Deck 7: The Emergence of Homo sapiens and the Upper Paleolithic World

Question 1

What have scientists discovered about the relationship between Neandertals and humans based on their mitochondrial DNA?

A) The differences in gene sequences between Neandertals and humans are larger than the differences among different groups of humans.
B) The mtDNA suggests that Neandertals are genetically comparable to modern humans.
C) Neandertals are as genetically distant from modern humans as humans are from chimpanzees.
D) Neandertals are direct ancestors of modern humans.

Answer 1

The differences in gene sequences between Neandertals and humans are larger than the differences among different groups of humans.

Question 2

Why is there disagreement on the classification of many fossils dating to between 500,000 and 200,000 years ago?

A) Many fossils from this period have a mix of H. erectus and H. sapiens traits.
B) There are no H. erectus fossils from this period in Europe, but they are present in Africa.
C) The H. erectus fossils seem to disappear very suddenly around 300,000 years ago.
D) Many paleoanthropologists place the origins of H. sapiens much earlier than 500,000 years ago.

Answer 2

Many fossils from this period have a mix of H. erectus and H. sapiens traits.

Question 3

Toward the end of the Acheulian period,a technique developed that enabled toolmakers to produce flake tools of a predetermined size,which was called the __________ method.

A) Levalloisian
B) Oldowan
C) Paleolithic
D) Mousterian

Answer 3

Levalloisian

Question 4

What is the major principle of the single-origin theory?

A) Neandertals became extinct.
B) Neandertals evolved into modern humans.
C) Neandertals still live among us today.
D) The early modern Homo sapiens became extinct.

Question 5

The earliest known modern-looking humans found so far lived in __________.

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

Question 6

Most of the remains that have been excavated from Upper Paleolithic sites have been found in __________.

A) caves and rock shelters
B) canvas tents
C) wood huts
D) mud dwellings

Question 7

The Neandertal period in Africa is called the __________.

A) Middle Stone Age
B) Mesolithic
C) Neolithic
D) Middle Paleolithic

Question 8

At Olsen-Chubbuck,archaeological evidence shows that early hunters were __________.

A) organized and hunted together
B) always hunting alone
C) hunting only small birds and mammals
D) prohibited by religion from hunting bison

Question 9

What feature of Mousterian tools suggests that they were hafted?

A) Many of them were thinned or shaped on one side.
B) They were all bifaced tools.
C) They were primarily made of wood or bone.
D) Many of them were core choppers.

Question 10

Later Stone Age settlements in __________ were contemporary with the Upper Paleolithic cultures in Europe and North America.

A) Africa
B) Australia
C) India
D) the Arctic

Question 11

What new tools became more common in the tool kits of the Archaic peoples as the glaciers retreated?

A) tools for grinding seeds and nuts
B) burins for punching through hides
C) microlith knives and saws
D) heavy spears and atlatls

Question 12

How long did Neandertals and humans coexist in Europe and the Near East?

A) between 20,000 and 60,000 years
B) less than 10,000 years
C) between 75,000 and 100,000 years
D) at least 100,000 years

Question 13

Who are the Denisovans?

A) a recently discovered hominin species
B) an isolated population of late Homo erectus
C) a hybrid group of H. antecessor and H. sapiens
D) a population descended from H. neandertalensis

Question 14

Most paleoanthropologists agree that __________ evolved into H.sapiens.

A) H. erectus
B) H. habilis
C) H. neandertalensis
D) H. rudolfensis

Question 15

What is the main evidence used to support the multiregional theory?

A) continuity
B) extinction
C) mtDNA
D) hybridization

Question 16

Cro-Magnon first appeared in Europe about __________ years ago.

A) 35,000
B) 65,000
C) 45,000
D) 75,000

Question 17

The site at __________,dating to about 25,000 years ago in the Czech Republic,is one of the first for which there is an entire settlement plan.

A) Dolni Vestonice
B) Gönnersdorf
C) Chauvet
D) Monte Verde

Question 18

The __________ theory is currently the most widely used explanation among paleoanthropologists for the emergence of modern Homo sapiens.

A) assimilation
B) multiregional
C) total replacement
D) single-origin

Question 19

Only __________ fossils have been found in North and South America.

