The results of various DNA studies indicate that traits such as skin color are more
diverse in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else. This supports the idea that Homo
sapiens evolved in Africa because:
a) other Homo species, such as Homo erectus, arriving in Africa would have brought
features with them
b) Homo sapiens would have spent very little time in Africa before moving out to other
areas, so that a population bottleneck would have occurred
c) Homo sapiens would have had a longer connection to Africa and so there was more
time for random mutations in such features to occur
d) the environmental conditions of sub-Saharan Africa are such that they promote rapid
evolutionary change, a situation not found elsewhere in the world
e) these traits appear to have come from the Neanderthals, and humans and
Neanderthals only mixed in Africa
So-called “delayed return” strategies that may have been employed by Late
Epipaleolithic groups include:
a) making nets to trap birds
b) harvesting and then storing food
c) constructing fish-weirs (traps)
d) all of the above
e) a and c only
Another term for the “Old Stone Age” is:
a) Holocene
b) Neolithic
c) Anthopocene
d) Paleolithic
e) the Golden Age
The Late Paleoindian period societies of the Plains and the Rocky Mountains shared a
number of adaptive strategies, notably that ________ were a high-ranked subsistence
resource.
a) species of maize
b) pigs
c) aurochs
d) bison
e) domesticated grains and pulses
At the famous Middle Woodland Period site of __________ in Ohio, more than 100
obsidian tools were found that were clearly intended for display: they were curiously
shaped and had no practical use.
a) Hopewell
b) Kennewick
c) Mesa Verde
d) Moundville
e) Muscogee
The first rice cultivation in _______ is associated with the Yayoi culture, which dates to
between 300 bc and 300 ad.
a) Japan
b) Thailand
c) Korea
d) Vietnam
e) Hong Kong
A(n) ____________, meaning “high city,” is found at most Greek cities. It was used as
both a place of cult worship and a more secure place to be turned to in times of danger.
a) agora
b) acropolis
c) forum
d) parthenon
e) stoa
The Neanderthal body appears to have been particularly adapted to:
a) a physically demanding lifestyle
b) the cold and dry northern tundra
c) the warm and arid savannah
d) a and b only
e) a and c only
Compared to the Paleoindian groups of the plains and the Rockies, the Paleoindian
groups of the forests of eastern North America:
a) utilized a more restricted number of plant and animal resources to meet their dietary
needs
b) utilized a greater variety of plant and animal resources to meet their dietary needs
c) utilized larger bison drive sites to meet their dietary needs
d) utilized exactly the same plant and animal resources to meet their dietary needs
e) developed intensive farming early to meet their dietary needs
Some researchers believe that Hohokam ballcourts suggest and entirely local ball game,
while others suggest they represent a Southwestern version of the famous __________
ball game.
a) Andean
b) Northeastern
c) Mesoamerican
d) African
e) Spanish
Homo ergaster was able to colonize the hot, arid, and seasonal environments of Africa
because, anatomically,
a) it was quite tall (as tall as modern humans)
b) it had a slim body
c) it had long limbs
d) it had a forward projecting, external nose
e) all of the above
At the end of the last Ice Age, the population of the world may have numbered:
a) no more than 1000 people
b) perhaps only a few million
c) between 15 and 20 million
d) none ” modern humans had become extinct
e) an unknown number because we have no means of even estimating it
Once the first group of states was established, empires formed as a result of
a) a desire for economic gain
b) warfare and conquest of aggressive enemies
c) a desire to neutralize the power of those who might later conquer one’s land
d) the personal ambition of rulers
e) all of the above
Chickens:
a) were present in Egypt before the rest of Africa
b) were first domesticated in India and Southeast Asia
c) were never kept south of the equator in Africa
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
By the Early Intermediate Period in the sierra highlands and along the desert coast,
governance was in the hands of an elite class of individuals, whom the Spaniards later
called the:
a) kuraka class
b) ayllu class
c) suyu class
d) Inca
e) quipucamayoc
In Greek cities, the ____________ or market place was the center of economic and
political activity.
