Deck 2: Rivers, Cities, and First States, 3500-2000 Bce

Question 1

What did Herodotus think of the Nile basin?

A) The Nile basin was strongly shaped by the unpredictability of the Nile River as it flooded.
B) The Nile basin had vast desert lands, which had nothing of value.
C) The Nile basin formed a highly coherent culture stretched out along the banks of the Nile River.
D) The Nile basin drew on vast hinterlands in the Sinai Peninsula to support its population.

Answer 1

The Nile basin formed a highly coherent culture stretched out along the banks of the Nile River.

Question 2

Who initially ran Afro-Eurasian city-states?

A) assemblies of elders and young men
B) priestly classes
C) warlords who controlled the use of horses
D) bureaucrats who managed the irrigation systems

Answer 2

assemblies of elders and young men

Question 3

What was the first use of writing in Mesopotamia?

A) to record hymns to the gods
B) to create king lists
C) to record laws and royal edicts
D) to monitor and control economic transactions

Answer 3

to monitor and control economic transactions

Question 4

Why were royal palaces introduced to Mesopotamian cities?

A) The palace became the site of elaborate royal burials.
B) Temples lacked bureaucracies needed to run the affairs of the city, so the palace had to provide them.
C) Warrior chiefs, responsible for defending cities, built palaces big houses) in contrast to the priesthood's temples.
D) Palaces provided the strongest point of defense for a city.

Question 5

What city became the first large commercial and administrative center in the world?

A) Çatal Hüyük
B) Sumer
C)Harappa
D) Uruk

Question 6

Why did the ancient Egyptians view the world and the gods as essentially beneficent, in contrast to the worldview of the Mesopotamians?

A) The Egyptians lacked internal geographical divisions.
B) The Nile River predictability flooded each year.
C) The Egyptian pharaohs were known to be gentle rulers.
D) Egyptians had close and friendly contact with neighboring states in the Sinai Peninsula and Libya.

Question 7

Which of the following statements about the rise of trade is correct?

A) Trade was aided by the establishment of settled communities, which typically locally lacked some needed goods.
B) Trade initially emerged as groups who migrated to the Americas sought to sustain cultural and trade contacts with groups in northeast Asia.
C) Trade was limited by the lack of pack animals that could cross long distances in arid conditions.
D) Trade emerged after about 500 BCE, when settled communities had reached large populations.

Question 8

Who maintained the ancient Egyptian system of using the Nile floodwaters?

A) local villagers
B) the priestly class
C) the political elites
D) a group of trained specialists

Question 9

Near which rivers) were Mesopotamian urban centers located?

A) the Nile River
B) the Indus River basin
C) the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
D) the Yellow River

Question 10

Which of the following is a significant intellectual advance of early urban enclaves?

A) wheeled carts
B) sails
C) writing systems
D) metallurgy

Question 11

Which statement about the Sumerian family is correct?

A) Husbands and wives held equal authority.
B) Most men had several wives as well as concubines.
C) Adoption was a way for a family to gain a male heir.
D) Both sons and daughters inherited property equally.

Question 12

When did city life emerge?

A) 3500-2000 BCE
B) 10,000-8,000 BCE
C) 30,000-25,000 BCE
D) 50,000-40,000 BCE

Question 13

Which statement about the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers is correct?

A) They provided easily navigable waterways that encouraged trade upstream and downstream.
B) They were favorable to farming because they flooded in winter when fields were barren.
C) They required farmers to develop irrigation systems to control periods of high and low water.
D) Over time they carried away the topsoil in Mesopotamia, leaving the region barren.

Question 14

Which of the following was crucial to the spread of pastoral nomads in the steppes region of Afro-Eurasia?

A) domesticating horses
B) bronze weapons
C) nearby agricultural villages with which to trade
D) plentiful alluvial lands along rivers

Question 15

In Mesopotamia, what was the stepped platform base of a temple called?

