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Arch Exam 2
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| In Elman Service's typology of human societies, mobile hunter-gatherer groups are also called | bands |
| Full-time pottery makers, metal workers, or other such artisans who form an important part of complex societies are referred to by archaeologists as | craft specialists |
| 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 | chiefdom |
| 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 | segmentary societies (tribes) |
| 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 | early state |
| Unlike sex, which is biologically determined, __________ is a social construct involving the roles of individuals in society | gender |
| Early archaeologists in the United States were taught to think more deeply about how ethnography might aid archaeological interpretation by the presence of | modern native american societies |
| 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 | The African Burial Ground |
| 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 | there may have been a system of hereditary ranking |
| The grave goods associated with the Princess Vix burial from central France were surprising because | they represented items usually only seen in male burials |
| Grave-goods associated with a burial can reveal | information about the individual's rank & information about the individual's social status |
| Written records may supply an incomplete picture of the society that produced them because | records written on perishable materials may not have survived over time & only certain types of activity, such as business transactions, may have been recorded in writing & not everyone in a society may have been able to read or write |
| The remains of large animals, such as sheep or cows, found on archaeological sites help us build a picture of past human diet. These remains are known as | macrofauna |
| There are various indicators useful for the identification of domesticated animals in archaeological contexts, such as | the presence of such tools as plows and yokes & the presence of certain deformities and diseases among the animal remains |
| Isotopic analysis of human tooth enamel or bone collagen relies on | reading the chemical signature left in the body by different foods |
| Commonly found preserved in ash layers, pottery, and on stone tools and even teeth, minute particles of silica derived from plant cells that survive after the rest of the organism is decomposed are known as | phytoliths |
| The quest for food is also known as | subsistence |
| Although ice core analysis suggests that the next ice age should be 15,000 years in the future, _________ appears to be having an effect on the normal cycle of the earth's temperature | human activity |
| This method used in archaeological investigations separates organic material from soil based on the general principle that the lighter organic material floats in water | flotation |
| Diatoms are | single-cell algae that have a cell wall of silica |
| Which of the following is not an example of macrobotanical remains | a phytolith |
| The study of the past human use of animals is called | zooarchaeology |
| The study of the diet of larger civilizations | is aided by the presence of written records and/or art depicting agriculture |
| The only incontrovertible proof that a particular plant or animal species was actually consumed by people in the past comes from | traces in human stomach contents of fecal matter |
| Microfauna (small animals) tend to be better indicators of climate and environmental change because | they are sensitive to oscillations in climate and adapt relatively quickly & they accumulate naturally, so they reflect the immediate environment |
| Segmentary societies | Relatively small and autonomous groups, usually of agriculturalists, who regulate their own affairs; in some cases, they may join together with other comparable societies to form a larger ethnic unit |
| Chiefdom | Describes a society that operates on the principle of ranking,. Lineages are graded on a scale of prestige. Tends to have a permanent ritual and ceremonial center, as well as being characterized by local specialization in crafts |
| Early states | Societies characterized by: the prominent role played by cities, a ruler with explicit authority to establish and enforce laws, a class hierarchy, and a bureaucratic administration of officials |
| Site hierarchy | Classification of archaeological sites based on their relative importance; often displayed as a histogram |
| Histogram | A way to present site hierarchies that allows comparisons to be made between different regions, periods, and types of society |
| Ethnoarchaeology | The study of living cultures so as to better understand the behavioral relationships that underlie the production of material culture in the past |
| Ethnicity | Based largely on self-awareness, this particular aspect of human identity is very difficult to recognize in the archaeological record without the presence of written records |
| Ranked societies | Societies in which there is unequal access to prestige and status (e.g. chiefdoms and states). They are also known as stratified societies |
| Lineage | A group claiming descent from a common ancestor |
| Burial analysis | The study of grave goods to reveal information about rank and social status |
| Sedentary societies | This type of society, which includes segmentary societies, chiefdoms, and states, is characterized by being relatively permanent as opposed to mobile hunter-gatherer groups |
| The Law Code of Hammurabi | This law code, written in the Akkadian language in 1750 BC, is a good example of the type of societal information that can be gleaned from written records |
| The Mother Goddess | This concept, supported by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, represents a fertility principle that has been embraced by many New Age groups |
| Ice cores | Borings taken from the Arctic and Antarctic polar ice caps, containing layers of compacted ice useful for reconstructing paleoenvironments and as a method of absolute dating |
| Tree rings | Trees have a yearly growth that varies with the climate. These variations have formed the basis of the dating technique known as dendrochronology |
| Pollen analysis | Also called palynology, this provides information on chronology as well as environment. It provides the idea of fluctuations in vegetation through time, whatever their causes may be, that can be compared with results from other methods |
| Diatom analysis | A method of environmental reconstruction based on plant microfossils that reveals the floristic composition of extinct aquatic communities, as well as the water's salinity, alkalinity, and nutrient status |
| Phytoliths | Minute particles of silica derived from the cells of plants, able to survive after the organism has decomposed or been burned. They are common in ash layers, pottery, and even on stone tools and teeth |
| Zooarchaeology | This involves the identification and analysis of faunal species from archaeological sites, as an aid to the reconstruction of human diets and to an understanding of the contemporary environment at the time of deposition |
| Paleoentomology | The study of insects from archaeological contexts. The survival of insect exoskeletons, which are quite resistant to decomposition, is important in the reconstruction of paleoenvironments |
