Module 5

Question 1

Climate
vs
Environment

Answer 1

Temperatures and rainfall
vs
Geophysical and biological surroundings

Question 2

Ecofact

Answer 2

non-artifactual organic or environmental remains which have cultural relevance

Question 3

Geoarchaeology

Answer 3

Study of soils and deposits from archaeological sites

Question 4

Sedimentation

Answer 4

Process of settling of materials

Question 5

“On-Site” versus “Off-Site”

Answer 5

“On-site” refers to being from within deposits created or altered by human activity; “off-site” refers to being from within deposits not created or altered by human activity

Question 6

Indicator species

Answer 6

species on the planet are restricted to ranges in habitat because of their physiological requirements

Question 7

Proxy data

Answer 7

Data used to build an analogy for environmental reconstruction. Presence of desert plant remains point to dry conditions, etc.

Question 8

Foraminifera

Answer 8

Microscopic marine species that act as proxy data for reconstructing past ocean temperatures, etc.

Question 9

Paleobotany / Paleoethnobotany

Answer 9

Subdiscipline of archaeology concerned with the identification, analysis, and interpretation of plant remains

Question 10

Zooarchaeology / archaeozoology

Answer 10

Subdiscipline of archaeology concerned with the identification, analysis, and interpretation of animal remains

Question 11

Seasonality

Answer 11

Analysis of the season of collection / capture of plants and animals from archaeological sites. Often used as proxy data for understanding site occupations.

Question 12

incremental Growth

Answer 12

Biological growth that involves the creation of new layers of hard tissue over existing layers of hard tissue; commonly seen in shells, certain teeth.

Question 13

Game Drive

Answer 13

Hunting technique involving the driving of animal groups into a specific location in order to capture them.

Question 14

Demography

Answer 14

Study of populations through comparing ratios of sex and age

Question 15

Mortality Curve

Answer 15

Graphic depiction of the age structure of a living population based on the age at death of its members; can be employed for humans or animals

Question 16

Catastrophic Mortlity

Answer 16

Age at death distribution that suggests all members of a living group died simultaneously, likely of a single common cause

Question 17

Attritional mortality

Answer 17

Age at death distribution that suggests that members of a living group died at different times, likely of a variety of causes

Question 18

Post attritional mortality

Answer 18

Suggested mortality curve expected of a population of animals that has died simultaneously after a period of attritional death

Question 19

Living herd Age

Answer 19

Actual, demonstrable age distribution of living heard animals, demonstrated by wildebeest in our example