Final Exam

Question 1

CCC Camp

What’s the history of the CCC Camp in Pertle Springs?

Answer 1

Civilian Conservation Camp
Authorized in Spring of 1933 as one of the first federal relief programs during the Great Depression
Administrated through the departments of Labor, Agriculture, Interior, and War.
Served in soil conservation, forestry, and construction of parks.
Unemployed men from ages 18 to 25 were organized into companies to help preserve natural resources.

Question 2

CCC Camp

When were veterans allowed to be part of the CCC? And how many joined?

Answer 2

May 11, 1933 opportunity extended to veterans, 225,000 of whom joined.

Question 3

Chapter 1

Pedestrian Survey

Answer 3

A walkover of the area that you are working in. Looking for above-ground evidence of historical uses of the area.

Basically, being observant of what’s on the surface.

Question 4

Chapter 1

Topographic Map

Answer 4

A detailed map made by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) that includes scale, contour lines, and latitude and longitude measurements, among many other features.

Question 5

Chapter 1

Spatial Context

Answer 5

The relationship between a person or sensor’s location, activity, and other contextual information, such as time of day and proximity to other people or objects.

Question 6

Chapter 1

How is our work like the excavations in figure 1.15 and 1.14?

Answer 6

It’s very similar in the procedure that it occuring. In figure 1.14, they have the test site set up, buckets to fill with dirt, and people sifting through using dirt screens.
In figure 1.15, they are measuring a quartz knife with measuring tape, exactly how we measured objects within our own test sites.

Question 7

Chapter 1

Why does Feder say that “finding stuff” is not the goal of archaeology?

Answer 7

The message he wants to get across is about understanding the past, not finding stuff that is from said past. The true goal of archaeology is about understanding the human past, and this can be done even without finding anything. In the end, it’s about what we gain, not what we find.

Question 8

Chapter 2

What is archaeology?

Answer 8

The study of the human past, where we do research and excavate sites of the past to better understand ourselves and where we have come from.

Question 9

Chapter 2

How does Feder explain archaeology as science?

Answer 9

He explains it is us seeing what evidence we have, see patterns or corralations, and make unbiased obsvervations of what we have found.

Question 10

Chapter 2

Why is ownership of the past an issue?

Answer 10

Because people today could be decendents of people who used to live there or used it. They could make claims of ownership, then others could make other claims for other reasons. Quickly, it can become a messy issue of who actually owns it.

Question 11

Chapter 3

Culture History

Answer 11

How a culture evolves through time. Involves the aggregate of past cultural activity, such as ceremony, class in practices, and the interaction with locales.

Question 12

Chapter 3

Cultural Ecology

Answer 12

The study of the adaptation of human societies or populations to their environments.

Question 13

Chapter 3

How and why can someone analyze modern garbage?

Answer 13

With the person’s consent, there is a comprehensible relationship betwene human behavior and the objects they made, used, and discarded. What they threw away could say a lot about them.

Question 14

Chapter 4

What is an Environmental Impact Statement?

Answer 14

Provides a detailed analysis of the possible negative impacts of a project on historical resources within or adjacent to the project area.

Question 15

Chapter 4

What are cultural resources?

Answer 15

Physical evidence of past human activity.

Question 16

Chapter 4

What are the difficulties of fieldwork that Feder discusses that you also have faced?

Answer 16

I have only had to face the risk of poison ivy, the heat and sunburns, and the occassional tick bite, but nothing life threatening.

Question 17

Chapter 5

What is an archaeolgoical site?

Answer 17

A place where people once lived or worked or where they carried out specific tasks.

Question 18

Chapter 5

What’s the difference between behavioral and archaeological contexts?

Answer 18

Behavioral context: Reflects how ancient peoples perceived and used places.
Arachaeological context: Represents the behavioral context of a group of people.

Question 19

Chapter 5

Artifacts, ecofacts, and features

Answer 19

Artifacts: Things people made and used and that have by various processes become part of the archaeological record.
Ecofacts: Environmental elements that become part of the archaeological record as a result of human activity generally reflecting their use without substantial or goal-oriented modification.
Features: An accumulation of material at a particular place and, therefore, represents a different level of analysis than an artifact or ecofact.

Question 20

Chapter 5

How is our CCC site becoming buried?

Answer 20

I believe that dirt and other loose material covers up what foundations are left once they are abandoned. From the lack of maintance, the structures slowly fell apart and were either buried or swept away downhill.

Question 21

Chapter 6

Settlement Pattern

Answer 21

The pattern of use of a landscape (ex. geological locations of cities, farms, etc.)

Question 22

Chapter 6

Geographic Information systems (GIS)

Answer 22

An analytical tool useful in the examination and interpretation of spatially distributed information through the production of maps that convey the nature of the relationships among sets of spatially distributed data.

Question 23

Chapter 6

Shovel test pits

Answer 23

Low-tech method most archaeologists use to find buried archaeological remains.

Question 24

Chapter 6

Transect

Answer 24

To cover a broad area, test pits are often placed along a straight line, or transect.

