Deck 1: Origins: the Near East, Egypt, and Greece, 12,000-600 Bce

Question 1

In what way were the Assyrians different from other ancient Near Eastern powers?

A) Assyrian soldiers used lighter arms.
B) The Assyrians used iron weapons.
C) Assyrians received tribute in the commodity the conquered area produced well.
D) The Assyrians wrote poems praising their king.
E) The Assyrians gathered a council of elders to check royal power.

Answer 1

The Assyrians gathered a council of elders to check royal power.

Question 2

Which of these works of literature was written first?

A) the Epic of Gilgamesh
B) the Iliad
C) the "Hymn of Praise to Ra"
D) the poetry of Hesiod
E) the Five Books of Moses

Answer 2

the Epic of Gilgamesh

Question 3

Why did Hammurabi write the Code of Hammurabi?

A) He wanted to portray himself as the legitimate king of Babylon.
B) He wanted to demonstrate that he was divinely sanctioned as a protector of justice.
C) He wanted to provide a comprehensive set of guidelines for the judges of Babylon to use to decide cases.
D) He wanted to demonstrate to states and peoples outside Babylon that he was a divine source of justice.
E) He wanted to unify and regularize penalties that had traditionally varied based on the defendant's gender, social class, and legal status.

Answer 3

He wanted to demonstrate that he was divinely sanctioned as a protector of justice.

Question 4

Which kingdom prospered during and after the Bronze Age Crisis?

A) Babylon
B) Assyria
C) the Hittites
D) the Egyptians
E) the Phoenicians

Question 5

The Narmer Palette supports which statement?

A) Narmer was the first pharaoh of Egypt.
B) Narmer preferred to ransom rather than execute prisoners of war.
C) Narmer ruled both Upper and Lower Egypt.
D) Narmer conquered Lower Egypt.
E) Narmer preferred diplomacy to warfare.

Question 6

Which of the following expresses a difference between Egyptian and Near Eastern civilization between about 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE?

A) the use of writing by a restricted class of people
B) political and cultural unity
C) rule by a monarch
D) the use of irrigation to improve agricultural production
E) the use of religion to justify political power

Question 7

Which of the regions below contained major cities?

A) the Levant
B) Mesopotamia
C) Sumer
D) the Arabian Desert
E) the Zagros Mountains

Question 8

Which of the following distinguishes the powers of the late third millennium BCE from the earlier third millennium BCE?

A) In the later period, empires stopped receiving tribute.
B) In the later period, empires suppressed local religions.
C) In the later period, empires used local governors to rule.
D) In the later period, rulers did not want to work with local powers.
E) In the later period, rulers rejected divine status.

Question 9

In what way was the polytheistic religion of the ancient Near East similar to monotheistic religion?

A) In both religions, the gods were omniscient.
B) In both religions, the gods were immortal.
C) Both religions frequently added gods and goddesses.
D) The gods were thought to live in their statues.
E) Both religions were used to support state actions.

Question 10

Hittites and early Near Eastern dynasties shared which of the following characteristics?

A) They both used iron.
B) They both fought with chariots.
C) They both used archers.
D) They both spoke an Indo-European language.
E) They both used battering rams.

Question 11

Which of the following best describes the relationship between the role of gods and nature in the ancient Near East and Egypt?

A) Crops were more likely to do poorly in the ancient Near East.
B) The two civilizations saw connections between the predictable environment and their gods.
C) The people of the ancient Near East saw little point to religious worship.
D) The people of the ancient Near East were more accustomed to suffering than the
Egyptians were.
E) Egyptians saw the pharaoh of Egypt as a divine incarnation.

Question 12

In which of the following periods did people in the ancient Near East discover how to use selective breeding to improve the quality of their animals and crops?

A) New Kingdom Egypt
B) Mesolithic period
C) Sumerian city-state period
D) Neolithic period
E) Akkadian Empire

Question 13

Which of these empires had the shortest reign?

A) Akkadian
B) Third Dynasty of Ur
C) Babylonian, founded by Hammurabi
D) Hittite
E) Old Kingdom in Egypt

Question 14

Which of the following empires experienced the most territorial growth?

A) Hittite
B) Egyptian
C) Kassite
D) Assyrian
E) Jerusalem

Question 15

The Epic of Gilgamesh originated in which civilization?

A) Egyptian
B) Akkadian
C) Babylonian
D) Jewish
E) Sumerian

Question 16

In Sumer, who worked on state-supported projects, such as irrigation?

A) slaves
B) nomads such as the Amorites
C) free people conscripted for part of the year
D) prisoners of war
E) specialists employed by the state

Question 17

After the Hittites conquered Babylon, which group took control of it?

A) Amorites
B) Assyrians
C) Kassites
D) Sumerians
E) Akkadians

Question 18

People invented writing to do which task?