| Paleo-ethnobotany/archaeobotany | The recovery and identification of plant remains from archaeological contexts, used in reconstructing past environments and economies |
| Domestication | The purposeful cultivation of plants or keeping of animals by humans. This process produces identifiable physical changes in the species involved |
| Isotopic analysis | This technique analyzes the ratios of the principal isotopes preserved in human bone; in effect the method reads the chemical signatures left in the body by different foods. It is also used in the analysis of ice and deep sea cores |
| Charcoal | Commonly found by archaeologists during excavation and can tell archaeologists a lot about the type of wood used in the past. It can be examined by a specialist and sometimes identified to a genus and species level, and can be radiocarbon dated |
| Microfauna | Another name for very small animals, they tend to accumulate naturally at archaeological sites and their remains reflect the immediate environment more accurately than larger species. |
| Diet | As opposed to meals, this implies a pattern of food consumption over a long period of time |
| Meals | As opposed to diet, this is used to refer to direct evidence of what people were eating at a particular point in time |
| Bison drive site | This type of archaeological site, normally a place was bison were forced over a cliff, represents an important periodic hunting method employed in North America for thousands of years |
| Coprolite | Fossilized excrement. This provides archaeologists with information about individual meals |
| From about 3.3 million years ago until 20,000 BCE at the earliest, the archaeological record is dominated by artifacts made out of | stone |
| Study of the patterns of wear or damage on the edges of stone tools that can provide useful information on a particular tool's function is known as | microwear analysis |
| The primary goal of characterization is to | discover the source of the material an object is made out of |
| The intentional use and control of fire by humans is known as | pyrotechnology |
| All of the following are examples of synthetic materials except | pottery glass bottles iron weapons bronze shields *stone hand-axes* |
| The alloying of copper with tin produces | bronze |
| The study of traded goods is an important part of the investigation of | exchange |
| In describing mechanisms of exchange, "direct access" is used to describe situations where | the user goes to the source material without the intervention of an exchange mechanism |
| The introduction of pottery generally seems to coincide with the adoption of a more sedentary way of life. Paleolithic people may not have created pottery because | mobile hunter-gatherers would not want to carry heavy fired clay containers around |
| All of the following are examples of unaltered materials except | stone wood antler *copper* plant and animal fibers |
| Hand-axe | A Paleolithic stone tool usually made by modifying (chipping or flaking) a natural pebble |
| Oldowan Industry | The earliest toolkits, comprising flake and pebble tools, used by hominids in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania |
| Paleolithic | The archaeological period before c. 10,000 BC, characterized by stone tool manufacture |
| Refitting | Sometimes referred to as conjoining, this entails attempting to put stone tools and flakes back together again; it provides important information on the processes involved in the knapper's craft |
| Temper | Inclusions in pottery clay which act as a filler to give the clay added strength and workability and to counteract any cracking or shrinkage during firing |
| Metallographic examination | A technique used in the study of early metallurgy involving the microscopic examination of a polished section cut from an artifact to determine how the object was formed |
| Annealing | In copper and bronze metallurgy, this refers to the repeated process of heating and hammering the material to produce the desired shape. |
| Alloying | Technique involving the mixing of two or more metals to create a new material, e.g. the fusion of copper and tin to make bronze. |
| Prestige object | A term used to designate a limited range of exchange goods to which a society ascribes high status or value. |
| Characterization | The application of techniques of examination by which characteristic properties of the constituent material of traded goods can be identified, and thus their source of origin; e.g. petrographic thin-section analysis |
| Thin-section analysis | A technique whereby sections are cut from a stone object or potsherd and examined with a petrological microscope to determine the source of the material |
| Fall off analysis | According to this type of distribution analysis, the quantity of a certain type of good should decrease the further away a site is from the source of the good |
| Interaction spheres | The various ways in which different societies interact with each other (e.g. through competition or warfare) |
| Uluburum shipwreck | A famous shipwreck dating to 1300 BCE found off the south coast of Turkey, and containing goods from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt |
| The study of human remains from sites is called | Bioarchaeology |
| ________ grows at a regular measurable rate and a careful study of its microscopic growth lines can help determine how long an individual lived | tooth enamel |
| Small fragments of bone may be examined for bone microstructure. With increasing age, circular structures called _________ become more frequent | osteons |
| shape of the pelvis | Although variable according to population, a number of skeletal attributes can be used for differentiation of the sexes. The best indicator of sex is the |
| The best indicator of an individual's age at death is based on study of the | teeth |
| Our clearest glimpse at what people looked like in the past is from | preserved bodies |
| Most human remains recovered by archaeologists are in the form of ________ | skeletons or bones |
| Archaeologists can usually identify the minimum number of individuals in a multiple burial from | the part of the body that is the most abundant |
| The study of ancient disease is called | paleopathology |
| Cause of death for skeletal remains can be ascertained | rarely; most causes of death leave no trace on bone |
| Proper analysis of most infectious ancient diseases can only be carried out on | surviving soft tissues |
| Diseases that affect bone do so through | erosion growths altered structure *all of the above* |
| Family relationships | Relationships between individuals can be established by comparing skeletal anomalies and blood type, as well as through DNA analysis |
| Malnutrition | Careful examination of the size and characteristics of bones and teeth can reveal signs of malnutrition; chemical analysis of stable isotopes offers further insights |
| Cannibalism | Supposed evidence of cannibalism has often been claimed in the archaeological record, but in each case the evidence can be shown to be weak, or alternative explanations can be put forward. There are no universally acknowledged cases |
| Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) | DNA from the mitochondria of the cell, which is separate from DNA from the nucleus of the cell and is inherited from the biologically female line |
| Y-chromosome DNA | DNA from the nucleus of the cell, from the Y chromosome, which is found and passed down to biological male organisms only |
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