Question 1This class is _____________________ the study of early through Medieval Western culture. It is not designed to be complete or to cover everything there is to know about early Western culture.
a. An introduction to
b. A substitute for
c. An improvement of
d. A rejection of
Question 2Among the general goals of the course is to use our familiarity with past Western culture to building an understanding of the ___________________between our cultural past and present.
a. Comparisons
b. Distinctions
c. Contrasts
d. Connections
Question 3The word "respect" in the context of this class means:
a. Accepting the possibility that you could be wrong, and that you should listen to other positions.
b. Accepting that all arguments are equally valid
c. Believing that hard work always deserves a good grade
d. Believing that argument is never necessary.
Question 4The term "plagiarism" refers to:
a. Using the exact words of another writer
b. Copying someone else's answers without first getting their permission
c. Using the ideas or wording of another person without clearly acknowledging the original source and clearly and correctly indicating where the source can be found.
d. Using any information that you didn't come up with yourself.
Question 5It is considered academic dishonesty when you:
a. Cover up, ignore, or hide information that might damage your argument
b. Change the wording or data you got from a source while presenting it as unchanged
c. All of the above
d. Misquote or take a quotation out of context, so that the original meaning is changed
Question 6The word ___________________ refers to art that attempts to portray the invisible, such as ideas, feelings or beliefs, rather than the physical world.
a. Abstraction
b. Relief
c. Fresco
d. Iconography
Question 7The simplest, oldest, and most common architectural form is the ____________________, a way of creating a doorway or open space in a wall by using two tall uprights held apart and kept stable by a crosspiece laid over the top.
a. Post and lintel
b. Monolith
c. Arch
d. Ionic Column
Question 8A belief that the forces of nature are alive and inhabited by supernatural beings and spirits of the dead is called _____________. This type of belief appears to have been dominant in the very earliest cultures.
a. Monotheism
b. Polytheism
c. Pantheism
d. Animism
Question 9The earliest epoch of human culture, during which time human beings hunted and gathered their food and had no permanent settlements, is called the____________ period, also called the "Old Stone Age".
a. Monolithic
b. Cretaceous
c. Jurassic
d. Paleolithic
Question 10One of the oldest known examples of cave art, at least 10,000 years older than any previously discovered cave art, was found in the ________________ Caves in southern France in 1994. The drawings of animals in these caves use shading to create a sense of depth and perspective.
a. Oldowan
b. Pyrenees
c. Chauvet
d. Willendorf
Question 11A figure found in Austria, the _______________ is one of the oldest known sculpted human figures. It depicts a female, 4 inches long, with large breasts, hips, and buttocks, elaborately coiled hair, and no facial features.
a. Olmec monolith
b. Homo Erectus
c. Relief Figure
d. Willendorf Venus
Question 12The development of ________________________ which could be melted and then poured into a mold of any shape, may have triggered the beginnings of complex civilizations.
a. Iron, an easily mined surface mineral
b. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin
c. Pewter, an alloy of tin and lead
d. Gold, found in river banks
Question 13The ________________ is a bow-shaped area of rich agricultural land, stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, and is the location of the first known cities.
a. Gulf of Aqaba
b. Fertile Crescent
c. Mediterranean Littoral
d. Middle East
Question 14___________________ is the earliest known form of writing. It was made of wedge-shaped indentations pressed into half-baked clay tablets, using the end of a specially cut reed or wooden stick.
a. Indo-Minoan script
b. Cuneiform
c. Phoenician script
d. Hieroglyphics
Question 15The first permanent set of laws, now called the ________________________was established by the founder of the Babylonian empire who had them carved on a stele depicting at the top the king receiving the laws from a god. The laws are clear, with punishments that are harsher for lower classes than for the upper classes
a. Code of Hammurabi
b. Enuma Elish
c. Old Testament
d. Book of the Dead
Question 16The Hebrew Scriptures are also called the ___________, and are sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
a. Book of the Dead
b. Enuma Elish
c. Epic of Gilgamesh
d. Old Testament
Question 17Egyptian civilization was one of the first to invent a form of writing. Its writing is called ___________.
a. Akkadian
b. Meroitic
c. Cuneiform
d. Hieroglyphics
Question 18During the period called the New Kingdom, pharaohs stopped building pyramids, and instead built hidden stone tombs in the ______________________
a. Valley of the Kings
b. Fertile Crescent
c. Eastern Cemetery
d. Great Deffufa
Question 19The brief period of the rule of one ruler of Egypt, named Akhenaten, led to short-lived changes in the traditional Egyptian canon of art. This era, called the ____________, resulted in more naturalism, detail, and humanity in paintings of the royals and the aristocracy.
