightly lower than their downstream ends.
Q:
An example of a formation process in the archaeological context is:
a. Reclamation of an artifact.
b. Disturbance of material within a site by earthworm activity.
c. Reuse of an artifact.
d. Construction of a pithouse.
Q:
An artifact discarded or lost by an earlier population and picked up and reused by a later population is an example of:
a. A reuse process.
b. A reclamation process.
c. A cultural disturbance process.
d. Argilliturbation.
Q:
Cryoturbation results in:
a. Larger artifacts being pushed to the surface of a site.
b. Vertically size-sorted artifacts.
c. The long axis of buried artifacts being oriented vertically.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Which of the following is the term for a natural formation process in which freeze/thaw activity in a soil selectively pushes larger artifacts to the surface of site?
a. Cryoturbation.
b. Argilliturbation.
c. Graviturbation.
d. Imbrication.
Q:
An example of a formation process is:
a. Artifact discard, loss, or purposeful burial.
b. Artifact reuse or recycling.
c. Natural disturbance processes, such as floral- and faunalturbation.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Which of the following formation processes could result in reverse stratigraphy?
a. Faunalturbation.
b. Floralturbation.
c. Cryoturbation.
d. All of the above.
Q:
Formation processes are:
a. Processes by which cultural evolution is recognized in the archaeological record.
b. The ways in which natural depositional processes operate to produce the archaeological record.
c. The ways in which both human behaviors and natural actions operate to produce the archaeological record.
d. Processes by which artifacts are transferred from systemic to archaeological contexts.