CHAPTER ONE- PREHISTORIC ART
Multiple Choice
1. Archaeologists link the emergence of image making to the arrival of
A. Homo sapiens.
B. Neanderthals.
C. Homo sapiens sapiens.
D. Homo erectus.
Answer: C
Learning Objective: 1.c Relate Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age artists and art to their cultural, economic, and political contexts.
Topic: The Stone Age
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
2. Prehistoric people often coated their floors with powdered
A. ash.
B. bones.
C. clay.
D. ocher.
Answer: D
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Shelter or Architecture?
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
3. How long ago did figurines of people and animals appear?
A. 50,000 years
B. 30,000 years
C. 25,000 years
D. 10,000 years
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.c Relate Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age artists and art to their cultural, economic, and political contexts.
Topic: Artifacts or Works of Art?
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
4. The Woman from Brassempouy (Fig. 1-9) captures the essence of a head, also called the
A. memory image.
B. abstracted mind.
C. soul image.
D. mind image.
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.d Apply the vocabulary and concepts used to discuss Prehistoric art, artists, and art history.
Topic: Artifacts or Works of Art?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
5. What were small-scale female sculptures from the Upper Paleolithic period once called?
A. Mother Goddess
B. Venus
C. Eve
D. shamans
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Artifacts or Works of Art?
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
6. Most Neolithic architecture in Germany and central Europe consisted of wood posts supporting a central beam or
A. ridgepole.
B. thatch.
C. megalith.
D. capstone.
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.d Apply the vocabulary and concepts used to discuss Prehistoric art, artists, and art history.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
7. Rows of trapezoidal buildings made of wooden posts, branches, mud, and clay characterize the architectural remains at
A. Skara Brae.
B. Çatalhöyük.
C. Lepenski Vir.
D. Newgrange.
Answer: C
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
8. Continually rebuilt and replastered, early houses at Çatalhöyük may have functioned as
A. grain storerooms.
B. temples.
C. observatories.
D. historical markers.
Answer: D
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
9. Scholars see the transport of bluestones to Stonehenge from more than 150 miles away as a sign of
A. associations with Celtic druids.
B. evidence of engineering technology.
C. connections to ancestral homelands.
D. ritual significance of materials.
Answer: C
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
10. How were the beams of Stonehenge secured?
A. mortise-and-tenon joints
B. corbeled vault and capstone
C. post-and-lintel construction
D. mammoth tusks and hides
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
11. Bronze is an alloy of copper and
A. tin.
B. gold.
C. terra cotta.
D. silver.
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.d Apply the vocabulary and concepts used to discuss Prehistoric art, artists, and art history.
Topic: The Bronze Age
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
12. The potter’s wheel developed in approximately 4000 BCE in
A. China.
B. Egypt.
C. Japan.
D. Near East.
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.c Relate Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age artists and art to their cultural, economic, and political contexts.
Topic: Ceramics
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
13. Prehistory includes all of human existence before the development of
A. written records.
B. architecture.
C. metal tools.
D. carved images.
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.c Relate Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age artists and art to their cultural, economic, and political contexts.
Topic: Chapter Introduction
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
14. Which of the following was created in the most realistic style?
A. Bison, Le Tuc d’Audoubert (Fig. 1-14)
B. Woman from Willendorf, Austria (Fig. 1-7)
C. Lion-Human, Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany (Fig. 1-6)
D. Figures of a Woman and a Man, Cernavoda, Romania (Fig. 1-27)
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an argument or an interpretation of Prehistoric art.
Topic: Cave Sculptures
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
15. Handprints at the cave at Pech-Merle were probably created using what technique?
A. incising lines with a sharp stick
B. spraying paint onto the cave wall
C. painting the image with a brush
D. drawing with an ocher crayon
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
16. What was encountered at Newgrange that may have induced hallucinations?
A. celestial maps
B. entoptic motifs
C. deer hunts
D. female figures
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
17. What conclusion can archeologists make about the ancient site of Çatalhöyük?
A. It was temporarily used as a burial ground.
B. It had religious and domestic functions.
C. The people focused on military defenses.
D. The settlement was built over an older Paleolithic site.
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
18. Rather than being a product of invaders, the destruction of houses at some sites in the Neolithic period was part of
A. the selection of a new leader.
B. a rival family’s attempt to gain property.
C. a ritual killing of the house.
D. ritual celebrating a birth.
Answer: C
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
19. What technique was used to create Gold-Adorned Face Mask (Fig. 1-29)?
A. corbeling
B. sculpture in the round
C. relief sculpture
D. composite pose
Answer: C
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: Metallurgy
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
20. What method of dating cave paintings and excavated objects uses organic material?
A. radiometric dating
B. electron spin resonance
C. potassium-argon dating
D. uranium-thorium dating
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
21. The painting of Men Taunting a Deer(?) (Fig. 1-17) at Çatalhöyük may represent
A. a belief in sympathetic magic.
B. an earlier cave painting.
C. the hope for more animals.
D. a dangerous ritual or game of baiting.
Answer: D
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
22. An anthropologist who studied the Altamira Cave does not believe that the animals that are depicted are dead but rather are
A. gods.
B. dust-wallowing.
C. surrogates for man.
D. disabled.
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
23. Scholars dismissed the sympathetic magic interpretation of cave paintings because
A. animal and human representations are abstract.
B. animals were frequently shown alongside human figures.
C. animals used for food were not portrayed.
D. animals are painted on cave ceilings.
Answer: C
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
24. What conclusion can be made about both the Lion-Human (Fig. 1-6) and Woman from Willendorf (Fig. 1-7)?
A. Artists expressed imaginative themes.
B. Celestial observations influence art.
C. Killing a lion would incur a curse.
D. Humans and animals were part of separate groups.
Answer: A
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: Artifact of Work of Art?
