Deck 9: Cognitive Archaeology

Question 1

The study of material remains to understand how people thought in the past is what type of archaeology?

A)linguistic
B)cognitive
C)Prehistoric
D)investigative
E)reflexive

Answer 1

cognitive

Question 2

The term __________art is used for engravings and carvings on small objects of stone,bone,antler,and ivory of the Ice Age

A)parietal
B)mural
C)mobiliary
D)iconic
E)referential

Answer 2

mobiliary

Question 3

The study of artifacts and other material indicators of patterned actions that reflect religious beliefs is known as

A)the archaeology of cult
B)geoarchaeology
C)the archaeology of the mind
D)spiritual archaeology
E)none of the above

Answer 3

the archaeology of cult

Question 4

A good example of a symbol is

A)money
B)a soldier's badge
C)a scale weight
D)a depiction of an animal painted on a cave wall
E)all of the above

Question 5

The study of artistic representations,often with an overt religious or ceremonial significance,is known as

A)art history
B)semiotics
C)iconography
D)cognitive studies
E)cultural mapping

Question 6

The earliest well-dated example of _____________ is a piece of incised red ochre from Blombos Cave,South Africa,dated to 77,000 years ago

A)trade
B)medicine
C)money
D)weight measurement
E)art

Question 7

The ancient Greeks used _______,or broken fragments of pottery,as ballots or voting tickets

A)ostraka
B)osteons
C)bronze plaques
D)papyrus
E)bronze charms

Question 8

One way of investigating cognitive behavior in early hominins is to consider planning time,which is defined as

A)the time it takes carefully to develop an archaeological research plan
B)the time between the development of tools and the development of language
C)the time it takes for a raw material to be converted into a commodity
D)the time between the planning of an act and its execution
E)all of the above.

Question 9

At the site of Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley,a series of carefully worked cubes of colored stone is recognized as a system of weights.This discovery allows us to infer that

A)they had developed a concept equivalent to our own about weight
B)there was a system of numeration involving hierarchical numerical categories
C)the weight system was probably used for practical purposes
D)all of the above
E)none of the above

Question 10

Some archaeologists maintain that in the human mind there exists an interpretive framework of the world that affects actions and decisions as well as knowledge.This is known as a/the

A)interpretive lens
B)cognitive map
C)cognitive filter
D)deductive map
E)inferential frame

Question 11

By studying the animal figures in Paleolithic cave art,André Leroi-Gourhan argued that the most common representations were of

A)humans and cave bears
B)horses and bison
C)mammoths and bears
D)humans and horses
E)none of the above

Question 12

Some archaeologists believe that an effective language was developed alongside the first chopper tools around 2 million years ago by which human ancestor?

A)Homo erectus
B)Homo sapiens
C)Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
D)Homo habilis
E)Australopithecus

Question 13

Symbolizing faculties that were present in early human include all of the following except

A)the deliberate burial of human remains
B)conscious design in tool manufacture
C)the development of language
D)creation of representational art
E)all of these faculties existed in early humans

Question 14

The act of burial of human remains implies at least

A)ancestor worship
B)a belief in a superior being
C)a desire to preserve the body for as long as possible
D)some kind of respect or feeling for the deceased
E)all of the above

Question 15

Humankind's ability to use __________ is generally agreed to be what most clearly distinguishes our species from other animals

A)currency
B)our thumbs
C)symbols
D)technology
E)none of the above

Question 16

Paleolithic cave art,concentrated in the caves of western Europe (particularly in southwest France and northern Spain),is thought to date approximately to

A)100,000-70,000 bc
B)80,000-60,000 bc
C)30,000-10,000 bc
D)8,000-5,000 bc
E)none of the above

Question 17

The site of Chavín de Huantar in the Peruvian Andes flourished 850 to 200 bc.This site is thought to represent a ceremonial center because of evidence found there including

A)a cache of over 500 broken high-quality pots containing food
B)finely carved stone sculptures,primarily of jaguars,eagles,snakes,and caimans
C)iconographic evidence for drug-induced rituals
D)canals beneath the site that could have been used for ritual cleansing
E)all of the above

Question 18

The type of information carved on stone or bronze by the people of Classical Greece includes

A)tax lists
B)contracts and payments
C)public decrees
D)curses
E)all of the above

Question 19

Much of the portable art from the Ice Age is of animals,but the most famous pieces are the so-called _____________,such as the example from Willendorf,Austria

A)fertility figurines
B)Venus figurines
C)birthing figurines
D)grotesque figurines
E)action figurines

Question 20

The term cave art,also known as_________ art,designates art found on the walls of caves and rockshelters,or on very large stone blocks

A)parietal
B)referential
C)mobiliary
D)iconic
E)vertical

Question 21

Paleolithic cave art is made in a variety of ways,including simple finger tracings,hand stencils and painting in several colors.

