Deck 8: Mounds and Maize

Question 1

How did the Formative period compare with the preceding Archaic period?

Answer 1

The widespread introduction of pottery into the American Southwest around 1,800 years ago marks the beginning of the Formative period. By this time pithouses are common across the region, as are communal structures. Regional variation in the impact of maize agriculture continues, however, based on local ecology.

Question 2

How did agriculture develop in eastern North America?

Answer 2

The development of agriculture involved both the domestication of a wide range of local plants and the adoption of maize. The initial domestication took place during the Eastern Archaic period. The intensification of agriculture and the first appearance of maize occurred during the Early and Middle Woodland periods. Intensive maize agriculture and larger settled villages became established only at the beginning of the Late Woodland period.

Question 3

When does maize become a major component of the diet in eastern North America?

A) at the beginning of the Woodland Period
B) after the Woodland Period
C) during the Middle Woodland Period
D) at the beginning of the Late Woodland Period

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Archaeologists have used __________ on skeletal material to determine the role of maize in the diet.

A) macro analysis
B) isotope analysis
C) electron spin analysis
D) radiocarbon analysis

Question 5

The Newark Earthworks in Ohio is attributed to the __________ culture.

A) Ohioan
B) Mississippian
C) Adena
D) Hopewell

Question 6

According to this model, the Hopewell culture earthworks served as the symbolic and ceremonial core of a dispersed settlement pattern.

A) agency theory
B) vacant center pattern
C) central place theory
D) optimal foraging theory

Question 7

Elaborate burial mounds found in Ohio dating to the Woodland Period can be related to the __________ culture.

A) Late Prehistoric
B) Hopewell
C) Mississippian
D) Poverty Point

Question 8

One source of evidence of the diet of past cultures is the study of fecal remains, also known as __________.

A) coprolites
B) fulgerites
C) isotope analysis
D) crotovina

Question 9

Which of these statements best applies Hayden's model to the function of Poverty Point?

A) It was a defensive bulwark against invasion from the West.
B) It was the first urban center along the Gulf Coast.
C) It was the administrative center for the Archaic in the Lower Mississippi Valley.
D) It was the focal point of feasting events, servicing the local region.

Question 10

This Late Archaic site in Louisiana is characterized by a series of six concentric mounds.

A) Stalling Island
B) Poverty Point
C) Indian Knoll
D) Adena

Question 11

The earliest crude ceramic vessels first appeared in eastern North America in the __________ culture.

A) Green River
B) Weeden Island
C) Stalling Island
D) Adena

Question 12

Describe the physical layout of the Poverty Point site.

Question 13

Describe the Adena and Hopewell cultures.

Question 14

How has isotope analysis helped archaeologists to understand past diet, especially in regard to the adoption of maize?

Question 15

What is the advantage of accelerator mass spectrometry over conventional radiocarbon dating?

Question 16

What is the significance of the site of Cerro Juanaqueña?

Question 17

How has gender bias affected archaeologists' interpretation of the process of domestication?

Question 18

How have Adena and Hopewell mound sites, and the people who made them, been interpreted through time?

Question 19

Describe the site of Poverty Point, including its layout and possible function.

Question 20

What was the impact of maize agriculture on the peoples of the southwestern United States?

Question 21

Discuss the process of the domestication of plants in highland Mesoamerica.

Question 22

How did the adoption of maize farming vary across America?

Question 23

How does Guy Prentice introduce the concept of agency into the process of plant domestication?

Question 24

Though Early and Middle Woodland subsistence was based heavily on cultivated plants, __________ is rare and does not appear to have played a major role in the Woodland diet.

A) maize
B) beans
C) squash
D) wheat

Question 25

The widespread use of pottery in the American Southwest around 1,800 years ago marks the beginning of what period?

A) Archaic
B) Early neolithic
C) Early Woodland
D) Formative

Question 26

Like the mounds, Hopewell domestic settlements are numerous and are easily found by archaeologists.

Question 27

The Adena and Hopewell were periods of intensive mound building in the Oaxaca Valley.

Question 28

Poverty Point is a mound site built by the Adena culture.

Question 29

Shell middens are sites built up of discarded shells.

Question 30

At both Shabik'eschee Village and the SU site, unusual structures were found that appear to have played a communal function.

Question 31

The widespread introduction of pottery into the Southwest happened at the beginning of the Formative period.

Question 32

Optimal foraging theory is based on the assumption that choices people make reflect altruistic impulses to benefit others.

Question 33

Cerro Juanaqueña has produced the earliest evidence of domesticated plants in the Americas.

Question 34

AMS radiocarbon dating makes it possible to date very small samples.

Question 35

Guilá Naquitz is an early agricultural site in Arizona with canal-irrigated fields.

Question 36

The mounds in the Ohio River Valley were built by a lost race known as the Moundbuilders.

Question 37

Isotope analysis of bone chemistry can determine the role of maize in the diet.

Question 38

Bruce Smith views domestication as the result of intentional actions of individuals, most likely shamans.

Question 39

Which of the following sites used canals to irrigate their fields?

A) Las Capas
B) Cerro Juanaqueña
C) Milagro
D) Poverty Point

Question 40

__________ is based on the assumption that humans act on the basis of rational self-interest in collecting resources.

A) Simple hunting and gathering
B) Optimal foraging theory
C) Agency theory
D) Systems theory

Question 41

Which of these was the only animal domesticated in Mesoamerica?

A) sheep
B) goats
C) turkeys
D) pigs

Question 42

What early agricultural site has over eight kilometers of stone terrace walls?

A) Cerro Juanaqueña
B) Guilá Naquitz
C) Poverty Point
D) Milagro

Question 43

The earliest domesticated plant in the Americas is __________, which dates to between 10,000 and 8,300 years ago.

A) squash
B) maize
C) chenopodium
D) beans

Question 44

What refinement of radiocarbon dating makes it possible to date very small samples?

A) optically stimulated luminescence
B) obsidian hydration
C) accelerator mass spectrometry
D) electron spin resonance

Question 45

Which of these is an early domesticated plant in Mesoamerica?

A) tomatoes
B) squash
C) rhubarb
D) cabbage

Question 46

Excavations at __________ have produced the earliest evidence of domesticated plants in the Americas.

A) Poverty Point
B) Guilá Naquitz
C) Las Capas
D) Milagro

Question 47

This wild grass found in the Mexican highlands is the ancestor of maize.

A) Curcubita pepo
B) marsh elder
C) teosinte
D) chenopodium

Question 48

The impact of the adoption of agriculture on societies in Mexico, the Southwest, and the eastern United States was remarkably similar across time and space.

Question 49

Teosinte, found in the highlands of Mexico, is the wild ancestor of squash.