A) ziggurat
B) adad cylinder
C) gilgamesh
D) nippur

Question 16

Which of the following is the location of an early river-valley civilization?

A) the Amazon River basin
B) the Niger River basin
C) the Danube River valley
D) the Nile River valley

Question 17

What did people in river-basin cities do?

A) They developed lifestyles based on the mass production of goods and divisions of labor.
B) They abandoned superstitious religious practices.
C) They became isolated from those living in the countryside.
D) They relied upon a distinctly oral culture.

Question 18

What was the primary requirement for the emergence of Afro-Eurasian cities, as opposed to villages?

A) trading networks
B) priestly classes that demanded sacrifices of labor and taxes to local gods
C) the emergence of forms of slavery
D) innovations in irrigation

Question 19

Why is Sargon the Great notable?

A) He had military success because he spent his resources building his military instead of producing monumental architecture and artwork.
B) He established the first territorial state.
C) He sought to cut off his lands from foreign influence that could undermine his authority.
D) He established an empire that lasted for 1,000 years.

Question 20

What was the purpose of the Mesopotamian temple?

A) It maintained a strict separation of state and religion.
B) It rejected long-distance trade as bringing "foreign" elements into the community.
C) It required all of its workers to focus on spiritual activities to maintain their ritual purity.
D) It functioned like a large household engaged in all sorts of productive activities.

Question 21

In scribal cultures, including Mesopotamia and Egypt, what was the role of writing?

A) It was necessary for all members of society.
B) It had little effect on trade and commerce.
C) It sharpened the difference between urban and rural worlds.
D) It became an equalizing force in the ancient world.

Question 22

Which of the following suggests a contrast between Harappan and Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations?

A) Harappans did not develop a centralized state.
B) Harappans developed a standardized system of weights and measures.
C) Harappan merchants developed long-distance trade networks.
D) Harappan elites did not build palaces, grand royal tombs, or impressive monumental structures.

Question 23

While other river-basin societies developed trade networks, Harappan cities remained isolated from the outside world.

Question 24

Which statement about the state ideology of ancient Egypt is correct?

A) It included a ritual of purification for all male subjects.
B) It promoted the equality of all Egyptians under the king's authority.
C) It established unlimited freedom for the king to act as he wished.
D) It included a contractual relationship between the active king and the passive and serene gods.

Question 25

Which of the following was the basis for agriculture in the Niger Valley?

A) wheat
B) sorghum
C) rice
D) yams

Question 26

What caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt?

A) an invasion from the people of the Nubian regions of the Nile River
B) feuding between the factions of the political elite
C) bickering among rival city-states
D) excessive flooding from the Nile River

Question 27

Why did ancient China develop more slowly than other early civilizations in the Indus Valley or the Fertile Crescent?

A) China lacked trade across the Sea of Japan.
B) China's geographical barriers and lack of easily domesticated plants and animals isolated it.
C) China had constant dynastic warfare between the Yangshao and Longshan.
D) China lacked river valleys to provide irrigation and transportation.

Question 28

In comparison to Mesopotamia and Harappa, how did the Old Kingdom grow?

A) It grew very slowly and sporadically.
B) It grew without engaging in trade.
C) It grew only by imitating its neighbors, especially Sumer.
D) It grew without a uniting or centralizing city.

Question 29

In which of the following Anatolian cities did archaeologists find grave goods, indicating trade links with Mesopotamia and Crete?

A) Ur
B) Troy
C) Alaça Hüyük
D) Knossos

Question 30

In ancient Egypt, which of the following was the primary task of the ruler?

A) to establish a military
B) to instill fear in his people
C) to bring order and stability ma'at)
D) to ensure that religious beliefs were upheld

Question 31

Which of the following contributed to the development of a warfare-dominated culture in Europe?

A) Weapons were produced with minerals found in river-basin agricultural economies.
B) Mining output slashed the cost and increased the availability of raw materials needed for tools to clear forested land.
C) Local religions required human sacrifices, so warfare was required to obtain sufficient offerings to the gods.
D) Agricultural communities were producing surpluses, so residents had to protect their land and resources from encroaching neighbors.

