Sumerian civilizations came into being as a result of a combination of social and
a. religious factors.
b. economic factors.
c. environmental factors.
d. warfare factors.
This consequence of food production prevented people from reverting back to hunting
and gathering.
a. environmental degradation
b. animal species extinction
c. specialization
d. population growth
What are ancient writings featuring pictures or ideographic symbols?
a. pictographs
b. petroglyphs
c. brushscript
d. hieroglyphs
Which of the following is a vital part of human social relations and a central issue in the
study of ancient human societies?
a. sex
b. gender
c. households
d. culture
This Australopithecine may have been among the first of a doomed line of
robust hominins.
a. Australopithecus boisei
b. Australopithecus aethiopicus
c. Australopithecus robustus
d. Australopithecus africanus
In highly centralized societies, the propagation of religious beliefs and ideologies is
mostly through
a. ritual.
b. art and architecture.
c. word of mouth.
d. chants.
The origins of writing in Mesopotamia dates to a time soon after the adoption of
a. religion.
b. economics.
c. food production.
d. social stratification.
Which of the following is true of Sican culture?
a. It filled the vacuum left by the decline of the Moche in the Montaro Basin.
b. It was remarkable for its magnificent gold work.
c. It reached its peak between 1100 and 1450.
d. all of the above
The towers at Hovenweep, Colorado served as
a. observatories.
b. ritual sacrifice centers.
c. ritual meeting places.
d. grist mills for maize.
The early Mesopotamian city of Uruk included satellite villages with their own
a. political system.
b. trade routes.
c. irrigation.
d. religion.
What type of preservation condition can preserve nearly every element of an
archaeological site?
a. dry
b. waterlogged
c. cold
d. volcanic ash
Which subdiscipline of archaeology studies the earliest human beings before written
history?
a. prehistoric archaeology
b. paleoanthropology
c. classical archaeology
d. Egyptology
Domesticated animals and grains were probably introduced into southeastern Europe
from
a. Asia.
b. Egypt.
c. northwestern Europe.
d. Africa.
During the late Ice Age, the Sahara was
a. a vast grassland.
b. wetter than present conditions.
c. dry, if not drier than modern times.
d. 75% covered with glaciers.
Chinese villagers harvested rice by
a. 2000 B.C.
b. 4000 B.C.
c. 6000 B.C.
d. 8000 B.C.
They added maize as a new and valuable supplement to their diet of game, fish, nuts,
and plants.
a. Hohokam
b. Mogollan
c. Mississippian
d. Ancestral Pueblo
The objects manufactured or modified by humans
a. are artifacts.
b. represent the material culture of all humanity.
c. pertain to our creative ability.
d. do not in and of themselves prove our humanity.
Copn, Palenque, and Uxmal are all cities of which civilization revealed by Stephens and
Catherwood?
a. Ur
b. Nineveh
c. Aztec
d. Maya
Angkor Thom was built by the ruler
a. Jayavarman II.
b. Shiva.
c. Suryavarman II.
d. Jayavarman VII.
It is NOT a vital ethical responsibility of an archaeologist
a. to make a complete record of the excavation.
b. to excavate only within the context of a specific research design.
c. to respect the feelings of the local people.
d. to pursue and punish any unethical behavior.
Archaeological sites discovered in the course of a construction project are an example
of discovery by
a. surface surveying.
b. accident.
c. landscape signatures.
d. intensive surveying.
Forty-thousand year-old ground stone axes have been discovered on the Huon
Peninsula of
a. Africa.
b. Australia.
c. New Zealand.
d. New Guinea.
The popular belief in places like Atlantis, Mu, Tiwanaku, or the continuous search for
Noah’s Ark, are all in the realm of
a. pseudoarchaeology.
b. religious archaeology.
c. industrial archaeology.
d. zooarchaeology.
As Chavn de Huntar rose to prominence in the northern highlands, a separate
Early Horizon tradition of complex society, Chiripa, developed
a. on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca.
b. in the Cuzco Valley.
c. in the desert of Northern Peru.
d. on the Nazca Plains.
The most southerly region of the Earth settled by Ice Age people.
a. Antarctica
b. Australia
c. Tasmania
d. The Palau Islands
The longest living and one of the earliest pre-industrial civilizations.
a. Sumeria
b. ancient Egypt
c. ancient Mexico
d. Mayan
Which subdiscipline of archaeology studies the remains of the great civilizations of
ancient Greece and Rome?
a. prehistoric archaeology
b. paleoanthropology
c. classical archaeology
d. Egyptology
NOT one of the general conditions necessary to develop a complex forager society.
a. population movements must be limited
b. resources have to be abundant and predictable
c. reduction of local animal species due to natural climatic changes
d. population growth resulting in an imbalance between people and the food supply
These are normally defined by natural geographic boundaries and display some cultural
homogeneity.
a. horizons
b. traditions
c. regions
d. components
Maize was domesticated in Mesoamerica about the same time as
a. the Pyramids of Giza were built.
b. the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
c. early Homo was migrating out of Africa.
d. the Spanish destroyed Tenochtitln.
These types of artifacts are based on cultural use.
a. functional
b. artistic
c. chronological
d. decorative
The one that is NOT a great Southwestern ancestral cultural tradition.
a. Hohokam
b. Mogollan
c. Mississippian
d. Ancestral Pueblo