The earliest evidence in Europe for _____________ comes from sites near Almera in
Spain.
a) weaving
b) ironworking
c) copperworking
d) written language
e) rice cultivation
Projectile technology, namely the use of bows and arrows and spear throwers, is a
behavioral innovation first seen during
a) the Mousterian
b) the Aurignacian
c) the Gravettian
d) the Oldowan
e) the Bronze Age
The spread of Beaker pottery across Western Europe is closely tied to the spread of:
a) metallurgy
b) the plague
c) domesticated grains
d) written language
e) Urnfield cemeteries
This 6th millennium bc cultural group, whose settlements took the form of massive
longhouses, had its origins in Hungary but eventually spread across the whole of central
Europe.
a) Knossos
b) Star Carr
c) Bandkeramik
d) the Druids
e) the Celts
At the Mesolithic sites of the Ganges Plain a reliance on plants as a source of food can
be inferred from:
a) a paucity of stone blades and a large number of grinding implements
b) texts that detail indigenous recipes
c) field systems preserved in a bog
d) the knowledge that the people of India are often vegetarians
e) a lack of animals in the region
A massive bronze krater (mixing bowl) dating to 530 bc was found in a grave at the site
of Vix in France, indicating that the region had extensive trade connections. The krater
was made by ____________ craftsmen:
a) African
b) Greek
c) Russian
d) Chinese
e) Scandinavian
Preserved bog bodies, which date to around the 1st millennium bc,
a) primarily represent unfortunate travelers who became lost and were drowned in the
bog
b) are not mentioned in Roman texts
c) appear to represent intentional acts, perhaps capital punishment or human sacrifice
d) represent people who died of natural causes
e) are found only in the warm climates of the Mediterranean
Skulls found at the site of Sima de los Huesos and dated to between 600,000 and
530,000 years ago are often considered to be ____________ because they display a
combination of earlier and later characteristics.
a) Homo sapiens
b) the missing link between humans and monkeys
c) proto-Neanderthal
d) Homo erectus
e) proto-Chimpanzee
By 3200 bc the people of Lower Mesopotamia were living in communities that, based
on their size and complexity, are considered to be:
a) entirely rural
b) temporary hunter-gatherer camps
c) Egyptian colonies
d) Roman colonies
e) urban
“Lucy,” a famous skeleton discovered in the 1970s in East Africa, is an example of
which hominin species?
a) Homo erectus
b) Homo sapiens
c) Proconsul
d) Ardipithecus ramidus
e) Australopithecus afarensis
At the end of the last Ice Age food resources became more abundant and human
communities were able to develop more sophisticated ways of living. This resulted in
a) an increase in human population
b) a decrease in human population
c) the human population stabilizing for the first time
d) first an increase and then a rapid decrease in human population
e) a small increase and then a gradual leveling out of human population
The site of Caral is a good example of cultural complexity during the Archaic period of
the Peruvian coast. Besides having eight planned neighborhoods, Caral featured:
a) pyramids
b) concentric semi-circular earthworks
c) llama pens
d) ceremonial caves
e) none of the above
An evaluation of the various hypotheses concerning the evolution of modern humans
would suggest that most genetic evidence supports:
a) an African origin for Homo sapiens
b) a Western European origin for Homo sapiens
c) hybridization with Neanderthals for the origin of Homo sapiens
d) an Asian origin for Homo sapiens
e) all of the above
With a distribution stretching from Kalibangan in the east to Rehman Dheri in the west,
the widespread use of the Kot Dijian ceramic style from 3200 to 2600 bc is seen as an
indicator of __________ and an early pointer towards the Indus civilization.
a) Chinese influence
b) cultural convergence
c) invasion from the north
d) cultural collapse
e) Egyptian influence
At cave sites such as Diaotonghuan and Xianrendong in Jiangxi Province, the
reappearance of wild rice remains after the Younger Dryas corresponds with a period of
_________, which occurred between 8000 and 6000 bc.
a) monsoon rain
b) cooling
c) warming
d) Ice Age conditions
e) El Nio conditions
DNA evidence indicates that the type of bottle gourd cultivated in the Americas by at
least 8000 bc has its origins in Asia.
