Deck 5: Social Archaeology

Question 1

The most obvious and conspicuous traces of Neolithic farmers in the Wessex area of Britain are

A)long barrows
B)village settlements
C)early field systems
D)a series of roads
E)individual farmsteads

Answer 1

long barrows

Question 2

In order to interpret the evidence from Middle Paleolithic sites in France,Lewis Binford studied the use and discard of bones and tools at a seasonal hunting camp used by the

A)Maya of Guatemala
B)Nunamiut of Alaska
C)Pokot of Kenya
D)Maori of New Zealand
E)all of the above

Answer 2

Nunamiut of Alaska

Question 3

The grave goods associated with the Princess Vix burial from central France were surprising because

A)they dated to a completely different time than the body
B)they represented items usually only seen in male burials
C)they were made of materials that could only have come from the Americas
D)they were far less fine than items that normally accompany a princess
E)they contained pollen from as far away as the Middle East

Answer 3

they represented items usually only seen in male burials

Question 4

A society that has a ruler with authority to establish and enforce laws,stratified classes,administrative officials for collecting revenue,and the practice of redistribution would probably be considered a

A)mobile hunter-gatherer group
B)segmentary society
C)chiefdom
D)early state
E)none of the above

Question 5

An important method used to gain an understanding of a past society involves the study of the present-day use and significance of artifacts,buildings,and structures,and the way these things become incorporated into the archaeological record when they are abandoned.Such an approach is known as

A)ethnic studies
B)archaeozoology
C)archaeobotany
D)ethnoarchaeology
E)ethnology

Question 6

Generally larger than mobile hunter-gatherer groups,these societies are typically sedentary,rarely number more than a few thousand people,and lack permanent differences of social status between people.These are generally referred to as

A)bands
B)segmentary societies (tribes)
C)chiefdoms
D)early states
E)none of the above

Question 7

While discovering how a society viewed itself and its territories may seem like an impossible task,it is important to remember that most state societies ________,which helps us to identify primary centers

A)are exactly alike
B)did not produce monumental architecture
C)are still in existence today
D)are located on exactly the same spots as major modern cities
E)produced written records

Question 8

When sites associated with this type of society are ranked according to size and displayed on a histogram there will only be a narrow range of variation in site size and all the sites will be quite small

A)early states
B)complex societies
C)cities
D)archaic states
E)hunter-gatherer groups

Question 9

Full-time pottery makers,metal workers,or other such artisans who form an important part of complex societies are referred to by archaeologists as

A)chiefs
B)craft specialists
C)merchants
D)segmentary societies
E)bands

Question 10

For archaeologists trying to understand social ranking,the individual burial of a child with rich burial goods and a well-built funerary monument would suggest that

A)there may have been a system of hereditary ranking.
B)there may have been an egalitarian system with no ranking
C)the child had achieved a high social status through his or her own actions
D)there was a high rate of infant mortality
E)none of the above

Question 11

Excavations of skeletons at this site in New York City in 1991 caused much public outrage as the local community felt that they had not been properly consulted beforehand

A)The African Burial Ground
B)The Orkneys
C)Foley Square
D)Star Carr
E)The Slave Church

Question 12

Unlike sex,which is biologically determined,__________ is a social construct involving the roles of individuals in society

A)matrilineal descent
B)sedentism
C)DNA
D)natural selection
E)gender

Question 13

A society with differences in social status (ranking),specialists manufacturing crafts,surpluses,and perhaps a permanent ritual or ceremonial center would probably be considered a

A)mobile hunter-gatherer group (band)
B)segmentary society (tribe)
C)chiefdom
D)early state
E)none of the above

Question 14

A reliable chronology for the site of Moundville in Alabama was achieved through careful analysis of

A)tooth enamel
B)obsidian blades
C)fossil pollen
D)waterlogged plant remains
E)pottery

Question 15

Grave-goods associated with a burial can reveal

A)information about the individual's rank
B)information about the individual's social status
C)information about the individual's personal thoughts
D)all of the above
E)a and b only

Question 16

Early archaeologists in the United States were taught to think more deeply about how ethnography might aid archaeological interpretation by the presence of

A)tree-ring dates
B)Thomas Jefferson
C)modern Native American societies
D)Irish immigrants
E)a break-away group of British scholars

Question 17

Marija Gimbutas has argued that the ______________ of the European Neolithic and Copper Ages demonstrate the important status of women at that time

A)epic poetry
B)female figurines
C)oversized hearths
D)women warriors
E)mosaic images

Question 18

In Elman Service's typology of human societies,mobile hunter-gatherer groups are also called

A)chiefdoms
B)none of the above
C)segmentary societies (tribes)
D)bands
E)states

Question 19

At the Early Paleolithic site of Koobi Fora,Kenya,Glynn Isaac's team recorded the exact coordinates of all artifacts and was able to fit some fragments of bone and stone back together.From this they were able to identify _____________ or parts of the site where specific tasks were performed

A)kill sites
B)villages
C)secondary deposits
D)activity areas
E)none of the above

Question 20

By careful study of settlement patterns,archaeologists can answer this basic question.

