Deck 6: Expanding Intellectual Horizons: Arts and Ideas in the Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age

Question 1

For child development researcher Jean Piaget, the first scribblings of young children:

A) express secret fears
B) express secret wishes
C) are pure play
D) develop motor skills

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The archaeological site of Arcy-sur-Cure is significant as a place where:

A) the oldest cave paintings have been found
B) the first Venus figurines were found
C) anatomically modern human beings produced sculptures that depict lunar phases
D) Neandertals are known to have produced items of personal adornment

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Neandertals are known to have produced:

A) painted cave art
B) items of personal adornment
C) both painted cave art and items of personal adornment
D) none of the above

Answer 3

both painted cave art and items of personal adornment

Question 4

Early evidence of the use of raw materials used in artistic expression has been found at Qafzeh Cave, in Israel, in the form of:

A) clay nodules
B) tempera
C) red ochre
D) all of the above

Question 5

The earliest glimmerings of artistic expression found at Pinnacle Cave, in South Africa, date back about:

A) 30,000 years
B) 57,000 years
C) 93,000 years
D) 164,000 years

Question 6

At Blombos Cave in South Africa, researchers discovered:

A) the world's oldest cave paintings
B) the world's oldest Venus figurines
C) pieces of ochre with incised markings
D) incised antler fragments that appear to be part of an ancient calendar based on lunar phases

Question 7

The incised artifacts recovered at Blombos Cave in South Africa appear to be about how old:

A) 100,000 years
B) 56,000 years
C) 27,000 years
D) 17,000 years

Question 8

More than 75,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Blombos Cave:

A) painted realistic depictions of the animals on which they depended for their subsistence
B) sculpted depictions of pregnant women
C) engraved outlines of human beings on the walls of the cave
D) made beads of perforated mollusk shells

Question 9

Coolidge and Wynn (2009) include in their enumeration of the archaeological correlates of the modern human mind:

A) personal ornamentation
B) ritual burial of the dead
C) technologies involving multiple components
D) all of the above

Question 10

In Africa, the equivalent in time to the Upper Paleolithic in Europe is the:

A) Chalcolithic
B) Mesolithic
C) Late Stone Age
D) Upper Paleolithic

Question 11

In Europe, the equivalent in time to the Late Stone Age in Africa is the:

A) Chalcolithic
B) Mesolithic
C) Upper Paleolithic
D) Late Stone Age

Question 12

In the Late Stone Age and Upper Paleolithic, stone tools exhibit:

A) stability, remaining essentially unchanged from the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age
B) a shift from chipped to ground stone tools
C) a shift from flake to blade tools
D) an increasing reliance on volcanic as opposed to softer sedimentary rock

Question 13

Among the oldest sites in southwest Asia exhibiting a shift to a stone tool technology based on blade production are:

A) Amud and Tabun
B) Boker Tachtit and Ksar Akil
C) Kebara and Qafzeh
D) all of the above

Question 14

Among the new weapons used in hunting that were developed during the Upper Paleolithic and New Stone Age, were the:

A) spear-thrower and bow and arrow
B) bolo and sling
C) trebuchet
D) handaxe

Question 15

The oldest indirect evidence for the bow and arrow dates to:

A) 79,000 years ago in western Europe
B) 22,000 years ago in east Asia
C) 43,000 years ago in Australia
D) 64,000 years ago in South Africa

Question 16

The function of a spear-thrower is to:

A) artificially extend the arm of the thrower
B) exploit the potential energy in woven rope
C) allow for throwing multiple projectiles simultaneously
D) all of the above

Question 17

Compared to a spear thrown without one, a spear thrown with a spear-thrower:

A) goes farther
B) is more accurate
C) has more penetrating power
D) all of the above

Question 18

In the Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Ages, the subsistence base:

A) shifted from hunting to a reliance on gathered plant foods
B) narrowed to a few very productive foods
C) broadened to include a greater range of plants and animals
D) expanded to include the earliest domesticated plants and animals

Question 19

The Aurignacian is:

A) a stone tool tradition based on blade tool production
B) a stone tool tradition based on Levallois flake tools
C) a stone tool tradition of the Neandertals
D) all of the above

Question 20

What is the time period of the Aurignacian tradition:

