Deck 1: Early Civilizations

Question 1

Why was life expectancy in early cities shorter than among nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples?

A) The carbohydrate-rich diet was less nutritious, and cramped housing in the cities resulted in increased exposure to infectious diseases.
B) The success of the cities and their stored supplies of food attracted attack from outside, chiefly by nomadic peoples.
C) The process of in-home burial led to an increase in contagious disease.
D) Food was often portioned out according to social class and sex, resulting in an inadequate diet for women and the poor.
E) People in early cities exercised less and ate more than people who lived in traditional hunter-gatherer societies.

Answer 1

The carbohydrate-rich diet was less nutritious, and cramped housing in the cities resulted in increased exposure to infectious diseases.

Question 2

To the peoples of the ancient world,the characteristic manifestations of civilization-government,literature,science,and art-were necessarily products of:

A) rural life.
B) city life.
C) religion.
D) warfare.
E) nomadic life.

Answer 2

city life.

Question 3

The Paleolithic Age begins with the earliest ancestors of modern human beings,who used stone tools,approximately _________ years ago.

A) 7 million
B) 5 million
C) 2 million
D) 750,000
E) 200,000

Answer 3

2 million

Question 4

Although early writing was produced using pointed sticks,Sumerian scribes circa 3100 B.C.E.advanced writing with durable reeds that:

A) almost anyone could use to produce simple documents.
B) allowed the production of clay tablets without costly baking.
C) were exclusively used by the priest class.
D) produced wedge-like script called cuneiform.
E) could be used to eat with as well as write.

Question 5

The Neolithic Revolution allowed women to:

A) participate fully in social and political governance.
B) become the primary laborers in the growing of crops.
C) have fewer children and devote less time to child care.
D) have more children and devote more time to child care.
E) become the religious leaders of communities.

Question 6

Agricultural surpluses and permanent settlements allowed for the unequal accumulation of wealth and thus the emergence of:

A) primitive communism.
B) a socially, economically, and politically stratified society.
C) charities dedicated to feeding the poor.
D) religious rituals dedicated to increasing agricultural production.
E) the earliest banks and trust companies.

Question 7

Although hominid existence extends back many millennia,human civilization was fully achieved around the year:

A) 13,000 B.C.E.
B) 8000 B.C.E.
C) 5000 B.C.E.
D) 3000 B.C.E.
E) 1000 B.C.E.

Question 8

Cave paintings,such as those found in Lascaux,France,are evidence of development of:

A) a stratified society.
B) permanent settlement.
C) language as well as religious and artistic ideas.
D) a priestly class.
E) an artistic class.

Question 9

The common religion of the Sumerians:

A) was an early form of monotheism that influenced other peoples.
B) required city-states to settle their differences peacefully.
C) guaranteed free food for the poorest members of society.
D) included many gods, with a different god worshiped in each city-state.
E) was the only aspect of Sumerian society that survived the society's collapse.

Question 10

Before 11,000 B.C.E..,virtually all human societies were:

A) engaged in settled agriculture to produce crop surpluses for the gods.
B) able to use metal tools for arts, crafts, and building.
C) using men to do the hunting and women to do the gathering.
D) nomadic, moving incessantly in search of limited food.
E) settled in agricultural communities.

Question 11

Tens of thousands of Sumerian clay tablets have survived:

A) but unfortunately the key to the language has not.
B) documenting the United Sumerian empire, which lasted from 2900 to 2500 B.C.E.
C) telling us more about Sumer than we know about any other human society at the time.
D) probably because the Sumerians kept them in special underground archives.
E) but all deal with priestly class and reveal nothing about Sumerian society.

Question 12

Which of the following was an important element in the development of early settlements?

A) the development of coinage to make the exchange of goods easier
B) the standardization of burial practices throughout the Near and Middle East
C) the discovery made during the last "Little Ice Age" of freezing to preserve food
D) the establishment of first local and then long-distance trade routes throughout the Near East
E) the emergence of hereditary kingship

Question 13

Social relationships in the ancient city of Çatalhöyük were largely:

A) hierarchical.
B) egalitarian.
C) based in a caste system.
D) managed by religious officials.
E) based on the example of their gods.

Question 14

Human cultures down to the fourth millennium B.C.E.are referred to as belonging to the Stone Age because they:

A) made most of their tools out of stone.
B) built urban structures primarily with stone.
C) used rocks and stones as weapons.
D) lived in caves.
E) communicated primarily through messages carved in stone.