A) Homo sapiens
B) Homo neandertalensis
C) Homo erectus
D) Homo habilis

Question 20

Researchers from the United States and Germany have argued that the common ancestor of the Neandertal and modern humans existed about __________ years ago.

A) 600,000
B) 250,000
C) 400,000
D) 100,000

Question 21

How did Upper Paleolithic people most likely obtain mammoth bones for building?

A) They scavenged them from sites where mammoths died naturally.
B) They domesticated the mammoths and raised them for their meat.
C) They killed the mammoths by driving them off cliffs in great numbers.
D) They dug up the bones of mammoths that had died long ago.

Question 22

Based on the age and locations of early Homo sapiens finds,where would you expect the origins of our species to be if the single-origin theory were true?

A) Africa
B) Europe
C) Asia
D) North America

Question 23

Upper Paleolithic toolmaking appears to have had its roots in the Mousterian and __________ traditions.

A) post-Acheulian
B) Oldowan
C) Levalloisian
D) Neandertal

Question 24

How can archaeologists estimate the size of Upper Paleolithic settlements?

A) They consider the number of huts and hearths within each hut.
B) They count the number of bones in the community grave site.
C) They look at the size of the toolmaking sites at each community.
D) They consider the types of animals in the area and the number of people they could support.

Question 25

If a second Denisovan site were found today,where would you most expect it to be located?

A) central Asia
B) western Europe
C) the Middle East
D) southern Africa

Question 26

Where would you find the Archaic settlement sites in an archaeological dig?

A) above Paleo-Indian sites, since they are more recent
B) below Paleo-Indian sites, since they are more ancient
C) above Maglemosian sites, since they are more recent
D) below Maglemosian sites, since they are more ancient

Question 27

Which of these is an example of ethnographic analogy?

A) observing the use of tools by contemporary societies to determine how they were used thousands of years ago
B) using eyewitness accounts of tool use from thousands of years ago to determine how tools were used in the past
C) comparing the ways in which two contemporary cultures use the same set of tools
D) using the tools found in the archaeological record to piece together an ancient culture's religious customs

Question 28

Which of these features would you expect to see on a Homo heidelbergensis skull?

A) separated browridge
B) chin
C) sagittal keel
D) occipital bun

Question 29

Based on your knowledge of the Neandertal's environments,diet,and social life,what do you expect was the function of their heavy wooden spears?

A) They were used for hunting big game.
B) Women hunted small animals by stabbing them with the spears.
C) They were ceremonial weapons used in rituals.
D) Men used them to protect their family from invaders.

Question 30

A 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man was the subject of a long legal battle involving the ownership of Native American remains.With which group of people would Kennewick Man most likely be associated?

A) Paleo-Indians
B) Maglemosians
C) Later Stone Age
D) Cro-Magnon

Question 31

Until recently,the prevailing view was that humans were __________.

A) not present south of Alaska until after 11,500 years ago
B) in North America more than 50,000 years ago
C) driven south by the expansion of the ice sheets
D) originally in North America, and then moved into Asia

Question 32

The most supported alternative to the Beringia model of movement of Native Americans is that they came to the Americas from __________.

A) Asia by boat
B) Africa by boat
C) Europe across a North Atlantic land bridge
D) Australia across a Pacific land bridge

Question 33

What environmental change was associated with the disappearance of the glaciers?

A) sea levels rose
B) the inland lakes dried up
C) the tundra extended farther south
D) storms became more common

Question 34

What innovation from Upper Paleolithic culture had the most lasting importance for humans,both in the Old and New Worlds?

A) domestication of plants and animals
B) social stratification and war
C) big game hunting strategies
D) the discovery of stone tools

Question 35

What non-genetic evidence supports the idea that Neandertals and humans may have interbred?

A) Neandertals adopted human toolmaking techniques.
B) Neandertals wore human-style clothing.
C) Neandertals and humans shared living spaces.
D) Neandertals and humans had wars that included the raiding of females.

Question 36

How would one ensure that ethnographic analogy of early tool use is as accurate as possible?

A) The culture for comparison should be derived from the ancient culture of study.
B) The culture for comparison should be as technologically primitive as possible.
C) The ancient culture should be one for which some historical records are available.
D) The ancient culture should be compared only to other ancient cultures.

