Question 1

Most animal bones found in archaeological sites are

Accepted Answer

A)   highly fragmentary.
B)   well-preserved.
C)   easily identifiable.
D)   from domesticated species. A

Question 2

When prime-age animals are underrepresented relative to their abundance in living populations, but young and old are overrepresented, the age profile is called

Accepted Answer

A)   fragmentary.
B)   attritional.
C)   proportional.
D)   catastrophic. B

Question 3

In many societies, game meat formed far fewer meals than this type of food, which is often completely invisible in archaeological sites:

Accepted Answer

A)   domesticated
B)   vegetable
C)   cooked
D)   marine B

Question 4

This, rather than human culture, was probably responsible for most long-term shifts in abundance of animal species during the Great Ice Age:

Accepted Answer

A)   sociological forces
B)   solar variation
C)   ice sheet distribution
D)   climatic change

Question 5

How do zooarchaeologists use taphonomic studies to compare the proportions of different species from one site with those from another? Use the concepts of NISP and MNI in your answer.

Accepted Answer

The answer of How do zooarchaeologists use taphonomic studies to...

Question 6

Early in the twentieth century, the paleornithologist Hildegarde Howard studied the remains of prehistoric waterbirds near San Francisco Bay and found that the Indians of the time

Accepted Answer

A)   lived at that site in the winter and the early summer.
B)   domesticated chickens, geese, and turkeys.
C)   kept falcons for hunting.
D)   traded the plumes of tropical birds.

Question 7

From where do most plant remains come? What did Richard MacNeish discover about maize (corn) and its "evolution" from remains in Mexico's Tehuacán Valley?

Accepted Answer

The answer of From where do most plant remains come?...

Question 8

This may have begun when a growing human population needed a regular food supply to support a greater density of people per square mile.

Accepted Answer

A)   greater hunting activities
B)   animal domestication
C)   improved hunting technology
D)   improved forestry technology

Question 9

Observing recently dead carcasses as they are gradually transformed into fossils and studying fossil remains with the knowledge gained from these observations are two related forms of research involved in what discipline?

Accepted Answer

A)   zooarchaeology
B)   palynology
C)   taphonomy
D)   phytolith studies

Question 10

Scientists who recover, identify, and study ancient vegetable remains and assess the relationships between people and plants are called

Accepted Answer

A)   zooarchaeologists.
B)   paleontologists.
C)   macrobiologists.
D)   paleoethnobotanists.

Question 11

Macrobotanical remains are

Accepted Answer

A)   the remains of cooked food.
B)   easily recognizable plant remains.
C)   the results of processing to leach out toxins.
D)   seeds from domesticated plants.

Question 12

What is the original wild ancestor of Tehuacán maize?

Accepted Answer

A)   rice
B)   teosinte
C)   wild asparagus
D)   This is still unknown.

Question 13

Minute particles of silica from plant cells absorbed through a plant's roots are called

Accepted Answer

A)   chloroplasts.
B)   mitochondria.
C)   opal phytoliths.
D)   chalcedony phytoliths.

Question 14

Define these two concepts: catastrophic age profile and attritional age profile. How do zooarchaeologists use them to determine hunting patterns and subsistence?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Define these two concepts: catastrophic age profile...

Question 15

What do the bones of the Ice Man tell us about food availability during Bronze Age Europe? What do the the stomach contents of Tollund Man tell us about the use of wild and domesticated foods? Finally, how do we interpret the contents of coprolites from inhabitants of Lovelock Cave, Nevada? Did people once eat foods that we do not consider edible today? Why?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What do the bones of the Ice...

Question 16

A count of the number of individuals necessary to account for all of the identifiable bones is called

Accepted Answer

A)   NISP (Number of Identified Specimens) .
B)   BPI (Bones per Individual) .
C)   MNI (Minimum Number of Individuals) .
D)   TBC (Total Bone Count) .

Question 17

The ultimate aim in studying prehistoric food remains is not only to establish how people obtained their food but also to reconstruct their actual

Accepted Answer

A)   diet.
B)   lifeways.
C)   hunting practices.
D)   tool-making practices.

Question 18

What insights does rock art give us into subsistence activities of ancient peoples, especially foragers?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What insights does rock art give us...

Question 19

Richard Klein has used the height of tooth crowns to study the age of mammals taken by Stone Age hunters at the Klasies River and Nelson's Bay caves in South Africa. He has identified two "mortality distributions" that apply to prehistoric and living animal populations. Which of the following would be a normal distribution?

Accepted Answer

A)   attritional age profile
B)   geriatric age profile
C)   catastrophic age profile
D)   bell curve age profile

Question 20

How did ancient peoples use animal stomachs?

Accepted Answer

A)   as garments
B)   as hats
C)   as slings
D)   as bags

Exam 11: Come Tell Me How You Lived