Question 15

Slavery in Sumerian society was:

A) based on the color of a person's skin.
B) strictly forbidden.
C) based on gender.
D) perpetual, with no chance for the slaves to gain their freedom.
E) usually the result of capture during war.

Question 16

The switch from subsistence by food gathering to food production:

A) required people to give up their faith in storm and wind gods.
B) was a momentous revolution that made stable settlements possible.
C) meant that women were no longer part of the labor force.
D) prohibited raising domestic animals as livestock.
E) required seasonal movement, allowing for summer and winter settlements.

Question 17

While ancient Sumerians shared a common religion,warfare was frequent because:

A) priests were also warriors.
B) the common religion taught that war was necessary and good.
C) most ancient Sumerians did not believe in the peaceful teachings of the common religion.
D) residents of each city believed themselves to be the servants of different gods.
E) residents of each city competed against each other for the honor of serving in the temples.

Question 18

Since human beings in the Paleolithic period had no domestic animals:

A) great disparities developed in individual wealth.
B) they could be easily ruled by tribal kings.
C) they practiced a policy of "divide, defeat, and conquer."
D) they had no significant wealth beyond what they could carry.
E) they used wild animals as beasts of burden.

Question 19

Why was Sumer an uninviting environment for the first cities?

A) The area has no natural defenses.
B) The soil was sandy and the rivers flooded unpredictably.
C) The marshy land between the rivers was fertile breeding ground for malaria and other deadly diseases.
D) The rivers were largely unnavigable during long periods of the year, making trade difficult.
E) The region had no forests for timber or usable stone to quarry for building materials.

Question 20

One of the earliest civilizations,Sumer,flourished in what the Greeks called Mesopotamia,between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day:

A) Egypt.
B) Iran.
C) Saudi Arabia.
D) Ethiopia.
E) Iraq.

Question 21

The Epic of Gilgamesh:

A) exists today in the exact version in which it was read in ancient Sumer.
B) relates the adventures of a lugal of Uruk in ancient Sumer.
C) tells us more about ancient Persian society than it does about ancient Sumer.
D) is largely derived from stories in the Hebrew Bible.
E) tells the story of a simple Akkadian farmer.

Question 22

_________ was the first king to launch wars of aggression in the name of his primary god.

A) Sargon
B) Ur-Nammu
C) Hammurabi
D) Djoser
E) Narmer

Question 23

The penalties in Hammurabi's Law Code:

A) were equal for all.
B) only applied to slaves.
C) were different depending on the class of an individual.
D) were different depending on whether an individual was a citizen or not.
E) were different depending on the age of the individual.

Question 24

The important administrator of the pharaoh Djoser who initiated pyramid building in the "step" style was:

A) Imhotep.
B) Khufu.
C) Cheops.
D) Khafre.
E) Narmer.

Question 25

Sargon of Akkad (c.2350 B.C.E.)is significant because he:

A) was the first lugal to conquer neighboring city-states.
B) subdued Sumer and exerted influence from Ethiopia to the Indus Valley.
C) built observatories and introduced the more accurate Akkadian calendar.
D) sent ambassadors to distant lands ranging from Ethiopia to Europe.
E) was the first ruler in history to take the title of "emperor."

Question 26

Due to recent research,the method of numbering Egyptian dynasties now begins with the _________ dynasty.

A) Zero
B) First
C) Initial
D) Primary
E) Scorpion

Question 27

Historians typically divide ancient Egyptian history into _________ to facilitate the discussion of Egyptian politics and culture.

A) intermediate eras
B) predynastic societies
C) pharaohs
D) kingdoms and periods
E) primary and secondary eras

Question 28

Hammurabi's empire was founded on:

A) a policy of terror.
B) constant warfare.
C) complex trade networks.
D) political strategy and diplomacy.
E) the loyalty of his blood kin.

Question 29

After 2500 B.C.E.,the tombs of Sumerian lugals often included armor and jewelry.This demonstrates both the wealth of the lugals and shows that Sumerians believed:

A) gifts to the gods were necessary at death.
B) there was no afterlife.
C) the dead had to pay a toll to enter the land of the dead.
D) all their possessions should be buried with them.
E) items such as these would be useful in the afterlife.

