RUTGERS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS, HUMANITIES AND
SOCIAL SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF HISTORY, CULTURE AND HERITAGE STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
ARCHAEOLOGY (INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE)
COURSE CODE: ARCH 401 COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAMINATION
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2025/2026
subsistence strategies
hunter gatherers, horticulture, pastoralism, intensive agriculture
Hunter-gatherers: survive entirely on wild food, both plant and animal. No technologies that
come along with crops or livestock. Their technologies are light and mobile. They will travel
through landscape seasonally.
Horticulture: Groups that use domesticated plants and animals at a low level. Small household,
supplementing the food they can grow with wild foods. Usually sedentary. Only produce enough
food for their small communities for a year. No large surpluses or storage.
Pastoralism: Also uses domesticated products but main focus is on animals. Depending on the
animal they heard, they can be sedentary or nomadic.
Intensive Agriculture: Most complex of the 4. Large-scale use of domesticated plants and
animals. Allows surplus to feed a larger population. Not everyone is required to work in food
production so this leads to craft and labor specialization. High levels of complexity are seen on
every level of the archaeological record. Ex food, shelter, tech, population, sedentism etc.
direct evidence of diet reconstruction
1|Page
, Require almost no inference
indirect evidence of diet reconstruction
going to require higher levels of inference and are aided by understanding the context of their
discovery.
paleofeces
Direct evidence, since it has passed through a human digestive tract These can only survive in
specific condition.
Coprolites: Fossilized feces.
Cess or cess pits: Can aid in reconstruction of diet, sometimes from an entire population.
Gut content: Most uncommon form since they require the preservation of human tissue. Think
back to Incan child mummies and Bog Bodies
faunal remains
includes bone and shell. Think back to bison example from class. Cut marks found on the bone
suggest that the bison were butchered on site. This is an indirect evidence because we are
inferring that they were killed to eat. Faunal remains are indirect evidences and require a great
deal of inference based on context.
botanical remains
2|Page
SOCIAL SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF HISTORY, CULTURE AND HERITAGE STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
ARCHAEOLOGY (INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE)
COURSE CODE: ARCH 401 COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAMINATION
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2025/2026
subsistence strategies
hunter gatherers, horticulture, pastoralism, intensive agriculture
Hunter-gatherers: survive entirely on wild food, both plant and animal. No technologies that
come along with crops or livestock. Their technologies are light and mobile. They will travel
through landscape seasonally.
Horticulture: Groups that use domesticated plants and animals at a low level. Small household,
supplementing the food they can grow with wild foods. Usually sedentary. Only produce enough
food for their small communities for a year. No large surpluses or storage.
Pastoralism: Also uses domesticated products but main focus is on animals. Depending on the
animal they heard, they can be sedentary or nomadic.
Intensive Agriculture: Most complex of the 4. Large-scale use of domesticated plants and
animals. Allows surplus to feed a larger population. Not everyone is required to work in food
production so this leads to craft and labor specialization. High levels of complexity are seen on
every level of the archaeological record. Ex food, shelter, tech, population, sedentism etc.
direct evidence of diet reconstruction
1|Page
, Require almost no inference
indirect evidence of diet reconstruction
going to require higher levels of inference and are aided by understanding the context of their
discovery.
paleofeces
Direct evidence, since it has passed through a human digestive tract These can only survive in
specific condition.
Coprolites: Fossilized feces.
Cess or cess pits: Can aid in reconstruction of diet, sometimes from an entire population.
Gut content: Most uncommon form since they require the preservation of human tissue. Think
back to Incan child mummies and Bog Bodies
faunal remains
includes bone and shell. Think back to bison example from class. Cut marks found on the bone
suggest that the bison were butchered on site. This is an indirect evidence because we are
inferring that they were killed to eat. Faunal remains are indirect evidences and require a great
deal of inference based on context.
botanical remains
2|Page
