Deck 2: The First River-Valley Civilizations

Question 1

A massive pyramidal stepped tower made of mud bricks and associated with religious complexes in ancient Mesopotamian cities is known as a(n)

A)altar.
B)ziggurat.
C)open air plaza.
D)steps leading up to the pyramid.
E)lugal's burial chamber.

Answer 1

ziggurat.

Question 2

Mesopotamian priests

A)inherited their positions from their fathers.
B)bought their positions from the temples.
C)were chosen by the kings.
D)were chosen by the gods through oracles.
E)were chosen by ritual combat.

Answer 2

inherited their positions from their fathers.

Question 3

Who was the Amorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 BCE)best known for a code of laws inscribed on a black stone pillar illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases?

A)Enkidu
B)Sargon
C)Hammurabi
D)Gilgamesh
E)Uruk

Answer 3

Hammurabi

Question 4

Mesopotamian gods were anthropomorphic; that is, they

A)took form as the elements of nature.
B)were imagined to be humanlike in form and conduct.
C)appeared in the bodies of kings while on earth.
D)were divine and perfect beings.
E)were omniscient.

Question 5

A small charm meant to protect the bearer from evil and found frequently in archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and Egypt are called

A)cuneiform.
B)ziggurats.
C)charm bracelets.
D)amulets.
E)scribes.

Question 6

The Egyptian death ritual is complex because of the belief that death was a journey beset with danger.

Question 7

Which of the following was not part of the free, landowning class in Mesopotamia?

A)farmers
B)royalty
C)warriors
D)priests
E)merchants

Question 8

One of the difficulties historians have for understanding the role of women in Mesopotamian society is

A)the requirement that they never leave the house.
B)their role as primary agricultural producers was not considered noteworthy.
C)their role in the military.
D)the only existing records were written by elite male scribes.
E)books written by women were later suppressed and burned.

Question 9

A professional position reserved for men who had undergone the lengthy training required to be able to read and write using cuneiform, hieroglyphics, or other early, cumbersome writing systems was that of the

A)priest.
B)slave.
C)king.
D)business owner.
E)scribe.

Question 10

The earliest historically documented people of Mesopotamia were the

A)Sumerians.
B)Timpanos.
C)Hyksos.
D)Hittites.
E)Medes.

Question 11

The Mesopotamian writing system is called

A)Linear A.
B)Arabic.
C)Persian.
D)hieroglyphics.
E)cuneiform.

Question 12

What are the criteria for "civilization"?

A)cities
B)control of a geographic area as a means of power
C)status distinctions
D)recordkeeping
E)All of these are correct.

Question 13

The largest and most important city in Mesopotamia, which achieved particular eminence as the capital of the Amorite king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century BCE, was

A)Akkad.
B)Babylon.
C)Babylonia.
D)Baghdad.
E)Jericho

Question 14

Sargon of Akkad is notable because he

A)invaded Greece.
B)merged his kingdom with Egypt's.
C)abolished slavery.
D)united many cities under one king and capital.
E)wrote letters in cuneiform.

Question 15

One of the most important breakthroughs which ushered in agriculture in Mesopotamia was

A)construction of canals to bring water to distant fields.
B)the region's high annual rainfall.
C)the introduction of wheat crops.
D)large numbers of animals for fertilizer.
E)a highly motivated work force.

Question 16

In Greek, Mesopotamia means .

A)"gift of the Nile"
B)"fertile crescent"
C)"land between the rivers"
D)"Tigris and Euphrates"
E)"central region"

Question 17

Which of the following was not a Sumerian god?

A)Ninhursang
B)Gilgamesh
C)Anu
D)Enki
E)Inanna

Question 18

In the third millennium BCE, the political ruler in Sumer was

A)a pharaoh .
B)a vizier.
C)a lugal .
D)a kniaz .
E)an emperor.

Question 19

Under the Law Code, what was the punishment for a free person breaking the bone of another free person's slave?

A)death
B)payment of half the slave's value
C)life imprisonment
D)one-half kilogram of silver
E)breaking of the offender's bone

Question 20

Mesopotamia lies mostly within what modern state?

A)Lebanon
B)Israel
C)Syria
D)Iraq
E)Iran

Question 21

The region that gave birth to the earliest known civilization in the Indian subcontinent is located in what modern state?

A)India
B)China
C)Bangladesh
D)Pakistan
E)Tibet

Question 22

Large public buildings in the Indus Valley were typically made of what?

A)concrete blocks
B)stone pillars
C)bronze frames
D)woven thatch
E)mud bricks

Question 23

The culture that developed in Egypt was unique largely because of

A)Egypt's interaction with other civilizations.
B)Egypt's natural isolation and essential self-sufficiency.
C)Egyptian dominance in metalworking.
D)Egypt's surplus agricultural production and trade.
E)Egypt's large population.

Question 24

Egyptian kingship and religion were closely intertwined because it was believed

A)the pharaoh could determine if one would go to the afterlife.
B)the weather was dependent on whether the pharaoh was pleased with his people.
C)the pharaoh was the living Horus and son of Re.
D)the stability of Egyptian society depended on the quality of the king's treasures.
E)the pharaoh was ordained by god to rule over the kingdom.

Question 25

Cuneiform writing was accomplished by

A)incising written symbols in clay.
B)alphabetical arrangements of phonemes.
C)mathematical calculations on the outside of a clay envelope.
D)learning the cuneiform language.
E)implanting reed tips and tokens in clay tablets to make patterns.

