Deck 11: Origins of Agriculture

Question 1

Archaeological evidence indicates that ________ may have been the first plant domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.

A)wheat
B)peas
C)barley
D)corn
E)lentils

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Archaeological evidence from the Kuk Swamp site indicated that inhabitants were growing

A)wild nut grass.
B)wheat and barley.
C)taro and banana.
D)marijuana and opium poppy.
E)maize (corn).

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The shift from hunting-gathering to agriculture began well before ________ thousand years ago.

A)10
B)20
C)100
D)200
E)1000

Answer 3

A

Question 4

At the Wadi Kubbaniya excavation site,the most abundant plant remains found were which of the following?

A)wild nut grass tubers
B)potato tubers
C)cassava
D)maize (corn)
E)tomatoes

Question 5

Which of the following is true about the diets of Paleolithic foraging societies?

A)They were almost all exclusively meat-based.
B)They were almost all exclusively plant-based.
C)They were almost all nutrient poor.
D)They varied widely and seasonally from one society to another.
E)None of the above are correct.

Question 6

European mitochondrial DNA studies revealed which of the following?

A)Ancient European foragers and early European farmers were closely related.
B)Modern Europeans are directly related to ancient European foragers.
C)The first European farmers were immigrants from the Indonesian archipelago.
D)The ancient European foragers likely were Neanderthals or other ancestral clades of Homo spp.
E)All of the above are correct.

Question 7

Which of the following is correct about the "Paleo Diet?"

A)It is a nutritional diet that duplicates exactly the diets of ancestral Anatomically Modern Humans.
B)Advocates eat little very little meat.
C)The Paleo Diet eliminates atherosclerosis and heart disease.
D)The Paleo Diet is virtually the same in all hunter-gatherer societies.
E)The Paleo Diet is impossible to verify and the benefits are debatable.

Question 8

Coprolites are fossilized ________ from both invertebrates and vertebrates.

A)seeds
B)pollen
C)fecal matter
D)plant crystals
E)bones

Question 9

Archaeological evidence indicates that in Jarmo in northeastern Iraq,domestication of wheat and barley took place before ________ thousand years ago,and probably much earlier since this domestication was already well-established by this time.

A)9
B)12
C)15
D)18
E)21

Question 10

Pollen grains preserve well in soils because of which of the following?

A)tough chemical properties of the exine
B)lignified outer wall
C)numerous phytoliths found within the pollen grains
D)small size of the pollen grains
E)suberin and cutin in the epidermis

Question 11

Phytoliths

A)Are crystals of silica created in epidermal cells.
B)Can be composed of calcium oxalate.
C)Remain intact in the soil for thousands of years.
D)Can be used to identify plant species.
E)Are described by all of these statements.

Question 12

Which of the following implements provides information on the food of the botanical diet of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers?

A)grinding stones
B)sickles
C)digging implements
D)sharp stone flakes
E)All of the above provide information on the botanical diets of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.

Question 13

Which among of the following plant parts does not preserve well in the soil over long periods of time?

A)starch grains
B)flower parts
C)phytoliths
D)pollen
E)seeds

Question 14

The most decay resistant substance in a plant is which of the following?

A)cellulose
B)starch
C)hemicellulose
D)lignin
E)pectin

Question 15

The most common dietary material recovered at archaeological sites are which of the following?

A)starch grains
B)fruits
C)root tubers
D)seeds
E)leaves

Question 16

Paleolithic refers to which of the following?

A)Only those hunter-gatherer societies that used wild nut grass as food.
B)Only those hunter-gatherer societies that used tubers as food.
C)Early foraging groups of the "Old Stone Age" or preagricultural societies.
D)Those societies that used the "Paleo Diet."
E)None of the above are correct.

Question 17

Which of the modern foraging societies subsisted almost entirely on a meat-based diet?

A)the Hadza of Tanzania
B)Arctic Inuit
C)!Kung of the Kalahari Desert
D)the Botai of Central Asia
E)All of these foraging societies subsisted almost entirely on a meat-based diet.

