Archaeology and Humanity’s Story:

A Brief Introduction to World Prehistory

Chapter 7 Test Bank—The North American Southwest

Multiple-Choice Questions (30)

1. ____________________ was not one of the great traditions of the Southwest.

A) Ancestral Pueblo

B) Hohokam

C) Mandan

D) Mogollon

2. ____________________ were common in the Basketmaker phases of the Ancestral Pueblo.

A) Mammoth bone structures

B) Tepees

C) Treehouses

D) Pithouses

3. A well-known Hohokam site in Arizona is called _____________________________.

A) Snaketown

B) Monte Verde

C) Petra

D) Serpent Mound

4. A kiva is:

A) a revered elder of the Hohokam.

B) a circular ceremonial and communal structure.

C) a defensive cliff dwelling.

D) a feathered serpent in Pueblo oral tradition.

5. In the North American Southwest the BM period signifies __________________________.

A) Basketmaker

B) Bison Midden

C) Black Mesa

D) Basin McPhee

6. Shabik’eschee Village is a large pithouse community in _________________________.

A) Idaho

B) Puerto Rico

C) Texas

D) New Mexico

7. The __________ to ____________ transition is a defining feature of the P I period.

A) pueblo; phenomenon

B) pueblo; kiva

C) pithouse; pueblo

D) kiva; jacal

8. The abbreviation P I refers to the ______________ I period.

A) Phase

B) Pueblo

C) Pottery

D) Paleoamerican

9. _________________ were fully domesticated in the P I period.

A) Alpacas

B) Bison

C) Guinea pigs

D) Turkeys

10. Chacoan outliers were linked to the canyon by a series of __________________.

A) roads

B) gradually descending steps

C) slab-lined mazes

D) whitewater rapids

11. Most of the logs imported into Chaco Canyon were from _______________________.

A) acacia

B) Leyland cypress

C) ponderosa pine

D) coast redwood

12. Archaeologists have identified approximately _______ Chacoan outliers.

A) 9

B) 67

C) 115

D) 200

13. Pottery vessels from Chaco contained ______________ residue.

A) cacao

B) cheese

C) whale blubber

D) macaw

14. Based on ethnographic observations, many archaeologists assume that grain grinding was a __________________ task among the Ancestral Pueblo.

A) rare

B) female

C) warrior

D) forbidden

15. __________________ is another name for the Ancestral Pueblo of the American Southwest.

A) Paleopueblo

B) Anasazi

C) Hohokam

D) Chuska

16. The Mesa Verde region featured _________________ kivas.

A) star-shaped

B) triangular

C) keyhole-shaped

D) octagonal

17. The decline of the Chaco Phenomenon began about ________________.

A) 1100 cal BC

B) AD 1130

C) AD 1532

D) AD 780

18. ___________________ is an enduring figure of Hopi oral tradition.

A) Viracocha

B) Ponda Baba

C) Gilgamesh

D) Kokopele

19. Which of these Southwestern peoples were most associated with canal irrigation?

A) Patayan

B) Ancestral Pueblo

C) Mimbres

D) Hohokam

20. Mesoamerican-style ballcourts were found at _____________________.

A) Atl Atl Cave

B) Snaketown

C) Pueblo Bonito

D) Chetro Ketl

21. __________________ is a well-preserved Hohokam great house south of modern-day Phoenix.

A) Casa Grande

B) Kin Bineola

C) Sunflower Ruin

D) Pueblo Alta

22. ________________ Pueblo had three roomblock structures divided by a stream (now dry).

A) Turkey

B) Jackrabbit

C) Grasshopper

D) Macaw

23. The Classic Mimbres phase site _______ Ranch included roomblocks and kivas.

A) CRM

B) NAN

C) NAGPRA

D) BM

24. Boiling stones made of ________________ may even have compensated for some of the nutritional deficiencies of a high corn diet.

A) limestone

B) granite

C) sandstone

D) pumice

25. Which of these techniques would be best applied to dating Mimbres ceramics?

A) Radiocarbon dating

B) Paleomagnetism

C) Potassium-argon dating

D) Thermoluminescence

26. According to human behavioral ecology, ____________ has initially higher marginal costs than ____________.

A) foraging; farming

B) fishing; farming

C) farming; foraging

D) foraging; feasting

27. What is jacal?

A) A stick and mud construction technique.

B) An edible and moisture-filled cactus.

C) A Puebloan pottery style.

D) A mythical beast of the Sonoran desert.

28. The taller stature of Chaco’s great house inhabitants suggests:

A) that Chacoan elites were chosen based on height.

B) that they interbred with Neandertals.

C) that they had better nutrition.

D) that meat was not part of their diet.

29. The central great houses of Chaco are sometimes referred to as ______________________.

A) “downtown”

B) “outliers”

C) “the place where time began”

D) “elite zone”

30. Chaco Canyon reached its social and economic peak during the _______________ Phase.

A) Early Agricultural

B) Dynastic

C) Formative

D) Bonito

/Questions (10)

1. In the North American Southwest, the Paleoamerican period is followed by the Archaic period. (

2. California is not considered part of the Southwest archaeological region. (

3. Chaco Canyon was part of the Hohokam cultural tradition. (

4. The most well-known great house of Chaco Canyon is Mos Eisley. (

5. Iron was imported into Chaco Canyon during the Bonito Phase. (

6. There is very little evidence of warfare in the Ancestral Pueblo region. (

7. It is possible to boil water in a tightly-woven basket without exposing the basket to open flames. (

8. Extraordinary organic materials preserve in the Southwest because of its dry conditions. (

9. Maize was first domesticated by the Ancestral Pueblo. (

10. The North American Southwest has particularly well-established tree-ring sequences. (

1. What were the seven Ancestral Pueblo periods discussed in Chapter 7?

2. What is the pithouse-to-pueblo transition?

3. Why are Mimbres bowls usually found broken and/or with a hole punched in the center?

4. Describe a kiva. What were these used for?

5. What types of material remains suggest that Chaco Canyon had a trade relationship with Mesoamerica?

6. How does the figure of Kokopele link Ancestral Pueblo and modern Hopi people?

7. Why did ceramics become preferable to basketry in BM III and into P I?

8. Where did the maize and squash incorporated by Late Archaic hunter-gatherer-foragers originate?

9. What features made Hohokam canal irrigation so remarkable?

10. Why do we not refer to an agricultural “revolution” in the Southwest?

1. Describe the Chaco Phenomenon. What details made Chaco so phenomenal?

2. “Despite the variety of landforms and vegetation, the entire Southwest is dry. Everywhere, water is the critical resource for life” (Cordell 1997:3. Archaeology of the Southwest). How did this basic environmental fact affect people in the North American Southwest?

3. What archaeological evidence suggests social stratification, or a separation between elites and commoners, in and around Chaco Canyon? Is there widespread agreement about the nature of political power in the canyon?

4. In subsequent chapters, we will see a number of instances of violence and warfare in prehistoric societies around the globe. Based on the discussion in Chapter 7, how much violence and warfare occurred in the Ancestral Pueblo region? What evidence can you cite?

5. What factors likely played a role in the abandonment of the Ancestral Pueblo, Hohokam, and Mogollon regions? How were the Spanish involved? Why is it inaccurate to say that these Ancestral people “disappeared”?