Introduction to Prehistory Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The most prominent feature was diversity.

As the Pleistocene ended and the climate warmed, the big game of the Ice Age tundra, such as mammoth and reindeer herds, disappeared or moved north, and Europe became forested. Mesolithic people turned to a broad spectrum of foods: red deer, wild boar and smaller game, fish, shellfish, waterfowl, nuts, fruits and seeds.

Dependence on megafauna is what ended. Fur-bearing animals were only one resource among many. New agricultural methods came later, with the spread of farming in the Neolithic, so they were not the feature of the immediate post-Pleistocene food base.

Answer: A

The cold snap tested the ability of human beings to adapt.

The question refers to the sudden return of near-glacial cold at the end of the last ice age, usually identified with the Younger Dryas, about 12,900 to 11,700 years ago. Temperatures fell within decades, and human groups had to change their diet, settlement and technology, which archaeologists read as a test of human adaptability.

It certainly had effects, so 'no effect at all' is wrong. Clothing had been worn long before, and there was no general migration of all populations to the equator; people adapted where they were.

Answer: B

The correct pair is Lacustrine : pelagic.

The Lake Forest Archaic tradition of the Great Lakes region in North America depended on lake resources, fish above all, which is what lacustrine means. The Maritime Archaic people of the north-east Atlantic coast, in Newfoundland and Labrador, hunted pelagic creatures of the open sea, such as swordfish, seals and walrus.

A midden is a refuse heap, not a type of resource, which rules out options A and C, and option D puts the two terms in the wrong traditions: littoral means shore and lacustrine belongs to the lake people.

Answer: A

The difference is that complex foragers focus on a few highly productive resources.

Complex foragers, such as the peoples of the North American north-west coast with their salmon runs, concentrate on a few abundant, predictable resources that can be harvested in bulk and stored. Storage lets them live in large permanent villages, accumulate wealth and develop social ranking without farming.

Relying on many different food sources and moving often are the marks of simple foragers, so options B and C describe the wrong group. Irrigation is a technology of agriculture, which complex foragers by definition do not practise.

Answer: D

The Villafranchian fauna belongs to the Lower Pleistocene period. It is the mammal assemblage of the Villafranchian stage of Europe (with early elephants, horses of the Equus line and cattle) which marks the first part of the Pleistocene, around two million to one million years ago.

The Upper Palaeolithic and the Wurm Ice Age are much later, within the Upper Pleistocene, and the early Holocene period is later still, after the last glaciation. So none of these three is the age of the Villafranchian fauna.

Answer: B

The Mousterian is the culture of the Wurm I and II stadials, the early part of the last glaciation in Europe. It is the Middle Palaeolithic culture made with the prepared-core (Levallois) and flake technique and linked with Neanderthal man.

The Acheulian is earlier, belonging to the previous interglacial and the Riss period, the Oldowan is the earliest pebble tool culture of Africa, and the Perigordian (Chatelperronian) is an Upper Palaeolithic culture that follows the Mousterian. So Mousterian is correct.

Answer: A

Among the choices, the earliest rock paintings are found at Altamira in Spain. These polychrome bison paintings in the cave are Upper Palaeolithic (Magdalenian) work, many thousands of years old, and are the best known early cave art.

Bhimbetka and Laharia-dih are Indian rock shelters with paintings, most of which are Mesolithic or later. La Moustier is a rock shelter known for the Mousterian culture, not for paintings. So Altamira is the answer the key accepts.

Answer: B

The key gives a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv. The Aurignacian culture is associated with Cro-Magnon man, the Solutrean with the Predmost type, the Magdalenian with Chancelade man, and the Mesolithic with the Ofnet people.

The other codes pair the Aurignacian with Predmost or Ofnet, or the Magdalenian with Cro-Magnon, which does not fit the human forms listed. Option B, i ii iii iv, is the answer.

Answer: B

The key gives the order La Vallonet (iv), Terra Amata (i), La Micoque (ii) and Abri Pataud (iii). La Vallonet is the oldest, a Lower Palaeolithic cave site of about a million years, Terra Amata is Acheulian at about 400,000 years, La Micoque is a later Lower Palaeolithic site, and Abri Pataud is an Upper Palaeolithic rock shelter.

The other options begin with Terra Amata or La Micoque, or put Abri Pataud before the Lower Palaeolithic sites, so they are wrong.

Answer: C

The order in which the tools prevailed is chopper (iv), cleaver (i), lunate (ii) and shouldered axe (iii). The chopper is the oldest, a pebble tool of the Early Stone Age, the cleaver is an Acheulian tool, the lunate is a Mesolithic microlith, and the shouldered axe is a Neolithic tool.

The other options put the lunate before the chopper and cleaver, or the shouldered axe before the microlith, which is the wrong order from Palaeolithic to Neolithic.