Question 18

Which of the following is correct about the traditional !Kung foraging way of life?

A)Their diet was mainly animal based.
B)Wild nut grass tubers were an important protein source.
C)They did not consume enough calories to maintain their life style.
D)Women did most of the hunting while men engaged in warfare.
E)Their foraging activities averaged less than 3 days per week.

Question 19

Domestication syndrome refers to which of the following?

A)Diseases that domesticated plants and animals contract and that their wild counterparts do not contract.
B)The expression of a suite of genes that generate tameness and other domestication effects.
C)The effects on humans of the domestication of plants and animals.
D)The inability of domesticated plants to exist in the wild because of thousands of years of inbreeding.
E)That barley domestication preceded the domestication of animals.

Question 20

Scientists were able to hypothesize that cats were domesticated in China approximately 5000 years ago because of which of the following?

A)An unusual carbon isotope in cat bones indicated cats were eating rat pests.
B)Cats were found buried with Chinese dignitaries.
C)Cats were found buried with trinkets and other symbols of affection.
D)More than one of these cats were domesticated.
E)None of the above are correct.

Question 21

Chili peppers were domesticated approximately 6000 years ago in

A)the Bahamas.
B)South America.
C)South Africa.
D)Mesopotamia.
E)the Far East.

Question 22

Which of the following centers of plant domestication is not paired correctly with its principle crops?

A)Near East :: wheat and barley
B)Africa :: sorghum and cassava
C)Mesoamerica :: maize (corn)
D)South America :: potato
E)None of the above are correct.

Question 23

Which of the following is not a trait of at least some domesticated plant varieties?

A)larger fruits,seeds,and tubers
B)loss of seed dormancy
C)inability to release fruits
D)increased genetic variability
E)All of the above are traits of domesticated plant varieties.

Question 24

Which one of the following statements is(are)correct about the Far East as it pertains to the domestication of plants?

A)Excavations in Asia indicate that agriculture arose at several locations in the Far East.
B)Rice cultivation probably began at least 11,500 years ago along the Yangtze River.
C)The domestication of the saturniid moth,Bombyx mori,began there using mulberry trees as a food source.
D)The domestication of the modern horse may have started there over 5,000 years ago.
E)All of the above are correct.

Question 25

The Far East is the center of origin for corn.

Question 26

The best evidence indicates that bananas were first cultivated in

A)New Guinea.
B)Southeast Asia.
C)Mesoamerica.
D)Northern Africa.
E)the Fertile Crescent.

Question 27

How have domesticated varieties of wild grasses lost their ability to survive in Nature?

A)They can no longer reproduce without artificial pollination.
B)Through extensive inbreeding,they have lost all resistance to diseases.
C)Fruiting heads do not shatter and release seeds.
D)Pollen tubes only travel half way to the carpel.
E)All of these are ways that wild grasses have lost their ability to survive in Nature.

Question 28

How did domestication efforts in the New World differ from the Old World?

A)New World domestication efforts focused mainly on fruits.
B)New World cultures did not domesticate any grain plants.
C)New World cultures domesticated many plants but relatively fewer animal species.
D)New World domestication efforts only began 1000 to 2000 years ago.
E)There was no New World domestication of any animals.

Question 29

Archaeological evidence suggests that teosinte,the ancestral forerunner of maize (corn),was domesticated in Mexico approximately ________ years ago.

A)500
B)5,500
C)7,000
D)10,000
E)None of the above are correct.

Question 30

Coffee was first domesticated in the mountains of

A)Ethiopia.
B)Peru.
C)Columbia.
D)Zimbabwe.
E)Appalachia.

Question 31

In the Near East our first cultivated plants were which of the following?

A)corn and beans
B)corn and wheat
C)wheat and barley
D)potatoes and wheat
E)corn and maize

Question 32

Which of the following is not among the evidence discovered that New Guinea was one of the first primary centers of agriculture?

A)rapid deforestation.
B)soil mounding and deeply dug channels.
C)phytoliths from domesticated crops.
D)discovery of a highland plant growing in lowlands.
E)starch grains and phytoliths of a domesticated plant recovered from stone tools.

