What important technological shift marked the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution?

A. Formal religion is practiced.
Incorrect. Religious rituals were carried out during the Paleolithic Age and were formalized with the emergence of cities in the Neolithic Age.

B. Domestication of plants and animals
Correct! Based on possible climate change and competition for scarce resources, people turned to other options to raise and produce food. This led to the beginning of agriculture.

C. New tools are invented.
Incorrect. Tools were crafted by specialists only after domestication and farming had created a food surplus.

D. Food surplus is suddenly produced.
Incorrect. Domesticated plants and animals would eventually lead to a food surplus.

The Neolithic age began around what time?

A. 10,000 BC
Correct! Climate change and competition over resources turned humans away from hunting-gathering to first domesticating plants and animals.

B. 2 million years ago
Incorrect. This was the start of the Paleolithic Age.

C. 1 BC
Incorrect. Iron technology, a much later development, had already taken off around the world.

D. 5,000 BC
Incorrect. This is traditionally seen as the end of the Neolithic age as the Bronze Age begins to emerge.

Which of the following was a defining characteristic of the Neolithic age?

A. Settled and established farming communities
Correct! With the domestication of plants and animals, people moved away from a nomadic existence to settled farming communities.

B. Nomadic existence
Incorrect. It was during the Paleolithic Age that hunters-gatherers were forced to move wherever the food supply took them.

C. Labor was concentrated on hunting food.
Incorrect. With a food surplus, people in the Neolithic Age could focus on other occupations.

D. Social classes were eliminated.
Incorrect. With the growth of cities and occupations in the Neolithic Age, people began to separate into social divisions.

All of the following were changes that resulted from the Neolithic Revolution except —

A. increase in population
Incorrect. Wherever food supply was dependable it provided for the population in those areas to become larger and denser.

B. increase in new tools
Incorrect. People living in settled communities could depend on a wide range of professionals who specialized in fashioning and repairing tools, weapons, and gear.

C. increase in food supply
Incorrect. Once domestication took hold, people were able to farm and produce a surplus of food that could sustain large groups of people over time.

D. increase in nomadic movement
Correct! With domestication, farming, and a growing food surplus, people stayed in one place.

What can most likely be inferred from the presence of bone rings found at the Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük?

A. Its inhabitants were socially equal.
Incorrect. With the growth of cities, social classes emerge as populations expand and people settle into occupations.

B. Very few of its inhabitants had access to wealth.
Incorrect. The rings tell us less about the number of wealthy inhabitants than about the evidence of craftsmen and artisans within the city.

C. Agriculture and hunting were not the only forms of labor.
Correct! The rings are evidence of specialization in labor — perhaps a strong presence of merchants and artisans within the city.

D. Burial practices were formal and ritualized.
Incorrect. The rings tell us little about burial rituals and more about the presence of an artisan class within the city.