Deck 7: Reading the Unwritten Record: Peoples of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific Islands 3000 B.C.E.–500 C.E.

Question 1

The earliest rock paintings in the Tassili region show

A) human herding cattle, sheep, and goats
B) wildlife, with no human presence
C) humans hunting big game with spears and bows
D) humans foraging for good

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The term for roughly 500 related languages spoken in sub-Saharan Africa is

A) Bantu
B) Bemba
C) Khoisan
D) Moche

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Wherever Bantu migrants settled in the period around 3000 BCE, their villages became the focal point for the smaller groups of gatherer-hunters in the area, who were probably most attracted by the settlers'

A) agricultural skill
B) use of pottery
C) language
D) ability to extract palm oil from trees

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Farming became more efficient with the arrival of

A) iron technology
B) bronze technology
C) yam cultivation
D) horses

Question 5

Most scholars believe that ironworking was introduced from the Middle East because

A) there is very little iron ore in Africa
B) instructional texts have been deciphered
C) Africans were already skilled at working with tin and copper
D) there is no evidence of African experimentation with other, softer metals

Question 6

The cornerstone of Bantu social organization was

A) religious life
B) a complicated hierarchy of castes
C) wealth
D) matrilineal descent

Question 7

A Bantu woman's entry into adulthood was marked by

A) childbearing
B) marriage
C) turning 18
D) the death of her mother

Question 8

How do scholars study ancient Bantu religious beliefs?

A) They study modern Bantu beliefs
B) They read ancient Bantu texts
C) They excavate ancient temple sites
D) They study ancient Egyptian and Roman texts

Question 9

Many modern Bantu speakers believe that natural disasters and evil arise from

A) the gods
B) human transgressions that disturb the cosmic order
C) evil forces that try to influence humans
D) original sin

Question 10

The most widely accepted theory about the peopling of North America holds that migrants

A) crossed into North America from northeastern Asia during the last ice age about fifteen thousand years ago
B) crossed the Atlantic from Africa, landing in Brazil
C) were Pacific Islanders who sailed their canoes from settled islands to the west coast of Central America
D) arrived from Scandinavia via Greenland

Question 11

People living in _____________ pursued a gatherer-hunter lifestyle for much longer than others elsewhere in the Americas.

A) Central America
B) Mesoamerica
C) South America
D) North America

Question 12

The culture that lived in the modern Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco, south of the Gulf of Mexico, was the

A) Aztec
B) Olmec
C) Maya
D) Inca

Question 13

The Olmecs, or their ancestors, were one of the few peoples on earth who invented ___________ independently.

A) ironworking
B) agriculture
C) bronze working
D) writing

Question 14

The cereal cultivated by the Olmecs was

A) wheat
B) millet
C) sorghum
D) maize

Question 15

One characteristic element of Olmec ceremonial sites is the presence of

A) totem poles
B) monumental carved stone heads
C) tombs containing mummies
D) pyramids made of stone

Question 16

Olmec complexes at San Lorenzo and La Venta seem to have been

A) major population centers
B) the homes of the rulers and upper classes
C) primarily ceremonial
D) used for exercise

Question 17

The validity of scholarly interpretation of Olmec archeological remains depends strongly on

A) the Olmecs' connection to later Mesoamerican societies
B) radiocarbon dating
C) parallels to European cultures
D) the study of the practices and beliefs of modern residents of the region

Question 18

How the large El Mirador Mayan complex came to be constructed remains a mystery, because

A) no obvious source for the stone used in construction has been found
B) the population in the area was only a few hundred at the time
C) the Maya were not know for monumental construction
D) the area has insufficient agricultural land to support a large labor force

Question 19

Early Andean coastal residents did not practice agriculture because

A) they did not know how
B) abundant sea life made it unnecessary
C) they obtained agricultural products through trade
D) it was believed to offend the gods

Question 20

Around 900 B.C.E., the cultural diversity of the Andes gave way to relative uniformity when a new culture, called ________, came to dominate a wide area of north and central Peru.

A) Olmec
B) Moche
C) Sipán
D) Chavín

Question 21

The Moche state went into decline in the sixth century C.E., probably due to

A) natural disasters
B) invasion by the Aztec
C) the arrival of Europeans
D) infighting

Question 22

As Pacific Islanders migrated to new islands they

A) domesticated the crops they found on each new island
B) foraged for whatever could be found on each new island
C) brought domesticated crops and animals with them
D) brought domesticated crops but lacked domesticated animals

Question 23

The first speakers of Austronesian languages lived in

A) southern China and Taiwan
B) Australia
C) the Philippines
D) the Society Islands

Question 24

Lapita pottery is known for

A) its high quality
B) being fired at extremely high temperatures
C) extensive decoration
D) their size

Question 25

By the beginning of the common era some Polynesians stopped producing pottery altogether because

A) they were bad at it
B) they lacked the means to fire it at high temperatures
C) they had no trading partners to sell it to
D) they used coconut shells and underground ovens, making pottery unnecessary

Question 26

Lapita culture spread eastward from Melanesia into western Polynesia

A) amazingly quickly
B) surprisingly slowly
C) slowly at first, but with increasing speed
D) in fits and starts

Question 27

In Mesoamerica, where writing appeared in the last centuries B.C.E., the Zapotec and early Mayan inscriptions on stone recorded

A) the heroic acts of kings
B) the exchange of goods
C) the predictions of oracles
D) victories in the ball game

Question 28

Whether a person was included in or excluded from literate life depended mostly on

A) social factors
B) religious factors
C) economic factors
D) legal factors

Question 29

We know relatively little about the lives of ancient people who resided in villages and temporary pastoral settlements because

A) most people lived in urban centers
B) most of the texts about their lives were lost
C) they were illiterate
D) their lives were similar to those in cities