Question 32

Which of the following best describes South America, around 3500 BCE?

A) Large cities emerged in several locations along the coasts and waterways.
B) Small village populations lacked the technology for pottery or irrigation systems.
C) Trade developed between fishing villages on the coast and agricultural villages in the interior.
D) Archaeological evidence indicates that no significant mythological or religious life developed.

Question 33

Why do historians know very little about Harappan society today?

A) Most of their cities were destroyed by floods.
B) Monsoons destroyed much of their most important written records.
C) It was spread over such a vast area that there was not a uniform culture.
D) Their writing has not been translated.

Question 34

In both Egypt and Mesopotamia, what did agrarian surpluses and urbanization lead to?

A) There were heightened standards of living and increased population sizes.
B) More people decided to become farmers.
C) Immigration introduced many new and conflicting ideas into Egyptian society.
D) The temple bureaucracy decreased in importance.

Question 35

Which of the following was an indication of cultural contact with the Longshan culture?

A) In different regions, the dead were left exposed to the elements, leaving few burial sites for archaeologists to investigate.
B) In different regions, city-states began to arise.
C) In different regions, people began to produce similar pottery and tools.
D) In different regions, large-scale dynastic systems emerged that structured the political life of the society.

Question 36

What made the Indus Valley unique in comparison to the Ganges River valley?

A) The Indus Valley had plentiful water from the Himalayas that ensured flourishing vegetation.
B) The Indus Valley developed its own culture in near isolation from other emerging societies.
C) The Indus Valley remained relatively poor and could not support large populations in cities.
D) The Indus Valley did not require the development of public works because of its natural water supply.

Question 37

In ancient Egypt, how was demotic writing used?

A) It was used exclusively by priests in temples or by royal officials in their work.
B) It was used extensively because it was a cursive script written with ink on pottery or papyrus.
C) It was so highly complex that far fewer people could learn to read it than the cuneiform script in Mesopotamia.
D) It was not used because it was seen by the upper classes as a waste of effort that detracted from developing military skills.

Question 38

Which of the following best describes the people in the Aegean, Anatolia, and Europe, who lived outside of the river basins?

A) They were considered barbarians without culture, faith, or organized life.
B) They separated themselves from the urban cultures, which they saw as perverse.
C) The had a distinctive warrior-based ethos.
D) They lacked developed technology.

Question 39

Which of the following was essential for Harappan trade with Mesopotamia?

A) salt deposits in the Indus River basin
B) the extraction and processing of gemstones
C) the extensive documentation of trade agreements
D) trade routes through eastern India

Question 40

By 3500 BCE, what was one indication that Europeans had coalesced into larger communities?

A) They used the mortar board plow.
B) They herded cattle for meat and milk.
C) They created corded ware pots.
D) They constructed megaliths.

Question 41

How did changing climates affect the decline of early urban centers at the end of the third millennium
BCE?

Question 42

Analyze the development of long-distance trade routes in Afro-Eurasia.

Question 43

Compare the significance of bureaucratic and priestly classes in the emergence of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. What factors helped to empower certain groups?

Question 44

In the Americas, the valley of Tehuacán presented an example of high population density without urbanization.

Question 45

By the end of the third millennium BCE, most people had moved from hunting and gathering to the growing agricultural urban centers.

Question 46

How did the urban-rural divide express itself in different early Afro-Eurasian societies? In what ways did these societies remain dependent on one another?

Question 47

Longshan black pottery was not likely built up on a potter's wheel because the people of East Asia did not use the wheel until the first millennium.

Question 48

Explain the importance of technological developments in the emergence of early Afro-Eurasian societies. How did different social needs spur certain technological developments? How did different technological developments shape certain societies?

Question 49

People migrated to regions around the Niger River and the Sudan because the Sahara was becoming hotter and wetter.