Quiz #1: CLA1101: September 2023: questions and correct answers
Question 1. Which one of the following factors did NOT contribute to water shortage in ancient
Greece? Answers—
A dry climate. Greece receives rain mainly only during winter, or at best from October to
March. The summer months are hot and dry.
Mainland Greece's east coast is especially disadvantaged for rainfall, as Greece's central "spine"
of mountains blocks the westward-moving Mediterranean weather and causes the rain-clouds to
dump mostly on the country's west side.
Natural limestone in the ground in Greece's mountains creates a "water robbing" effect: Rainfall
and springtime runoff tend not to pool on the surface but instead go vertically into the ground,
dropping through the porous limestone. For this reason, Greece (ancient and modern) has not
much surface water.
By about 1200 B.C., wasteful overuse of water by the Mycenaean Civilization had left Greece's
aquifers depleted for subsequent generations of ancient Greeks.
—This last answer is the correct answer, which (for this question) means that this answer is false.
Question 2. Regarding the Indo-European-speaking people who invaded Greece circa 2200–
2100 B.C., which one of the following statements is NOT true?
Linguistically, they were related to other tribes that were migrating toward India, Iran, Italy, central
Europe, and northern Europe, at around the same time.
They spoke a primitive form of the Greek language.
Technologically, they possessed the wheel, the domesticated horse, and the chariot design. They introduced the chariot and the domesticated horse into the land of Greece.
In religion, they were polytheists. Their chief god was a patriarchal sky-father, whom they called
"the Shining One".
Arriving by sea, they taught the skills of seafaring and agriculture to the Mycenaeans.
—This last answer is the correct one, which (for this question) means that this answer is false.
Question 3. Which one of the following is NOT a language of the Indo-European language
family?
Farsi (of Iran)
English
Latin
Hindi (of India)
ancient and modern Greek
Russian
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Quiz #1: CLA1101: September 2023: questions and correct answers
Gaelic (of Ireland and northwestern Scotland)
Arabic
—This last answer is the correct one, which (for this question) means that this answer is false.
Question 4. How does the Minoan Civilization fit into early Greek history?
The Minoans were not Greeks. Alongside the Mycenaean Civilization, the Minoan Civilization
was destroyed by the Sea Peoples in about 1200 B.C.
The Minoans were not Greeks. Sailing from Crete, the Minoans attacked mainland Greece and
destroyed the Mycenaean Civilization in about 1490 B.C.
The Minoans were named for their famous King Minos, who taught the science of agriculture to
the early Greeks.
The Minoans were an early branch of Greek-speaking people.
The Minoans were not Greeks. The early Greeks copycatted the Minoan Civilization, around
1500–1400 B.C., for its technologies and cultural splendours.
—This last answer is the correct one.
Question 5. Which metal was the essential one for the kings of the Mycenaean Civilization,
around 1600–1200 B.C.?
iron: stronger than all these other metals.
copper: plentiful on the island of Cyprus.
gold: always the premier precious metal. It never tarnishes.
silver: a precious metal, plentiful in the Mediterranean region.
bronze: super-useful. It can be moulded to any shape, for tools and weapons.
—This last answer is the correct one.
Question 6. Which one of the following accurately describes the concept of a "palace economy",
relevant to our CLA1101 course?
The palace economy involved the architecture-and-engineering techniques for building large
structures in blocks of stone. This skill was copied by the early Greeks from the Pelasgoi and the
Minoans.
A palace economy was one that relied on long-distance trade routes, such as the tin route from
Afghanistan. That description fits the Mycenaean Civilization of about 1300 B.C.
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Quiz #1: CLA1101: September 2023: questions and correct answers
The "palace economy" was the old, discredited economic model of the aboriginal inhabitants of
Greece. This model was displaced by the arrival of Indo-European-speaking invaders, around
2100 B.C.
Copied by the early Greeks from the Minoans, a palace economy was the system of taxation and
redistribution by which a Bronze Age king controlled the production, stockpiling, and selective
release of goods inside his kingdom.
—This last answer is the correct one.
Question 7. Regarding the Linear B writing system of the Mycenaean Greeks, which one of the
following statements is NOT true?
The use of Linear B was mainly clerical: It recorded warehouse inventory and "office memoranda" for
the Mycenaean kings.
Linear B writing has been deciphered in modern times as being Greek-language. This fact tells us
absolutely that the writers (the Mycenaeans) were Greeks.
Linear B writings from the palace at Pylos, in southwestern Greece, record the dramatic events of
the palace's last days before it got destroyed by the Sea Peoples, in around 1200 B.C.
Writing was done by stylus on soft clay blocks (or "tablets"). Luckily for modern archaeology, some
of the written-on clay blocks got fired to permanent form when the palaces burned down.
Linear B writing was a clumsy adaption, by the Mycenaean Greeks, of the Linear A writing-system of
the Minoans of Crete. The Greeks were copycatting the Minoans, around 1400 B.C.
Linear B is just an alternative name for the ancient Greek alphabet, which the Greeks copied from
the Phoenicians in about 800 B.C.
—This last answer is the correct one, which (for this question) means that this answer is false.
Question 8. Which one of these statements accurately sums-up the government of a Dark Age
village in Greece, around 1000 B.C.?
The village was ruled by a king from a royal family. The king held absolute power, in continuity
with the foregoing Mycenaean Civilization.
The village was a theocracy, run by priestesses of the Great Goddess.
The village was run as a primitive democracy. The villagers voted in making decisions. That's
how the Greeks invented democracy.
Village strong-men vied for dominance through ceremonial combat, as in the film Black Panther.
There was the village chief, the deliberating council, the citizens' assembly, and the law
court. Typically the chief would sit as one of the council members.
—This last answer is the correct one.
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Quiz #1: CLA1101: September 2023: questions and correct answers
Question 9. Which one of the following is NOT a tell-tale sign of Phoenician activity and influence
in the Mediterranean, circa 900–600 B.C.?
The creation of the Greek alphabet, in about 800 B.C.
For the Greeks, enhanced skill in shipbuilding and long-range navigation.
For the Greeks, involvement in a trade-depot on the coast of Syria, circa 825 B.C.
Modern archaeology's discovery of Egyptian medallions in tombs in south Italy, from about 900
B.C.
The emergence of Phoenician "colonies"—that is, Phoenician seaport-cities on foreign soil—in
places like Tunisia, Sardinia, and southern Spain, along the Mediterranean. These colonies
supported the Phoenicians' trade network.
The violent destruction, simultaneously, of Mycenaean cities including Mycenae, Tiryns, and
Pylos, at the hands of attackers from the sea.
—This last answer is the correct one, which (for this question) means that this answer is false.
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