Part 2 — Answer key

Compare your answers after you have finished Part 1.

1. Which river is most closely tied to the rise of ancient Egyptian civilization?
   Nile River
2. In BCE dating, 1200 BCE happened after 800 BCE.
   False
3. The wedge-shaped writing pressed into clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia is called what?
   Cuneiform
4. Which Greek city-state is most associated with citizens voting directly in an assembly?
   Athens
5. Archaeologists treat Homer’s Iliad as a verbatim eyewitness account of the Trojan War.
   False
6. You’re handed a small clay tablet covered in neat, wedge-shaped impressions, the kind made by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay. This writing system most strongly points to which ancient region?
   Mesopotamia
7. Which event came first?
   Great Pyramid of Giza is built
8. Carthage began as a colony most closely linked to which seafaring culture?
   Phoenicians
9. Bronze is an alloy made primarily by combining copper with tin.
   True
10. Oracle bone inscriptions are most closely associated with which ancient civilization?
    Shang dynasty China
11. The Rosetta Stone became famous because it helped scholars decipher what script?
    Egyptian hieroglyphs
12. The Achaemenid Persian Royal Road is often described as linking Sardis in Anatolia with Susa in Iran.
    True
13. In antiquity, the most valuable incense resins were often shipped from southern Arabia toward which region?
    The Levant and Mediterranean
14. Which ruler is best known as the first emperor to unify China under a single dynasty?
    Qin Shi Huang
15. The Roman Republic came before the Roman Empire.
    True
16. Mohenjo-daro is an archaeological site most closely linked to which civilization?
    Indus Valley Civilization
17. Zoroastrianism is most closely associated with which region in antiquity?
    Ancient Iran
18. The pyramids of Giza were built during Egypt’s New Kingdom.
    False
19. Hannibal’s most famous surprise move against Rome involved crossing which mountain range?
    Alps
20. A display label says, “After Alexander captured Persepolis, the imperial treasury changed hands.” Which empire had just lost its ceremonial capital?
    Achaemenid Persian Empire
21. A law code like Hammurabi’s is better evidence for what authorities wanted to regulate than for what everyone actually did daily.
    True
22. A smaller kingdom keeps its own ruler but must pay tribute and follow the foreign policy of a great empire. Historians most often describe this arrangement as a:
    client kingdom
23. A shipwreck contains amphorae, olive oil residue, and fish sauce (garum) containers. Which trade world does that cargo most strongly suggest?
    Mediterranean Basin commerce
24. You are shown a clay tablet inscribed in Linear B. It most likely comes from which culture?
    Mycenaean Greece
25. Sparta had a democratic system similar to Athens, where major decisions were made by broad citizen voting.
    False
26. A king’s “annals” carved on palace walls describe nonstop victories and never mention defeats. What type of source are you reading?
    royal propaganda
27. You visit an ancient city in Egypt laid out with Greek-style grid streets and a theater, and its name honors a Macedonian conqueror. Who most likely founded it?
    Alexander the Great
28. A historian describes Sogdian merchants moving silk, horses, and glass across oasis towns in Central Asia. Which network is being described?
    Silk Road exchange
29. The Antikythera mechanism shows that complex geared devices existed in Hellenistic Greece.
    True
30. A funerary text describes the dead person’s heart being weighed against a feather as Osiris judges the outcome. Which religious world does this scene belong to?
    Ancient Egypt
31. You are comparing two milestones: Rome destroys Carthage (146 BCE) and Augustus begins ruling (27 BCE). Which happened earlier?
    Rome destroys Carthage
32. The Punic Wars were fought between Rome and Carthage.
    True
33. Silk became a major Mediterranean luxury mainly because Roman caravans regularly traveled all the way to China to buy it directly.
    False
34. A temple column capital has scroll-like volutes on each side. Which Greek order is most likely?
    Ionic
35. An inscription describes Emperor Ashoka promoting dhamma and supporting Buddhist communities across South Asia. Which empire does this point to?
    Maurya Empire
36. Because Herodotus wrote about Persia, his work functions as an objective Persian government archive.
    False
37. Aksum rose to wealth partly by controlling ports that linked the Mediterranean world with which broader trade zone?
    Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade
38. You are studying the late Roman Republic and want a major Near Eastern rival that existed at the same time. Which state best fits?
    Parthian Empire
39. Some of the earliest alphabetic writing is linked to Northwest Semitic speakers in the Sinai and Levant region.
    True
40. Archaeologists excavate a destruction layer at Hisarlik (often linked with Troy). What is the strongest claim this evidence can support by itself?
    A city at the site was destroyed in the Bronze Age
41. After Alexander’s conquests, which dynasty ruled Hellenistic Egypt from Alexandria?
    Ptolemies
42. A Han dynasty tomb contains Roman-style glassware. What is the most reasonable explanation?
    Indirect trade moved the glass through many middlemen
43. The word “pharaoh” originally referred to the royal household or palace, and only later became a title for the ruler.
    True
44. Maya hieroglyphic texts combine signs that represent words and syllables. What type of writing system is that?
    Logosyllabic
45. You want the strongest primary evidence for the “Sea Peoples” crisis described at the end of the Bronze Age. Which source is closest to that?
    Medinet Habu reliefs of Ramesses III
46. A stone inscription in Kandahar is written in Greek and Aramaic and promotes a ruler’s moral law (dhamma). Which ruler does this most strongly point to?
    Ashoka
47. Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
    True
48. Archaeologists find a hoard of Roman coins at a port site in southern India. What is the most plausible interpretation?
    Result of Indian Ocean trade and payments for goods