Question 25

# Chapter 6 Visibility

Answer 25

How visible something is. Time can make visibility low because of environment or a thing.

Question 26

# Chapter 6 How can archaeologists probe the subsurface without excavating?

Answer 26

By sticking objects into the ground (such as a long piece of metal) to see if it hits anything below the surface. Ground penetrating radar can also provide insight into what lies below. It really depends on what obstacles are in your way.

Question 27

# Chapter 7 Why are trowels important?

Answer 27

It's an effective tool for scraping soil from the surface of an excavation unit in thin slices and also for smoothing and straightening the vertical walls of the unit. It's also good for breaking down the soil if it's too compact.

Question 28

# Chapter 7 How do archaeologists keep track of provenience of artifacts?

Answer 28

They make a map of the unit by measuring the artifacts and locations within the site. Thus, pinpointing exactly where they are on the newly made map.

Question 29

# Chapter 8 What is the National Register of Historic Places?

Answer 29

The official list of our country's historic buildings, districts, sites, structures, and objects worthy of preservation.

Question 30

# Chapter 8 Relative vs. Absolute dating, what's the difference?

Answer 30

Relative: Artifacts or sites are placed in chronological order or sequence with specific age assignment. Absolute: The assignment of an exact date to an artifact or site.

Question 31

# Chapter 8 Stratigraphy

Answer 31

The analysis of the order and position of layers of archaeological remains.

Question 32

# Chapter 8 Dendrochronology

Answer 32

The science or technique of dating events, environmental change, and archaeological artifacts by using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber and tree trunks.

Question 33

# Chapter 8 Radiocarbon dating

Answer 33

uses the decay of a radioactive isotope of carbon 14 to measure time and date objects containing carbon-bearing material.

Question 34

# Chapter 9 What is environmental determinism, and are archaeologists in favor of it?

Answer 34

The belief that the environment, specifically its physical factors such as climate, determines the patterns of human culture and societal development. Basically, archaeologists don't because we have so much evidence of civilazations surviving in the most dangerous places on earth, where climate change was not a factor in their evolution. Thus, there ideas tend to fall apart quite quickly.

Question 35

# Chapter 9 How do archaeologists model past environments with animal remains, pollen, and wood?

Answer 35

If archaeologists can put a date on these three objects, then they can determine the climate of that area in the past. (For example, a location today could be a desert, but with what animal bones and wood found there could point to it once being a jungle in the past).

Question 36

# Chapter 10 What is experimental archaeology?

Answer 36

Learning about how people did things in the past by trying to replicate them ourselves.

Question 37

# Chapter 10 How does experiemental archaeology relate to how people of the past made and used tools or created monuments?

Answer 37

They made tools through trial and error by finding the best materials in their area. Through diffusion, they recieved ideas from other cultures for tools or monuments.

Question 38

# Chapter 10 What is neutron activation analysis, and why do archaeologists use it?

Answer 38

Can detect the presence of a wide range of substances down to extremely small amounts, measured in "part per million" and even "parts per billion". Archaeolgists can use this to point to potential deposits or locations they used to get the material.

Question 39

# Chapter 11 What is zooarchaeology?

Answer 39

Focuses on the analysis of animal remains from archaeological contexts. To determine how animals fit into human economic and ecological strategies.

Question 40

# Chapter 11 How do archaeologists find out what plant foods a society had?

Answer 40

It's based on what material culture was left behind. For example, it can depend on what hunting equipment is found, evidence of preservation, and storage, among others.

Question 41

# Chapter 11 What is flotation?

Answer 41

One of the archaeobotanical sampling techniques used on site to investigate ancient plant remains.

Question 42

# Chapter 11 How can ecofacts reveal season of occupation?

Answer 42

Having prior knowledge of seasonal plants and animals of that area can help determine the times of occupation. It can be used to prove time of occupation but not when there was no occupation.

Question 43

# Chapter 12 How is ethnicity revealed in the archaeological record?

Answer 43

They can determine it by 1. Understanding the culture of the area that you're studying 2. Examining the material remains and their style choices.

Question 44

# Chapter 13 What can experts learn from human remains?

Answer 44

Many things can be learned from human remains: Life history, group patterns, condition before death, diet, and many more. Many things can be learned from no words.

Question 45

# Chapter 13 Why is the excavation and study of human remains so controversial?

Answer 45

Some people consider that taking the skeleton out of its grave is a lack of respect of the person and of his/her religious beliefs.

Question 46

# Chapter 14 What does Feder tell us about the Wood Lily site?

Answer 46

It is a site that's deep in the woods. Reflects the same mix of animal species as southern New England, especially oak, maple, kickory, pine, and birch. Consists of a large deer population, but no faunal remains due to high acidity and dense bug population.

Question 47

# Chapter 14 What can we say about the Pertle Springs CCC camp similarly to Wood Lily?

Answer 47

The CCC camp is also in dense woods, with a large deer population. A large bug population is also present, especially ticks. The CCC camp also has oak trees but also bald cypress trees.