Prehistory

Question 1

Define:

prehistory

Answer 1

Prehistory refers to the time between when man first emerged and the existence of written records. The oldest written texts date to sometime between the 26th and 24th centuries B.C.

The oldest known evidence for anatomically modern humans are fossils found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, dated about 300,000 to 350,000 years old.

Question 2

Where is Oceania?

Answer 2

Oceania is the region consisting of the islands of the South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand.

Question 3

What continent is divided by the Sahara Desert?

Answer 3

Africa is divided by the Sahara Desert, a barren wasteland that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.

Question 4

Which continent is the largest on earth?

Answer 4

Asia is the largest continent, stretching from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south.

Asia is so large that geographers and historians typically divide it into sub-regions, such as the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

Question 5

Which continent is bordered by the Ural Mountains in the east and the Atlantic Ocean in the west?

Answer 5

Europe’s eastern boundary is the Ural Mountains, and its western boundary is the Atlantic Ocean. Europe’s southern border is the Mediterranean Sea. To the north, the countries of Scandinavia stretch to the Arctic Circle.

Question 6

Define:

Eurasia

Answer 6

Eurasia refers to the combined European and Asian land mass. Historians and geographers refer to Eurasia because no water boundary divides Europe from Asia, and the movement of peoples has historically flowed back and forth over both continents.

Question 7

Historians and geographers refer to the combined continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa by what term?

Answer 7

Afro-Eurasia

Each of the three continents touch the Mediterranean Sea. The Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Europe have shared demographic and cultural interactions.

Question 8

Which continent stretches from the Arctic Circle to the Panamanian Isthmus?

Answer 8

North America stretches from the Arctic Circle to the Panamanian Isthmus. Most of North America is controlled by three nations: Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

Question 9

The Amazon rainforest and the Andes Mountains are two prominent features of _____ _____.

Answer 9

South America

The Amazon River Basin and the surrounding rainforest comprise some 40% of South America’s land mass and are almost twice the size of the United States. The Andes Mountains run down South America’s western side.

Question 10

Especially before the advent of motorized transport, why was water transport preferred to transporting goods over land?

Answer 10

Water transport was preferable to land transport because ships can carry more cargo than domesticated transport animals such as donkeys. Further, water transport is usually faster than land transport.

Especially in pre-Modern times, most great trading civilizations arose along the coast to take advantage of water transport.

Question 11

Which ocean lies between Europe and Africa on the one hand, and North America and South America on the other?

Answer 11

The Atlantic is between Europe and Africa, and North America and South America. The Atlantic Ocean is smaller than the Pacific Ocean, meaning that it can be crossed by ships in a shorter amount of time.

Question 12

The _____ _____ is bordered by Antarctica to the south, Australia to the east, Asia to the north, and Africa to the west.

Answer 12

Indian Ocean

Numerous African and Asian civilizations have existed along the shores of the Indian Ocean, and trade between these regions has taken place since ancient times.

Question 13

Which ocean is the world’s biggest?

Answer 13

The Pacific Ocean is the world’s biggest ocean. It stretches some 63.78 million square miles from North and South America to Australia and Asia.

Question 14

Which sea is surrounded by Europe, Africa, and Asia?

Answer 14

The Mediterranean has a central location between Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Surrounded by three continents, the Mediterranean has been a great highway for trade since ancient times.

Question 15

Which river is Africa’s (and the world’s) longest river?

Answer 15

The Nile River is the longest river in the world, stretching from deep in Africa’s interior to the Mediterranean Sea.

Unlike most rivers, the Nile River flows from south to north.

Question 16

Which two rivers flowed through ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)?

Answer 16

The Tigris and Euphrates flow through ancient Mesopotamia. The availability of water for agriculture earned the region the nickname “The Fertile Crescent.”

Question 17

What are the two most prominent rivers on the Indian subcontinent?

Answer 17

The two most prominent rivers on the Indian subcontinent are the Indus and the Ganges. The Indus River flows through modern-day Pakistan and the Ganges through modern-day India.

Question 18

The Huang He River in China is also known by what name?

Answer 18

The Huang He River is also known as the Yellow River. The term comes from the river’s yellow color, which comes from soil runoff.

The Huang He is one of the world’s most prominent waterways and was responsible for much of China’s pre-Modern trade and agriculture.

Question 19

Which river flows from the highlands of Tibet through much of Central China, before emptying into the Pacific near Shanghai?

Answer 19

The Yangtze River, also known as the Yangzi, flows through Central China and is the world’s third-longest river.

Throughout China’s history, the Yangtze was the major axis of trade.

Question 20

Which river is the longest in North America?

Answer 20

The Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi River near St. Louis, is North America’s longest river at more than 2,300 miles long.

The Mississippi River runs 2,202 miles from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

Question 21

What is the Out of Africa Thesis?

Answer 21

The Out of Africa Thesis posits that modern man (Homo sapiens) first arose in Africa and began migrating to other parts of the earth approximately 50,000 years ago.

Question 22

What is the Multiregional Thesis?

Answer 22

The Multiregional Thesis contends that Homo sapiens arose more or less simultaneously at different parts of the globe, and are descended from earlier pre-human groups that left Africa.

Question 23

The mastery of _____ allowed early man to move into colder regions of the planet, such as Northern Europe.

Answer 23

Fire

Fire played a crucial role in mankind’s settling of the colder regions of the planet.

So crucial was the discovery of fire that the Greeks claimed it descended from the gods and was revealed to man by the Titan Prometheus. For giving the gods’ secret away, Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle would eat his liver for all eternity.