Question 33

Archaeological evidence from the ________ reveals a relatively continuous evolution from foraging to farming and the first domestication of maize (corn).

A)Fertile Crescent
B)Kuk Swamp
C)Wadi Kubbaniya
D)Tehuacan Valley
E)Kalahari Desert

Question 34

Sunflower and goosefoot were domesticated in which of the following areas?

A)eastern North America
B)northwest North America
C)southwest North America
D)Meso-America
E)South America

Question 35

Which of the following is correct about the domestication of plants in the New World?

A)The Neolithic societies of the New World domesticated many species of plants.
B)The transition from foraging to farming can be thoroughly documented for the groups of peoples inhabiting the Teohuacan valley of Central Mexico.
C)Microfossils have revealed that chili peppers were domesticated in South America more than 6,000 years ago.
D)The Inca of South America domesticated hundreds of varieties of potatoes.
E)All of the above are correct.

Question 36

Which of the following is not true about Nikolai I.Vasilov?

A)He pinpointed 8 locations worldwide as centers of origin for major domesticated plants.
B)He was an adherent of Mendelian genetics.
C)For his efforts,Stalin declared him a hero of the Soviet Union.
D)His work on centers of origin of domesticated plants has been modified.
E)All of these statements are true about Nikolai.I.Vasilov.

Question 37

The Tehuacan Valley is an early site of agriculture currently located in which country?

A)Iran
B)Iraq
C)Mexico
D)Peru
E)Ecuador

Question 38

The Fertile Crescent was an early site of agriculture in which of the following areas?

A)Far East
B)New World
C)Near East
D)Africa
E)Southern Europe

Question 39

The Stone Age period that refers to the time after the start of agriculture is which of the following?

A)Paleolithic
B)Neolithic
C)Lithic
D)Cenozoic
E)Cincinnatian

Question 40

Which of the following is not correct about the domestication of plants?

A)Traits in wild plants are artificially selected to suit human needs and do not necessarily have a great survival value if these plants are not cultivated.
B)Most wild grasses have shattering fruiting heads,which will break apart at a slight touch,and therefore can never be useful for human use.
C)Plant breed still select for desired traits using traditional crosses.
D)Germination of seeds is delayed by hormonal control or mechanical means until the following spring.
E)Early foragers selected their domesticated plants from wild plants that had larger seeds,fruits,or tubers.

Question 41

There is evidence of hunter-gatherer settlements from nearly 18,000 years ago,suggesting that such settlements were actually present much earlier.

Question 42

The ________ is a site that has yielded the oldest agricultural evidence to date.

Question 43

All foraging societies have disappeared due to global climate change.

Question 44

Evidence now suggests that agriculture may have arisen independently in the Papua New Guinea highlands nearly 7,000 years ago.

Question 45

All plant parts are equally well preserved,giving us an unprecedented view of ancient agriculture.

Question 46

________ are fossilized fecal materials that have been used to provide direct evidence of the diet of early humans.

Question 47

A center of origin for a particular domesticated plant most likely will be the site which has the greatest number of wild and domesticated relatives of that crop.

Question 48

Tools of the hunt provide information on the size of the animals hunted and how they were killed.

Question 49

________ is believed to be the first major food crop to have been domesticated.

Question 50

The currently available evidence suggests that early foraging groups had a varied plant diet.

Question 51

________ is the Russian botanist who proposed eight centers of origin for domesticated crops.

Question 52

Changes commonly seen in domesticated plants when compared to their wild relatives include a change in the plant's life cycle from perennial to annual and a reduction in protective structures such as thorns,spines,and trichomes.

Question 53

Natural selection shapes domesticated plants to suit human needs.

Question 54

The earliest evidence of agricultural societies appeared approximately ________ years ago.

Question 55

One early hypothesis on the origin of agriculture states that it was an unknown ancient genius who realized that plants found at dumpsites had grown from discarded seeds.

Question 56

Many hunter-gathering societies have a significant knowledge of botany in the areas they inhabit.