Deck 7: Towers, Villages, and Longhouses

Question 1

Archaeologically, what is the major technology that distinguishes the Early Neolithic and Natufian?

Answer 1

The major marker is a gradual shift away from tools made on bladelets to a toolkit made on blades with a particular emphasis on arrowheads. Blades were also used for sickles, and ground stone tools (axes, adzes, grinding stones) were also an important addition to the Early Neolithic tool kit.

Question 2

How did Pre-Pottery Neolithic A villages differ from those later in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B?

Answer 2

During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B there was a shift from the round houses found in PPNA to rectangular houses and the size of settlements increased significantly. The later settlements are quite large, with populations of 5,000, and show a high degree of planning.

Question 3

The earliest farmers in central and western Europe are known as the __________ culture.

A) Linear Band Keramik
B) fire-stick
C) Mesolithic
D) Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The __________ links the expansion of farmers into Europe with the spread of the Indo-European language family.

A) language dispersal hypothesis
B) agri-linguistic model
C) Neolithic Revolution
D) hyper-diffusionist hypothesis

Question 5

The Late Neolithic site of __________ in Central Turkey includes rooms decorated with frescoes and bulls horns.

A) Jerf el Ahmar
B) Çatalhöyük
C) Netiv Hagdud
D) Lepinski Vir

Question 6

Pottery manufacture developed across the Middle East during the __________ period.

A) Natufian
B) Upper Paleolithic
C) Late Neolithic
D) Younger Dryas

Question 7

Which of these plants was domesticated during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B?

A) corn
B) potatoes
C) wheat
D) tobacco

Question 8

One characteristic of domesticated plants is a tough __________, which holds the seed to the stalk until harvested.

A) rachis
B) flower pod
C) spikelet
D) rindos

Question 9

The most spectacular example of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A construction is the 9-meter-high structure at __________.

A) Jericho
B) Mallaha
C) Abu Hureyra
D) Jerf el Ahmar

Question 10

Although the Natufians did not appear to domesticate herd animals, there is evidence that they did domesticate __________.

A) cats
B) camels
C) dogs
D) chickens

Question 11

What is the significance of plastered skulls during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B?

Question 12

What technological innovations occurred during the Late Neolithic?

Question 13

How has our concept of the Neolithic Revolution changed since V. Gordon Childe proposed it?

Question 14

What characterized the Natufian period?

Question 15

Why did Marshall Sahlins call hunter-gatherers ʺthe original affluent societyʺ?

Question 16

How did Lewis Henry Morgan and V. Gordon Childe view the relationship between man and nature as it related to the development of agriculture?

Question 17

What is domestication? How is it recognized archaeologically?

Question 18

Discuss the scenarios concerning the spread of agriculture to Europe.

Question 19

What is paleoethnobotany and what can it tell archaeologists about sites?

Question 20

Describe the similarities and differences of the various archaeological periods in the Middle East and trends between them.

Question 21

Discuss the various scenarios for why agriculture was adopted by human populations.

Question 22

Compare and contrast the theories of Morgan, Childe, Rindos, and Ingold as to how agriculture developed.

Question 23

What was the Linear Band Keramik culture?

Question 24

The Early Neolithic includes the period __________.

A) Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
B) Post-Pottery Neolithic B
C) Chalcolithic C
D) Dravidian D

Question 25

Toward the end of the Natufian there was a reduction in the number and size of sites. This reduction has been correlated with the __________, a global climatic event known as "the Little Ice Age."

A) Pleistocene
B) Older Dryas
C) Elder Glaciation
D) Younger Dryas

Question 26

The Jericho tower is the earliest known large-scale piece of architecture in the Middle East.

Question 27

The Natufians did not domesticate herd animals, but there is evidence that they domesticated cats.

Question 28

The Younger Dryas was a global climatic event that is often characterized as "prehistoric global warming."

Question 29

The characteristic tools of the Natufian are tiny crescent-shaped stones called lunates.

Question 30

The Natufian was the period where plants and animals were finally domesticated.

Question 31

The burial at the Geometric Kebaran site of Wadi Mataha indicates that this was a peaceful time with well-understood rituals.

Question 32

Ohalo is a Natufian dry cave site that yielded rare examples of preserved textiles.

Question 33

The first true agriculture in the Middle East developed during the Kebaran period.

Question 34

The Fertile Crescent is a ribbon of Mediterranean climate that arcs across the Middle East.

Question 35

The Neolithic Revolution refers to the subsistence strategy known as broad spectrum foraging.

Question 36

Excavation profiles can be represented schematically by using the Harris Matrix.

Question 37

On domesticated plants, the rachis is selected to be brittle so that it can be more easily harvested.

Question 38

At the end of the Early Neolithic, there was a sharp rise in the number and size of villages in the Middle East.

Question 39

At the Natufian site of __________ in Syria, flotation has recovered many burned seeds that indicate the inhabitants were collecting a wide variety of plants.

A) Ohala
B) Jericho
C) Netiv Hagdud
D) Abu Hureyra

Question 40

What Natufian village site in Northern Israel has allowed archaeologists to tentatively reconstruct a large structure?

A) Jerf el Ahmar
B) Lepinski Vir
C) Jericho
D) Mallaha

Question 41

The Kebaran site of __________, at the Sea of Galilee, was notable because of its remarkable preservation of organic remains, including the remains of six brush huts.

A) Abu Hureyra
B) Ohalo
C) Mallaha
D) Jericho

Question 42

The ________ period is characterized by hunter-gatherers subsisting on a broad range of plants and animals.

A) Chalcolithic
B) Natufian
C) Early Neolithic
D) Kebaran

Question 43

Which of the following descriptions best characterizes the Fertile Crescent?

A) It is an area between the Middle East and India.
B) It is a ribbon of Mediterranean climate that arcs across the Middle East.
C) It was the region where rice was domesticated.
D) It has wet summers and dry winters.

Question 44

Ester Boserup suggested that __________ might be the cause of the shift to agriculture.

A) a shift from trust to domination
B) the rise of social inequality
C) a desire for a surplus
D) increased population size

Question 45

Marshall Sahlins described hunter-gatherers as __________.

A) middle stage barbarians
B) the original affluent society
C) broad spectrum foragers
D) evolutionary throw-backs

Question 46

V. Gordon Childe defined the transition to agriculture as __________.

A) cultural evolution
B) the Neolithic Revolution
C) a shift from savagery to barbarism
D) broad spectrum foraging

Question 47

__________ is a component of the study of agriculture.

A) Community
B) Aesthetics
C) Stratification
D) Architecture

Question 48

The earliest farming communities in the Middle East are called Linear Band Keramik (LBK)

Question 49

Domestication refers to changes in plants and animals that allow them to survive better in the wild.