Archaeology and Humanity’s Story:

A Brief Introduction to World Prehistory

Chapter 4 Test Bank—A World of Modern Humans

Multiple-Choice Questions (30)

1. Anatomically modern Homo sapiens and __________________ coexisted in Europe until about 40,000 cal BC.

A) Ardi

B) Homo floresiensis

C) Lucy

D) Neandertals

2. Anatomically modern Homo sapiens and Homo floresiensis coexisted on Flores, Indonesia, as late as _________________ cal BC.

A) 2600

B) 17,000

C) 40,000

D) 60,000

3. ________________________ is the time period in Africa beginning before 50,000 cal BC; it is characterized by modern humans with modern human behaviors, including abundant evidence of symbolism.

A) Epigravettian

B) Solutrean

C) Later Stone Age

D) Mesolithic

4. Which of these continents was the last to be colonized by humans?

A) Africa

B) Australia

C) Europe

D) South America

5. During the LSA there was a shift to making ___________________ which are assumed to represent pieces that are combined to create composite tools.

A) microliths

B) choppers

C) Folsom points

D) phytoliths

6. New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania once formed a contiguous land mass called:

A) Salish.

B) Sahul.

C) Swanscombe.

D) Sunda.

7. Parts of modern-day Indonesia and Southeast Asia were once linked in the _________________ land mass.

A) Salish

B) Sahul

C) Swanscombe

D) Sunda

8. _______________________ was an archaeological culture of the European Upper Paleolithic.

A) Aurignacian

B) Atlatl

C) Altamira

D) Acheulian

9. Red ochre is a ____________________.

A) small deer

B) mineral pigment

C) flowering plant

D) Later Stone Age culture

10. _________________ is a material used by both LSA hunter-gatherer-foragers and modern Kalahari hunter-gatherer-foragers.

A) Ostrich eggshell

B) Fired clay

C) Bronze

D) Kangaroo skin

11. Enkapune ya Muto in Kenya is also known as __________________________.

A) Grasshopper Cave

B) Denisova Cave

C) Paisley Cave

D) Twilight Cave

12. Mammoth steppe was probably a _________________ habitat for hunter-gatherers.

A) hot, humid

B) productive

C) lifeless

D) restrictive

13. Mammoth bone was used as _________________ by Epi-Gravettian people.

A) a building material

B) fuel for fires

C) A and B

D) None of the above

14. An atlatl is also called a __________________________.

A) spearthrower

B) adze handle

C) termite stick

D) bow-and-arrow

15. ____________________ is recognized as a “pre-Clovis” site.

A) Lindenmeier

B) Blackwater Draw

C) Folsom

D) Monte Verde

16. “Venus” figurines often have exaggerated _______________ features.

A) sexual

B) skeletal

C) facial

D) behavioral

17. Dolní Vĕstonice is located in__________________.

A) Sunda

B) the Horn of Africa

C) Morocco

D) the Czech Republic

18. Dolní Vĕstonice and Sungir both featured burials including people with ________________.

A) iron staffs

B) skeletal signs of extreme old age

C) physical impairments

D) cancerous growths

19. Lascaux included a painting of a stick figure known as ____________________.

A) “bird man”

B) “priest-king”

C) “fish boy”

D) “the wizard”

20. Kara-Bom is a significant Siberian site dating to approximately ____________________.

A) 10,800 cal BC

B) 19,000 cal BC

C) 45,000 cal BC

D) 112,000 cal BC

21. The “ice-free corridor” allowed passage south of Alaska about _____________________.

A) 3700 cal BC

B) 11,500 cal BC

C) 26,000 cal BC

D) 45,000 cal BC

22. The site of ___________________ in Ukraine features mammoth bone structures.

A) Hohle Fels

B) Sloth Hole

C) Chauvet

D) Mezhirich

23. Genetic evidence links the first Americans most directly to ___________________ founding populations.

A) Cantabrian

B) Siberian

C) Solutrean

D) Caribbean

24. “The ________________ hypothesis stresses the impact of hunting on animals that had no prior experience with humans . . . ” (2016:113).

A) overkill

B) multiregional

C) balanced

D) shock and awe

25. The ice-free corridor passed between the _____________ and ______________ Glaciers.

A) Solutrean; Mousterian

B) Cordilleran; Laurentide

C) Laurentide; Yukon Cornelius

D) Alaskan; Siberian

26. Hohle Fels in Germany yielded a ______________ bone flute.

A) bird

B) human

C) lion

D) mammoth

27. The earliest paintings of Chauvet Cave in France date to about:

A) 97,000 cal BC

B) 50,000 cal BC

C) 35,000 cal BC

D) 12,600 cal BC

28. The double burial at Sungir, Russia, contains a male and female, both __________________.

A) infants

B) children

C) adults

D) elderly

29. The Eastern Gravettian people of Dolní Vĕstonice experimented with ceramic technology ___________________ years before it appears elsewhere in the archaeological record.

A) 500

B) 2400

C) 15,000

D) 36,000

30. Which of these human traits did not change very much during the Upper Paleolithic?

A) Art

B) Bipedality

C) Burials

D) Social complexity

/Questions (8)

1. The most common subjects in Upper Paleolithic cave art are animals. (

2. Altamira in Spain includes the famous Hall of the Snakes. (

3. An atlatl acts as an extension of the arm, allowing hunters to throw projectiles much farther. (

4. “Venus” figurines are not found in Morocco. (

5. The Monte Verde site lends support to the coastal route interpretation of the peopling of the Americas. (

6. The Ice-Free corridor has been disproven as a possible route for the peopling of the Americas. (

7. The first humans to reach Sahul crossed a water gap of 200 miles. (

8. Clovis culture is associated with fluted spear points. (

1. Why do archaeologists consider composite tools to be a significant innovation?

2. How do changing sea levels affect the archaeological record?

3. What is the behavioral significance of flaked stone scaled pieces at the Grotte des Contrebandiers site in Morocco?

4. How did mammoth steppe benefit Pleistocene hunter-gatherer-forager groups?

5. What are entoptic phenomena? How do they relate to interpretations of cave art?

6. What is Sahul? Why do we no longer use this place name?

7. Clovis and Folsom points are referred to as “fluted.” What does this mean?

8. What is the significance of pre-Clovis sites like Wally’s Beach, Schaefer Mammoth Site, and Monte Verde? Why did it take so long for these sites to be accepted as older than Clovis occupations?

9. Briefly describe the “hunting magic” explanation of Upper Paleolithic cave art.

10. Why do archaeologists and other scholars sometimes associate “Venus” figurines with fertility?

1. What are three archaeologically identifiable symbolic behaviors performed by Homo sapiens in the Later Stone Age/Upper Paleolithic? Provide examples of each behavior.

2. What factors contributed to the extinction of Australian and American megafauna?

3. How were Clovis hunter-gatherer-foragers more complex than the “big game hunter” stereotype? Provide specific examples from Chapter 4.

4. Why would a postprocessual archaeologist disagree with the “art for the sake of art” interpretation of Upper Paleolithic cave paintings? What factors would a postprocessualist seek to emphasize in his or her interpretation?

5. How did archaeologists use ethnographic analogy (modern Kalahari foragers) to interpret ostrich eggshell beads at the Enkapune ya Muto site? What are the limitations of ethnographic analogy?