A) record literature
B) record material used in religious ceremonies and rituals
C) record legal materials
D) record inventories
E) record curses and magical spells

Question 19

What was the first great Sumerian city?

A) Lagash
B) Akkad
C) Ur
D) Uruk
E) Babylon

Question 20

In which of the following ways was Egyptian writing like Mesopotamian writing?

A) Both were distinct forms of writing.
B) Both were usually learned only by writing professionals, not the population in general.
C) Both were written by pressing a stylus into wet clay.
D) Both consisted only of symbols representing parts of words.
E) Both were used primarily for inscription on monuments.

Question 21

Why did the Jews have a unique relationship with their God?

A) They needed to explain why they had been exiled and why the Jewish States had been destroyed.
B) They needed to explain why the Jewish people had been enslaved by the Egyptians.
C) They needed to explain why the Jewish people founded two kingdoms instead of one.
D) They needed to explain why Solomon chose to build the Temple in Jerusalem.
E) They needed to explain why the House of David had come to power.

Question 22

Which of the following tasks was primarily done by women in Egypt?

A) They spun flax.
B) They made rope.
C) They wove linen.
D) They harvested flax.
E) They beat papyrus plants into a material used for writing.

Question 23

Who controlled Babylon during the Neo-Babylonian period?

A) Amorites
B) Kassites
C) Assyrians
D) Chaldeans
E) Persians

Question 24

Which of the following Egyptian gods oversaw the judgement of the dead?

A) Re
B) Horus
C) Anubis
D) Isis
E) Osiris

Question 25

Which of the following areas was NEVER part of the Persian Empire?

A) Assyria
B) Egypt
C) Bactria
D) India
E) Canaan

Question 26

Which civilization had the most gender equality?

A) Sumerian
B) Egyptian
C) Jewish
D) Minoan
E) Archaic Greek

Question 27

Which statement about the Mycenaeans is correct?

A) They spoke an early form of Greek.
B) They had diplomatic contact with powers of the ancient Near East.
C) They shared many aspects of ancient Near Eastern culture, such as the use of chariots.
D) They had no literature comparable to that of ancient Near Eastern cultures.
E) Some scholars believe they made an expedition to Troy.

Question 28

Which of the following areas of Greek culture appear to have no Egyptian or Near Eastern forerunner?

A) the symposium
B) kouroi
C) alphabet
D) the use of animals on pottery
E) the use of literature to give moral guidance

Question 29

Which king of Judah constructed the first Jewish Temple?

A) Saul
B) David
C) Solomon
D) Moses
E) Judah

Question 30

Why did Middle Kingdom monarchs try to persuade Egyptians that monarchs were divinely sanctioned?

A) Each pharaoh had tremendous personal authority that legitimized him.
B) The Nile River facilitated centralized government.
C) There was a formal democratic component to Egyptian government.
D) Religion was fundamental and was ultimately more powerful than any one pharaoh.
E) Egypt could never be ruled by a non-Egyptian.

Question 31

What did the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten do during his reign?

A) He established a new capital in Memphis.
B) He established a monotheistic religion based on worship of the sun.
C) He established a monotheistic religion based on worship of the Nile.
D) He encouraged worship of traditional polytheistic state religion.
E) He built temples to celebrate his new religion.

Question 32

Which empire used satraps to govern provinces?

A) New Kingdom Egypt
B) Akkadian
C) Neo-Assyrian
D) Third Dynasty of Ur
E) Persian

Question 33

Who invaded and ruled Egypt between the Middle and New Kingdoms?

A) the Assyrians
B) the Hittites
C) the Minoans
D) the Hyksos
E) the Sea Peoples

Question 34

The pyramids on Giza Plateau were constructed close to which Egyptian center?

A) Memphis
B) Akhetaten
C) Thebes
D) Jerusalem
E) Uruk

Question 35

Why did Egyptians mummify pharaohs?

A) Egyptians wanted to prevent animals from destroying corpses.
B) Egyptians wanted to protect the pharaoh and his belongings for use in the afterlife.
C) Egyptians wanted to permit burial at sea.
D) Egyptians wanted to keep the deceased at his or her home.
E) Egyptians tried to prevent the spread of disease.

Question 36

What was the most common language in the Persian Empire?

A) Egyptian
B) Persian
C) Akkadian
D) Aramaic
E) Sumerian

Question 37

What concept of order did the Middle Kingdom use to reinforce the pharaoh's authority?

A) demotic
B) necropolis
C) the afterlife
D) ma'at
E) Osiris

Question 38

The Israelites increased their focus on observation of religious law after what event?

A) the establishment of the kingdom of Judah
B) the construction of the temple in Jerusalem
C) the destruction of the kingdom of Israel and the forced migration of its inhabitants by the Assyrians
D) the destruction of the kingdom of Judah
E) the return of the Jewish people from Babylon during the reign of Cyrus the Great

Question 39

What rulership tradition did Hatshepsut break?

