Introduction to Archaeology Practice Questions
Course Introduction
Introduction to Archaeology offers students a foundational understanding of the methods, theories, and practices used to study past human cultures through material remains. The course explores the history and development of archaeology as a discipline, introduces key concepts such as excavation, dating techniques, and artifact analysis, and examines how archaeologists reconstruct ancient societies and their environments. Emphasis is placed on interpreting findings within their cultural contexts, ethical issues in the field, and the role of archaeology in understanding human history and diversity.
Recommended Textbook
Physical Anthropology and Archaeology 4th Canadian Edition by Carol R. Ember
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14 Chapters
447 Verified Questions
447 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology?
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Sample Questions
Q1) The field of bioarchaeology draws on both sociocultural anthropology and archaeology.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Which of the following is true of theories?
A) They are falsifiable.
B) They are provable.
C) They are the same as hypotheses.
D) They are factual.
E) They are solvable.
Answer: A
Q3) Evidence from anthropological studies of reduced milk consumption by African-American school children in the 1960s suggested it was the result of A) lactose intolerance.
B) economic stress.
C) poor education.
D) cultural taboos.
E) none of the above
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: Uncovering the Past: Tools and Techniques
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30 Verified Questions
30 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The spatial distribution that archaeological remains have in relation to each other at a site is known as
A) stratigraphy.
B) relative dating.
C) site formation processes.
D) provenience.
E) absolute dating.
Answer: D
Q2) Archaeologists conduct excavations and recover artifacts from where they were buried; thus, by its very nature, archaeological excavation is
A) destructive -- the context of the artifacts is lost.
B) tiring -- archaeologists must work very hard during excavations.
C) profitable -- many of the artifacts recovered are priceless.
D) something that amateurs can easily master.
E) something that is usually conducted as quickly as possible.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Reconstructing the Past: Analysis and Interpretation
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32 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following human skeletal traits is not commonly used to assess sex of adults?
A) Greater sciatic notch width.
B) Jaw angle.
C) Presence of an occipital protuberance.
D) Post-orbital depth.
E) Chin shape.
Answer: D
Q2) Increasingly, palaeopathologists have become aware that A) human behaviour and culture play a significant role in the distribution of infectious diseases.
B) they should employ only microscopic examination techniques in their research.
C) they are primarily interested in genetically-caused diseases.
D) they should focus mainly on diseases that killed infants and children.
E) they must make conclusions about the general health of a population for their work to be credible.
Answer: A
Q3) Why might infant skeletons have high ¹ N levels compared to the skeletons of older children?
Page 5
Answer: breast feeding enriches babies' tissues with ¹ N.
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Chapter 4: Historical Development of Evolutionary Theory
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Sample Questions
Q1) Evolution will ensure that new strains of common diseases will become less frequent than their original ones because of natural selection.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to Darwin's theory of evolution, humans descended from monkeys.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A single species can consist of multiple genera.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In the mid-seventeenth century, Irish cleric Archbishop James Ussher calculated the age of the earth to be 4 million years.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is one adaptations to terrestrial life exhibited by reptiles?
Q6) One of the major components in the development of the idea of evolution was an understanding of the age of the earth
A)True
B)False
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Modern Evolutionary Theory
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Sample Questions
Q1) In biological evolution, variability comes from
A) differential reproductive success and total fecundity.
B) genetic recombination and mutation.
C) gene flow and genetic drift.
D) mitosis and meiosis.
E) chromosomes and alleles.
Q2) A particular form of genetic drift that occurs when a small group, recently derived from a larger population, migrates to a relatively isolated location is referred to as A) gene flow.
B) directional selection.
C) founder effect.
D) generational genetic drift.
E) an evolutionary bottleneck.
Q3) How does the idea of punctuated equilibrium contrast with the traditional view on the pace of speciation?
Q4) Chromosomes are built of DNA.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How does the founder effect lead to genetic drift?
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Chapter 6: Human Variation
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Sample Questions
Q1) The relationship between malaria and the allele that produces sickle-cell anemia in humans is an example of balancing selection because
A) malaria causes selection against individuals carrying the sickle-cell allele to be 100%.
B) individuals that are heterozygous for the sickle-cell allele have a selective advantage against malaria over homozygous normal and homozygous sickle-cell individuals.
C) malaria produces mortality rates of about 50% in both normal hemoglobin individuals and sickle-cell individuals.
D) malaria kills 50% of children with the sickle-cell allele, and a similar proportion of adults with the allele.
E) mortality is roughly equal between people dying from malaria and people dying from sickle-cell anemia.
Q2) Cultural adaptations exhibited by humans include the alteration of our "microenvironments."
A)True
B)False
Q3) Provide an argument against applying racial classifications to humans.
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Chapter 7: The Living Primates
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Sample Questions
Q1) Loris-like prosimian primates are found
A) only in southeast Asia.
B) in Central and South America.
C) in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
D) only on the island of Madagascar.
E) only in sub-Saharan Africa.
Q2) Arboreal primates tend to be larger than terrestrial ones.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Platyrrhine primates have narrow noses with nostrils that face downwards.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following is not a reason why play is important in the development of young primates?
A) Play is important for learning.
B) Play is a way to learn social skills.
