Exam 11: The First Farmers

One of the most significant contrasts between Old and New World food production involved animal domestication. Describe this contrast and its possible consequences on the diverging pattern of history on both sides of the Atlantic.

A vertical economy exploits environmental zones that are close together in space but are separated by altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation.

Which of the following is true?

Around 8000 B.P., communities on Europe's Mediterranean shores started to export species to the Middle East.

Wheels fueled the growth of transport, trade, and travel in the Old World thousands of years after the origin of food production.

Three key caloric staples and major sources of carbohydrates were domesticated by Native American farmers. They were

What is a vertical economy? Why is this concept significant in the history of domestication and food production? In which areas of the world do we see vertical economies?

Which of the following is a benefit of farming?

Which of the following is a key difference between the food-producing traditions of Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica that helps us understand the subsequent histories in the two regions?

What have new dating techniques applied to plant remains revealed about the origins of domestication in the New World?

Food production is more labor intensive than foraging.

Unlike the centers of domestication in the Old World, very few animals were ever domesticated in the New World.

What are the similarities and differences in the transition from foraging to food production in the Middle East and Mesoamerica?

The geography of the Old World facilitated the diffusion of plants, animals, technology, and information.

The broad-spectrum revolution in Europe includes the late Upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic, which followed it. What tool type characterized the Mesolithic?

Nabta Playa was an important center for prehistoric herders in southern Egypt.

What is the name given to the cultural period in which the first signs of domestication are present?

What archaeological evidence can be used to support interpretations of either a food-producing revolution or a gradual transition from foraging to strategies that relied more heavily on domesticated plants and animals?

With a more reliable food source, the early food producers were considerably healthier than the hunter-gatherers.

Unlike the pattern in the Old World, plant domestication in the New World