ANTH 1000 - Ch. 5

Question 1

prehistory

Answer 1

a conventional term used to refer to the period of time before the appearance of written records; does not deny the existence of history, merely of WRITTEN history

Question 2

artifact

Answer 2

any object fashioned or altered by humans

Question 3

material culture

Answer 3

the durable aspects of culture, such as tools, structures, and art

Question 4

ecofact

Answer 4

the natural remains of plants and animals found in the archaeological record

Question 5

feature

Answer 5

a non-portable element such as a hearth or an architectural element such as a wall that is preserved in the archaeological record

Question 6

fossil

Answer 6

any mineralized trace or impression of an organism that has been preserved in the earth’s crust from past geologic time

Question 7

taphonomy

Answer 7

the study of how bones and other materials come to be preserved in the earth as fossils

Question 8

soil mark

Answer 8

a stain that shows up on the surface of recently plowed fields that reveals an archaeological site

Question 9

middens

Answer 9

a refuse or garbage disposal area in an archaelogical site

Question 10

grid system

Answer 10

a system for recording data in three dimensions for an archaeological excavation

Question 11

datum point

Answer 11

the starting point, or reference, for a grid system

Question 12

flotation

Answer 12

an archaeological technique employed to recover very tiny objects by immersion of soil samples in water to separate heavy from light particles

Question 13

stratified

Answer 13

layered; term used to describe archaeological sites where the remains lie in layers, one upon another

Question 14

coprolites

Answer 14

preserved fecal material providing evidence of the diet and health of past organisms

Question 15

endocast

Answer 15

a cast of the inside of a skull; used to help determine the size and shape of the brain

Question 16

polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Answer 16

a technique for amplifying or creating multiple copies of fragments of DNA so that it can be studied in the laboratory

Question 17

relative dating

Answer 17

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, designating an event, object, or fossil as being older or younger than another

Question 18

absolute or chronometric dating

Answer 18

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, dating recovered material based on solar years, centuries, or other units of absolute time

Question 19

stratigraphy

Answer 19

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, the most reliable method of relative dating by means of strata

Question 20

fluorine dating

Answer 20

in archaeology or paleoanthropology, a technique for relative dating based on the fact that the amount of fluorine in bones is proportional to their age

Question 21

seriation

Answer 21

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, a technique for relative dating based on putting groups of objects into a sequence in relation to one another

Question 22

palynology

Answer 22

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, a technique of relative dating based on changes in fossil pollen over time

Question 23

radiocarbon dating

Answer 23

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, a technique of chronometric dating based on measuring the amount of radioactive carbon (14-C) left in organic materials found in archaeological sites

Question 24

dendrochronology

Answer 24

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, a technique of chronometric dating based on the number of rings of growth found in a tree trunk

Question 25

potassium-argon dating

Answer 25

in archaeology and paleoanthropology, a technique of chronometric dating that measures the ratio of radioactive potassium to argon in volcanic debris associated with human remains