Question 22

Evidence of "deities" has been found at the sanctuary of Göbekli Tepe and thus it is unlikely that the site was a shrine for ancestor veneration.

Question 23

The development of units of measurement was not a fundamental cognitive step.Even our earliest hominin ancestors measured things: we do it naturally.

Question 24

An example of how the world can be measured,the major axis of Stonehenge is oriented toward

A)the midsummer sunrise
B)the movement of Venus
C)the hands on a standard clock
D)the grid system that the entirety of Wessex follows
E)the only source of fresh water in the area

Question 25

Humans are often represented in the Paleolithic cave art of Europe.

Question 26

Deposition of artifacts with the dead always indicates a belief in the afterlife.

Question 27

We cannot assume that our distant ancestors had cognitive abilities like our own.

Question 28

Power relationships in the past are often depicted pictorially.

Question 29

In ancient Greece,literacy

A)was restricted to a specialized scribe caste
B)was common among the highest classes but not available to the lower classes
C)was widespread among the population
D)was reserved for philosophers
E)did not make much of an impact on civilization

Question 30

If it can be demonstrated that gold was highly valued by a society,archaeologists could conclude that individuals from that society that were buried with gold

A)were artisans that worked in gold
B)had a lower social status
C)had a higher social status
D)came from somewhere else
E)all of the above

Question 31

Which of the following would lead archaeologists to the conclusion that a body was deliberately buried?

A)the presence of an animal skeleton with the body
B)the presence of a prestige goods such as ivory spears with the body
C)indications that the body was placed in a dug grave
D)all of the above
E)b and c only

Question 32

Cult or religion is clearly separated from everyday life and is very clear in the archaeological record.

Question 33

Unlike other forms of archaeology,landscape archaeology does not have a cognitive dimension.

Question 34

The most effective system ever devised by humans to describe the world around them is

A)cave art
B)mobiliary art
C)pictorial representation
D)writing
E)all of these systems are equally effective

Question 35

Religious rituals usually contain four main components.Which of these is not one of those components

A)the focusing of attention,such as through visiting a sacred location
B)the delineation of a boundary zone between this world and the next
C)the belief in the presence of a deity
D)the participation in worship
E)all of the above are components of religious ritual

Question 36

The purpose of the well-known cave paintings from such sites as Chauvet,Lascaux and Altamira

A)was to serve in fertility rituals
B)was part of coming-of-age rites of passage
C)was purely artistic
D)was for education of children about animals
E)we do not know the purpose of these cave paintings

Question 37

Chavín de Huantar,which flourished in the years 850 to 200 BC,is located in Peru.

Question 38

When the goal of an artist is representation of objects in the real world,the resulting work is known as a

A)cognitive map
B)depiction
C)portrait
D)illustration
E)demonstration

Question 39

The use of the site of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey predates the development of_________ in the area

A)farming
B)language
C)symbols
D)religion
E)stone tools

Question 40

An example of a symbol that is used to regulate and organize relations between human beings is

A)mobiliary art
B)time measurement
C)money
D)a cognitive map
E)only answers a and d are correct

Question 41

The authors outline a number of attributes that they suggest should be taken as evidence for religious ritual.Discuss the major criteria that they claim may indicate evidence for ritual practice and religious beliefs.

Question 42

Paleolithic art is the source of much information about the cognitive and artistic abilities of people in the distant past.Discuss the various forms of Paleolithic art: where are they found,what are they made of,and what do they represent? What conclusions can we draw about the Paleolithic from these representations?

Question 43

Many symbols convey information,but some underscore institutional or individual power and authority.How do archaeologists recognize that an artifact is of great value to the ancient people who used it? Provide some examples of artifacts or features that may be symbols of power and authority,and discuss how we know.