C) Play can help to establish social dominance relationships.
D) Play allows youngsters to practice physical skills useful to avoiding predators.
E) Play activity helps to stimulate their appetites.
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Chapter 8: Primate Evolution: From Early Primates to Hominoids
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Sample Questions
Q1) The best known propliopithecid from the fossil record is
A) Gigantipithecus.
B) Aegyptopithecus.
C) Tetonius.
D) Notharctus.
E) Kenyapithecus.
Q2) Omomyids exhibit many characteristics that seem to be more anthropoid-like including
A) prognathism and a larger brain.
B) stereoscopic vision and an increased reliance on smell.
C) a larger brain, the beginnings of postorbital closure and a relatively shorter face.
D) a shorter face.
E) a longer skull and increased flexion of the basicranium.
Q3) What are molecular clocks and how can they be used to deduce the time since two organisms shared a common ancestor?
Q4) In their locomotion, arboreal quadrupeds typically exhibit vertical clinging and leaping.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Early Hominins
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Sample Questions
Q1) The group of fossil hominids discovered in Afar region of Ethiopia in 1999 and dated to about 2.5 million years ago are called
A) Australopithecus anamensis.
B) Australopithecus garhi.
C) Australopithecus afarensis.
D) Ardipithecus ramidus.
E) Australopithecus africanus.
Q2) What evidence suggests that bipedalism evolve first and increasing brain development followed later?
Q3) Paleoanthropologists attempt to determine if a stone flake is a tool by looking for a A) striking platform.
B) occipital keel.
C) sagittal crest.
D) residue.
E) sharp edge.
Q4) Why does the presence of patterned stone tools at some hominin fossil sites indicate that early hominins had probably developed culture?
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11
Chapter 10: Homo Erectus and Archaic Homo Sapiens
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Sample Questions
Q1) The migration of Homo erectus out of Africa around 2 million years ago was preceded by the migration of Homo habilis almost 250,000 years earlier.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Moro reflex is
A) a gag reflex exhibited by hominins.
B) a residual form of the innate ability to cling during a human infant's first few weeks of life.
C) the tendency for primate infants to keep their heads above water.
D) a tendency to flee when a predator is spotted.
E) an automatic attentiveness that anthropoid infants exhibit toward the sound of their mother's voice.
Q3) Taurodontism refers to a reduced pulp cavity seen in H. erectus.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Who were the Denisovans?
Q5) The structure of the brain of H. floresiensis is similar to that of H. erectus.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Modern Homo Sapiens
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Dorset culture engaged in caribou hunting by
A) individual hunters stalking individual animals.
B) chasing animals on to thin ice.
C) working together and driving animals into rock-walled enclosures they had built.
D) using their sled dogs to track and pursue the caribou.
E) using harpoons rather than spears.
Q2) Based on molecular evidence from mtDNA, the timing of divergence for modern humans from their archaic ancestors is about
A) 50,000 years ago.
B) 200,000 years ago.
C) 20,000 years ago.
D) 500,000 years ago.
E) 80,000 years ago.
Q3) Jean-Pierre Duhard argues that Upper Paleolithic depictions of men and children in art, are just as common as depictions of women.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What specialized structural anatomical features enabled the emergence of speech?
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Chapter 12: Origins of Food Production and Settled Life
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most early cultivation in mainland southeast Asia seems to have occurred in the plains and low terraces around rivers.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Foragers are considered __________ whereas pastoralists are known as
A) intensive agriculturalists; horticulturalists.
B) food producers; food collectors.
C) horticulturalists; intensive agriculturalists.
D) food collectors; food producers.
E) active; sedentary.
Q3) The subsistence strategy of the Mesolithic has been characterized as
A) exhibiting greater reliance on big-game hunting than in the Upper Paleolithic. B) broad-spectrum food collection.
C) featuring a continued reliance on hunting coupled with growing plant crops.
D) combining the raising of domesticated herd animals with the gathering of wild food plants.
E) a final period of intensive big-game hunting, until all the large mammal species of the last Ice Age were extinct.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Origins of Cities and States
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Sample Questions
Q1) Henry Wright and Gregory Johnson define a state as
A) a decentralized political hierarchy with at least three levels of administration.
B) a centralized political hierarchy with at least three levels of administration.
C) a decentralized political hierarchy with at least two levels of administration.
D) a centralized political hierarchy with at least two levels of administration.
E) a centralized social hierarchy with at least three levels of social status.
Q2) After the Inca conquest, women seem to have worked harder and had poorer health than men.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Irrigation seems to have been important in many areas in which early state societies developed.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Why do scholars disagree over whether or not Cahokia was a state?
Q5) What are some of the negative consequences of the development of states?
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Chapter 14: Applied Anthropology: Physical Anthropology and Archaeology
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30 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The acceptance of planned change rarely depends on social factors.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Pibloktoq is an example of
A) ethnomedicine.
B) a culture-bound syndrome.
C) the biocultural model.
D) ethnocentrism.
E) cultural relativism.
Q3) People with more social, economic, and political power in society are generally healthier.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Indigenous cultural concepts can sometimes be used effectively to enhance educational programs.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Medical research now indicates that formula is far superior to mother's milk.
A)True
B)False
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