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 Tigris and the Euphrates

C. The Nile Delta and the Aegean

D. The Nile and the Black Sea

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 Phoenicians

B. the Chaldeans

C. the Egyptians

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

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

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

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

Question #4

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

A. "site for cremation ceremony."

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

C. "platform for politcal speeches."

D. "shrine and temple."

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. Abraham

B. Sumeria

C. Asseria

D. Jehovah

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 Epic of Gilgamesh

B. The Babylonian Creation

C. The Book of the Dead

D. The Code of Hammurabi

Question #7

The book of Psalms is:

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

B. the first chapter in the Babylonian creation myth

C. the last chapter in the Babylonian creation myth

D. the first recorded laws

Question #8

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

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

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

C. An early Greek sculpture

D. The first female leader in Ancient Greece

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 Babylonian Creation

B. The Code of Hammurabi

C. The Epic of Gilgamesh

D. The Book of the Dead

Question #10

What best descibes The Ark of the Covenant?

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

B. the Biblical name for Noah's Ark

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

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

Question #11

What do cantors do?

A. build ships

B. guard the Assyrian aqueducts

C. Chant biblical passages as part of the Hebew liturgy

D. create iron molds

Question #12

What is a shofar?

A. A harp from Ur

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

C. a prayer cloth

D. the clay tablets containing the Epic of Gilgamesh

Question #13

What is antiphonal?

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

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

C. a seven-branched candelabrum

D. the belief in only one god

Question #14

What is not true of a ziggurat?

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

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

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. Exodus

B. Numbers

C. The Epic of Gilgamesh

D. Genesis

Question #16

What is the Standard of Ur?

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

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

C. Statuettes from the Abu temple.

D. multiplication tables devised in Babylon.

Question #17

What or who is Ishtar?

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

B. a storm and rain god

C. the goddess of grain

D. the goddess of the moon

Question #18

Who is the Mesopotamian god Nisaba?

A. goddess of the moon

B. father of the gods, god of heaven

C. storm and rain god

D. goddess of grain

Question #19

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

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

B. The Robbins

C. The Assyrians

D. The Baskins

Question #20

Who/what is Sin (Nanna)?

A. storm and rain god

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

C. the name for the Lydian's standard coinage

D. Goddess of the moon

Question #21

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

A. Akkadian

B. The "Queen of the Night"

C. Enkindu

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. 'Mud and water on land'

B. 'House whose foundation creates terror'

C. 'Where the sun shines always'

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

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

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

Question #24

What is a stelae or stela?

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

B. 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

C. a ritual for public worship

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

Question #25

Who was C. Leonard Woolley?

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

B. Archeaologist. Ziggurat excavator circa 1920's.

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

D. First English translator of the Torah

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