Chapter 1: Investigating the Past

Question 1

Which question about the past does cave art most help to answer?

Accepted Answer

What animals lived in the area?

Question 2

About how long ago were the objects and art described in this chapter created?

Accepted Answer

about 10,000–18,000 years ago

Question 3

Why are ancient handprints found on cave walls very small?

Accepted Answer

People long ago were not as big as people today.

Question 4

What is the most likely reason these sculptures were unknown to scientists before 1912?

Accepted Answer

The bison were in a cave that was hard to get to.

Question 5

People who study the past are most like...

Accepted Answer

detectives

Question 6

Why do historians read diaries and letters from the past?

Accepted Answer

to find out what happened and why

Question 7

Why did artists make paint by grinding different minerals and mixing the powder with fat or oil

Accepted Answer

to make different colors of paint for their art

Question 8

If ancient art was found in a cave, which of these questions would be the hardest to answer?

Accepted Answer

Why did people paint in caves?

Question 9

A prehistoric object is one that comes from a time...

Accepted Answer

before history was written.

Question 10

What is an expert who studies the past by examining objects that people have left behind?

Accepted Answer

archaeologists

Question 11

Which of these activities would an archaeologist most likely do?

Accepted Answer

examine objects

Question 12

An object made or used by people in the past is called...

Accepted Answer

an artifact

Question 13

What is an expert who studies and records the past?

Accepted Answer

historian

Question 14

What is someone who searches for information on a particular subject?

Accepted Answer

researcher

Question 15

What important discovery did four teenagers make at Lascaux, France, in 1940?

Accepted Answer

A cave filled with paintings of animals

Question 16

What is an expert who studies and creates maps of Earth’s natural and human-made features?

Accepted Answer

archaeologists

Question 17

What material was used to make the bison?

Accepted Answer

clay

Question 18

Which of these is a human-made feature that a geographer might study?

Accepted Answer

a road

Question 19

What information about the bison sculptures would most interest a geographer?

Accepted Answer

They were discovered in a cave formed from a river in France

Question 20

Which clue to the past has been found near the artwork displayed in parts of caves?

Accepted Answer

lamps for burning animal fat

Question 21

What does this ancient spear thrower indicate about the person who may have used it?

Accepted Answer

This person was a hunter.

Question 22

What do scientists believe explains the reason for the cracks in the picture of the bison?

Accepted Answer

The cracks may have happened while the clay was drying.

Question 23

What is the evidence that prehistoric cave artists built scaffolding to stand on?

Accepted Answer

Some paintings are too high to be reached from the floor

Chapter 1: Investigating the Past

Questions 23

Chapter 1: Investigating the Past

Questions 23