Deck 3: Survey and Excavation of Sites and Features

Question 1

Visible differences in vegetation growth resulting from a sub-surface wall or ditch affecting the available moisture,nutrients,or soil depth,appear in aerial photographs as

A)crop marks
B)soil marks
C)damp marks
D)crop circles
E)residual marks

Answer 1

crop marks

Question 2

Once data is stored within a GIS,it is relatively straightforward to produce ________ on demand

A)surface surveys
B)surface benefits analyses
C)maps
D)typologies
E)Wheeler box-grids

Answer 2

maps

Question 3

Sending short pulses of electromagnetic waves into the ground and then receiving reflections of these waves to detect underground changes in soil or archaeological features is known as

A)standing wave technique
B)bosing
C)ground penetrating radar (GPR)
D)electrical resistivity
E)thermography

Answer 3

ground penetrating radar (GPR)

Question 4

LIDAR provides archaeologists with these advantages over conventional aerial photography:

A)tree canopies can be eliminated by switches off the "first return",so the sensor can see into woodland
B)the angle and azimuth of the sun can be moved to enable ground features to be viewed under optimal lighting
C)features buried up to ten feet down can be detected through soil marks
D)a and b
E)a and c

Question 5

Although these devices can be of great value to archaeologists,some users of this popular type of magnetism-based remote-sensing device illegally dig holes and destroy archaeological sites without reporting the finds that they make

A)metal detectors
B)ground penetrating radars (GPR)
C)potassium ion detectors
D)x-ray machines
E)geographic information systems (GIS)

Question 6

Systematic surface survey tends to be preferred to unsystematic for a number of reasons,primarily because in unsystematic surveys there is a tendency for

A)survey walkers to concentrate mostly on areas where artifacts seem richer
B)survey walkers to get tired and hide under bushes
C)survey walkers to walk in circles
D)survey walkers to veer off the survey grid

Question 7

Underwater archaeology is considered highly demanding because

A)it is expensive
B)it requires specialized training such as diving experience
C)artifacts from a waterlogged environment deteriorate rapidly
D)special equipment must be developed to cope with the particulars of a shipwreck
E)all of the above

Question 8

_______ retains its central role in fieldwork because it yields the most reliable evidence for human activities in the past and changes in those activities from period to period

A)aerial photography
B)carbon dating
C)excavation
D)probing
E)electrolysis

Question 9

The underlying premise of _____________ is that particular kinds of archaeological sites tend to occur in the same kinds of place

A)imaginative models
B)predictive models
C)hypothetical models
D)raster models
E)futuristic models

Question 10

Results of surveys conducted over longer periods of time,covering the area repeatedly,tend to be more reliable because

A)the visibility of sites and artifacts can vary widely from year to year
B)the visibility of sites and artifacts may vary according to seasonal variation
C)the accuracy of field crew observations may change through time
D)all of the above
E)none of the above

Question 11

Shovel-Test Pits are small pits dug into the ground

A)that help orient aerial photography
B)for storage of food and other perishable items
C)in search of fresh water
D)which are used to gain a preliminary idea of what lies beneath the surface
E)none of the above

Question 12

Some survey techniques use squares when conducting regional surveys,but ________ are easier to locate and walk along,in order to record artifact densities across the landscape

A)transects
B)circles
C)triangles
D)parabolas
E)none of the above

Question 13

Landscape descriptions in Homer's The Iliad inspired Heinrich Schliemann to search for and successfully find the city of _____,located in modern Turkey

A)Çatalhöyük
B)Atlantis
C)Troy
D)Minoa
E)Smyrna

Question 14

The introduction of _____________ is considered an "aerial revolution" since it offers all archaeologists and even the public the chance to examine aerial images for archaeological sites

A)Google Earth
B)Ground Penetrating Radar
C)LIDAR
D)LANDSAT
E)Space Imaging Radar

Question 15

Although film is still generally used in air photography in the last few years ___________ have become sufficiently good to be used by airborne archaeologists

A)digital sensors
B)video recordings
C)cameras with a resolution of less than 10 megapixels
D)none of the above
E)all of the above

Question 16

GIS,which stands for ______________,is a significant new development in archaeological mapping

A)Geological Igneous Systems
B)Geological Information Systems
C)Geographic Information Systems
D)Geographic Ignorance Systems
E)Geneological Information System

