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Appendix 3. Final test

(ill-defined problem re-elaborated from a test designed by Kathleen Hull, assistant professor of Anthropology, for Introduction to Anthropological Archaeology -ANTH 003- at the University of California, Merced)

Name: __________________________________________

Assignment: Stratigraphy (Sample problem-based test used to test student learning in Introduction to Anthropological Archaeology students. Revision of Kathleen Hull tests)

Your research team is once again off on a new project, this time undertaking a dig of an ancient site of the Weigon Valley region in East Asia both as a context for understanding long-term site culture change between 8000 and 4250 BC. While you excavate using the stratigraphic method, your goal is to understand the chronological sequence of all the units and the artefacts detected.

The diagram below is the stratigraphic profile of the excavation area. The various strata and features have been given letter designations, as depicted on the diagram. In addition, the numbers indicate the location of three artefacts recovered from the associated strata. Given what you have learned about the concepts of stratigraphy, the law of superposition, and site formation processes, answer the questions presented below.

1. Please complete the sentence:

Stratum A is younger than stratum B, according to the . . .

2. What is the relative temporal relationship of stratum O and stratum N?

  1. N is older
  2. N is younger
  3. They are probably contemporaneous (about the same age)
  4. No relationship can be determined from the stratigraphy

3. What is the relative temporal relationship of stratum G and K?

  1. G is older
  2. G is younger
  3. They are probably contemporaneous
  4. No relationship can be determined from the stratigraphy

4. What strata did the pit L cut?

5. The pit cut L is likely:

  1. Older than stratum I
  2. Younger than stratum I
  3. Contemporaneous with stratum I

6. Artefact 1 is likely:

  1. Older than Artefact 3
  2. Younger than Artefact 3
  3. Contemporaneous with Artefact 3
  4. No relationship can be determined from the stratigraphy

Explain your answer: Artefact 1 is within the pit fill K, which was excavated through (and therefore after deposition of) Stratum I, which contains Artefact 3.

7. Artefact 2 is likely:

  1. Older than Artefact 3
  2. Younger than Artefact 3
  3. Contemporaneous with Artefact 3
  4. No relationship can be determined from the stratigraphy

Explain your answer: Stratum J (which contains Artefact 2) is above (thus younger than) Stratum I (which contains Artefact 3).

8. Draw the MATRIX of layers from I to P:

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