Quiz created: 121017

The Metal Ages

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1. The terms "Bronze Age" and "Iron Age" were devised by the Greek writer Hesiod, roughly contemporary with Homer, who imagined five ages, beginning with
the Golden Age 
the Silver Age 
the Wooden Age 
the Age of Dung and Dirt 
No Answer
2. The territory of ancient Mesopotamia corresponds roughly to
modern Pakistan 
the Indus river basin 
modern Iran 
modern Iraq 
modern Israel 
the Levant 
southwestern Turkey 
modern Armenia 
No Answer
3. According to the Sourcebook's puckish footnote, American college "Ninkasi Societies" "began holding 'secret rites' to the goddess [Ninkasi]." Given the associations of this Sumerian goddess, one easily imagines that students in such societies wore Ninkasi T-shirts and
re-enacted ancient battles 
discussed current events in the manner of similar public-interest groups in ancient Sumer 
engaged in Biskupin-style martial arts 
invited visiting archaeologists to describe their research 
consumed large amounts of beer 
No Answer
4. Hill-country villages like Jericho and Jarmo may have had agriculture and herding earlier, but they gave way to plains villages like Al Ubaid by about 4000 BC, with larger buildings and probably temples. Later Sumerian tradition held that the "Ubaidian" phase was abruptly ended by
an invasion from the north 
the arrival of the Sumerians themselves 
a great earthquake 
a great flood 
an invasion of space aliens accompanied by a tacky but scary sound track 
No Answer
5. Earliest writing among the Sumerians seems to have been used only (or almost only) for
prayers 
inscriptions praising kings 
bookkeeping 
magical charms 
odd little "buttons" that archaeologists have been unable to interpret 
No Answer
6. Over-arching political power over the cities of Sumer in about 3000 BC was
lacking 
exercised by the state of Ur 
in the hands of the Assyrians to the north 
vested in a regional "council of sixty," consistent with the general importance of multiples of six in this region 
No Answer
7. Both for Çatal Hüyük and for Sumer, the comparative wealth of incoming trade items combined with the paucity of exportable goods suggests "intangible trade goods," such as
food 
clothing 
lamp oil 
charms and blessings 
No Answer
8. Evidence suggests that "elite trade" was important because
it provided a motivation for expansion and competition between Sumerian cities 
it exchanged elites for slaves, who were more useful 
it allows modern archaeologists to use imperishable products like gold or precious stones to map the probable routes of subsistence goods like food and skins, which leave no archaeological trade 
No Answer
9. According to the article, Sumerian temples included not just priests, but also
fortune tellers 
most of the society's doctors 
the king, who was considered to work for the god of the temple 
craftsmen and laborers 
large numbers of scribes 
an official "fat lady," who appears to have represented the mother goddess 
No Answer
10. Two of the following were important Sumerian cities. The others are made-up words. Pick the cities. (Select two.)
Chutash  Uruk  Ur  Langu  Borshak  Utach  Pitch 

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This consummately cool, pedagogically compelling, self-correcting,
multiple-choice quiz was produced automatically from
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Think Again Quiz Maker
of April 25, 2010.