a. Amarna Period
b. Meroe Period
c. Akkadian Period
d. Middle Kingdom
Question 20The first of the Nubian kingdoms was known as _________________, ruled from a capital of the same name. It was likely formed in order for Nubians to have some form of organized protection from the frequent Egyptian raids into Nubia.
a. Babylon
b. Kerma
c. Namibia
d. Akkad
Question 21The earliest major civilization in the Greek area is called the __________ civilization. It was wealthy, highly advanced, and apparently peaceful, but disappeared around 1500 B.C.E.. We still don’t know why.
a. Thera
b. Minoan
c. Kushite
d. Babylonian
Question 22The first advanced civilization on the mainland of Greece is called the _______________. These cities were destroyed around 1100 B.C.E., possibly by attacking tribes called Ionians
a. Mycenaean
b. Cycladic
c. Hermetic
d. Minoan
Question 23The great epic poem that tells about one episode in the Trojan War is called the _______________. It is traditionally ascribed to the poet Homer, along with a second epic called the Odyssey, but nobody really knows who composed or wrote it down.
a. Old Testament
b. Epic of Gilgamesh
c. Iliad
d. Aeneid
Question 24The shrine to Apollo at ___________________ was one of the most important religious centers in Greece. The Oracle there, embodied in a priestess called the Pythia, was consulted for all important decisions.
a. Athens
b. Delphi
c. Knossos
d. Olympus
Question 25The most famous Greek temple is the ___________________, built on the Acropolis in Athens and dedicated to the goddess Athena. It remains an excellent example of the use of optical techniques to create a sense of balance and order.
a. Erechtheum
b. Parthenon
c. Colosseum
d. Academy
Question 26The student of Plato, named ___________________, was the third great figure at the foundations of Western philosophy. Unlike his teacher, who was more interested in abstract ideas, this person emphasized the importance of careful, disciplined observation, controlled by consistent rules of logic.
a. Archimedes
b. Pericles
c. Socrates
d. Aristotle
Question 27The period after the death of Alexander the Great in which Greek culture and language, arts, science and philosophy spread and flourished is the called the _________________ Period.
a. Archaic
b. Athenian
c. Platonic
d. Hellenistic
Question 28Roman virtues included ___________________, which means “seriousness”, dignitas, or dignity, auctoritas, or authority, and pietas, which referred to duty to family, elders, the gods, and the state.
a. Stoicism
b. Mos Maiorum
c. Gravitas
d. Amor
Question 29The first written Roman legal code, the _________________, was inscribed on stone pillars outside of the Senate building, in response to the common people’s requirement that the law be written and permanent
a. Pater Familias
b. Pax Romana
c. Senate Order
d. Twelve Tables
Question 30A concept important in Roman political and social life was _______________, which held that as long as the Roman people respected the gods, Rome would prosper.
a. Pax Deorum
b. Mos Maiorum
c. Pax Romana
d. Pietas
Question 31A style of art called __________________ is a sort of extreme realism where the features of the subject are depicted in detail, even when they are flaws. This type of art became important particularly in Roman private art, especially to commemorate ancestors and heads of families.
a. Verism
b. Abstraction
c. Pietas
d. Trompe l'oeil
Question 32Probably the most important figure in early Christianity was the Apostle_______________. He wrote letters to other Christian communities explaining that Jesus was the Son of God and a “second Adam”, come to Earth to sacrifice Himself to redeem all human beings from their guilt as the children of Adam and Eve. This figure’s teachings would become the foundations of Christian theology.
a. Paul
b. Matthew
c. Luke
d. Alexander
Question 33With the growing importance of Christianity, art and literature became much less realistic, and began to depend more and more on a form called ___________, a story in which everything is a symbol.
a. Gospels
b. Liturgy
c. Allegory
d. Biblos
Question 34Partly in reaction to the fall of Rome, the theologian and writer, Augustine, bishop of the city of Hippo, wrote his greatest work, ______________, in which he laid out the argument that the works of Man, no matter how glorious, can never last, and that eternal truths and true glory can only be found through God.
a. The Meditations
b. The Donation of Constantine
c. The City of God
d. Res Gestae Divi Augusti
Question 35The capital of the Byzantine empire was the city ______________________. It was renamed Istanbul when the Byzantine empire was finally conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
a. Paris
b. Constantinople
c. Normandy
d. Ravenna
Question 36An important contribution of the Byzantine emperor Justinian was the ___________________, also called the Justinian Code. This work gathered together and organized into one document over 900 years’ worth of accumulated Roman legal writings, and eventually formed the basis for most later European legal systems.