Question 37

How would you expect a Neandertal's dietary requirements to differ from that of a human's?

A) The Neandertal would need more calories than the human.
B) The Neandertal would need fewer calories than the human.
C) The Neandertal would need a more varied diet than the human.
D) The Neandertal would need a less varied diet than the human.

Question 38

Paleo-Indians who lived in the eastern woodlands would likely have depended on what resources for food?

A) plant food and small game
B) big herd game
C) fish and other seafood
D) grains and legumes

Question 39

During the Upper Paleolithic,people migrated to Australia and New Guinea from __________.

A) Asia
B) Europe
C) South America
D) Antarctica

Question 40

Which of these scholars are most likely to specialize in Upper Paleolithic peoples and cultures?

A) archaeologists
B) paleoanthropologists
C) ethnographers
D) linguists

Question 41

The __________ scenario has the best archaeological evidence to support it.

A) extinction
B) genocide
C) interbreeding
D) intermediate

Question 42

How do anthropologists know that Native Americans originally came from Asia?

A) The two groups share biological features, such as tooth forms and blood type.
B) Both groups of people tend to have black hair and dark eyes.
C) There was no path available for migration other than the one from Asia.
D) Native Americans have many traditions and stories that relate to Asian culture.

Question 43

Evaluate the three scenarios explaining the disappearance of the Neandertals.How do these relate to the major theories on human dispersal?

Question 44

What does the new discovery of the Denisovan hominins add to our understanding of the emergence of Homo sapiens?

Question 45

Why are mtDNA and Y chromosome DNA so important for evolutionary genetics?

A) They are the only types of DNA that do not undergo recombination.
B) Their variation comes from sources other than mutation.
C) MtDNA and Y chromosome DNA are found only in the cells of women and men, respectively.
D) They are evolutionarily recent developments, and are only found in hominin genetics.

Question 46

Which theory is most discounted by the finding that the HLA system was inherited from Neandertals and Denisovans?

A) single-origin
B) multiregional
C) assimilation
D) genocide

Question 47

What support exists for the idea that cave paintings depicting animals were intended to influence the hunters' success?

A) Cave art seems to reach its peak around the same time the big game herds were dwindling.
B) The paintings are often associated with a cache of ritual hunting tools.
C) Cave paintings only depict animals used for meat.
D) The paintings are located in many different locations in the caves.

Question 48

Evaluate the current theories of migration into the New World.

Question 49

What evidence is there for a more sedentary lifestyle among the Upper Paleolithic peoples of East Asia?

A) Many of the cave sites were occupied for long periods of time.
B) There were no herds of animals to follow on annual migrations.
C) The climate was much colder in Asia than in Africa during this period.
D) Most of the archaeological sites are located in caves or rock shelters.

Question 50

Why might cave and rock shelters be overrepresented in the fossil record?

A) They are more likely to be found than are sites that were once in the open but now buried.
B) They tend to be very damp, which promotes fossilization.
C) Wild animals cannot access the tools or bones in caves, so they are more likely to be preserved.
D) Paleoanthropologists have preconceived notions about hominins living in caves, so they are more likely to search there.

Question 51

What could explain the trend toward smaller blades during the Upper Paleolithic?

A) The small blade technique was a more efficient use of flint.
B) Small blades were made to be disposable.
C) Toolmakers gained esteem by making tiny, delicate items.
D) Small blades are more deadly than big ones.

Question 52

How do we know that Paleo-Indians hunted mammoths?

A) One mammoth skeleton was found with multiple projectile points in it.
B) The Paleo-Indians painted caves with artistic depictions of mammoths.
C) Chemical analysis of their teeth indicates that mammoth meat was a part of their diet.
D) They had religious rituals involving the mammoth spirit.

Question 53

Discuss the ways in which climate and environmental change throughout the Pleistocene affected the development of human cultures.

Question 54

With all the evidence for Neandertals and humans being different species,why is there still debate about their evolutionary relationship?

A) Neandertal culture has many similarities with early human culture.
B) Their mtDNA suggests that they were very closely related.
C) Many scientists doubt the validity of the genetic evidence.
D) The cultural evidence and the anatomical evidence seem to conflict.

Question 55

How has our understanding of the relationship between Neandertals and humans changed over time?