Deck 2: Introducing Archaeology and Prehistory

Question 1

To archaeologists, collectors and treasure hunters are what?

A) a curse
B) a salvation
C) a fund-raising mechanism
D) the intellectual foundation

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Archaeological sites are what sort of resources?

A) infinite
B) finite
C) renewable
D) fictitious

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which subdiscipline of anthropology involves the study of human biological evolution and the variations among different living populations?

A) physical anthropology
B) cultural anthropology
C) linguistic anthropology
D) social anthropology

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which subdivision of anthropology studies and analyzes human social life, both past and present?

A) physical anthropology
B) cultural anthropology
C) linguistic anthropology
D) social anthropology

Question 5

Which subdivision of anthropology analyzes social organization?

A) physical anthropology
B) cultural anthropology
C) linguistic anthropology
D) social anthropology

Question 6

Which subdivision of anthropology studies human language, sometimes important to the study of the past?

A) physical anthropology
B) cultural anthropology
C) linguistic anthropology
D) social anthropology

Question 7

What field was developed through international effort and sponsored by UNESCO, to find archaeological sites in the vast area of the Nile Valley scheduled to be flooded by the Aswan in the 1960s?

A) cultural resource management
B) forensic archaeology
C) physical archaeology
D) salvage archaeology

Question 8

What field of archaeology is concerned with the management and assessment of the significance of cultural resources such as archaeological sites?

A) cultural resource management
B) forensic archaeology
C) physical archaeology
D) salvage archaeology

Question 9

What type of archaeological specialist studies food remains?

A) zooarchaeologist
B) paleoanthropologist
C) palynologist
D) paleoethnobotanist

Question 10

The discovery of Grotte de Chauvet demonstrates that Ice Age Europe

A) had a faunal inventory similar to Neolithic times.
B) contained animals that are now extinct.
C) was completely inhospitable to most humans.
D) was dominated by the Neanderthal.

Question 11

The area of pseudoarchaeology is demonstrated by all of the following EXCEPT

A) the search for Atlantis.
B) the Nazca lines and UFO landing sites.
C) the search for the origins of native North Americans.
D) the mystical powers of the Easter Island heads.

Question 12

Both geneticists and archaeologists suspect that modern humans originated in

A) Europe.
B) Asia.
C) North or South America.
D) tropical Africa.

Question 13

The Sumerians created a heroic past personified by what story of a legendary king who ruled before a mythic flood that frightened even the gods?

A) Torah
B) Bible
C) Old Testament
D) Epic of Gilgamesh

Question 14

The primary goal of archaeology in much of Africa is not to study archives and documents, but to learn from long-abandoned villages and rubbish heaps, the material remains of the past, which can be described as

A) fostering national identity.
B) creating oral history.
C) creating political identity.
D) providing national pride.

Question 15

Prehistory, the human past before written records, covers a span of time starting more than

A) 1 million years ago.
B) 2.5 million years ago.
C) 500,000 years ago.
D) 6,000 years ago.

Question 16

According to Regional Continuity Theory, humans

A) emerged out of Africa.
B) came from archaic populations in many different places.
C) began to leave Africa about 80,000 years ago.
D) developed the technology needed to survive subzero winter cold.

Question 17

By the end of the Ice Age, the earliest humans had NOT yet reached

A) Europe and Siberia.
B) Australia.
C) Alaska and the Americas.
D) the islands of the Pacific.

Question 18

According to the Recent Africa Origin Theory, 80,000 years ago Homo sapiens had already developed the ability to

A) reason logically.
B) cultivate plants for food.
C) use offshore navigational techniques.
D) govern a highly centralized urban society.

Question 19

What traditionally was the genus and species of the "upright man"?

A) Homo ergastes
B) Homo erectus
C) Homo heidelbergensis
D) Homo sapiens

Question 20

Modern-day causes of vanishing archaeological sites include

A) academic research.
B) government and private business.
C) industrial development.
D) cultural resource management.

Question 21

Define oral traditions. Why are they so hard to use scientifically?

Question 22

Discuss why archaeologists document the ways in which humanity adapted itself to the many and diverse environments of the globe.

Question 23

Tourism has a huge impact on archaeological sites, some very famous. Discuss what should be done to protect these famous sites?

Question 24

List and describe at least four different types of archaeologists.

Question 25

Explain how archaeology a subdiscipline of anthropology.