A) 100,000-77,000 years ago
B) 69,000-55,000 years ago
C) 49,000-47,000 years ago
D) 34,000-27,000 years ago

Question 21

Evidence for the net hunting of small mammals during the Upper Paleolithic has been found at:

A) Arcy-sur-Cure
B) Boker Tachtit
C) Dolni Vestonice
D) Gran Dolina

Question 22

Evidence for a significant focus on marine resources during the Late Stone Age has been found at:

A) Die Kelders Cave
B) Hadar
C) Jebel Qafzeh
D) Border Cave

Question 23

In the Upper Paleolithic, habitation sites tend to be:

A) smaller than those of the Middle Paleolithic
B) larger than those of the Middle Paleolithic
C) about the same size as those of the Middle Paleolithic
D) located in caves

Question 24

In the Upper Paleolithic, there is a dramatic increase in the use of which raw materials:

A) bone
B) antler
C) ivory
D) all of the above

Question 25

The increased use of exotic raw materials at Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age sites when compared to Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age sites is evidence for:

A) the origins of social stratification
B) an expansion of trading networks
C) the origins of a merchant class
D) an evolving pattern of craft specialization

Question 26

Early evidence of Late Stone Age people crafting bone tools including bone awls and spear points has dated to about 77,000 years ago at:

A) Katanda
B) Jebel Qafzeh
C) Hadar
D) Blombos Cave

Question 27

The sites of Ksar Akil and Boker Tachtit are significant:

A) in showing the development of a specialized blade tool technology more than 40,000 years ago
B) in showing the development of a microblade technology
C) in the discovery there of the oldest cave paintings
D) as sites that have produced the skeletons of the earliest anatomically modern human beings

Question 28

The Upper Paleolithic blade technology was more efficient than Levallois because:

A) Levallois worked only on softer stones that could not maintain a sharp edge for very long
B) Upper Paleolithic blades were struck from prepared cores and therefore were of a predetermined form, whereas Levallois flakes were struck off haphazardly produced cores and their form was unpredictable
C) many more Upper Paleolithic blades than Levallois flakes could be removed from the same-sized core, producing more cutting edge from the same amount of stone
D) blades are sharper than flakes

Question 29

The Upper Paleolithic tradition characterized by retouched blades, engraving tools called burins, and stone scrapers is called the:

A) Aurignacian
B) Gravettian
C) Solutrean
D) Magdelanian

Question 30

The Upper Paleolithic tradition characterized by finely flaked, symmetrical, leaf-shaped projectile points is called the:

A) Aurignacian
B) Gravettian
C) Solutrean
D) Magdelanian

Question 31

The Upper Paleolithic tradition characterized by small blade tools and denticulate knives is called the:

A) Aurignacian
B) Gravettian
C) Solutrean
D) Magdelanian

Question 32

The Upper Paleolithic tradition characterized by microblades and bone and antler tools is called the:

A) Aurignacian
B) Gravettian
C) Solutrean
D) Magdelanian

Question 33

Compared to the Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic tool technologies are:

A) similar in most of the essentials
B) marked by relatively rapid change and greater geographical variability
C) more homogeneous
D) more focused on stone tools

Question 34

The oldest evidence for the production of ceramic vessels-pottery-dates to:

A) 11,000 years ago in Neolithic Japan
B) 6,000 years ago in Early Archaic sites in the American Southeast
C) 19,000 years ago in Upper Paleolithic China
D) 15,000 years ago in Mesolithic Britain

Question 35

The time gap between the first appearance of anatomically modern human beings in the fossil record and the widespread behavioral modernity of Upper Paleolithic culture is about:

A) 10,000 years
B) 20,000 years
C) 50,000 years
D) 150,000 years

Question 36

In terms of the subsistence base, quite clearly when compared to that of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Ages, the Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Ages:

A) focused to a far greater degree on coastal resources
B) was generally broader, with a far larger mix of large mammal species hunted
C) focused to a far greater degree on birds
D) all of the above

Question 37

Where Middle Paleolithic people were opportunistic foragers, to a far greater degree, Upper Paleolithic people were:

A) logistical collectors
B) unrestricted wanderers
C) complex foragers
D) all of the above

Question 38

The presence of eyed needles in Upper Paleolithic contexts implies the:

