Deck 10: Bioarchaeological Approaches To The Past

Question 1

The first thing a bioarchaeologist would do when analyzing a human skeletal assemblage would be to:

A) confirm that all the bones in the assemblage were human.
B) calculate MNI and NISP.
C) determine the sex and age at death of the individuals represented.
D) determine any paleopathology present in the individuals represented.

Answer 1

confirm that all the bones in the assemblage were human.

Question 2

If an archaeologist is studying ancient patterns of disease and disorders, he or she is studying:

A) bioarchaeology.
B) paleopathology.
C) mortality profiles.
D) paleodemography.

Answer 2

paleopathology.

Question 3

If a bioarchaeologist finds evidence of osteoarthritis in which bones have developed a distinct "lipping" at the point of articulation, he or she has found:

A) osteophytes.
B) enamel hypoplasias.
C) eburnation.
D) Harris lines.

Answer 3

osteophytes.

Question 4

What could a bioarchaeologist look at to determine the age at death of a juvenile human skeleton?

A) Tooth eruption patterns
B) Patterns of bone fusion
C) Patterns of wear on the pubic symphysis
D) Tooth eruption and bone fusion patterns

Question 5

If a bioarchaeologist is looking at the fusion of epiphyses on a human skeleton, he or she is most likely trying to determine:

A) race.
B) age.
C) sex.
D) paleopathology.

Question 6

You are examining a burial site, and are interested in the diet of the people, in particular, how much meat people were consuming on a daily basis. What might you examine?

A) Quantity of groundstone in the burials
B) Levels of Nitrogen-15 relative to Nitrogen-14 in the bones
C) Size of muscle attachments on bones
D) Levels of Carbon-13 relative to Carbon 12 in the bones

Question 7

Eburnation is a:

A) symptom of iron deficiency anemia in which the skull takes on a porous appearance.
B) horizontal linear defect in tooth enamel indicating an episode of physiological stress.
C) sign of osteoarthritis in which the epiphyses of long bones are worn smooth, causing them to take on a varnish-like appearance.
D) sign of osteoarthritis in which bones develop a distinct "lipping" at the point of articulation.

Question 8

The best bone for determining stature from human skeletal material is the:

A) tibia.
B) femur.
C) ulna.
D) radius.

Question 9

The Stillwater burial population was not an ideal candidate for a paleodemographic study because:

A) the Stillwater burial population consisted almost entirely of adults; because children were not represented, little could be said about the paleodemography of the population.
B) paleodemography works best with skeletal samples derived from different biological populations, and the Stillwater burials represented only one biological population.
C) paleodemography works best with a skeletal sample representing only a few years or decades, and the Stillwater burials dated to a time period of 600 years or longer.
D) most of the individuals in the Stillwater burial population were older than 50 years old, and so younger adults were not represented.

Question 10

What can bioarchaeologists determine from enamel hypoplasias?

A) How old a child was when the growth arrest event took place.
B) The duration of the period of stress which resulted in the hypoplasia.
C) Whether they resulted from physical trauma to the face, parasitic infection, or malnutrition.
D) Both how old a child was when the growth arrest event took place and the duration of the period of stress which resulted in the hypoplasia.

Question 11

Which of the following is true of the Bushmen of southern Africa?

A) They reject the name "Bushmen" (which they acquired from the Dutch) today because of its derogatory origin and meaning.
B) They prefer to call themselves the San, !Kung, or Ju/'hoansi, indigenous names that refer to all Bushmen as a whole.
C) There is no indigenous term for the Bushmen as a whole, because there are many different groups of Bushmen.
D) They have been the subject of very little anthropological investigation, and as a result little is known of their culture and history.

Question 12

What could a bioarchaeologist look at to determine the age at death of a mature human skeleton (>30 years old)?

A) Tooth eruption patterns
B) Patterns of bone fusion
C) Paleopathologies such as osteoarthritis and enamel hypoplasias
D) Patterns of wear on the pubic symphysis

Question 13

The best place for a bioarchaeologist to look to determine the sex of human skeletal remains is the:

A) skull.
B) pelvis.
C) sacrum.
D) dentition.

Question 14

Which of the following is true of iron deficiency anemia?

A) It can be induced by a lack of red meat in the diet, chronic diarrhea, or parasites.
B) It can cause porotic hyperostosis, which results in the surface of the skull taking on a spongy appearance.
C) It can cause cibra orbitalia, which results in the bone of the upper eye sockets taking on a spongy appearance.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 15

How does the sciatic notch of females differ from that of males?

