Name
Mr. Poirier
Prehistory Practice Test
Date
S. Studies –
1. Culture is one of the greatest achievements of human prehistory.
Define Culture and when do archaeologists believe it first appeared?
2. Which letter is an example of Modern or New Archaeology?
a. The discovery of kitchen-midden such as Homo habilis’ s tools.
b. The discovery of King Tut’s tomb with its gold and precious gems.
c. The discovery of the Ice Man’s Copper Axe.
d. Both A and C
3. What is the Archaeological Record?
a. The listing of all of the artifacts and fossils at an archaeological site.
b. Everything found at an archaeological site.
c. All the material important and seemingly unimportant at a dig site
d. All of the above
4. What does PREHISTORY mean and in your definition include its years.
5. Remember that the years for the Stone Age or Prehistory are approximate dates. What does
approximate mean?
6. During Prehistory tools were made of _____________, ________________, and ____________.
7. What are the 3 eras of human development during Prehistory? NO English Allowed!
8. Please give 3 characteristics of how OLD STONGE AGE peoples met their basic needs.
9. Between what years approximately are the OLD STONE AGE?
10. What is a hominid and who was Lucy?
11. Where were the first hominids found?
12. Why were the oldest hominid skeletons found in geographic locations that were warm and the
geography had plentiful resources?
13. What family of archaeologists found Lucy?
14. Please list 4 different types of hominids? (Will not be on test)
15. Modern human beings are known scientifically as what name?
16. Describe the pace of the progress of technology during the OLD STONE AGE.
17. What are the approximate years for the MIDDLE STONE AGE?
18. What key invention changed our ancestors from Old Stone to the Middle Stone Age?
19. What affect did this invention have on our ancestors? Think hard. What did it allow?
20. Please give 3 characteristics of how Middle Stone Age peoples met their basic needs.
21. What is the name of the land/ice bridge connecting Asia and North America?
22. What is the name of the land bridge that connected modern Great Britain and mainland Europe?
23. Why was there a land/ice bridge during this age and why is it not there today?
24. Please give 3 characteristics of the NEW STONE AGE.
25. Why was slash/burn agriculture bad for the environment during the New Stone Age?
26. What does the word “Peopling”” of the world refer to?
a. the spread of people to all of the continents during prehistory
b. the settling of people to Scituate in 1627 AD
c. the spread of technology
d. none of the above
27. What are the approximate years for the NEW STONE AGE?
28. Having an oversupply of food freed prehistoric people to ________________ or train to do a specific
task, such as turning wheat into flour for baking bread.
29. Living in settlements with thousands of people such as ________________during the New Stone Age
gave our ancestors what great advantage which is one reason why we are here today?
30. What four ways did Cultural Diffusion take place during Prehistory? What is an example of
independent-invention during Prehistory?
31. What is a surplus? Why do shards identify a surplus?
32. What did early humans do with their oversupply of food?
a. Traded their surplus for things they did not have causing Cultural Diffusion
b. Bartered or traded for things they did not possess
c. Made storage containers mostly from clay
d. Used the free time not needed to get food to improve their technology
e. All of the above
33. What 2 civilizations will we study next?
34. What is civilization? List 4 of the 7 characteristics.
35. Why is the Ice-Man so important to our study of prehistory?
36. Why did the end of the last Ice Age push humans to Civilization? Explain answer.