A) adornment of bodies with tattoos
B) manufacture of tailored clothing
C) weaving of rugs
D) manufacture of metal objects

Question 39

A major technological innovation of the Upper Paleolithic was the:

A) fire-hardened spear
B) spear-thrower
C) bow and arrow
D) pottery

Question 40

The spear-thrower, an invention of the Upper Paleolithic, worked:

A) by using the stored energy in a bent sapling to throw a spear
B) much in the way a slingshot does
C) by effectively increasing the length of the thrower's arm
D) by ingeniously using the force of gravity to propel a spear downhill

Question 41

The Upper Paleolithic site of Mal'ta is perhaps best known for the presence of:

A) splendid cave paintings
B) evidence of a single, enormously successful hunt of woolly mammoth
C) clear evidence of a connection with the first settlers of North America
D) an impressive array of items of personal adornment

Question 42

Archaeologist Randall White points out that the appearance of items of personal adornment in the Upper Paleolithic implies:

A) the beginnings of a stratified society of haves and have-nots
B) an increasing belief in the importance of the individual
C) the beginning of a sexual division of labor
D) not much, because such items have probably always existed; it is only in the Upper Paleolithic that they were made of durable materials

Question 43

Compared to the Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic people used lithic raw materials that:

A) were available only within their own region, as opposed to the distant sources used by Middle Paleolithic people
B) were available often at a great distance from their home territories, implying broader trading networks in the Upper Paleolithic
C) were located at higher elevations, showing an expansion of human adaptation to locations above the tree line in many regions
D) Upper Paleolithic people did not use lithic raw materials to any great extent

Question 44

In the vast majority of the instances where grave goods were found in association with Neandertal burials, such goods were:

A) items of personal adornment
B) animal pelts
C) small tools and animal bones
D) there are no grave goods found with Neandertal burials

Question 45

In Upper Paleolithic burials, it is common to find individuals buried with:

A) items of personal adornment
B) animal pelts
C) small tools and animal bones
D) there are no grave goods found with Upper Paleolithic burials

Question 46

Compared to Neandertal burials, the earliest burials of anatomically modern human beings:

A) are more elaborate in the kinds of grave goods
B) show a higher proportion with grave goods
C) are more likely to show items of personal adornment
D) all of the above

Question 47

The first cave paintings are associated with:

A) premodern human beings
B) the Neandertals
C) the first anatomically modern human beings
D) anatomically modern human beings

Question 48

The oldest date obtained for the cave paintings of the European Upper Paleolithic is about:

A) 23,000 years old
B) 40,000 years old
C) 53,000 years old
D) 80,000 years old

Question 49

The oldest date obtained for the cave paintings in the western Pacific (on the island of Sulawesi) is about:

A) 23,000 years old
B) 40,000 years old
C) 53,000 years old
D) 80,000 years old

Question 50

The most common images in the cave paintings of the European Upper Paleolithic are of:

A) people
B) the sun and moon
C) trees
D) animals

Question 51

The oldest painted images in caves on the island of Sulawesi are of:

A) human hands
B) animals
C) geometric forms
D) the moon

Question 52

The oldest Venus figurine dates to about how many years ago:

A) 10,000
B) 25,000
C) 35,000
D) 56,000

Question 53

More than 30,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Hohle Fels Cave, in Germany,:

A) produced small sculptures of a waterfowl and horse
B) the first Venus figurines
C) flutes
D) all of the above

Question 54

Detailed analyses of the so-called Venus figurines shows that:

A) almost all are depictions of obese, probably pregnant young women, implying that the figurines were symbols of fertility
B) most are, in actuality, depictions of males
C) they depict a wide range of women, similar to the range of women in a living population
D) most are of aged women, suggesting that Upper Paleolithic society highly valued women

Question 55

A statistical analysis conducted by Patricia Rice and Ann Paterson of Upper Paleolithic cave art indicates that:

A) there is a correlation between the percentages of animals depicted in the artwork and the frequency of animals represented in the faunal assemblages of nearby habitation sites
B) there was a clear pattern of emphasizing the depiction of large, impressive, and dangerous carnivores
C) the age range of animals depicted is probably an accurate representation of the age ranges of living groups of animals in the Upper Paleolithic
D) there was a strong preference for depicting male animals, probably because of their greater size

