The final exam will be on WEDNESDAY APRIL 30 at  1:00-3:00 in the usual classroom (Cavanaugh 411 for those who may not remember).  You absolutely cannot take the exam at any other time.  PLEASE DO NOT FORGET THE EXAM TIME.  Grades are due immediately after the final, so I will not schedule makeup exams.  Any exams or exercises that are not made up by the final will be recorded as a zero. Please check your current grades on Oncourse or on the grade form I returned with your second exam to determine if you have any incomplete work.  Final attendance will be posted at semester's end, but you can check with me now to see how you did.  As indicated in the course syllabus, there will be no extra credit.

The final will follow the basic format of previous tests but include more questions. The final will primarily include sections of multiple choice, matching, a true-false section, short-answer definitions, and a map.

The final is cumulative--I can and will ask you questions covering material over the complete semester. Material from the first two-thirds of the course will in many cases be taken directly from the previous study guides and exams; you can expect to see some questions taken nearly verbatim from the first two exams. Review your study guides for Exam 1 and Exam 2 in addition to this study guide.  Keep in mind that I may ask anything on the Power Point lectures or in the assigned readings, so I suggest you review these as well.

You can email me with questions or for any assistance I can give you preparing for the exam. However, please don't expect extensive email answers to every question. If you missed long periods you should review the class notes on Oncourse.

1. What is "garbology"? Are late-twentieth century westerners the first people to have a pollution crisis?  What are some ways people like the residents of Troy, the Maya, or early residents of coastal towns dealt with trash?

2.  What methods are used in William Rathje's Garbage Project research?  What is the focus of this research?

3.  What is the most common single item in refuse and landfills?

4. Based on landfill studies, how pressing a pollution dilemma are disposable diapers? Styrofoam? What composes most of a landfill's mass?

5.  What is the "Good Provider" theory?; the "Lean Cuisine" syndrome?; the "Surrogate syndrome"?  How does refuse commonly contradict these perceptions people have of their own material consumption?

6. What is a common discard pattern during food shortages?

7.  What sort of people tend to waste the least food?  What sorts of foods get discarded the least?  What foods get discarded in large quantities, and why?

8.  How many pounds of trash does the average American discard each day?

9. What does landfill archaeology suggest about how quickly refuse actually breaks down in landfills?  Is the US running out of landfill space?

10. Who was Otzi? When did he die? What sort of material culture did he carry?

11. Otzi had concentrations of arsenic and copper in his hair.  What does that suggest?  Where did Otzi probably live, and what archaeological evidence suggest this?

12. It was originally thought that Otzi had become lost in an early Fall snowstorm and died.  What evidence has made archaeologists rethink both how he died and when he died?

13. What was a possible function of Otzi's tattoos?

14. When was the site Charavines occupied?  How can archaeologists date its occupation so precisely?  Why did the site have an apparent period during which it was abandoned?  Why is the site today so well preserved?

15. How is Charavines different from Neolithic sites in the Near East?  For example, what was the population density at Charavines? How reliant were the residents of Charavines on domesticated plants and animals?  Are the residents of Charvines utterly sedentary?

16. What are megaliths?  When were megaliths first constructed?  Where are they found?

17.  What is a barrow?  Dolem?  Henge?

18.  Where is Stonehenge?  When were features first excavated at Stonehenge?  When did Stonehenge reach its zenith?

19.  What are the Aubrey Holes?  What do many of the holes contain?  What might be the astronomical significance of the Aubrey Holes?

20. What is the Sarsen Circle?  From where were the Sarsen stones taken?  What are the trilithons?  What is "the Avenue"?

21. What other astronomical function might Stonehenge have?

22. Why do human bodies preserve well in peat bogs?  Why do so many bodies end up in bogs?

23. Who is Lindow Man?  Where did he die? When did he die?  Why do archaeologists believe he was a person of status?  What might have been his role in Celtic society?

24. How did Lindow Man die?  What might have been the ritual significance of his last meal?  Who were the Celts?  Why do many Celtic sites contain objects placed in bodies of water or deep features?

25. Where is Mesopotamia? Did any group ever politically unify Mesopotamia?

26. What is the name for southern Mesopotamia and the state society that emerged there?

27. What is a tell?

28. What is a ziggurat? What sort of activities took place in a ziggurat?

29. Sumerians settled in a basic core/periphery settlement pattern.  What does this mean?

30. What is the Sumerian writing system called?  When did it emerge?  Did it change over time?  How?  Exactly how did Sumerians write cuneiform?  Did all Sumerians write using cuneiform?  What sorts of things did Sumerians record using this system?

31. Did the Sumerians conduct much trade? For what sort of goods did they trade? Why did Sumerians develop extensive trade networks from the very outset?

32.  What archaeologist excavated the Royal Cemetery at Ur?  Do the roughly 1,850 burials at Ur suggest any distinctions in status in Ur?

33. One of the burials in the Royal Cemetery is of a woman believed to have been named Puabi (a.k.a. Pu-Abi).  What did her tomb contain, and what among these grave offerings was particularly distinctive?

34.  What is the object known as the Standard of Ur?

Sites:  Know all the sites that we have discussed in class this semester, including these below:  know their locations, approximate dates, and be able to locate them on a map--know at least in what region of the world they are located.  The exam will include a map like the one thumb-nailed here:  you should be able to locate the region in which any site from the semester is located.  (You will not be asked to identify ten sites from East Africa, but you may be asked to locate ten sites scattered across the globe).

Catal Huyuk
Jericho
Ain Mallaha
Ain Ghazal
Abu Hureyra
Jarmo
Eridu
Uruk

Click here for an example of site location map like that which may appear on the final.

Last updated April 15, 2008