West Los Angeles College » Humanities » Human 030 - The Beginnings of Civilization » Fall 2019

Human 030 - The Beginnings of Civilization » Fall 2019 » Test 2

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Question #1

Ancient Mesopotamia was, for the most, situated between two bodies of water. What are the modern names for these two bodies of water?

A. The Caspian and the Antioch

B. The Nile and the Black Sea

C. The Nile Delta and the Aegean

D. The Tigris and the Euphrates

Question #2

Fiero credits these people with creating a twenty-two sign alphabet that became the basis of all Western alphabets. Which group is this?

A. the Chaldeans

B. the Egyptians

C. the Phoenicians

D. the Persians

Question #3

Fiero writes "whereas in Babylonian myth the universe is spontaneously generated and initially chaotic, the Hebrew Creation describes a univese that is..." WHAT?

A. "a combination of fate, free-will and destiny."

B. "created by God, but left in the hands of humans."

C. "systematically planned and invested with a preconceived moral order."

D. "peaceful, but becomes chaotic because of greed and war."

Question #4

Fiero writes, "unlike the Egyptian pyramids, which functioned as a tomb, the ziggurat served as a WHAT"?

A. "shrine and temple."

B. "home for the family of the dead."

C. "site for cremation ceremony."

D. "platform for politcal speeches."

Question #5

Hebrew monotheism focused on devotion to a single Supreme Being. This God came to be called Yahweh. What is the Latin name for Yahweh?

A. Asseria

B. Abraham

C. Jehovah

D. Sumeria

Question #6

Scholars disagree about its place in the history of literature. It is, perhaps, the oldest written story on earth. We know that it comes to us from Ancient Sumeria and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cuneiform script. Gloria Fiero writes in The Humanistic Tradition that the central motifs in this work are "the theme of human vulnerability and the search for everlasting life." It is thought to be the first story in the world to have a protagonist with a name and a personality. What is this work?

A. The Code of Hammurabi

B. The Book of the Dead

C. The Epic of Gilgamesh

D. The Babylonian Creation

Question #7

The book of Psalms is:

A. the first recorded laws

B. the last chapter in the Babylonian creation myth

C. a collection of songs, praise, thanksgiving, confession and supplication

D. the first chapter in the Babylonian creation myth

Question #8

The most famous early image of a human, a woman, is the so-called "Venus" of Willendorf is:

A. An early Greek sculpture

B. Probably the most famous early artistic image of a human, a woman

C. The first female leader in Ancient Greece

D. a painting on a cave wall in what is now Germany

Question #9

What ancient text -- a long poem -- recounts the formation of the universe? It is sometimes called Enuma Elish. Characters in in include Tiamat and Marduk. Fiero writes that "like the environment of Mesopotamia, its gods and goddesses were fierce and capricious, its mythology filled with physical and spiritual woes." What is this work?

A. The Epic of Gilgamesh

B. The Book of the Dead

C. The Code of Hammurabi

D. THe Babylonian Creation

Question #10

What best descibes The Ark of the Covenant?

A. a chest or box containing the tablets of The Ten Commandments

B. the Biblical name for Noah's Ark

C. The name of the boat the Hebrews took from Egypt back to Mesopotamia

D. A song/poem performed at the death of Mesoptamian royalty

Question #11

What do cantors do?

A. Chant biblical passages as part of the Hebew liturgy

B. create iron molds

C. build ships

D. guard the Assyrian aqueducts

Question #12

What is a shofar?

A. A harp from Ur

B. a prayer cloth

C. the clay tablets containing the Epic of Gilgamesh

D. A ram's horn, used as a trumpet, to call the faithful to prayer

Question #13

What is antiphonal?

A. the belief in only one god

B. A type of music in which two or more groups of voices or instruments alternate with one another

C. a seven-branched candelabrum

D. a belief that singing should not take place during religious services

Question #14

What is not true of a ziggurat?

A. it is often a large terraced tower of rubble and brick.

B. According to Fiero "no ziggurat remains in the 21st Century and scholars now believe they might never have existed."

C. The height of these structure, Fiero writes symbolizes "the sacred mountain linking the realms of heaven and earth."

D. they often contained steep exterior stairwells.

Question #15

What is the first book of the Torah?

A. The Epic of Gilgamesh

B. Genesis

C. Exodus

D. Numbers

Question #16

What is the Standard of Ur?

A. Strict Asseryian laws that predate the Code of Hammurabi.

B. Statuettes from the Abu temple.

C. multiplication tables devised in Babylon.

D. A double-sided wooden panel executed in shell, mother-of-pearl and lapis lazuli. It appears to commemorate a Sumerian victory.

Question #17

What or who is Ishtar?

A. a storm and rain god

B. the goddess of love, fertility and war; Queen of Heaven

C. the goddess of the moon

D. the goddess of grain

Question #18

Who is the Mesopotamian god Nisaba?

A. goddess of the moon

B. father of the gods, god of heaven

C. goddess of grain

D. storm and rain god

Question #19

Who were the first of the Iron-age empire builders?

A. The Robbins

B. The Baskins

C. The 3rd century b.c.e. Greeks

D. The Assyrians

Question #20

Who/what is Sin (Nanna)?

A. the name for the Lydian's standard coinage

B. a carving system, incorporating sharp rock and flowing water

C. storm and rain god

D. Goddess of the moon

Question #21

According to Mr. Butterly, who was Gilgamesh's great friend

A. Enkindu

B. Akkadian

C. The "Queen of the Night"

D. Moses

Question #22

Around 2100 B.C. king Ur-Nammu built a ziggurat in honour of the god Sin in the city of Ur. It was called 'Etemennigur', which means what?

A. 'Where the sun shines always'

B. 'House whose foundation creates terror'

C. 'Mud and water on land'

D. 'Place of love and gods'

Question #23

Mr. Butterly tells us that Gilgamesh was a real person, fictionalized in the Epic of Gilgamesh. According to Butterly, what were the attributes of the fictional Gilgamesh?

A. He was two-thirds god and one-third man

B. The was two-thirds god and one-third lion

C. He had the head of a human and the body of a lion

D. He was two-thirds adult and one-third child

Question #24

What is a stelae or stela?

A. a ritual for public worship

B. contract; the bond between the Hebrew people and their God

C. an upright stone or slab with an inscribed or sculptured surface, used as a monument or as a commemorative tablet in the face of a building

D. a state achieved militarily by the unification of territories under a single sovereign power

Question #25

Who was C. Leonard Woolley?

A. Bought the Standard of Ur at auction for 12,500,000 in 2002.

B. Translator of The Humanistic Tradition: Prehistory to the Early Modern World

C. First English translator of the Torah

D. Archeaologist. Ziggurat excavator circa 1920's.

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