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:

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 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.

Answer 2

were imagined to be humanlike in form and conduct.

Question 3

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

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

Answer 3

Babylon

Question 4

The earliest historically documented people of Mesopotamia were the

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

Question 5

Who was the Amorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792-1750B.C.E.) 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

Question 6

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 7

What are the criteria for "civilization?"

A) cities
B) control of a geographic area as a means of power.
C) status distinctions.
D) record keeping.
E) all of these.

Question 8

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.

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 Mesopotamian writing system is called

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

Question 11

Which of the following is not included in the Semitic family of languages?

A) Hebrew
B) Akkadian
C) Aramaic
D) Phoenician
E) Elamite

Question 12

Which of the following classes does not belong to Babylonia society?

A) The class of slaves
B) The class of dependent farmers and artisans
C) The class of tenant farmers
D) The free, landowning class

Question 13

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.

Question 14

The first dynastic king, Sargon of Akkad, and his four successors, did all of the following except

A) organize a system of standardized weights and measures.
B) use cuneiform writing.
C) issue a comprehensive law code.
D) attack Egypt.
E) facilitate trade between all the city-states under his control.

Question 15

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 16

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

Question 17

The term city-state refers to all of the following except

A) a small independent state.
B) an urban center surrounded by agricultural hinterlands .
C) an association of mutually dependent cities.
D) self-governing urban centers.

Question 18

An alloy of copper with a small amount of tin (or sometimes arsenic), which is harder and more durable than copper alone, is:

A) steel.
B) copper.
C) iron.
D) gold.
E) bronze.

Question 19

In the third millennium B.C.E., the political ruler in Sumer was

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

Question 20

Mesopotamian society was made up of three classes, which were created by

A) social norms.
B) Law Code of Hammurabi.
C) hereditary mechanisms.
D) unlawful means.
E) a vote of the citizenry.

Question 21

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 22

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 23

Egyptian writings were probably first used for

A) business inventories.
B) hymns to the gods.
C) law codes.
D) king lists.
E) administrative matters.

Question 24

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 25

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 26

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 27

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 28

A body preserved by chemical processes or special natural circumstances, often in the belief that the deceased will need it again in the afterlifeis called a

A) cuneiform.
B) embalbed.
C) skeleton.
D) sarcophogous.
E) mummy.

Question 29

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 30

The region of modern Pakistan which gave birth to the earliest known civilization in the Indian subcontinent is centered on which river?

A) Oxus.
B) Ganges.
C) Indus.
D) Nile.

Question 31

Which was NOT a technology found in Indian civilization?

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

Question 32

Advances in mathematics and careful observations of nature made the Mesopotamians sophisticated practitioners of:

A) biology.
B) geology.
C) astronomy.
D) meteorology.
E) none of these.

Question 33

A large, triangular stone monument, used in Egypt and Nubia as a burial place for the king was the:

A) zaggurat.
B) pyrimid.
C) burial chamber.
D) Solar Ship.
E) Menes.

Question 34

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 35

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.

Question 36

The capital of Old Kingdom Egypt, near the head of the Nile Delta and where early rulers were interred in the nearby pyramids, was:

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

Question 37

Which of the following was not among Egypt's natural resources?

A) Copper
B) Reeds for paper
C) Building stone
D) Turquoise and gold
E) Salt

Question 38

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

A) scribe
B) pharoah
C) ma'at
D) priest

Question 39

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 40

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 41

Identify the following term(s).
ziggurat

Question 42

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 43

Identify the following term(s).
Mesopotamia

Question 44

Identify the following term(s).
cuneiform

Question 45

Identify the following term(s).
civilization

Question 46

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

A) shared 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 47

Identify the following term(s).
Thebes

Question 48

Identify the following term(s).
Memphis

Question 49

Identify the following term(s).
Sumerians

Question 50

Identify the following term(s).
Hammurabi

Question 51

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 52

Identify the following term(s).
ma'at

Question 53

Identify the following term(s).
amulet

Question 54

Identify the following term(s).
Herodotus

Question 55

Identify the following term(s).
Great Pyramid of Khufu

Question 56

Identify the following term(s).
city-state

Question 57

Identify the following term(s).
anthropomorphic

Question 58

A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it was produced a coarse, paperlike writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other peoples in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East was

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

Question 59

Identify the following term(s).
Epic of Gilgamesh

Question 60

Identify the following term(s).
pharoah

Question 61

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

Question 62

Hammurabi is famous for what stabilizing factor of civilization?

Question 63

What are the most important elements necessary for the creation of "civilization" as we know it? Explain how civilization becomes more complex as it obtains these elements, as well as how this kind of civilization differs from earlier social organizations.

Question 64

What was the purpose of the Egyptian pyramids?

Question 65

Mesopotamia means _______________?

Question 66

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

Question 67

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

Question 68

Compare the Egyptian hieroglyphic and Mesopotamian cuneiform writing systems.

Question 69

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

Question 70

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

Question 71

One of the chief attributes of a civilization is

Question 72

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 73

Identify the following term(s).
Harappa

Question 74

Identify the following term(s).
Mohenjo-daro

Question 75

Identify the following term(s).
Levant

Question 76

How did technological advancements enable Mesopotamia to meet the challenges of their physical environment?

Question 77

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

Question 78

Identify the following term(s).
hieroglyphics

Question 79

Identify the following term(s).
papyrus

Question 80

Describe the development of city-states in early Mesopotamia.