Prehistoric Archaeology Concepts and Methods Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The Upper Palaeolithic of Europe is marked by blade technology, and backed blades (blades blunted along one edge, as in the Chatelperron point and the Gravette point) are among its main tool types.

Chopper and chopping tools belong to the Lower Palaeolithic, microliths to the Mesolithic, and side scrapers are typical of the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian industry.

Blades struck from prismatic cores let Upper Palaeolithic people make many forms such as burins, end scrapers and backed blades from the same amount of stone, which is why blade technology is taken as the sign of this period in Europe.

Answer: D

The Levalloisean (prepared-core) technique appears for the first time in the late Acheulian, so Acheulian is the cultural tradition named in the options. The method became widespread in the Middle Palaeolithic that followed.

The Azilian-Tardenoisean and Maglemosean are Mesolithic cultures, and the Aurignacian is an Upper Palaeolithic culture, so all three came after the technique had appeared.

In the Levallois method the core is shaped beforehand so that a flake of planned size and form can be struck off in one blow. This prepared-core idea marks a step up in planning from the earlier handaxe-making.

Answer: A

Both statements are correct. Flake and blade tools are more advanced than the earlier core tools such as choppers and handaxes, and the reason is that a detached flake or blade has a thin, controllable edge, so it allows finer manipulation and many more tool forms from the same amount of stone.

So the option that calls both correct is right, and the options calling either one incorrect are wrong.

Core tools were made by removing flakes to shape the core itself, while flake and blade tools use the flake that is struck off as the tool, which can then be retouched into scrapers, points and knives. So the greater control they give is the reason for calling them more advanced.

Answer: D

In sequence of time the stone tools run: the cleaver (Acheulian, Lower Palaeolithic), then the backed knife (Upper Palaeolithic), then the trapeze (a geometric microlith of the Mesolithic). So the order is Cleaver, Backed knife, Trapeze, option D.

The other options put the trapeze, a late microlith, first or second, or place the backed knife before the cleaver, which reverses the sequence.

The cleaver is a heavy tool with a straight cutting edge found in Acheulian sites. Backed knives are blades with one edge blunted to give a safe grip, and trapezes are small geometric microliths that were hafted into composite tools.

Answer: C

The correct chronological order of the cultural traditions is Acheulian (Lower Palaeolithic), Mousterian (Middle Palaeolithic) and Magdalenian (Upper Palaeolithic), which is option C.

The other options place the Mousterian before the Acheulian, or place the Magdalenian, the latest of the three, before the Mousterian or in the middle.

The Acheulian is a Lower Palaeolithic handaxe tradition, the Mousterian is the Neanderthal flake tradition of the Middle Palaeolithic, and the Magdalenian is a late Upper Palaeolithic culture of Western Europe, known for bone tools and cave art.

Answer: A

The keyed matches are a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv: hunting-gathering with the Lower Palaeolithic, fishing-fowling with the Mesolithic, farming with the Neolithic, and large game hunting with the Upper Palaeolithic. The code is i ii iii iv, option A.

Options B, C and D pair farming with the Upper Palaeolithic or the Lower Palaeolithic, or pair fishing with the Neolithic, which does not fit the sequence of the economies.

Large game hunting is a mark of the Upper Palaeolithic, and fishing and fowling suit the post-glacial Mesolithic, while farming is the economy of the Neolithic. Hunting-gathering fits the earliest period.

Answer: A

The correct matches are a-ii, b-iv, c-iii, d-i. The Levalloisean technique first appears in the Acheulian culture, end scrapers are characteristic of the Magdalenian, denticulates are typical of the Mousterian, and the laurel leaf point is the Solutrean tool. The code is ii iv iii i, option A.

Options B, C and D link the Levalloisean with the Solutrean or the Magdalenian, or put the laurel leaf in the Mousterian or Magdalenian, which are wrong.

Answer: C

The reconstruction of past subsistence activity is the aim of New Archaeology.

New or processual archaeology, associated with Lewis Binford, moved the aim of excavation from describing artefact types to explaining how past people lived, including what they ate and how they organised their food getting. It uses ecology and scientific methods to rebuild subsistence and settlement.

Typo-technology deals with the classification of tools by form and technique. Geo-chronology deals with dating and the age of deposits. Action archaeology is not a branch that is aimed at subsistence reconstruction, so these three are rejected.

Answer: C

The most prolific rock art in Europe is found at Lascaux.

Lascaux in the Dordogne, France, is famous for its large painted caves, with a great number of paintings and engravings of animals from the Upper Palaeolithic, in the Magdalenian style.

Laugerie-Haute and La Ferrassie are known for their rock shelters, tools and burials. Font-de-Gaume has important polychrome paintings, but fewer than Lascaux. The question asks for the most prolific, which the key gives to Lascaux.

Answer: C

The earliest evidence of an artificial habitation structure is at Terra Amata.

At Terra Amata, near Nice in France, excavators reported oval huts made of branches and stones, taken to be built by Homo erectus. This is the earliest structure of this kind among the options.

Torralba and Ambrona in Spain are known for elephant remains and signs of hunting. Kostienki and Molodova in eastern Europe have later Upper Palaeolithic dwellings built with mammoth bones, so they are younger.