Final Exam

Question 1

What are features?

Answer 1

Non-portable artifacts that cannot be removed from the ground without altering or destroying their original form. For example: hearths, pits, burials, etc.

Question 2

What is historical archaeology?

Answer 2

It begins with the beginning of written history in the region under investigation.

Question 3

What is prehistoric archaeology?

Answer 3

The study of the human past before historic records began.

Question 4

What is ethnographic analogy?

Answer 4

When we interpret some archaeological data by observing similar artifacts in use among living cultures.

Question 5

What is the overall goal of archaeology?

Answer 5

The reconstruction of past cultural systems.

Question 6

What are test pits?

Answer 6

An exploratory excavation made to establish the presence or absence of an archaeological site.

Question 7

What is the most important aspect of an archaeological dig?

Answer 7

Complete and accurate record keeping

Question 8

What is used to establish horizontal control at a site?

Answer 8

A grid system

Question 9

What is an artifact?

Answer 9

An object made or modified by humans

Question 10

What do historical archeologists focus on?

Answer 10

Immigrants who arrived in the past 500 years.

Question 11

What are the first steps in archaeological excavation?

Answer 11

Establish a datum and a grid pattern system

Question 12

What are middens?

Answer 12

Ancient trash piles

Question 13

Most artifacts that make up archeological records are?

Answer 13

Garbage

Question 14

What is the most common type of feature?

Answer 14

Pits

Question 15

What is created when the remnants of human activity are covered or buried by some natural process?

Answer 15

A site

Question 16

What allows archaeologists to recover a full range of artifacts and other material while only excavating a small portion of a site?

Answer 16

Sampling

Question 17

The “reading of the archaeological record is called

Answer 17

An analysis

Question 18

What refers to the relationship between and among artifacts and other materials?

Answer 18

Context

Question 19

What is culture?

Answer 19

The learned behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, values, and ideals that are characteristics of a particular society of population.

Question 20

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 20

The anthropological attitude that a society’s customs and ideas should be descried objectively and understood in the context of that society’s problems and opportunities

Question 21

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 21

The opinion that one’s own way of life is natural or correct and the only true way of being fully human

Question 22

An extended period during which the anthropologists gathers data is called what?

Answer 22

Fieldwork

Question 23

A society’s techniques for acquiring food resources is its what?

Answer 23

Subsistence pattern

Question 24

What is science?

Answer 24

A method of inquiry

Question 25

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 25

A proposed explanation for a natural phenomena

Question 26

A theory is always

Answer 26

Well supported by scientific testing.

Question 27

What is participant observation?

Answer 27

A unique research strategy of anthropologists which involves learning the language and culture of a group by participating in the group's daily activities.

Question 28

Why is the context of an artifact important?

Answer 28

context can reveal valuable information about the artifact's use, age, and relationship to other artifacts and features

Question 29

Which of the following is NOT a Hollywood stereotype of archaeologists?

Answer 29

Archaeoloist are trained professionals who try to reconstruct human behavior in the past

Question 30

Although most anthropologist agree on where Native Americans orginated, they disagree about?

Answer 30

When the population migrations actually took place

Question 31

The durable aspects of culture such as tools, structures, and art are known as

Answer 31

Material culture

Question 32

What is the purpose of a grid system?

Answer 32

to record the exact location of an artifact accurately, both horizontally and vertically

Question 33

Archaeologists get clues about how an artifact was used by?

Answer 33

Analyzing its shape and signs of wear and tear

Question 34

Which of the following is NOT true of science?

Answer 34

It always provides the right answer to a question

Question 35

It is essential that archaeoligists take abundant, accurate, and detailed field notes during excavations because:

Answer 35

Archaeology destroys data as it is gathered; once a site is excavated it cannot be re-excavated

Question 36

A test excavation would be most appropriate in which of the following situations?

Answer 36

When trying to determine a site's potential for answering a research question

Question 37

Why do archaeoloists use a datum point rather than simply measuring from the ground surface?

Answer 37

The datum point provvides a universal reference point that can be used across any archaeological site, allowing archaeologists to easily compare data between excavations.