Question 30

The great Pyramids of Giza,built in the Fourth Dynasty,were:

A) used for athletic events, concerts, and political rallies.
B) lost in the desert sands and unknown to the Greeks.
C) a good supply of building stone for Rome and Carthage.
D) temples used for worship by the priestly class.
E) constructed by thousands of peasant workers who were not slaves.

Question 31

The Akkadian rulers of Sargon and Naram-Sin:

A) presided over the "Dark Age," when foreigners dominated Akkad.
B) were glorified bandits who had little interest in culture.
C) wiped out the Sumerian religion and replaced it with their own.
D) led their country to a series of disastrous defeats ending in the destruction of Akkad.
E) ruled from cities and kept their empires through conquest and commerce.

Question 32

Following the decline in Akkad,a new dynasty under the leadership of _________ arose in the Sumerian city of Ur.

A) Ur-Narmer
B) Ur-Nammu
C) Ur-Engar
D) Ur-Enkidu
E) Gilgamesh

Question 33

The Egyptian system of hieroglyphics was:

A) deciphered by Champollion using the Rosetta Stone.
B) a popular version of the more complex cuneiform.
C) used until the invention of printing with movable type.
D) not written on papyrus because it was too expensive.
E) a phonetic system of writing based on the Ubaid language.

Question 34

The civilization that emerged in ancient Egypt arose:

A) as a part of the Old Babylonian empire.
B) at the same time as that of ancient Sumer.
C) significantly later than that of ancient Sumer.
D) significantly earlier than that of ancient Sumer.
E) as a result of Akkadian colonization.

Question 35

Sumerian mathematics was very sophisticated and based on multiplications and divisions of:

A) 5s and 10s.
B) 10s and 20s.
C) 10s and 100s.
D) 5s and 50s.
E) 30s and 60s.

Question 36

The weakening power of the Fifth and Sixth dynasties resulted in:

A) a wider distribution of wealth in Egyptian society.
B) a decline in cultural production.
C) a contraction of court culture to Memphis.
D) priests refusing to crown pharaohs.
E) a decline in the general quality of life in Egypt.

Question 37

Egyptian society:

A) was highly stratified, with an influential middle class.
B) consisted of a tiny minority of royalty and nobility and a majority class of the poor, including peasants and artisans.
C) was dependent on a large and heavily oppressed slave class.
D) was a powerful patriarchy in which women had little participation.
E) was a matriarchal society as evidenced by powerful queens.

Question 38

An individual who successfully led a Sumerian city-state's army in battles was:

A) known as a tyrant and feared by freedom-loving citizens.
B) able to acquire prestige and power as a lugal.
C) associated with distant countries where the gods supposedly lived.
D) declared a god-king by his city's priests.
E) allowed by the gods to carouse with the wives and daughters of the nobles.

Question 39

Shortly before 3000 B.C.E.,people in the Near East discovered that bronze could be produced by:

A) applying advances in Sumerian mathematics and astronomy.
B) heating copper to extremely high temperatures in pottery furnaces.
C) combining copper with iron.
D) combining copper metal with arsenic or tin.
E) combining iron with tin or arsenic.

Question 40

Enkidu's death in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Gilgamesh's inability to revive him illustrates that Sumerians believed that:

A) a powerful lugal owes no allegiance to the gods.
B) rural life is superior to urban life and "civilization."
C) human effort was futile to stop the forces of nature.
D) the Sumerians believed that the gods would reward those who did their bidding.
E) some Sumerians did not believe in gods and goddesses.

Question 41

Which comparison between Egypt and Mesopotamian civilizations is NOT true?

A) Each underwent a melding of religious and political leadership.
B) Each engaged in massive building projects.
C) Each developed a technique of writing, which helped them expand their influence.
D) Each enjoyed significant political and cultural interactions.
E) Each underwent a process of political consolidation in the third millennium B.C.E.

Question 42

The two gods most fundamental to Egyptian religious belief were:

A) Seth and Osiris.
B) Isis and Osiris.
C) Seth and Isis.
D) Isis and Anubis.
E) Anubis and Horus.

Question 43

Labor among Paleolithic peoples was strictly divided along gender lines,as men did the hunting and women the gathering.

Question 44

The Egyptians developed elaborate tombs and burial techniques:

A) to preserve their sacred cats in the harsh desert climate.
B) following the example of the Hebrews and other nomadic people.
C) because they believed deceased people would be reincarnated as animals.
D) to enable a person's afterlife and ensure he or she had all that was necessary there.
E) to demonstrate their great respect for their ancestors.

