Deck 1: Art in the Stone Age

Question 1

Which drawing convention for the representation of animals was used almost exclusively in Paleolithic art?

A) Composite creature
B) Foreshortening
C) Linear perspective
D) The profile view

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What central concern of early humans does the emphasis on the anatomy of the Venus of Willendorf imply?

A) Gold and jewels
B) Health and fertility
C) Athletic competitions
D) The domestication of animals

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following information about Paleolithic art is NOT provided by the extraordinary paintings from the caves at Lascaux?

A) Paleolithic artists represented animals in twisted perspective.
B) Paleolithic artists used both silhouettes and outlines in their drawings.
C) Paleolithic artists created complex narrative compositions.
D) Paleolithic artists preferred metal tools over wood tools in their painting.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

What is the almost-exclusive subject of Paleolithic paintings?

A) Hunters
B) Sea creatures
C) Women
D) Animals

Question 5

What artistic device is used to render the figures in the deer hunt wall painting from Çatal Höyük?

A) Profile view
B) Composite view
C) Frontal view
D) Three-quarter pose

Question 6

Which is considered one of the primary advances of Neolithic society?

A) Using bronze tools
B) Domestication of animals and plants
C) Building houses from megaliths
D) Living in subterranean caves

Question 7

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This painting at Lascaux is exceptional as the earliest depiction of what figure?

A) A bird
B) A woolly rhinoceros
C) A bucranium
D) A male human

Question 8

What two basic drawing techniques are evident in the paintings of Lascaux?

A) Black-and-white and negative
B) Relief and incised
C) Colored silhouette and outline
D) Wet and dry pigments

Question 9

What is the most likely purpose of Paleolithic cave paintings?

A) Decoration for the cave
B) Telling the creation myth
C) Recording the previous season's kills
D) Insurance for the survival of the herd

Question 10

At which site have the remains of what appear to be the oldest stone temples been discovered?

A) Jericho
B) Hagar Qim
C) Göbekli Tepe
D) Newgrange

Question 11

The Neolithic murals at Çatal Höyük demonstrate the continued importance of what activity?

A) Farming
B) Hunting
C) Trade
D) Warfare

Question 12

What is bitumen?

A) An engraved plaque
B) A tarlike substance
C) A type of clay
D) A handle for a knife

Question 13

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The use of which material suggests that this object was important to its creator?

A) Wood
B) Stone
C) Mammoth ivory
D) Pebbles

Question 14

What is a ground line?

A) It is an engraved line on the wall surface.
B) It is a measured line on the wall surface.
C) It is the baseline on which figures appear to stand.
D) It is the point where the wall surface meets the floor.

Question 15

What is the primary form of monuments from the Neolithic period in northwestern Europe, such as Stonehenge?

A) Buildings organized along streets
B) Mudbrick fortifications
C) Multistoried wooden buildings
D) Megalithic architecture

Question 16

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This human with feline (lion?) head sculpture was found in which country?

A) France
B) Germany
C) Belgium
D) Spain

Question 17

What motivated the inhabitants of Neolithic Jericho to construct fortification walls?

A) The need for an offensive base
B) Protection against natural disasters
C) Promotion of a powerful merchant class
D) Protection from marauding nomads

Question 18

The appearance of which subject distinguishes paintings produced in the Neolithic period from those in the Paleolithic period?

A) Sea creatures
B) Animals
C) Human figures
D) Landscape flora

Question 19

Where was the Hall of the Bulls discovered?

A) The Altamira caves
B) The Lascaux caves
C) The Chauvet cave
D) Çatal Höyük

Question 20

What standard accounts for representing animals' horns in twisted perspective in cave paintings or allowing the viewer to see the head in profile and the horns from the front?

A) Optical convention
B) Descriptive convention
C) Fanciful convention
D) True convention

Question 21

In which area did humans first make the transition to agriculture and raising stock?

A) Western Europe
B) Southeast Asia
C) Anatolia and Mesopotamia
D) The United Kingdom

Question 22

What type of megalithic monument is found almost exclusively in Britain?

A) Labyrinth
B) Henge
C) Apse
D) Corbel

Question 23

What human concern appears for the first time in Neolithic art and culture?

A) Finding adequate shelter
B) Acquiring a food supply
C) Honoring the dead
D) Creating tools

Question 24

What is a notable key feature of Paleolithic design choices?

A) Setting and material are chosen to highlight the artistic message.
B) Setting and material often determine the form of an artwork.
C) Tools and available light often determine the form of an artwork.
D) Complex ideas are embodied in simple, symbolic designs.

Question 25

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What new feature appears in this mural painting from Çatal Höyük?

A) The human figure confronting an animal
B) The human figures drawn in profile
C) The human figure in a landscape
D) The human figure in a variety of poses and groupings

Question 26

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How was this object made?

A) A sharp burin was used to carve terracotta
B) A sharp burin was used to carve antler
C) A chisel shaped a rhinoceros horn
D) A chisel shaped a stone

Question 27

Which description of the Laussel woman is the least interpretative?