A)Why people developed writing?
B)Where did religion originate?
C)Why did our hominin ancestors evolve into humans?
D)What is the scale of the society?
E)Should a radiocarbon date be calibrated?

Question 21

A state-level society is usually described as consisting of

A)more than 20,000 people
B)5,000 to 20,000 people
C)up to a few 100 people
D)less than 100 people
E)at least over 200,000 people

Question 22

Although taking different amounts of time according to region,environmental conditions,and technological innovations,all societies eventually progress from bands to state societies.

Question 23

A group claiming descent from a common ancestor is called a

A)lineage
B)polity
C)ethnicity
D)cult
E)band

Question 24

Despite the monumental nature of the megalithic tombs found in the Orkneys in Scotland,archaeologists believe that the people who built the tombs represented a

A)hierarchical society
B)state-level society
C)very socially stratified society
D)society of invaders from abroad
E)segmentary society

Question 25

Hammurabi's law code was written in the Akkadian language,in the script known as cuneiform.

Question 26

Written records may supply an incomplete picture of the society that produced them because

A)records written on perishable materials may not have survived over time
B)only certain types of activity,such as business transactions,may have been recorded in writing
C)not everyone in a society may have been able to read or write
D)all of the above
E)b and c only

Question 27

Sedentary societies are societies that

A)no longer are nomadic
B)have developed some form of agriculture or pastoralism
C)are best investigated at the settlement level
D)all of the above
E)none of the above

Question 28

The sheer number of man hours required to build Stonehenge (estimated at 30,000,000 hours of work)indicated that at that time the Wessex area of Britain

A)was in contact with ancient Egypt
B)was centrally organized
C)was populated by bands of hunter-gatherers
D)was overpopulated
E)all of the above

Question 29

In most segmentary societies,craft production is organized at the household level.In chiefdoms and states,craft production is often organized at a higher,more centralized level.

Question 30

Ethnicity is quite easy to recognize in the archaeological record.

Question 31

Archaeology has the unique advantage of being able to study processes of change over thousands of years.

Question 32

Many concepts that we consider to be inherent to our humanness,such as our system of morals,our concept of gender,even how we respond to our senses,are not natural "givens".

Question 33

Warfare is always undertaken with the objective of permanently occupying the lands of the vanquished in a process of territorial expansion.

Question 34

Occupation deposits at cave sites tend to be deep and suffer less erosion than open sites;they are therefore valuable for studying early hunter-gatherer societies.

Question 35

Excavations at the site of Khok Phanom Di in Thailand proved that the insights about an ancient society gained from excavating a single grave are exactly the same as the insights gained from excavating a whole cemetery.

Question 36

Centralized societies typically exhibit disparities between rich and poor,and thus they offer the potential to study social ranking and organization.Which of the following would you suggest offers strong evidence of social ranking?

A)Group residences,similar burials,short-term occupation of sites
B)Dispersed hamlets,equitable residences and few specialists
C)Elite residences,rich burials,and craft specialists
D)Villages,some rich group burials,few specialists
E)Cave sites,evidence for butchering,and fine hunting equipment

Question 37

A good example of how social ranking can be seen in the archaeological record,careful analysis of over 3000 burials at the site of Moundville in Alabama showed that the higher a person's rank was

A)the farther he or she would be buried from the mound
B)the lower the quality of his or her associated grave goods
C)the more likely it would be that he or she would have been mummified
D)the closer he or she would be buried to the mounds
E)the more likely he or she would display cranial modification

Question 38

The principal source of information about early societies comes from written records.

Question 39

A ranked society is a society the members of which have unequal access to status and prestige.An example of a ranked society is

A)a segmentary society
B)an early state
C)a band
D)a hunter-gatherer group
E)all of the above

Question 40

Stone monuments,often collective tombs,from Europe's Neolithic period are often referred to as

A)megalithic
B)chalcolithic
C)megahenges
D)stone-tied
E)paleolithic

Question 41

What are the four societal types according to the classification scheme created by Elman Service? What are the distinguishing features of each type? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using such a scheme to examine ancient societies?

Question 42

How do archaeologists attempt to recognize the existence of ranking in the archaeological record? Give specific examples of different characteristics that assist in determining whether or not an ancient society was ranked.

Question 43

Define ethnoarchaeology.What can it tell the archaeologist? In your discussion,include at least two examples of ethnoarchaeological studies.