Question 45

Before entering an enjoyable afterlife,the deceased Egyptian supposedly:

A) would be judged by Osiris and other divine judges.
B) confessed all sins.
C) had to buy access to heaven with offerings to the gods.
D) had to build a pyramid, large or small, according to social status.
E) had to find his soul in the Duat.

Question 46

Hierarchical structures of leadership were uncommon in early hunter-gatherer societies.

Question 47

The early pharaohs had difficulty establishing their rule over all Egypt due to the power of local civic and religious authorities.

Question 48

Which of the following is NOT true regarding women in Egyptian society during the Pharaonic period?

A) They could assume pharaonic authority.
B) They could own property.
C) They could stand before the courts as individuals without male representation.
D) They could practice sexual freedom.
E) They were recognized as persons in their own right.

Question 49

Sumerian distrust of nature and fear of the world were paralyzing to their culture as they lacked motivation to make significant advances in science,technology,and trade.

Question 50

Although the Akkadians were the predominant people of central Mesopotamia,they adopted Sumerian script,culture,war techniques,and language.

Question 51

Myths can be considered an early form of history.

Question 52

Ma'at:

A) or "size," meant that temples and palaces had to be very large.
B) is equivalent to the English "human rights."
C) was a male god who made the universe move forward in time.
D) includes ideas of harmony, order, justice, and truth.
E) referred to the Egyptian belief in reincarnation.

Question 53

While both Egypt and Mesopotamia used the wheel in pottery making,in the Early Bronze Age only Mesopotamia used the wheel for transport and war chariots.

Question 54

It is possible that Egyptians did not develop many laborsaving devices such as the wheel because:

A) there was a very large pool of available manpower in Egypt.
B) many craftsmen in Egypt were dedicated to designing monumental architecture.
C) Egypt did not have trade contacts with areas in which laborsaving devices had been developed.
D) the Egyptian way of farming did not lend itself to using devices such as the wheel.
E) any and all technology produced was owned by the pharaoh.

Question 55

Hammurabi's Law Code is the first law code that exacted equal punishment for crimes across the social spectrum.

Question 56

Hammurabi's Law Code accorded no rights to women.

Question 57

The Egyptians made notable advances in:

A) mathematics.
B) science.
C) military technology.
D) philosophy.
E) measuring time.

Question 58

Agricultural surplus made it possible for early societies to become more stable and to expand in population,yet also kept early societies socially stagnant as all labor was focused on the land and the cultivation of more grain.

Question 59

Which period saw Egypt expand its borders,abandon its isolationism,and change its ideal of pharaoh from a god to a "good shepherd"?

A) the Old Kingdom
B) the Middle Kingdom
C) the First Intermediate Period
D) the Second Intermediate Period
E) the New Kingdom

Question 60

Egyptian coffin books or books of the dead contained:

A) lists of prominent persons who died each year.
B) funeral regulations for members of the royal family.
C) instructions about preserving bodies after death.
D) magic spells, formulas, and incantations needed in the afterlife.
E) lamentations and consoling writings to aid the bereaved in their time of sorrow.

Question 61

The First Intermediate Period refers to a period in which Egypt ceased to be unified.

Question 62

How did the Ubaid culture contribute to the development of urban civilization in Mesopotamia?

Question 63

How did the geography of Mesopotamia and Egypt shape their cultures?

Question 64

Egypt in the Old and Middle Kingdoms was maintained chiefly through conquest.

Question 65

Compare and contrast Sumerian and Egyptian forms of religion.

Question 66

In what ways can Hammurabi's rule be described as innovative?

Question 67

How did the image of the pharaoh change during the Middle Kingdom?

Question 68

How can the Epic of Gilgamesh help historians better understand Sumerian society?

Question 69

Egyptian and Mesopotamian hieroglyphic writing developed independently of one another.

Question 70

Why is the "capacity to produce beer a sure sign of civilization"?

Question 71

How did Sumerian advances in technology help shape society in the Fertile Crescent?

Question 72

The vast majority of Egyptians who built the pyramids were slaves.

Question 73

What factors contributed to the fall of the Old Kingdom?

Question 74

What innovations characterize the Neolithic Revolution,and how did these innovations impact Neolithic society?

Question 75

During the Middle Kingdom,Egypt turned inward and lessened its trade and diplomatic contacts.