Question 17

Sites can be detected by remote sensing methods through features such as

A)crop circles
B)mounds
C)walls
D)holes cut into the ground
E)b through d

Question 18

Silted-up ditches or filled-in pits,which retain more moisture than such features as stone walls,will therefore display lower

A)electrical resistivity
B)time slicing
C)ground penetrating radar (GPR)
D)GIS
E)standing wave measurement

Question 19

____________ photographs taken from the air provide better perspective and are easier to view and understand than vertical photographs,which are better for making maps and plans

A)Oblique
B)X-Ray
C)GIS
D)Horizontal
E)all of the above

Question 20

Before any archaeological fieldwork begins,archaeologists try to make their objectives explicit in the form of a/an

A)academic publication
B)research design
C)doctoral dissertation
D)typology
E)assemblage

Question 21

Broadly speaking,excavation techniques may be divided into those that emphasize the vertical dimension,by cutting into deep deposits to reveal stratification,and those that emphasize the __________ dimension

A)stratified
B)time-space
C)fourth
D)horizontal
E)perpendicular

Question 22

All known archaeological sites have been discovered by archaeologists during archaeological excavation.

Question 23

The law of superposition means that

A)when one layer overlies another,the one on the bottom is more recent.
B)layers below are less likely to yield reliable dates
C)when one layer overlies another,the one on top is usually more recent
D)layers on top are unlikely to have reliable,datable artifacts
E)layers on top are more important than those below

Question 24

When artifacts or features are in situ,archaeologists mean that they are

A)where they were originally used or discarded
B)in the same country where they were discovered
C)derived from the local environment
D)originally from the same city under excavation
E)none of the above

Question 25

In most modern surveys,areas selected for survey typically utilize either a grid system or a series of transects.

Question 26

GIS systems are designed for the collection,storage,retrieval,analysis and display of spatial data.

Question 27

Crop marks were once thought to reflect ancient sub-surface remains,but are now recognized to be pranks perpetrated by the local populace.

Question 28

The Teotihuacán mapping project used a variety of methods to map vast areas of the site.These techniques included

A)aerial and surface survey
B)surface survey only
C)aerial survey only
D)large-scale excavations
E)large-scale excavations plus some aerial survey

Question 29

Handheld GPS units are considered too inaccurate to be useful to archaeology and are not useful where regions are unmapped or where the maps are old or inaccurate.

Question 30

The major drawback of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project is that none of the data collected over the 15 years has been incorporated into GIS.

Question 31

Geophysical methods can be very effective for land-based site identification,but are rarely effective in underwater reconnaissance.

Question 32

Open-area excavations typically involve

A)complex series of intact baulks of earth between grid squares
B)a series of crossing baulks of earth for walking and wheelbarrows
C)The use of a cofferdam to hold back earth or water
D)opening large areas,with few baulks of earth
E)all of the above

Question 33

Soil marks may reveal the presence of buried ditches,banks or foundations through the changes of subsoil color turned up by plowing.

Question 34

After the process of survey,excavation,recording,mapping,and post-excavation analysis,all these efforts are largely wasted unless

A)an educational film is made
B)the results are published
C)a video or film is made
D)a museum is founded
E)a very,very large party is held

Question 35

Groups of artifact or building types at a particular time and place are termed

A)traits
B)assemblages
C)cultures
D)attributes
E)characteristics

Question 36

To an archaeologist,the term provenience refers to the

A)vertical and horizontal position of an artifact
B)origin of an artistic technique or motif
C)history of an artifact's owners
D)origin of an idea or innovation
E)none of the above

Question 37

Google Earth was used to reveal 500 new caves in South Africa,including the one that yielded the bones of Australopithecus sediba.

Question 38

Ground reconnaissance survey and aerial reconnaissance are two ways to discover and record site locations.

Question 39

The concept that geological layers are laid down,one on top of the other,according to processes that still continue is known as

A)seriation
B)stratification
C)typology
D)assembly
E)preservation

Question 40

Classification of artifacts is usually based on

A)similar surface attributes
B)similar shape attributes
C)similar technological attributes
D)all of the above
E)none of the above

Question 41

It was not until the 1990s that typology began to dominate archaeological thinking.

Question 42

The most traditional subsurface detection technique is the use of rods or borers to probe the soil.

Question 43

Multi-period,deep sites,such as village mounds in the Near East,show few if any traces of their deepest levels on the surface.