Question 24

According to most anthropologists, how did the first humans arrive in North and South America?

Answer 24

Most anthropologists contend that early man arrived in the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, which stretches between modern-day Siberia and Alaska.

Lower sea levels brought about by an Ice Age made the bridge a viable pathway to the Americas until 10,000 years ago.

Question 25

What is the Stone Age?

Answer 25

The Stone Age refers to the period between roughly 2.6 million years ago and 5,000 B.C. Anthropologists typically divide the Stone Age into three periods: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic.

Question 26

The _____ _____ is the period ranging from roughly 2.6 million years ago to 12,000 years ago.

Answer 26

Paleolithic Era

During the Paleolithic Era, man and man’s predecessors began using stone tools and mainly lived in small roving groups of hunter-gatherers. There is evidence that Paleolithic man believed in an afterlife, as numerous burials with some household goods have been found.

Question 27

What era saw the beginnings of agriculture?

Answer 27

During the Mesolithic Era (10,000 B.C. to 4,000 B.C.), agriculture became prevalent, and semi-permanent small villages were established.

There is also evidence of extensive animal domestication during the period.

Question 28

What developments characterized the Neolithic Era?

Answer 28

The Neolithic Era, which stretched from 4,000 B.C. to 2,000 B.C., saw the development of more permanent villages and early cities, many of which contained walls and defensive fortifications.

Plants were further domesticated, public works such as canals were established to assist in agriculture, and animal herding became prevalent.

Question 29

How were hunter-gatherer groups organized?

Answer 29

Most hunter-gatherer groups were like kinship groups of related persons presided over by the eldest familial male.

Question 30

The development of the _____ made possible more rapid transportation as well as inventions such as the chariot and carts.

Answer 30

wheel

The development of the wheel was one of the earliest technological improvements made by men. Interestingly, the wheel did not arrive in the Americas until after Columbus and was not used by the ancient civilizations of North and South America.

Question 31

Define:

animism

Answer 31

Animism is a belief that various gods and spirits inhabit the natural world and are responsible for human events. At its core, animism is polytheistic and formed the belief system of early mankind.

Question 32

Define:

polytheistic

Answer 32

A belief system is polytheistic if it has more than one deity. From what anthropologists have been able to determine, during prehistory humans were polytheistic, attributing divine attributes to the weather, fertility, and the like.

Question 33

What are shamans?

Answer 33

Shamans are individuals chosen by the community for their ability to intercede with the spirit world on the community’s behalf. Shamanism began as part of the belief systems of the earliest civilizations.

Question 34

What are nomads?

Answer 34

Nomads are wandering bands of people who move from place to place to support their livelihood.

During the Stone Age, hunter-gatherer nomads continually migrated to find areas to seek out new hunting grounds.

Question 35

How are patriarchal societies organized?

Answer 35

Patriarchal societies give predominance to the male in the society. Throughout history, most societies have been patriarchal, dating back to the Stone Age.

Matriarchal societies, which give predominance to females in the society, are much rarer.

Question 36

What is slash and burn agriculture?

Answer 36

Slash and burn agriculture refers to the clearing of a parcel of land by fire, farming it until the soil becomes exhausted, and then moving on to the next parcel of land.

Slash and burn agriculture was used by early humans in the earliest permanent settlements.

Question 37

Define:

domestication

Answer 37

Domestication refers to the conscious manipulation of plants and animals to make them more useful to humans. For instance, the domestication of sheep and cows provided an early resource for pastoral societies.

Question 38

What was the Neolithic Revolution?

Answer 38

The Neolithic Revolution occurred in the late Stone Age, when early man began food production rather than merely gathering food.

Also known as the Agricultural Revolution, the Neolithic Revolution marked the rise of farming; public works projects, such as agricultural irrigation; and the beginnings of the first villages.

Question 39

What is the Bronze Age?

Answer 39

The Bronze Age began around 3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River Valley and slightly later in other areas. The Bronze Age marks man’s first significant use of metals such as bronze and copper, writing, and the development of city-states.

Question 40

During the early Bronze Age, the potter’s wheel was invented. Why was this significant?

Answer 40

The potter’s wheel allowed for the basic creation of pottery. From a technical perspective, pottery allowed for the long-term storage of goods and was an indication of technological advancement. And from an artistic perspective, pottery could be brilliantly decorated.

Question 41

What is metallurgy?

Answer 41

Metallurgy is the scientific process by which metals are extracted from their ores, purified, and made into useful objects.

During the Bronze Age, copper was the first metal to be turned into tools. The discovery of bronze, which is made by mixing tin and copper, followed shortly thereafter, and marked the first strides in early metallurgy.

Question 42

What is cultural diffusion?

Answer 42

Cultural diffusion refers to the sharing of cultures between societies. As an example, agriculture is believed to have begun in the Middle East before being diffused throughout much of Eurasia.

Question 43

When anthropologists discuss the specialization of labor, to what are they referring?

Answer 43

Specialization of labor refers to the division of people into different professions to perform tasks more efficiently.

During the Bronze Age, food surpluses resulting from agricultural innovation meant that not everyone needed to grow food. As a consequence, other members of society were able to devote time to weaving, pottery, metallurgy, and the like.

Question 44

How did the earliest cities develop?

Answer 44

Early cities developed out of villages, especially as villages built walls for common defense.

As cities grew, leaders arose who adjudicated disputes; directed public works projects such as irrigation, land clearing, and mining; and conducted religious functions.