A) Mother goddess blessing fertility
B) Nude woman protecting her unborn child
C) Mother goddess holding an astronomical device
D) Nude woman holding a bison horn

Question 28

Which of the following is not a material used in Paleolithic art?

A) Mammoth ivory
B) Wood
C) Silver
D) Minerals

Question 29

What is the least helpful art historical criterion for determining chronology in Paleolithic art?

A) Material
B) Style
C) Scientific analysis
D) Findspot

Question 30

What very recent scientific discovery adds to our understanding of Stonehenge?

A) It was a kind of astronomical observatory and solar calendar.
B) Its stones were brought to the site from many miles away.
C) It consists of lintel-topped pairs of stones.
D) It was only one part of a much larger ritual complex.

Question 31

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These spotted horses and negative handprints come from which Paleolithic cave?

A) Lascaux
B) Apollo 11
C) Pech-Merle
D) Chauvet

Question 32

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What unifying device is missing from this cave painting at Lascaux?

A) Colored silhouette
B) Blown pigment
C) Profile
D) Ground line

Question 33

What key cognitive development is signaled by Paleolithic art?

A) The movement from representation to imitation
B) The change from abstraction to naturalism
C) The shift from recognition to representation
D) The invention of complex writing systems

Question 34

Which of these forms is the simplest and oldest method of spanning a passageway?

A) Corbel vaulting
B) Wattle and daub
C) Mortise and tenon
D) Post and lintel

Question 35

What best describes the material of the Ain Ghazal figures?

A) Ocher and charcoal
B) Plaster and reed
C) Incised stone
D) Carved antler

Question 36

Which of the following statements about the Venus of Willendorf is incorrect?

A) It shows a female form.
B) It is carved of limestone.
C) It took many hours to create.
D) Its face is highly detailed.

Question 37

What does the site of Skara Brae tell us regarding Neolithic civilization?

A) It documents the rise of fortressed communities in the Neolithic period.
B) It documents the spread of Neolithic civilization to one of the most remote parts of eastern Europe.
C) It documents the spread of Neolithic civilization to one of the most remote parts of northern Europe.
D) It documents the beginnings of corbeled stone architecture.

Question 38

What statement best describes a megalith?

A) It is a great blue stone.
B) It is volcanic rock quarried in Great Britain.
C) It is a massive shaped stone.
D) It is rock quarried in Jericho.

Question 39

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On which continent was this painting discovered?

A) Europe
B) Asia
C) Africa
D) Antarctica

Question 40

The fortress town at Jericho could have come into existence only because of the advanced development of which human activity?

A) Trade
B) Agriculture
C) Cremation
D) Warfare

Question 41

What is the most likely reason for the prevalence of Neolithic sites in Anatolia and Mesopotamia?

A) There have not been enough excavations in northern Europe.
B) The retreating ice destroyed the Neolithic settlements in northern Europe.
C) These regions supplied the best conditions for agriculture.
D) The great migrations of herds brought humans to this area.

Question 42

Which period saw the taming of the dog?

A) Paleolithic
B) Neolithic
C) Megalithic
D) Mesolithic

Question 43

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This drawing is an example of what universal Paleolithic painting convention?

A) Outline technique
B) Three-quarter view
C) Profile view
D) Frontal view

Question 44

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Which would be the most accurate label for this object?

A) Paleolithic human skull overlaid with clay, from Namibia
B) Neolithic human skull overlaid with plaster, from Jericho
C) Neolithic wooden model with plaster, from Jericho
D) Paleolithic ancestor statue of wood and clay, from Lascaux

Question 45

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What is unusual about the findspot of this Paleolithic painting?

A) It is painted near the entrance to the cave.
B) It is the only Paleolithic painting in North America.
C) It is one of many in a large gallery.
D) It is in a deep and inaccessible well shaft.

Question 46

What is especially important about the paintings in the caves of Lascaux?

A) They all were painted at the same time by the same artist.
B) They show the techniques of silhouette and outline side by side.
C) They are the earliest-known Paleolithic cave paintings.
D) They provide examples of early human decorative preferences.

Question 47

Which scientific field of study has NOT been used to verify the authenticity of Paleolithic cave paintings?

A) Chemical analysis
B) Geological knowledge of stalagtite formation
C) Paleography
D) Radiocarbon dating

Question 48

What is the date of the earliest-known sculptures?

A) 15,000-10,000 BCE
B) 100,000-90,000 BCE
C) 4,000-3,000 BCE
D) 40,000-35,000 BCE

Question 49

What Neolithic construction has not yet been found in northern Europe?

A) Henge
B) Settled village
C) Temple
D) Tumulus

Question 50

What is the most likely date of the fortress walls at Jericho?

A) 22,000 BCE
B) 10,000 BCE
C) 7,500 BCE
D) 1,000 BCE