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
25. The Human Figures (Fig. 1-28) from ’Ain Ghazal give the impression of living individuals who
A. can communicate with the gods.
B. are unable to express themselves.
C. can communicate with the dead.
D. are leaders of their site.
Answer: B
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: Ceramics
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
Short Answer
1. What are the particular challenges and rewards of studying prehistoric art?
Answer: Historical records are not available, but visual clues, such as paintings and sculpture, can aid in an understanding of prehistory. Only a tiny amount of art still exists. Educated guesses make prehistoric study dynamic and interesting.
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Chapter Introduction
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
2. Why does the date for the transition from the Paleolithic period to the Neolithic period vary?
Answer: The dates vary because of geography and the sites discovered. Development of art and technology greatly differed between sites.
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: The Stone Age
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
3. Why is the Lion-Human sculpture remarkable for the Paleolithic period?
Answer: It is very large and complex. It also is created from mammoth tusk and shows an amalgamation of human and animal, not seen in nature.
Learning Objective: 1.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an argument or an interpretation of Prehistoric art.
Topic: Artifact or Works of Art?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
4. Why was the cave of Lascaux closed to the public?
Answer: The human footprints in the cave began to cause deterioration of works of art from heat, humidity, carbon dioxide, and other contaminants. Conservators had to close the cave to battle an aggressive fungus.
Learning Objective: 1.c Relate Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age artists and art to their cultural, economic, and political contexts.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
5. How did the artists of Lascaux fuel the lamps that they used to see within the deep recesses of the cave?
Answer: They used animal fat, which left no soot, but would not have been as strong as a candle. The light would have flickered, creating the appearance of figural movement of animals on the walls.
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
6. Why is the Lascaux scene Bird-Headed Man with Bison (Fig. 1-12) unique, and what might it represent?
Answer: The painting is different stylistically from others in the cave. It also is unique because it seems to tell a story of a man or shaman killing or blessing a dying, disemboweled bison.
Learning Objective: 1.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an argument or an interpretation of Prehistoric art.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
7. What events or occurrences determined the onset of a Neolithic culture?
Answer: The relationship between humans and environment changed with the Neolithic period. Humans domesticated animals, cultivated crops, and began building permanent structures.
Learning Objective: 1.c Relate Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age artists and art to their cultural, economic, and political contexts.
Topic: The Neolithic Period
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
8. What new technologies emerged in the Neolithic period, and what was the purpose and function of each?
Answer: Pottery and metallurgy were two main technologies that emerged during the Neolithic period. Both allowed for quicker production of objects. Pottery allowed for storage of materials and metal was used for decoration and, eventually, weapons. Status could be shown through these objects.
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Ceramics; Metallurgy
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
9. Briefly discuss the artistic decorations found in the structures of Çatalhöyük.
Answer: Many representations of the female body, human fertility, and cults of the Mother Goddess can be found. Animal skulls and antlers were hung on walls.
Learning Objective: 1.b Interpret the meaning of works of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Essay
1. How would you compare the artistic representations of the Paleolithic period to the Neolithic period?
Answer:
1. Representations of humans in painting become much more frequent in Neolithic art.
2. Paleolithic works of art are generally more realistic in the representations seen on cave walls and in sculpture.
3. Neolithic works of art are more abstract but represent emotions and gestures in human figures not seen in Paleolithic works.
4. Humans began to see themselves as separate from animals, and this can be seen in the representation and interactions.
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: The Paleolithic Period; The Neolithic Period
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
2. What is the significance of the form and the manner in which Woman from Dolní Vĕstonice (Fig. 1-8) was created?
Answer:
1. The figure represents a female without arms, feet, or a face.
2. The figure was created from soil and water and then fired in a kiln.
3. The figure was not meant to last long. The firing process was supposed to make the figure explode.
4. The destruction of the figure might have had some religious or ritual significance.
Learning Objective: 1.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an argument or an interpretation of Prehistoric art.
Topic: Artifacts or Work of Art?
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
3. What formal artistic devices did the artists of the Chauvet Cave in southeastern France use to convey images of horses, mammoths, aurochs, and other animals?
Answer:
1. Implied motion can be seen in many representations of animals in Chauvet Cave.
2. The composite pose is common and shows the most recognizable parts of the animals.
3. Overlapping is used to show spatial depth.
4. Texture is created using hatching.
Learning Objective: 1.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
Topic: Cave Painting
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
4. Many early vessels of clay or metal were covered with decorative motifs. Why would early people have made the effort to decorate their functional objects? What drives people to go beyond the purely functional? Support your viewpoint with specific examples of early art.
Answer:
1. Many examples of decorations on vessels could represent portraits, votive figures, or gods.
2. Decorative vessels could have indicated status in a society.
3. During the Neolithic period, vessels were decorated with abstract representations of animals, which could have provided the owner with power through media.
4. Representations on vessels could relay narratives about religion or history.
Learning Objective: 1.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an argument or an interpretation of Prehistoric art.
Topic: Ceramics
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
5. How are the structures of megalithic architecture similar in form and function? Give examples and compare and contrast those examples.
Answer:
1. Newgrange and Stonehenge are two examples of megalithic architecture.
2. Both structures have a circular shape with walkways or passageways that are tied to other sites.
3. Both structures were based on celestial observations and the movement of the seasons.
4. Newgrange incorporated the world of the underground; Stonehenge incorporated the river.
Learning Objective: 1.e Interpret Prehistoric art using appropriate art historical methods, such as observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
Topic: Architecture
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know and Analyze It
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