Deck 11: Cities, Pyramids, and Palaces

Question 1

How do archaeologists interpret Habuba Kebira?

Answer 1

Habuba Kebira is a walled town on the Euphrates River in northern Syria. The artifacts found there are only in the style of the Uruk heartland. As this expansion of Uruk was not militaristic, archaeologists have argued that it is a trading post or settlement built to protect important trade routes.

Question 2

What was the Sed festival?

Answer 2

Known from engravings in the Djoser complex, this was an event during which the king would run a course in an important ritual of renewal. The performance of the king was essential for maintaining order in the world.

Question 3

What made Egypt an ideal place for the rise of social complexity?

Answer 3

The area is protected from invasion by deserts to the east and west and river rapids to the south. All human habitation was also concentrated along the Nile within this protection. The Nile served as a transportation conduit and its annual flooding annually replenished the farmland. The surrounding deserts supplied metals and mineral resources.

Question 4

Which of these towns may have been destroyed by a volcanic eruption?

A) Santorini
B) Knossos
C) Akrotiri
D) Venice

Question 5

The title of the ruler in Linear B tablets is the __________.

A) wanax
B) thorax
C) lorax
D) borax

Question 6

The concept of heterarchy is based on __________.

A) the relation of unranked elements
B) space inter-syntax
C) oracle bone writing
D) standardized bricks and rations

Question 7

Where did the Minoans live?

A) Crete
B) Sicily
C) Peloponnese
D) Orkney

Question 8

Excavations at __________ in Mali show that urban centers predate external contact in West Africa.

A) Axum
B) Timbuktu
C) Songhay
D) Jenne-Jeno

Question 9

What is the study of the processes that affect organic remains after death?

A) paleoecology
B) zooarchaeology
C) necromodification
D) taphonmy

Question 10

The Tomb of Ty at Saqqara shows the integral role that __________ played in managing the economy of the Old Kingdom.

A) farmers
B) priests
C) bureaucrats
D) scribes

Question 11

Egyptian kingly power was tied to the concept of __________, which combines the virtues of balance and justice.

A) karma
B) Saqqara
C) ma'at
D) destiny

Question 12

Discuss the various arguments about how Minoan and Mycenaean societies interacted on the political level.

Question 13

How are the bevel-rim bowls that are commonly found on Uruk sites used to infer social structure?

Question 14

How have the cities of Mesopotamia impacted their environment?

Question 15

What was the effect of Santorini on Aegean society?

Question 16

What is petrographic analysis and how has it been used to track trade routes?

Question 17

Compare and contrast the pyramids of Egypt with those of the Maya (Ch. 13) Include their evolution, uses, and construction technology.

Question 18

How did writing develop in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and how did the use of writing differ between the two cultures?

Question 19

Compare how Egypt and Mesopotamian societies were governed and controlled.

Question 20

What kind of violence and warfare existed in Aegean society?

Question 21

What role did palaces have in Aegean society?

Question 22

The first Dynasty of Ancient Egypt was based where?

A) Cairo
B) Giza
C) Hierakonpolis and Abydos
D) Memphis and Saqqara

Question 23

The earliest evidence for the unification of Egypt under a single ruler is a slab of carved slate known as the __________.

A) Abydos Slab
B) Narmer Palette
C) Saqqara Tablet
D) Scorpion Chronicle

Question 24

The site of the royal cemetery of Egypt during the First and Second Dynasties is at Abydos.

Question 25

The painted wall of Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis contradicts the information on the Narmer Palette.

Question 26

Hieratic was an alternative script to hieroglyphics developed during the fourth dynasty.

Question 27

Like the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys, the Nile River valley is rich in mineral resources.

Question 28

Upper Egypt refers to the northern part of the Egyptian Nile Valley.

Question 29

Although warfare in between Mesopotamian city-states was common, the level of violence was limited.

Question 30

The growth of Mesopotamian cities was based on the production of agricultural surplus.

Question 31

Most Paleolithic and Neolithic sites in southern Mesopotamia are accessible to archaeologists because they are not deeply buried.

Question 32

In southern Mesopotamia, crops can be grown only with irrigation.

Question 33

Mesopotamia was bounded by the Nile and the Euphrates Rivers.

Question 34

Originally, the great pyramid of Cheops at Giza was sheathed in a casing of polished limestone.

Question 35

The Minoans had a form of social organization that was complex without the emergence of urban centers.

Question 36

Why did the Nile farmers not have the salination problems that plagued Mesopotamian farmers?

A) The Aswan dam made irrigation unnecessary.
B) They used fertilizers rich in potassium salts.
C) There is no salt in the Egyptian soil.
D) The annual flooding of the Nile replenished the soil.

Question 37

Where is the Nile Delta found?

A) Lower Egypt
B) Upper Egypt
C) the Fayum Depression
D) Nubia

Question 38

During the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia, the __________ recorded transactions involving the exchange of land for goods.

A) hieroglyphic stones
B) kuduru texts
C) cylinder seals
D) Habuba scrolls

Question 39

What is the oldest known city in the world?

A) Ur
B) Hamourkar
C) Habuba Kebira
D) Uruk

Question 40

The first cities in Mesopotamia developed during the __________ period.

A) Chalcolithic
B) Uruk
C) Neolithic
D) Ubaid

Question 41

Most of the early cities in Mesopotamia were either within or on the edge of __________.

A) rolling upland
B) extensive marshlands
C) desert wasteland
D) grassy savannah

Question 42

Mesopotamia is found between the Tigris and Euphrates, centered in what modern country?

A) Pakistan
B) Iraq
C) Syria
D) Turkey

Question 43

This epic tale, set in the Uruk period, is known from cuneiform tablets recovered from Mesopotamia.

A) the Bible
B) Gilgamesh
C) the Odyssey
D) the Iliad

Question 44

The core of Minoan and Mycenaean society was the palace.

Question 45

Peer polity interactions may explain the interaction between the Minoans and the Mycenaeans.

Question 46

The Epic of Gilgamesh recounts the exploits of the king of Uruk.

Question 47

The Mesopotamian ziggurat is a _____.

A) method of polychromatic wall decoration
B) stepped pyramid within temple precincts
C) domestic structural feature
D) counting system

Question 48

The earliest cuneiform documents were developed to record ownership/economic transactions.