Review:
Short Answer or Essay: These sorts of questions require longer answers, a paragraph or two in the case of a short answer, a page or so in the case of an essay
What can settlement pattern studies tell us about the changing Sumerian sociopolitical situation from 3500 – 2500 BC?
Who held power in Sumerian cities during the Uruk period? During the Jemdet Nasr period? During the Early Dynastic period? What changes were there?
What is the link between early iron-working societies in West and Central Africa, and the modern linguistic situation in Sub-saharan Africa?
All over the world, societies have built earthen mounds or
stone pyramids. Why? Choose a few examples to illustrate your answer.
Cities of the Indus Valley civilization had a distinctive
layout. What was it?
Describe elite burial practices in Archaic and Old Kingdom Egypt. Were there any changes?
Describe Neolithic cultures and sites in East Asia.
Describe some of the elements of the European megalith phenomenon. In addition to general classifications, specific sites should be mentioned.
Describe the Anasazi culture and the “Chaco phenomenon”.
Describe the ceremonial center of Chavin de Huantar.
Describe the city of Akhetaten. Be specific.
Describe the city of Teotihuacan. Add any insights that your description might reveal about Teotihuacan society.
Describe the political situation, and how it changed,
amongst the Classic Maya cities.
Describe the relationship between the societies of temperate Europe and the Mediterranean during the Iron Age.
Discuss early monumental architecture (pre-Chavin) in the
Andes region.
Discuss elite burial practices in ancient China.
Discuss evidence for human sacrifice in prehistoric Europe.
Discuss Poverty Point, the site and the archaeological
culture.
Discuss the cultures involved in the development of complex
society in Northern China.
Discuss the Early Classic interaction between Teotihuacan
and the Maya.
Discuss the Mesoamerican ballgame.
Discuss the mound-building societies of prehistoric Eastern
North America.
Discuss the relationship between Moche art and the Moche
elite tombs.
Discuss two or three archaeological sites or cultures that
may owe some of their social complexity to trading or other kinds of relationships
with more complex or more urbanized settlements.
How was labor organized and carried out in the Inka Empire?
In the past, archaeologists explained most changes they saw
in their excavations as the result of migrations or diffusion. Cultural, technological,
or social changes have replaced these explanations in most cases. However,
there are several instances where archaeologists may indeed have identified
migrations of people or diffusion of goods, technology (including domesticated
plants and animals), or ideas from one area to another. Discuss two or three
of these instances.
Information about the Bronze Age Aegean seems to have been encoded in later Greek myths. What does archaeological reality have to do with Atlantis and the Minotaur?
Many cultures throughout prehistory sacrificed humans, either to accompany high-status people upon their death, or for other reasons. Discuss three or four examples of this practice.
Mortuary practices in prehistoric South America often
emphasized continued interaction between the living and the dead. Discuss some
examples of this.
Sumer and the Classic Maya were both characterized by a
number of independent city-states that shared a common culture. Discuss this,
and the course and evolution of political interactions between these cities in
both cases.
The Olmec and Chavín art styles spread widely throughout
Mesoamerica and the Andes, respectively. What were they? What did they
represent? Did they influence later cultures?
Two different paths for the introduction of Neolithic people or ideas into temperate Europe have been proposed. What are they, and what archaeological evidence is there to support these proposals?
We know historically that Spanish conquerors and colonists
arrived in Mesoamerica in 1519 AD. What kinds of evidence do we have for their
presence at the site of Ciudad Vieja, the Villa de San Salvador?
What did the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Chinese, and Mayas
use writing for? Do the different uses for writing highlight similarities
or differences between these societies?
What do we know about the Egyptian Predynastic period, the political unification of Egypt, and the early Egyptian state after unification (including the Old Kingdom)?
What do we know about the first farmers in Central Europe?
What kinds of material culture characterize the Shang culture?
What was or who were the Olmec?
What was the economic (subsistence or otherwise) basis of
Khmer society? What about the ideological basis for the Khmer kings?
What were the ciudadelas of Chan Chan? What role did they
play in Chimú society?
When and where do we have the evidence for the earliest
domesticated plants in North America, South America, and Mesoamerica?
Where and when can we find the beginnings of urban life
amongst the Maya?