Which of the following was a characteristic of the Late Woodland Period:
a) a decline in the trade for non-local goods
b) an increase in fighting between groups
c) the adoption of maize as an essential part of the diet
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
Stonehenge
a) was built by the Druids immediately before the Roman conquest of Britain
b) was only one element of a larger, interconnected sacred landscape
c) is the only ancient monument located on the Salisbury plain
d) is now thought to be a 18th-century hoax
e) was the residence of an elite family; it was a palace.
This pottery shape is seen throughout Europe from around the middle of the 3rd
millennium bc, and is thought to have been used to hold either a honey-based drink or
beer.
a) the bell beaker
b) the urn
c) the tripod cauldron
d) the pint
e) the hogshead
Where was the first Homo erectus skeleton discovered?
a) Java, Indonesia
b) Hadar, Ethiopia
c) Blombos Cave, South Africa
d) Olduvai Gorge
e) Laetoli, Tanzania
A very influential scheme for classifying human societies was developed by Elman
Service in the 1960s. According to Service, societies could be divided into the
following categories:
a) moieties, tribes, kin-groups, states
b) civil states, political states, and social states
c) bands, tribes, chiefdoms, states
d) the elite, the bourgeoisie, and the workers
e) tribes, alliances, civilizations, and states
A common theme in Australian rock art is a mythological being called:
a) the Dreamtime
b) the Rainbow Warrior
c) the Rainbow Serpent
d) the Dreamtime Warrior
e) the Tasmanian Devil
Which of the following behaviors is NOT associated with the Neanderthals:
a) figural art and complex sculpture
b) intentional burial of some dead
c) cooking in simple hearths
d) woodworking
e) use of pigments
The __________ were a literate culture in what is now Italy. They lived in independent
city-states, such as Veii and Cerveteri, before the Roman Period and had extensive
contact with the Greeks and the Phoenicians.
a) Etruscans
b) Phrygians
c) Celts
d) Samnites
e) Persians
Which of the following is NOT true about ancient Mesoamerica:
a) an estimated 260 languages were spoken there at the time of the Spanish Conquest.
b) by the time of the Spanish Conquest the region contained virtually no
hunter-gatherers.
c) the people of Mesoamerica traded with the cultures of Colombia and the American
Southwest
d) the people were pastoralists who kept many herd animals
e) the people had sophisticated writing and calendrical systems
Following the fall of Mycenae and the end of palatial civilization, the Mediterranean
entered into a period that is sometimes called:
a) the Heroic Age
b) the Hellenistic Period
c) the Dark Age
d) the Minoan Period
e) the Macedonian Age
We know that Paleoindian groups west of the Rockies made baskets, nets, lines, and
cords out of plant fibers because:
a) some have been preserved in the dry caves of the area
b) unlike inorganic remains, organic remains survive quite well in the archaeological
record
c) they recorded how to make them in fig-bark codices
d) Europeans saw Paleoindian groups making them
e) they would have been required for the transport of monumental stone sculptures
The famous Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known as _________, developed a new
religion based around the worship of the sun and centered in a new capital city, Amarna.
He also may have been the father of King Tutankhamun.
a) Akhenaten
b) Ramesses II
c) Nefertiti
d) Khufu
e) Imhotep
There is evidence that chocolate was consumed at some sites in the American
Southwest prior to European contact, hinting at long-distance and costly trade with
Mesoamerica.
Asoka, who reigned from 272 to 235 bc and was the third emperor of the __________
Empire, issued a series of political and philosophical edicts that were displayed on 36
stone pillars and boulders throughout his empire.
a) Taxila
b) Indo-Aryan
c) Mauryan
d) Harappan
e) Gandharan Grave Culture
During the Archaic period the cultures of the Pacific Northwest developed a subsistence
strategy based primarily on:
a) maritime resources
b) maize farming
c) herding and pastoralism
d) cultivation of agave
e) bison kills
The development of increasingly complex societies in Southeast Asia was helped by
both maritime trade and:
a) contact with Europe
b) contact with Polynesia
c) contact with coastal South America
d) contact with South Africa
e) contact with India
To Western eyes, it is remarkable that the cultures of Mesoamerica developed into
complexity and monumental societies given their lack of diverse technology ” none of
the cultures of Mesoamerica developed:
a) writing
b) the wheel
c) domesticated plants
d) domesticated animals
e) stone working
Depictions of humped and humpless varieties of cattle found in examples of
____________ from Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia provided researchers with
information about the adoption of pastoralism in the region.
a) embroidered cloth
b) rock art
c) clay tablets
d) gold and silver ornaments
e) papyrus
South Asia’s earliest known Neolithic communities were located in:
a) Sri Lanka
b) western Pakistan
c) the Tibetan Plateau
d) Bangladesh
e) the southern tip of India
The __________ linked China with India and Rome.
