History Chapter 1 Quiz

28 August 2022
4.7 (114 reviews)
50 test answers

Unlock all answers in this set

Unlock answers (46)
question
How do historians study the past?
answer
They study artifacts but focus more of their attention on written documents.
question
The distinction between the study of humans by archaeologist and the study of humans by historians is often denoted by the
answer
invention of writing.
question
Though ancient Americans lacked writing skills, they
answer
shared a common spoken language.
question
How do modern archaeologists study ancient peoples?
answer
Modern archaeologists combine a variety of approaches.
question
What was the reason for the early, prolonged absence of humans in the Western Hemisphere?
answer
North and South America had become detached from the continent of Pangea.
question
How did the Wisconsin glaciation allow hunters to reach the Western Hemisphere?
answer
The Wisconsin glaciation created the wide land bridge of Beringia.
question
Although experts debate the exact time people began migrating to North America, the first migrants probably arrived
answer
around 15,000 BP.
question
When did Paleo-Indians reach the southern tip of America and complete their expansion into the Western Hemisphere?
answer
One thousand years after they first migrated to the Western Hemisphere.
question
What do the artifacts that have survived from the Paleo-Indian era suggest about the first Americans?
answer
They specialized in hunting big mammals.
question
About 11,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians faced a major crisis because
answer
the large animals they hunted had difficulty adapting to a warming climate.
question
How did Native American cultures adapt to the extinction of big game?
answer
Paleo-Indians began foraging wild plant foods.
question
When Europeans arrived in 1492, Native American cultures were
answer
so varied that they defy easy and simple description.
question
What does the term Archaic describe?
answer
Hunting and gathering cultures that descended from Paleo-Indians.
question
Which of the following is an accurate description of Archaic Indians?
answer
Archaic Indians hunted smaller game with traps, nets, and hooks.
question
How did archaeologists determine that Folsom hunters and giant bison were contemporaries?
answer
They discovered a Folsom point lodged between the ribs of a giant bison.
question
Archaic Indians who hunted the bison herds of the Great Plains were
answer
nomads who moved constantly with their prey.
question
The Archaic Indians in the Great Basin inhabited a region with
answer
great environmental diversity.
question
What was the main source of food for Archaic peoples inhabiting the Great Basin?
answer
Plants
question
Why did native peoples in California remain hunters and gatherers for hundreds of years after Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere?
answer
Both land and ocean provided an abundant food supply.
question
Archaeological evidence indicates that the California Chumash culture was characterized by
answer
a notable amount of conflict among villages.
question
What caused much of the warfare among Archaic Northwest peoples?
answer
Conflicts over access to good fishing sites.
question
What environmental factor shaped the cultures of the Archaic peoples of the Eastern Woodland?
answer
Forests
question
Early Woodland Indians obtained food by
answer
hunting deer.
question
How did the diet and culture of Woodland peoples change around 4000 BP?
answer
Woodland cultures adopted limited forms of plant growing.
question
Why did nomadic peoples shun the use of pottery?
answer
Pots were too heavy to carry around.
question
How did agriculture change Archaic cultures?
answer
It encouraged the gradual establishment of permanent settlements.
question
Why did Archaic cultures in the Southwest adopt agriculture?
answer
The supply of wild plant food was highly unreliable.
question
When did corn become a food crop for Southwestern cultures?
answer
3500 BP
question
Ancient Southwestern Indians became experts in the conservation of
answer
water
question
What feature characterized the settlements of the Mogollon culture?
answer
Pit houses
question
Why did Hohokam settlements utilize irrigation canals?
answer
Canals allowed planting and harvesting crops twice a year.
question
Multistory cliff dwellings and pueblos are residential structures associated with the
answer
Anasazi culture.
question
The Anasazi culture disappeared due to
answer
a drought that lasted more than fifty years.
question
Burial mounds and chiefdoms are associated with which ancient Americans?
answer
Woodland peoples
question
Why do archaeologists believe that the first ancient Woodland mound builders were organized into cheifdoms?
answer
The complexity of the mounds suggests that one chief commanded labor from the others.
question
What does the analysis of artifacts in burial mounds reveal about the Hopewell chiefdom?
answer
Burial was reserved for the most important members of society.
question
Scholars speculate that Hopewell culture declined because
answer
farming and new weapons made central authority unnecessary.
question
Experts believe that the Cahokians used woodhenges for
answer
celestial observations.
question
What is a prudent estimate of the population of Native Americans in North America at the time of Columbus's arrival in the New World?
answer
4 million
question
Although the two regions had roughly the same population in 1492, the population density of North America was
answer
much less than that of England.
question
Eastern Woodland peoples around the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492 clustered into which three major groups?
answer
Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Muskogean peoples
question
The League of Five Nations, which remained powerful well into the eighteenth century, was formed as
answer
a confederation of the Iroquoian tribes for the purposes of war and diplomacy.
question
The Athapascan tribes - mainly Apache and Navajo - were
answer
skillful warriors who preyed on the sedentary pueblo Indians.
question
What was a similarity among the many tribes that inhabited North America at the dawn of the European colonization?
answer
Their cultures had developed in relation to their local natural environments.
question
Evidence indicates that before 1492, Native Americans
answer
practiced human sacrifice.
question
How did Native Americans relate to the natural environment?
answer
They changed the environment in a variety of ways that served their own interests.
question
In AD 1492, the empire of the Mexica
answer
encompassed up to 25 million people.
question
Which group held the most exalted position in Mexican society?
answer
Warriors
question
The Mexica used an extensive tribute system to redistribute wealth from
answer
the poor to the rich
question
Spanish conquerors exploited which weakness of the Mexican empire?
answer
The empire's subjects did not see the Mexica as legitimate or fair rulers.