What characterized ancient Egyptian mythology?

What term would be most useful in explaining the period of rapid cultural progress when humans learned to make stone tools, sew clothes, and paint the walls of rock caves?
a. epic
b. Upper Paleolithic
c. archetype
d. cuneiform

2. What ancient Near Eastern ruler revived the power of the city of Babylon and rebuilt it in grand fashion with an imposing gate and a multi-layered ziggurat?
a. Nebuchadnezzar
b. Cyrus
c. Ramses II
d. Hammurabi

3. What characterized ancient Egyptian mythology?
a. a focus on dominant earth- and mother-goddesses
b. an elaborate interest in life after death
c. the belief in a single, all-powerful father god
d. gods with human traits of weakness and vanity

4. Ancient Indian civilization of South Asia was most noted for which of these works?
a. the Epic of Gilgamesh
b. Hammurabi’s Code
c. the Vedas and Upanishads
d. stepped ziggurats

5. In which of these civilizations or sites would one expect to find a mythic tiger carved of precious jade?
a. Shang
b. Babylon
c. Lascaux
d. Amarna

6. What geographic feature provided the center of early human cultures in the South American continent?
a. the Andes range of mountains
b. the Mesopotamian plain
c. the great river valley of the Amazon
d. limestone caves and caverns

7. Rituals involving bull-leaping and female snake deities or priestesses are associated with what ancient civilization?
a. classical Greek
b. Minoan
c. Hellenistic Greek
d. Mycenaean

8. In what work would one expect to learn of the exploits of Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus?
a. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King
b. Hesiod’s Theogony
c. Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics
d. Homer’s Iliad

9. The Dipylon Amphora, painted with primitive human figures, is typical of what technique in vase painting?
a. classical
b. red-figure
c. post-and-lintel
d. geometric

10. Which of these might best be cited as an example of hubris, that arrogant and self-destructive pride which often led to the violation of the Greek ideal of balance and self-restraint?
a. Pericles
b. Aristotle
c. Alexander
d. Oedipus

11. How would the technique of contrapposto most likely be used?
a. estimate the height of a temple’s columns
b. calculate the distance between columns
c. represent a human figure in sculpture
d. defend the acropolis from attack

12. Which Athenian tragedian – the last of classical Athens’ three great tragic playwrights – sought to show people as they really were, not as they should be?
a. Thespis
b. Aeschylus
c. Euripides
d. Sophocles

13. Which of these works is the best example of propaganda designed to glorify the person and power of the Roman emperor?
a. Augustus of Primaporta
b. Pont du Gard
c. Apollo of Veii
d. Basilica of Constantine

14. Which of these was used to carry water to a Roman city?
a. Pantheon
b. Basilica of Constantine
c. Forum of Trajan
d. Pont du Gard

15. In which of these works would one expect to read a bitterly humorous criticism of Rome’s decadence and corruption?
a. Ovid’s Metamorphoses
b. Juvenal’sSatires
c. Catullus’ love poetry
d. Virgil’s Aeneid

16. What was the greatest achievement of Cicero, the late Republican intellectual?
a. satirical attacks on Rome’s hypocrisy and corruption
b. witty social comedies of mistaken identity and farcical plots
c. a long philosophy poem reflecting Epicurean belief
d. eloquent speeches in defense of Rome’s republican government

17. According to the Buddha, what was the purpose of human knowledge?
a. blissful union with a heavenly father
b. the historical redemption of the Hebrew nation
c. the extinction of all selfish striving and desire
d. obedience to the revealed scriptures of God

18. What event or development transformed the Roman empire in the centuries before the rise of Christianity?
a. An Egyptian religious cult converted an emperor and threatened Roman traditions.
b. A violent civil war arose between patrician and plebeian factions.
c. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes destroyed important Roman cities.
d. Barbarian armies swept through the empire, disrupting the civil order.

19. What was the apostle Paul’s chief accomplishment?
a. to write a moving and dramatic story of Christ’s life
b. to issue an edict legalizing Christianity in the Roman world
c. to articulate the first great Christian philosophy of history
d. to write letters advising Christian communities in Greco-Roman cities

20. Which topic or concept is most closely associated with the ideas of Augustine of Hippo, an early “father” of the Christian church?
a. the Torah
b. the One or the Good
c. apocalypse
d. original sin

21. Who was the sixth-century Byzantine emperor who temporarily reunited eastern and western Roman empires and revised the Roman law code?
a. Justinian
b. Abraham
c. Constantine
d. Augustine of Hippo

22. Which structure could be described as a “domed basilica”—that is, having the rectangular spaciousness of the basilica style and the grandeur of a domed interior?
a. Hagia Sophia
b. St. Peter’s, Rome
c. Pantheon, Rome
d. Sant’ Apollinare in Classe

23. To what ancient city would you travel to see the Muslim shrine called the Dome of the Rock, built on the former site of the Jewish Temple?
a. Mecca
b. Constantinople
c. Jerusalem
d. Ravenna

24. Which statement is best associated with the Viking age?
a. Europe blossomed with a “white mantle of churches”
b. an age of tolerance was instituted in Muslim Spain
c. Norse raiders plundered much of Christian Europe
d. pilgrims traveled the great “roads” to reach Santiago de Compostela

25. What European leader nurtured a rebirth or flowering of early medieval culture centered at his palace on the Rhine River?
a. Constantine
b. St. Augustine
c. Charlemagne
d. Beowulf

26. What kind of person would most likely have sung the Song of Roland?
a. a Norman minstrel
b. a student of Abelard
c. a Cluniac monk
d. a feudal peasant

27. The Caliphate of Córdoba is best associated with what phenomenon?
a. development of the Romanesque style in architecture
b. a flowering of Arabic learning and culture
c. the invention of musical notation
d. conflict between German rulers and the pope

28. Which of these figures composed an influential set of rules for Christian monks?
a. Charlemagne
b. Hildegard of Bingen
c. Peter Abelard
d. St. Benedict

29. Which statement best describes the abbey church of Ste.-Foy in Conques, France?
a. an influential example of Romanesque architecture
b. site of Charlemagne’s coronation by the pope
c. served as chapel for the three generations of Roman emperors
d. based on the floor plan of San Vitale in Ravenna

30. Which statement most accurately describes the clef?
a. a song usually accompanied by an organ
b. a medieval system of four-note chords
c. it first arose in the Muslim Spain
d. it established the key note of a musical staff

31. During what period and in what locale was the Gothic style of building at its height?
a. the Muslim world during the early caliphates
b. the ancient Near East about the time of Hammurabi
c. Italy in the time of Caesar Augustus
d. medieval Europe about 1250