a) Great Wall
b) Silk Road
c) Yellow River Canal
d) Royal Mile
e) Pacific Ocean
Which of the following states/civilizations never developed writing:
a) the Inca (South America)
b) the Harappan (Pakistan/India)
c) the ancient Egyptians
d) the Maya (Central America)
e) all of these states developed writing
The oldest firmly documented Acheulean site outside Africa is located in:
a) Java
b) China
c) Spain
d) India
e) Israel
The spread of cattle pastoralism into Southern Africa was limited by the climactic and
environmental conditions favored by:
a) the early pastoralists themselves
b) the humpless variety of cattle
c) the tsetse fly
d) the humped variety of cattle
e) warlike hunter-gatherer groups who were hostile to outsiders
During the Early Dynastic period
a) some Sumerian city-states traded with upper Mesopotamia and Iran, but each region
had a distinct culture
b the Sumerian city-states were dominated by the cultures of Iran and administered
from the Iranian site of Susa
c) the Sumerian city-states ruled over the sites of Iran and upper Mesopotamia and
imposed their material culture and religion on that region
d) the Sumerian city-states had no contact whatsoever with upper Mesopotamia and
Iran
e) both the Sumerian city-states and the cultures of Iran were controlled by Egypt’s
Pharaoh
Which of the following is NOT a cranial characteristic of anatomically modern humans:
a) cranial capacity usually in excess of 1350 cc
b) a distinct chin
c) a vertical (not rounded) back of the skull, with a forward-projecting (prognathic) face
d) a relatively vertical forehead
e) a non-continuous brow ridge that this expressed more clearly in males than in
females.
Shifting farming, which was the characteristic farming strategy of the northern
Southwest throughout the prehistoric period, involved:
a) constructing complex irrigation systems so that larger groups could live together in
long-term villages
b) switching between three core crops so that fields never experienced diminished
productivity
c) slashing the jungle and burning the vegetable refuse to create fertile soils
d) using only local wild plants for cultivation purposes and never adopting squash or
maize
e) family groups cultivating small plots in frequently changing residential locales
The spread of Hinduism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia was, in part, the result of:
a) an expansionist invasion from Japan
b) a lack of cultural exchange in the region
c) seaborne trade
d) the influence of overland trade and the Silk Road
e) a rise in sea level
Of the three Minoan scripts that have been identified, the only one to be deciphered is
__________, which was found to be an early form of written Greek.
a) Linear A
b) Linear B
c) Linear C
d) hieroglyphic Minoan
e) all of the above have been deciphered
As more settlements turned to rice cultivation, new lithic forms appeared in the toolkits
of sedentary communities, including:
a) swords
b) sickles
c) spades
d) a and b only
e) b and c only
__________ are residential groups that cooperate in basic economic activities and retain
control over land, surplus, and other resources by restricting sharing to members.
a) States
b) Households
c) Moieties
d) Pueblos
e) Mound centers
The Eanna Precinct, where the goddess Inanna was worshipped, and the An Temple,
dedicated to the sky god Anu, are two cult complexes that have been excavated at the
site of:
a) Tell el-Amarna
b) Uruk
c) Halaf
d) Babylon
e) Ubaid
The domestication of plants during the Archaic period in the Americas:
a) was a late economic strategy, which was developed with no “founder crops” spread
by colonizing farmers
b) happened in one location, coastal Peru, and spread to the rest of the continent
c) was one of the earliest economic strategies employed by Archaic peoples
d) caused most groups to give up their hunting and gathering economies entirely
e) none of the above, plants were never domesticated in the Americas
Some scholars believe that the domestication of __________ in the Ganges Basin was
an indigenous development, while others believe that this staple was introduced from
elsewhere during the middle of the 2nd millennium bc.
a) corn
b) sorghum
c) taro
d) rice
e) squash
Which of the following Andean civilizations dates to the Middle Horizon:
a) the Inca
b) Wari
c) Tiwanaku
d) all of the above
e) b and c only
Aurochs were a type of wild cattle found in Europe during the early Holocene.
Based on evidence such as minted coins bearing the names of rulers, some
archaeologists believe that true states formed beyond the Mediterranean in late
prehistoric Europe.
Plant foods formed the bulk of the early hominin diet, with meat and animal products
an important but much smaller portion of their total food intake.
Recent studies of preserved ancient DNA have suggested that humans interbred with
Neanderthals.
In the Andes, like other cradles of civilization, urban centers with large temples and
elite residences arose long after the invention of pottery.
All state-level societies developed a form of writing.
Because Africa is so small it is not environmentally diverse: the climate is roughly the
same throughout the continent.
In early Holocene east Africa, obsidian was traded over long distances prior to the
adoption of farming.
Some rock art from Scandinavia appears to depict ships with multiple rowers.
Reliable dating and interpretation of the fossil record are the primary ways that
competing hypotheses about the origins of modern humans are tested.
The process of evolution almost never results in many closely related branches of
species.
Zongzhou was the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which dates to almost a
millennium before the Western Zhou dynasty (which was based at Louyang).
Korean tutors brought literacy to Japan during the reign of Ojin (c. ad 346 to 395).
Most Neolithic figurines found in southeastern Europe are either female or genderless.
Luminescence Dating is particularly suitable for dating sandy deposits.
Although some variation can be seen between assemblages from different areas and
time period, Acheulean tool forms remained largely unchanged from 1.76 million years
ago until 250,000 years ago.
Much of our information about the Levant in the Middle Bronze Age comes from an
archive of around 20,000 cuneiform texts found at the site of Mari.
While hunter-harvesters could operate successfully in any number of locations, the
environments that can sustain mixed farming societies are very few.
Burial mounds were the only type of earthworks built by the Early and Middle
Woodland Period peoples of Ohio and Kentucky.
Archaeology can be used to study both the amazing achievements of human culture and
the mundane details of everyday life.