A) It is narrower in females and wider in males.
B) It is wider in females and narrower in males.
C) It is more sensitive to periods of physiological stress in females than in males.
D) It is more sensitive to mechanical stresses in females than in males.

Question 16

How is mechanical stress, or workload, detectable in the human skeleton?

A) Through signs of osteoarthritis in which the cartilage between joints wears away, often because of overuse of the joint
B) Through growth arrest features, such as Harris lines and enamel hypoplasias
C) Through mortality profiles that depict the various ages at death of a burial population
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 17

You are excavating a Native American human burial site which contains both males and females. After obtaining permission from current Native American tribes believed to have descended from these people, you analyze the bones. You notice a higher rate of osteoarthritis in the lumbar vertebrae of the female skeletons in comparison to the male skeletons. What might you conclude from this evidence?

A) Females were doing more intense walking than the males, traveling far distances to gather plants.
B) Females were putting more stress on their backs, perhaps from grinding corn or carrying children.
C) Females did not have access to the same amount of high quality food as males, and were thus suffering from malnutrition.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 18

Harris lines and dental hypoplasias can be used by bioarchaeologists to make inferences about

A) disease and malnourishment in old age.
B) activity levels and diet of men and women.
C) disease and malnourishment during infant-to-adolescent growth periods.
D) the amount of meat in the diet of prehistoric populations.

Question 19

Bioarchaeologists study:

A) macrobotanical remains from archaeological sites in order to interpret past interactions between human populations and plants.
B) faunal assemblages from archaeological sites in order to determine past interactions between human populations and animals.
C) the human biological component of the archaeological record.
D) All of the answers; bioarchaeologists study all aspects of ancient life (plant, animal, and human) in archaeological contexts.

Question 20

Why is it possible to assess age at death from tooth eruption patterns in juvenile human skeletons?

A) Because the pattern and timing of crown formation and tooth eruption is consistent among human populations.
B) Because although the timing of crown formation and tooth eruption varies among human populations, it varies at known rates.
C) It is only possible if the sex of the individual is also known, because tooth eruption patterns differ between males and females.
D) None of the answers are correct.

Question 21

Larsen was interested in how well the people of Stillwater Marsh lived because he wanted to

A) show how "brutish" hunters-gatherers were.
B) show that hunter-gatherers worked very hard.
C) show that the hunter-gatherers had barely enough food to eat.
D) use the skeletal data to provide a more objective assessment of foraging lifeways.

Question 22

Bioarchaeology is a specialty that straddles the fields of archaeology and human biology.

Question 23

Ancient cultural practices mix human skeletal remains together, making it difficult to group skeletal remains by individual. Some examples of this mentioned in the text include

A) bundle burials where the bodies were placed in a communal grave.
B) bodies laid out together in a charnal house to decompose.
C) bodies laid to rest in a river where the current scattered the remains.
D) both bundle burials where the bodies were placed in a communal grave and bodies laid out together in a charnal house to decompose.

Question 24

Archaeological research has conclusively proven which of the following about the earliest occupation of the New World?

A) Clovis was the first and only migration into North America, from which all native peoples of the New World descended.
B) The earliest occupants of the New World traveled from Asia, across the Bering land bridge, through the ice- free corridor between the continental ice sheets sometime during the height of the last glacial between 25,000 and 10,000 years ago.
C) The earliest occupants of the New World traveled along the western coast of North America, bypassing the interior and making it all the way to Tierra del Fuego; Clovis was a later migration from Asia adapted to terrestrial hunting and was the first to occupy the interior of North America.
D) None of the answers; the timing and nature of the initial colonization of the New World is still very much up in the air.

Question 25

If stable isotope analysis is conducted on a human skeleton that during life consumed a diet rich in C4 plants such as maize and very little meat, then the isotopic ratios of the bones would show a high ratio of:

A) 12C to 13C.
B) 13C to 12C.
C) 15N to 14N.
D) 13C to 15N.

Question 26

The "Out of Africa" hypothesis of modern human origins suggests that the earliest modern humans fanned out of Africa to replace other hominids in other parts of the Old World roughly:

A) 50,000 years ago.
B) 100,000 years ago.
C) 200,000 years ago.
D) 300,000 years ago.

Question 27

In the U.S. conducting research on American Indian remains is a sensitive issue and raises major ethical issues. Which of the following statements is true?

