Homo ergaster was probably the first human species to leave Africa.
Hunter-gatherers sites in the Yellow River Valley that date to before 7500 bc
a) often yield large quantities of stone tools
b) offer some indications that people harvested wild foxtail millet
c) show ample evidence for the early and complete domestication of the water buffalo
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
The ascendancy of the states of Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla on the Korean Peninsula
from 57 bc to ad 668 is known as the:
a) Warring States Period
b) Hangul Period
c) Spring and Autumn Annals Period
d) Three Kingdoms Period
e) Shogunate
Which of the following tool forms are found in the Oldowan toolkit:
a) simple cores
b) sharp flakes
c) bifacial hand axes
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
The site of __________ located on the Greek mainland is known for its Cyclopean
masonry and the Lion Gate, a monumental entry point through the city’s thick walls.
a) Knossos
b) Minoa
c) Athens
d) Mycenae
e) Troy
In explanations for the spread of farming into mainland Europe:
a) some evidence supports the idea that agriculture was introduced by incoming farmers
who forced earlier societies out
b) some evidence supports the idea that agriculture was adopted by pre-existing
European groups
c) all evidence indicates that the plants and animals that were farmed in Europe were
domesticated in Europe
d) b and c
e) a and b
One of the hallmarks of Hohokam society in the American Southwest was the use of
__________ to increase agricultural output.
a) cow manure
b) pesticides
c) irrigation
d) terraces
e) all of the above
The three Neanderthal mtDNA sequences that have been analyzed indicate that:
a) Neanderthals were genetically completely different from Homo sapiens
b) Neanderthals are the result of hybridization between modern humans and Homo
heidelbergensis
c) Neanderthals and humans are not separate species and that they commonly interbred
d) Neanderthals are our direct ancestor: modern humans evolved from them
e) Neanderthals are genetically separate from modern humans, but may or may not have
been able to produce fertile offspring
The mud-brick settlements associated with the Kot Dijian ceramic style at the sites of
Kot Diji, Rehman Dheri, Kalibangan, and Harappa:
a) were small-scale structures used by hunter-gatherers
b) had been built by invading Aryans
c) were jumbled and confused, with no formal plan
d) have never been investigated
e) were formally planned
Fossils from deposits dating to ________________ clearly belong to anatomically
modern Homo sapiens.
a) 1 million years ago
b) before 500,000 years ago
c) after 25,000 years ago
d) 125,000 years ago
e) only after 10,000 years ago
The establishment of a farming settlement Knossos on Crete around 7000 bc indicates
that the colonist farmers from Anatolia must have reached parts of Europe by:
a) land bridge
b) using wheeled vehicles
c) gliders
d) dogsled
e) boat
The period known as Great Silla began in ad 668 with the:
a) fall of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty
b) Japanese invasion
c) arrival of European traders
d) unification of Korea
e) the establishment of a Chinese dynasty in Pyongyang
The moist neotropics of South America are generally referred to as:
a) the Andes
b) Amazonia
c) the Altiplano
d) the Puna
e) Titicaca
The current inter-glacial epoch, which began around 11,600 years ago, is called the:
a) Pleistocene
b) Cenozoic
c) Holocene
d) Paleocene
e) Geocene
Unlike in Hawai”i where several domesticated animals were kept, the only
domesticated animal to be introduced to New Zealand before the arrival of Europeans
was the:
a) pig
b) chicken
c) dog
d) cat
e) goat
During the early Holocene in Europe:
a) sea levels dropped as did population levels
b) glaciers advanced forcing humans southward
c) shorelines sank due to the added weight of new glaciers
d) plants and animals recolonized areas that had been too cold and dry during the Ice
Age
e) megafauna such as wooly mammoths thrived and increased
Archaeologists are unsure whether Moche sites represent a centrally organized state or a
series of loosely confederated principalities. However, all Moche sites clearly display a
shared:
a) king as recorded on the Lord of Sipn king list
b) hatred of their rivals, the Nazca
c) origin in the earlier Inca culture
d) writing system
e) ideology, as seen through the iconography on Moche artifacts
The Shang capital of __________ covered 25 square kilometers, included a royal
necropolis of 12 subterranean tombs, and pits that contained chariots with horses and
charioteers.
a) Anyang
b) Longshan
c) Shanghai
d) Chengdu
e) Xanadu
Loss of rice and millet agriculture as well as loom weaving and other cultural traits
prior to the Austronesian colonization of Oceania suggests that
a) groups experienced “bottle-neck losses” as they moved east and gradually lost
contact with their homeland cultures
b) groups experienced “population disruptions” as they encountered new diseases and
environmental threats on the islands that they encountered
c) groups were able to stay in almost constant contact with their homeland cultures
d) these types of activities were impossible on the new islands that the colonists
encountered
e) people forgot many of their cultural skills during their long sea voyages
Horses were first domesticated in the colder regions of northern Europe and
Scandinavia.