a) acropolis
b) kouros
c) parthenon
d) agora
e) oracle
At the waterlogged Mesolithic site of __________ in Northeast England, 21 modified
deer skulls with their antlers still attached have been found. These appear to have been
used as headdresses by the hunter-gatherers who used that site.
a) Star Carr
b) Jorvik
c) Danbury
d) Stonehenge
e) Avebury
One reason that mounted hunters on the Great Plains were less vulnerable than settled
villagers to newly introduced diseases was that:
a) they could reach a hospital more easily
b) they only had irregular contact with each other, so there was less chance for disease
to spread
c) village people had no medicines
d) they had no contact at all with the diseases
e) a and c only
The closest example of a __________ presence in South Asia is the site of Ai Khanoum
in northern Afghanistan, where a quotation from the oracle at Delphi has been found.
a) Roman
b) Egyptian
c) Chinese
d) Hellenistic Greek
e) Polynesian
Based on analysis of human burials, rice cultivation seems to have reached Japan as a
result of the intrusion of outsiders who were most likely from:
a) Vietnam
b) Russia
c) Polynesia
d) Korea
e) Thailand
Territorially more extensive and organizationally more complex, _______ form when
states expand and consume other states.
a) colonies
b) empires
c) trade zones
d) city-states
e) none of the above
Many of the cultures of Southwest Asia employed a system of writing based on “wedge
shaped” characters. This writing is called:
a) hieroglyphics
b) linear A
c) cuneiform
d) Indus Valley script
c) Phoenician
The crucial innovation in human demographic history that allowed populations to grow
dramatically was:
a) warfare
b) forest burning
c) pottery making
d) agriculture
e) stone architecture
Lapita subsistence was based on:
a) plant cultivation
b) domestication of pigs, fowl, and dogs
c) fishing and sea resources
d) all of the above
e) b and c only
Most archaeological work is based on the study of material culture. Material culture is:
a) the way that humans have been influenced by the natural environment
b) the idea that societies pass through different “ages” or levels of complexity
c) now ignored by professional archaeologists
d) found primarily within written records
e) the physical remains of human activities in the past
The introduction to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries of foreign technologies,
such as metal fishhooks and dugout canoes, brought about major social changes in
Aboriginal society and allowed them to:
a) exploit the environment in such a way that enabled them to live in larger, more
sedentary groups
b) successfully repel European settlers from the best agricultural land in Australia
c) resist the effects of European diseases
d) live in much smaller, much more mobile groups
e) all of the above
In strictly ethnic terms, there may never have been a unified and united group of people
who called themselves:
a) the Celts
b) the Romans
c) the Greeks
d) the Norse
e) all of the above
The site of _______ in western Syria was a key point where east”west and north”south
trade routes met during the middle Bronze Age and is the site of the great palace of
Zimri-Lim.
a) Babylon
b) Troy
c) Mari
d) Susa
e) Akkad
The Early Iron Age Kingdom of Judah, located in the Levant, was centered on the city
of:
a) Tyre
b) Babylon
c) Jerusalem
d) Nineveh
e) CanaanC
The origins of agriculture in East Asia involved the cultivation of two main plant
species:
a) millet and rice
b) taro and rice
c) maize and rice
d) squash and rice
e) beans and rice
Jin, Wei, and Yan were all:
a) early historians who recorded information about the Shang
b) the sites of battles between the Shang and the Changjiang
c) Zhou states
d) the primary deities of early Korea
e) Ming Dynasty emperors
In ancient Mesopotamia, literacy
a) was reserved for only the king
b) was very common among all men in society but not women
c) was almost exclusively limited to professional scribes.
d) was enjoyed by nearly all people in society
e) was not introduced until the 1st century ad
The Thule people of the Arctic, despite the harsh conditions, were able to enhance the
availability of critical resources through:
a) peaceful trade with the Dorset people
b) sophisticated technology that included specialized harpoons and skin-covered boats
c) successful farming
d) a system of transhumance
e) bison hunting