Question 26

Women in Egypt seemed to have

A)rights of divorce.
B)rights to property.
C)more status than in Mesopotamia.
D)subordinate status to men.
E)all of these are correct.

Question 27

Fundamental concepts of Egyptian religion were based on

A)the desires of the pharaohs.
B)extending Egyptian control over competing cultures.
C)the vision of a cosmic order that the physical environment of the Nile Valley evoked.
D)ideas brought to Egypt from Mesopotamia.
E)each person's individual reflection on what god is like.

Question 28

The capital of Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdoms was

A)Thebes.
B)Memphis.
C)Alexandria.
D)Cairo.
E)Babylon.

Question 29

Ancient Egyptians distinguished between the life-sustaining dark soil of the "Black Land" and the deadly of the desert.?

A)Yellow Land
B)Red Land
C)Green Land
D)Gold Land
E)Wind Land

Question 30

During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, Egypt's foreign policy was essentially

A)interventionist.
B)isolationist.
C)capitalist.
D)colonialist.
E)administrative.

Question 31

The central figure in the ancient Egyptian state and believed to be an earthly manifestation of the gods was the

A)scribe.
B)pharaoh.
C)ma'at.
D)priest.

Question 32

Cuneiform writing was later to adapted to all of the following languages EXCEPT

A)Akkadian.
B)Elamite.
C)Persian.
D)Hebrew.
E)Hittite.

Question 33

Crucial to Egypt's agriculture was

A)a complex system of aqueducts.
B)regular rainfall south of the delta.
C)proximity to the Nile River.
D)favor of the gods.
E)there was almost no agriculture in Egypt because it's a desert.

Question 34

A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concepts, and was used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt, is called

A)cuneiform.
B)ma'at.
C)hieroglyphics.
D)papyrus.
E)script.

Question 35

The two main cities of early Indian civilization are

A)Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
B)Akkad and Thebes.
C)Syracuse and Illyria.
D)Troy and Delhi.
E)Riazan and Antioch.

Question 36

Historians organize Egyptian history using the system of dynasties.

A)divine
B)dual
C)thirty
D)a hundred
E)dueling

Question 37

Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley civilizations were all

A)based on fertile floodplains and river valleys.
B)made possible by large agricultural surpluses.
C)derived from an earlier, as yet undiscovered, "watershed" civilization.
D)based on beer brewing and female labor.
E)wiped out by a huge drought.

Question 38

The improvements in the Mesopotamian military technology included all of the following EXCEPT

A)bronze weapons.
B)chariots.
C)metal-tipped arrows used by squads of archers.
D)siege machinery.
E)incendiary devices.

Question 39

According to Egyptian belief, the function assigned by the gods to the Egyptian kings was to maintain ma'at, or the

A)separation of the divine and natural spheres.
B)divinely authorized order of the universe.
C)subservience of the people to the king.
D)welfare and prosperity of the country.
E)accumulation of royal wealth.

Question 40

Which was NOT a technology found in Indian civilization?

A)metallurgy
B)irrigation
C)pottery
D)mummification
E)brick making

Question 41

Hammurabi is famous for what stabilizing factor of civilization?

Question 42

What was the likely population of Harappa?

A)1,000
B)10,000
C)35,000
D)100,000
E)350,000

Question 43

Describe the Sumerian religion, including who the gods were and how they were worshipped.

Question 44

Metal objects unearthed in the Indus Valley

A)have been mostly tools and other useful objects.
B)have been primarily jewelry and other decorative items.
C)belonged to the elite and wealthy classes.
D)were used only in urban areas.
E)were mostly weapons.

Question 45

If you were a historian writing on the Indus Valley civilization, how would you describe this society without the benefit of a deciphered written language?

Question 46

Which of the following was probably not one of the components of the "systems failure" that brought down the Indus Valley cities?

A)That the Hakra River system dried up
B)That invaders from the north and east drove out the inhabitants
C)Massive flooding
D)Salinization of farmland
E)Increased erosion

Question 47

Compare the civilization in the Indus Valley with the civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Question 48

Compare the Egyptian hieroglyphic and Mesopotamian cuneiform writing systems.

Question 49

Instructions: Answer the following question(s).
What political, social, economic, and technological traits are usually considered indicators of civilization, and how are they revealed in the Epic of Gilgamesh ?

Question 50

Describe the process by which the main framework of civilization was created in Mesopotamia.

Question 51

Why are archaeologists unable to excavate the earliest levels of settlement at the Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro sites?

Question 52

In order to discover more specific information about the social structure of Indus Valley civilizations, what needs to be done?

A)share knowledge with other archeologists and historians.
B)the writing of the civilization must be deciphered.
C)carbon dating of artifacts
D)analysis of exhumed bodies
E)All of these.

Question 53

How did the law code of Hammurabi reflect social divisions in Mesopotamian society?

Question 54

One of the chief attributes of a civilization is

Question 55

The first domestication of plants and animals took place in the

Question 56

Discuss the Egyptian religious beliefs and death rituals as they centered on divine kingship and the pharaoh.

Question 57

How did the status and experience of women change as Mesopotamian society developed into a civilization?

Question 58

Explain how the first Egyptian civilization was shaped by its natural environment.

Question 59

Why do we study the early civilizations in isolation from one another?