a. Corpus Juris Civilis
b. Prior Analytics
c. Codex
d. Lindesfarne Gospels
Question 37The most important of the Carolingian rulers, ___________, conquered much of what is now Western Europe, but he is mainly known for trying to establish a new Roman Empire, now fully Christian. His reign would see what has been called the “Carolingian Renaissance”, and become the basis for European concepts of ideal Christian kingship.
a. Beowulf
b. Gregory the Great
c. Charlemagne
d. Constantine the Great
Question 38The poem _____________ is the earliest known epic poem written in English. It is set in the Pre-Christian world of Germanic tribes, and depicts a warrior’s battle with monsters and dragons for the sake of glory for himself and his king, but it also references disastrous human intertribal conflicts.
a. The Book of Kells
b. The Lindesfarne Gospels
c. The Song of Roland
d. Beowulf
Question 39The system that dominated Europe from the 9th to the 15th century is called _______________. The system depended on the relationship between “lords” and their “vassals”, based on land ownership and land use. Control of a parcel of land was offered in exchange for work or service, particularly military service.
a. Manorialism
b. Liturgy
c. Feudalism
d. Pax Deorum
Question 40The most sacred book in Islam is the _____________________, which records the words spoken to the Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H). by the angelic messenger.
a. The Night Journey
b. The Umma
c. The Ramadan
d. The Qu'ran
Question 41The most famous of the Abbasid caliphs was ______________, noted for his patronage of the arts and of science, for increasing the prosperity of his empire through long-distance trade, and encouraging technological and scientific advancements.
a. Haroun al-Rashid
b. Al-Azhar
c. Ibn al-Haytham
d. Salah al-Din
Question 42Founded by the caliph named in #41, the Bayt al-Hikmah, or ________________ became the most important center of learning, scholarship, intellectual discussion, and innovation of the Islamic Golden Age.
a. House of Wisdom
b. Al-Azhar
c. Alhambra
d. Ka'aba
Question 43Human or animal figures are not allowed in most Islamic art. Instead, artists used forms like __________, (beautiful writing), used to decorate almost everything, from mosques and palaces to household objects like dishes, textiles, metalwork, and rugs. Most of the writing is quotations taken from sacred texts.
a. Minaret
b. Arabesque
c. Calligraphy
d. Mihrab
Question 44The Sufi sect, which “renounces casual worldliness and seeks to unite the physical and spiritual through intensified physical experience”, produced poets such as __________________, whose poetry is now considered among the most beautiful spiritual writings in the world.
a. Ibn Sina
b. Rumi
c. Salah al-Din
d. Ibn Rushd
Question 45During and after the Crusades, medieval organizations called ________ became the center of power in the growing towns. Their purpose was to give craftsmen a way to protect the quality and prices of the goods they sold, and to provide training and credentials to new workers
a. Guilds
b. Franciscans
c. Fiefs
d. Communes
Question 46During the 12th century, a style of church building called _________________ developed as a result of the need for larger “reliquary” churches, to hold the large crowds that would go on pilgrimages to see a relic, a sacred object, such as a piece of the “True Cross”. These buildings featured rounded arches, thick walls to support the larger structures, and elaborate interior decorations.
a. Basilica
b. Romanesque
c. Norman
d. Dominican
Question 47During the 13th century, a new church building style called _______________ was introduced. This type of building could be larger and taller, with higher roofs, thinner walls, and lots of stained-glass windows to let in light. It also featured pointed arches, “flying” buttresses, and downspouts called “gargoyles”.
a. Gothic
b. Reliquary
c. Romanesque
d. Classical
Question 48The most important intellectual figure of the European 13th century was __________________. In his monumental work, Summa Theologica, he argued for a middle way between faith and reason, because both are necessary for salvation.
a. Francisco Petrarch
b. Dante Alighieri
c. Govanni Boccaccio
d. Thomas Aquinas
Question 49An Italian poet named _______________ published the Divine Comedy in 1320, a monumental, three-part allegory in which a man journeys through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. It was the first major work of serious literature written in a European vernacular language.
a. Niccolo Machiavelli
b. Geoffrey Chaucer
c. Giovanni Boccaccio
d. Dante Alighieri
Question 50The 14th century Italian painter_______________ demonstrated increased interest in realistic depictions of space and attention to human emotion that would presage the Italian Renaissance. We see these changes in his works, such as “The Lamentation of Christ”, and the “Ognissanti Madonna”.
a. Donatello
b. Francisco Petrarch
c. Giotto
d. Disiderius Erasmus