Mesoamerican writing survives:
a) on stone altars and thrones
b) on ceramic vessels
c) on architectural elements of buildings
d) in accordion-folded books
e) all of the above
The Pueblo III period site of Mesa Verde is an example of a type of large village set
along the rim of a canyon and known as a:
a) kiva
b) long house
c) hogan
d) cliff dwelling
e) mound center
In terms of climate, the evolution of modern humans occurred during a time of:
a) a remarkably stable and predictable climate
b) extremely warm weather across the entire globe
c) weather conditions very similar to the ones we experience today
d) remarkably unstable climatic conditions
e) none of the above: we do not have climatic data for the time of early human
evolution
The Indus civilization did not engage in any form of long-distance trade. No artifacts or
raw materials from the Indus civilization have ever been found out of the Indus
heartland of eastern Pakistan and Western India.
When compared with modern humans, the Turkana boy
a) had a much smaller brain
b) had a similar arm length in relation to his legs
c) had significantly larger chewing teeth
d) all of the above
e) a and c only
In ad 378 a lord named Siyaj K”ak arrived at the Maya site of Tikal, founding a dynasty
there; half a century later a lord named Yax Kuk Mo founded a dynasty at the Maya site
of Copn. Siyak K”ak and Yax Kuk Mo were closely associated with, and may have
come from, the city of __________ located hundreds of miles away.
a) Monte Albn
b) Teotihuacn
c) San Lorenzo
d) Tollan
e) Cuzco
The Parthenon, the primary temple of the acropolis at Athens, was dedicated to which
deity?
a) Athena
b) Zeus
c) Dionysus
d) Aphrodite
e) Poseidon
The Greek __________, or city-state, was an autonomous unit that embraced both a
central, urban settlement and its rural hinterland.
a) polis
b) tholos
c) heroon
d) megaron
e) acropolis
The Natufians buried their dead:
a) in regular cemeteries
b) in grave pits, sometimes with multiple bodies to a pit
c) with clothing and some body ornaments
d) mostly without what archaeologists would consider to be “grave goods”
e) all of the above
The shapes of some jade figures, such as coiled dragons, animal masks, and turtles,
which are found in Hongshan culture art are:
a) a hint at contact with Europe
b) appear to have no iconographic antecedents or successors
c) also seen in later Shang and Zhou art
d) hint at contact with South America
e) were imposed on the populace by Japan
During the reign of Sargon (2334″2279 bc) this political entity became Southwest
Asia’s first empire:
a) the Sumerian Empire
b) the Uruk Empire
c) the Phoenician Empire
d) the Akkadian Empire
e) the Persian Empire
Radiocarbon dating can be used on the very earliest human remains. In fact the method
is most effective on material that is more than 40,000 years old.
Egypt eventually became a colony of the Roman Empire.
Some scholars think that the large bell-shaped pits found at the Neolithic sites of
Kashmir and Swat Valleys represent underground dwellings.
It was during the reign of Asoka that many of the locations associated with the life of
the Buddha were developed into key pilgrimage sites.
When Tasmania became an island due to rising sea levels during the Holocene, the
human population isolated there could not adapt and died out quickly.
Resources were evenly spread over the whole Southwest Asia and thus not much
interaction or exchange took place between different groups there.
The sunflower was domesticated in eastern North America by around 2500 bc.
Most recent archaeological studies draw on both processualism and postprocessualism
to form meaningful interpretations of the past.
Archaeologists have determined that Mycenae was not the center of a kingdom and the
relatively small and unfortified sites associated with that culture had little contact with
the wider Mediterranean world.
The Sumerian city-states of the Early Dynastic period were not politically independent;
rather they were united under one centralized ruler.
Archaeology is only concerned with the material remains of the past; questions about
the social and symbolic aspects of ancient cultures are the subjects other disciplines.
In Mesopotamian records we find references to a period of salination and loss of
fertility in the late 3rd millennium bc, perhaps caused by excessive irrigation.
The Egyptians were the only African culture to build pyramids.
Chavn de Huntar is a late Inca site located in central Ecuador.
Some mtDNA evidence indicates that at one point the number of female humans on
Earth may have been as low as 1,500 due to a population bottleneck.
Australia was the last completely hunter-gatherer continent: no agricultural colonization
occurred there until the arrival of Europeans.
The Han emperors focused almost exclusively on earthly pleasures because Chinese
religion at the time had no concept of an afterlife. As a result their tombs are small with
almost no grave goods.
At African sites, the adoption of pottery always came after the adoption of agriculture.
The pictographs on Shang Dynasty oracle bones do not relate in any way to Chinese
writing as we know it and have not yet been translated.