The idea that if a sequence of sediments is unmixed and undisturbed, the oldest layers
will be at the bottom, is known as:
a) the Principle of Superposition
b) the Three Age system
c) the Principle of Association
d) processualism
e) cultural geology
By around 800 bc, domesticated ________ are seen in the archaeological record of the
American Southwest where they seem to have been first used as ceremonial animals
and then as meat animals by around ad 1000.
a) llamas
b) cats
c) pigs
d) goats
e) turkeys
Deceased Inca rulers:
a) were mummified
b) were venerated as religious objects or deities
c) “resided” in their former residences or in temples
d) were displayed during important ceremonies
e) all of the above
The earliest identifiable state in Africa outside of Egypt appears to be that of
_________, in Nubia (modern Sudan).
a) Amarna
b) Kerma
c) Zimbabwe
d) Bantu
e) Narmer
Obsidian from only four key source locations has been found at Neolithic sites
throughout Southwest Asia.
One of the greatest obstacles to our understanding of the Indus civilization is
a) the lack of any preserved Indus civilization sites
b) that the main Indus sites are located under large modern cities
c) that, as hunter-gatherers, their sites were small and ephemeral
d) our in ability to read the Indus script
e) the Indus River has washed away all of their sites
West African urban centers of the 1st millennium ad:
a) were founded originally by Arab traders
b) were stimulated by, but not initiated by, Arab traders
c) did not participate in the extensive trade networks of Arabs from the north
d) were the result of Egyptian expansion
e) were non-existent
The primary new stone tool technology seen throughout South Asian Neolithic period
sites takes the form of:
a) arrowheads made of a single piece of stone
b) sickle blades
c) microliths combined to form arrowheads
d) hand axes
e) grinding stones
A cultural phenomenon that involves intentionally preparing fields, harvesting plants,
and storing plant part is:
a) cultivation
b) herding
c) agriculture
d) natural selection
e) domestication
Cultural traits that we associate with the emergence of Mesoamerican “kingship,” such
as “royal portraits” on stone monuments, are first seen in:
a) the Late Preclassic Period
b) the Late Classic Period
c) the Early Formative Period
d) the Postclassic Period
e) the Early Colonial Period
Excavations at the site of Abu Hureyra in Syria have shown that the transition from
foraging to farming:
a) was a sudden, single shift from one lifestyle to another
b) was the result of a devastating invasion from the south
c) was a gradual process that extended over centuries
d) was brought about by Ice Age climate change
e) none of the above
The primary way that Homo heidelbergensis differed from both H. erectus and H.
ergaster is that
a) H. heidelbergensis had a larger brain
b) H. heidelbergensis developed the hand axe
c) H. heidelbergensis still utilized only the Oldowan tool kit
d) H. heidelbergensis was very sexually dimorphic
e) H. heidelbergensis was very small and may have been a dwarf species
Characteristic features of historic period groups on the Plains, such as the Mandan and
Arikara, were that:
a) they lived in permanent villages consisting of large, earth-covered structures
b) they grew crops, including maize
c) they participated in annual bison hunts
d) their villages were politically and socially autonomous
e) all of the above
Hammurabi, famous today for his law code, was the king of:
a) Akkad
b) Susa
c) Troy
d) Babylon
e) Sumer
The Multi-Regional Evolution Hypothesis and the Out of Africa Hypothesis of human
evolution are mutually exclusive: there are no models that incorporate elements of both.
The Olmec cultural complex pre-dates the Classic Maya cultural complex.
Unfortunately the Paleoindian groups of the forests of eastern North America did not
have the technology to remove the tannic acid in acorns to make them edible.
The ancestor of domesticated maize was a wild plant that grew in southwest Mexico.
A common feature of Natufian sites are items of personal adornment, often found in
burials.
Some modern apes are able to make stone tools, but studies have shown that these tools
are not as sophisticated as those of the Oldowan industry.
The Inca called their realm “Tiwanaku.”
The Huns, under the command of Attila, invaded Italy in 5th century ad.
According to Elman Service’s classification of societies, a tribe is the most complex
form of society and is characterized by centralized leadership and consists of people of
different rank and wealth.
Historic and modern Aboriginal Australian society is almost exactly like early and
mid-Holocene Aboriginal society: few significant changes have occurred since
European contact.
The earliest texts found at Uruk are focused on mythical and religious subjects, usually
in epic poetic form, and do not mention administrative or economic issues.
The study of archaeology has an “upper limit.” It is only concerned with the portion of
human history that occurred before the invention of writing.