Question 56

At Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave, Upper Paleolithic people produced:

A) wooden drums
B) bows and arrows
C) soapstone sculptures
D) figurines that were half-human, half-lion

Question 57

Archaeologist Michael Jochim views the cave art of the Upper Paleolithic as a means of:

A) ensuring success in the hunt through sympathetic magic
B) expressing unconscious fears and desires
C) marking territory
D) writing a kind of "history" of successful hunts

Question 58

J.D. Lewis-Williams and T.A. Dowson explain the geometric depictions in Upper Paleolithic art (lines, zigzags, grids, and concentric circles) as:

A) ancient constellations
B) primitive record keeping or "tallying"
C) ancient maps
D) trance-induced hallucinations

Question 59

Lewis-Williams and Dowson suggest that Upper Paleolithic shamans painted the following while in a trance-like state:

A) lines, zigzags, grids, and concentric circles
B) human beings
C) hand prints
D) celestial phenomena like eclipses and meteor showers

Question 60

One thing that makes Chauvet Cave unique is that it:

A) is the only painted cave in southeastern France
B) has a vast series of realistic images of human beings
C) is the only cave with multi-colored images
D) has a lot of images of carnivores

Question 61

The painted image discovered at Fumane cave in Italy has been interpreted as a:

A) sorcerer
B) woolly mammoth giving birth
C) domesticated dog
D) whale

Question 62

Cussac Cave is notable for the 25,000-year-old painted depiction of a:

A) religious ceremony
B) feast
C) person painting an image on a cave wall
D) woman

Question 63

Archaeologist Diane Gifford-Gonzalez has shown that modern artists depicting life in the Upper Paleolithic almost always present men:

A) hunting
B) performing rituals
C) carrying game
D) all of the above

Question 64

Archaeologist Diane Gifford-Gonzalez has shown that modern artists depicting life in the Upper Paleolithic almost always present women:

A) tending babies and working hides
B) performing rituals and hunting
C) talking to other women
D) all of the above

Question 65

What does the study of the artistic urge in modern children reveal about the meaning of Upper Paleolithic art?

Question 66

What are the major characteristics that differentiate Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age cultures from Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age cultures?

Question 67

Among these technologies or behaviors that characterize the Late Stone Age and Upper Paleolithic are: 1. the reliance on new and improved stone tool technologies, 2. new hunting and weapons technologies, 3. a broadening of the subsistence quest, 4. branching out in raw materials, 5. new uses for plant materials, 6. the acquisition of raw materials from a great distance, 7. larger sites of population aggregation, 8. an abundance of non-utilitarian objects, 9. elaborate burials, and 10. symbolic expression through the production of art. Provide examples of each of these from the archaeological record.

Question 68

What is the significance of the concentrations of red ochre found at Qafzeh and the incised chunks of ochre and shell beads found at Blombos Cave? How old are they, and what insights do they provide on the topic of the origins of art and symbol?

Question 69

What fundamental changes in human behavior demarcate the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age from the Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age?

Question 70

Describe the evolution of Upper Paleolithic stone tool traditions in Europe; name the traditions, describe them, and discuss their chronology.

Question 71

What evidence is there that the subsistence base of the Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age was broader than that of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age?

Question 72

How did the settlement pattern of the Upper Paleolithic differ from that of the Middle Paleolithic?

Question 73

What new raw materials were used by Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age people?

Question 74

What do the hunting technologies new to the Upper Paleolithic and New Stone Age imply about subsistence changes when compared to the Middle Paleolithic?

Question 75

Of what possible meaning is the explosion of non-utilitarian objects in Upper Paleolithic sites when compared to the Middle Paleolithic sites?

Question 76

Compare Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age to Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age use of raw materials. What do such differences signify?

Question 77

Compare Middle and Upper Paleolithic burials. What do such differences signify about these societies?

Question 78

Describe Upper Paleolithic art. Where has it been found, what media were used, and how old is it?

Question 79

Discuss the explanations that have been provided for the meaning of Upper Paleolithic art.

Question 80

Are depictions of animals in the caves of Upper Paleolithic Europe related to the subsistence base of the painters? How about those seen in the caves on Sulawesi?