A) Hatshepsut sponsored trade outside Egypt.
B) Hatshepsut built temples.
C) Hatshepsut introduced a monotheistic religion.
D) Hatshepsut was a woman and was sometimes portrayed in official art as female.
E) Hatshepsut took a throne name.

Question 40

Which of the following adjectives best describes the Persian Empire?

A) ethnocentric
B) inefficient
C) tolerant
D) unstable
E) humble

Question 41

In the earliest form of writing, drawings represented items in inventories.

Question 42

Studying natural phenomena to find divine messages led to an understanding of anatomy.

Question 43

The use of iron led to advances in what field?

A) pottery
B) warfare
C) agriculture
D) textiles
E) trade

Question 44

Between the third and second millennia BCE, Mesopotamians used writing only to record government and trade functions.

Question 45

Irrigation and greater agricultural production permitted specialization in crafts.

Question 46

"Civilization" means "someone who lives in a city."

Question 47

Permanent settlements appeared in the ancient Near East in the Mesolithic period.

Question 48

What do the food offerings in the stele tell historians?

A) The objects the god Osiris valued most highly were those offered.
B) In the afterlife, the souls of the deceased needed the same nourishment as while alive.
C) Payment in-kind was far more common than with precious metals or currency.
D) The items offered were traditional.
E) The use of items of value was forbidden.

Question 49

What word best describes Dark Age Greece?

A) uncreative
B) isolated
C) individual
D) passive
E) sedentary

Question 50

What was the biggest difference between Dark Age Greece and later Greek city-states?

A) City-states traded less than Dark Age Greece.
B) Warfare with and raiding of other communities did not occur in the Dark Age.
C) The city-states used iron tools and weapons.
D) During the city-state period, the importance of powerful families increased.
E) Formal institutions of government, such as legislative bodies, grew during the city-state period.

Question 51

The Odyssey's setting is closest to which civilization?

A) Minoan
B) Mycenaean
C) Dark Age Greece
D) Archaic Greece
E) Phoenician

Question 52

What type of government did Sparta prefer?

A) oligarchy
B) monarchy
C) tyranny
D) democracy
E) anarchy

Question 53

How is Greek writing different from the writings produced in Egypt and the ancient Near East?

A) In general, Greek authors preserved more individual voices and characterizations.
B) Greek authors focused on a systematic understanding of their religion.
C) Ancient Near Eastern authors were generally known by name; with a few exceptions, Greek authors were not.
D) Greek authors preserved stories and poetry by writing them down.
E) The notion of personal responsibility was absent from Egyptian and ancient Near Eastern authors.

Question 54

The Sea Peoples destroyed several important cities, such as Troy.

Question 55

During the third and second millennia BCE, Egyptians developed significantly more advanced technology than inhabitants of the ancient Near East.

Question 56

How did Greeks primarily identify themselves?

A) They identified themselves by their social class.
B) They identified themselves as Greek.
C) They identified themselves by their city-state.
D) They identified themselves by their gender.
E) They identified themselves by their occupation.

Question 57

Slaves constructed most city and religious structures in early Sumerian city-states.

Question 58

When and where was the Odyssey written?

A) Mycenaean Greece
B) Neo-Babylonian Empire
C) Middle Kingdom Egypt
D) Dark Age Greece
E) Archaic Greece

Question 59

What caused the most political instability in Greek city-states during the Archaic period?

A) tension between those who held power and the greater number who fought in the city-state's army
B) constitutions that provided for rule by law
C) symposia that excluded women
D) athletic competitions
E) tyrants

Question 60

Writing in the ancient Near East influenced the development of writing in Egypt.

Question 61

What historical influences made Jewish culture and religion different from other civilizations that existed in the same period and region?

Question 62

The wide use of the Greek alphabet led to inquiries about humanity.

Question 63

How did Sparta exemplify Greek culture, and how was it unique?

Question 64

How did the Egyptian religion change during the periods of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, and how did it remain the same?

Question 65

Describe how writing developed and explain how it became a fundamental part of ancient Near Eastern culture.

Question 66

How were Egyptian pharaohs similar to kings in the ancient Near East ca.2500-1500 BCE?

Question 67

Minoan palaces were smaller than contemporary Egyptian and ancient Near Eastern palaces, but both had many decorations.

Question 68

Hoplites fought in a phalanx.

Question 69

Historians have deciphered the Minoan language.

Question 70

Why were empires in the ancient Near East less stable than those in Egypt?

Question 71

What made the Persian Empire successful in uniting and maintaining power in the ancient Near East?

Question 72

How were the Greeks influenced by Near Eastern and Egyptian models? How did they transform these models as they incorporated them?

Question 73

What was the purpose of Hammurabi's legal code?

Question 74

Adherents to the Egyptian religion, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism all agree that the soul is immortal.

Question 75

What developments of the Neolithic era made it possible for cities to develop?