A) Some modern archaeologists believe we should stop analyzing human remains.
B) Many museums curate both Indian and non-Indian remains; the proportion of non-Indian skeletons outweighs the Native American skeletons.
C) Reburying non-Native American remains seems to be a disrespectful thing to do.
D) Archaeologists began curating Native American remains in museum collections very recently.

Question 28

Coprolites from the New World that are 12,000 or more calendar years old:

A) are some of the earliest evidence of a presence in North America.
B) are extremely rare.
C) suggest that the peopling of the Americas can be explained by only one migration of people from northeastern Asia.
D) are too poorly preserved to provide bioarchaeologists with any meaningful data.

Question 29

Iron deficiency leaves a distinctive spongy appearance on

A) eye orbits.
B) bone fusion.
C) the skull.
D) tooth enamel.

Question 30

Schoeninger interpreted the greater range of nitrogen isotope ratios in the Stillwater burial population compared to the Pecos or Ontario populations as reflecting:

A) greater dietary variability in the Pecos and Ontario populations than in the Stillwater population.
B) greater dietary variability in the Stillwater population than in the Pecos and Ontario populations
C) the fact that the Stillwater population had an increasing dependence on meat through time
D) an individual's age or sex; in the Stillwater population, children ate less meat than adults and males ate more meat than females.

Question 31

Studies of some of the skeletal data of Neanderthals have concluded:

A) they are different from modern Europeans.
B) there is continuity between Neanderthals and modern Europeans.
C) similarities with Native American populations.
D) modern human capabilities to use symbols

Question 32

An individual's age under 25 can be determined by

A) tooth eruption patterns.
B) tooth wear.
C) patterns of bone wear.
D) bone fusion.

Question 33

The idea that the origin of all modern humans can be traced to a single African ancestor ("Eve"):

A) is based on evidence from mitochondrial DNA.
B) is accepted by nearly all biological anthropologists today.
C) means that Neanderthals and modern humans most likely interbred.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 34

Studies of from various modern human populations have found:

A) living Native Americans are not related to northern Asia.
B) living Native Americans are descendants of a separate migratory wave from Europe.
C) living Native Americans are unlike Europeans, making an ancient migration from Europe as well as from Asia unlikely.
D) modern human populations are close knit.

Question 35

Bone breakage patterns would be good indicators of interpersonal violence and perhaps even warfare. Unfortunately, healed bone breaks are virtually indistinguishable from unbroken bone in prehistoric populations.

Question 36

Bioarchaeologists can distinguish male from female skeletons, but only for adults, not young children.

Question 37

Genetic material found in a cell's nucleus that is primarily responsible for an individual's inherited traits is called

A) gene.
B) mitochondrial DNA.
C) nuclear DNA.
D) molecular DNA.

Question 38

Which of the following is true of mitochondrial DNA?

A) It is present in the nucleus of every cell.
B) It is only transferred from mother to offspring.
C) It mutates at a much slower rate than nuclear DNA.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 39

Although we still have much to learn about the rates at which DNA mutates, current studies show that

A) the ratios of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone affect the DNA.
B) stature affects the rate.
C) DNA studies are important in reconstructing the past.
D) DNA studies will soon be obsolete.

Question 40

The Stillwater Marsh burial population had a remarkably low percentage of dental caries because:

A) grit from plant food ground on metates was incorporated into their diet; this grit acted as a natural abrasive and helped to clean their teeth.
B) they ate very little meat, largely subsisting on maize agriculture.
C) they were strictly hunter-gatherers, and so their diet was very low in simple carbohydrates and starches.
D) None of the answers; the Stillwater Marsh burial population had an extremely high percentage of dental caries because their diet was high in carbohydrates.

Question 41

Frequencies of dental caries (cavities) are expected to be higher in hunter-gatherer populations than in agricultural populations.

Question 42

Coprolites provide evidence for the earliest human presence in North America.

Question 43

Quality of life or overall health in a burial population can be assessed by an individual's stature because height is closely related to diet.

Question 44

Osteoarthritis can result from continuous mechanical stress on a joint throughout a lifetime.

Question 45

Human bone is formed by complex interrelationships among the environment, behavior, physiology, and cultural behavior.

Question 46

Biological anthropologists today agree that Neanderthals did not interbreed with modern humans and were instead an evolutionary dead end.

Question 47

You analyze the stable isotopes from an assemblage of human bones from Canada, and find a high ratio of Nitrogen-15 to Nitrogen-14 and a low ratio of Carbon-13 relative to Carbon-12. You should conclude that these people ate a lot of corn and very little meat.