Ice Age Sculpture

For many years, scientists debated nether prehistoric humans in Central Europe lived alongside the mammoth and whether they hunted it with their stone tools. The mammoth an extinct species of the elephant family, roamed across Europe during Earth’s last ice age-a period during which large parts of Earth were covered by ice. Protected from the cold by its hairy coat. it survived even the coldest period some 26 500 years ago, when Earth’s ice cover was most extensive. Archeologists did not initially believe that humans could live in this inhospitable climate. However, in the late nineteenth century the remains of ancient human settlements that incited numerous burned mammoth bones were found of the Mora won Gate, a mountain pass in what is now the Czech Republic. This suggested that humans survived even in frozen regions near the margins of the ice sheets by using mammoths for food and for raw materials used in clothing, blanket, and shifter waits. These ice-age people left behind numerous small sculptures of mammoths and other animals, formed of ceramic or carved out of stone, bone, or tusks While these works usually show animals in still positions, there are some that depict animals in motion.

One such animated sculpture is the Piedmosti mammoth. The fragments from which it is restored were found by geologist Martin Krz in 1895 when he took over the excavations started by mathematician Karel Maska in 1882 in the massive deposits of loess (accumulated windblown soil) on the Bećva River in Moravia. In the intervening period Maśka had exposed an area of about 200 square meters and found over 30.000 artifacts, human burials, and more than 1.000 kilograms of animal bones, most of which were those of mammoths sometimes discovered in organized piles. It was also Maśka who joined the broken pieces of ivory to reveal the sculpture that was a unique and important find at that time. Made on a large, fat segment from a tusk of considerable size, the realism of the animal, obviously observed in life by the sculptor, immediately disproved the opinion of the Danish archaeologist Japetus Steenstrup, who had visited in 1888 and suggested that the occupants of the site had arrived much later than the mammoths whose bodies they had found frozen in the permafrost and utilized. The indisputably ancient context of the sculpture found among mammoth bones and stone tools was used to further confirm the great age of cave art when it was compared to mammoths known from the walls of caves such as Les Combarelles and Font de Gaume in southwest France, the authenticity of which had only recently been accepted after many years of doubt. However, Steenstrup’s view that the massive accumulation of mammoth remains at Predmosti and other Moravian sites was not due to hunting prevailed and still provokes questions about how we might interpret the sculpture.

Arguments against the hunting of mammoths in Mora surfaced o the twentieth century when Wolfgang Soergel and later, Olga Soffer suggested that humans had exploited the lemons of mammoths that had died natural deaths rather than hunting such potentially dangerous prey. Herds of animals migrating through the Moravian Gate mountain pass stopped at mineral licks （exposed mineral deposits）， which provided them with he salts essential to the diet particularly of young animals and pregnant females during late spring-early summer, but weak, tired animals would also die there. Humans just moved in to take advantage of them. This picture is contested by Martin Oliva, who reiterates the archaeological evidence for hunting combined with some searching for available food and in so doing proposes that culture as well as nature made the mammoth important to society in ways over and above bare survival. He points out that some humanly constructed accumulations of mammoth remains discovered within these sites have no apparent utilitarian function and notes that mammoth bones and teeth were placed in human burials. Such behavioral gestures, now incomprehensible, may have been influenced by engagement with and dependence on the animal which consequently acquired special significance. Oliva also argues thot people do not avoid hunting dangerous animals but take them on for the thrill of the competiton in which they acquire social prestige and status.

 

1

For many years, scientists debated nether prehistoric humans in Central Europe lived alongside the mammoth and whether they hunted it with their stone tools. The mammoth an extinct species of the elephant family, roamed across Europe during Earth’s last ice age-a period during which large parts of Earth were covered by ice. Protected from the cold by its hairy coat. it survived even the coldest period some 26 500 years ago, when Earth’s ice cover was most extensive. Archeologists did not initially believe that humans could live in this inhospitable climate. However, in the late nineteenth century the remains of ancient human settlements that incited numerous burned mammoth bones were found of the Mora won Gate, a mountain pass in what is now the Czech Republic. This suggested that humans survived even in frozen regions near the margins of the ice sheets by using mammoths for food and for raw materials used in clothing, blanket, and shifter waits. These ice-age people left behind numerous small sculptures of mammoths and other animals, formed of ceramic or carved out of stone, bone, or tusks While these works usually show animals in still positions, there are some that depict animals in motion.

According to paragraph 1. why did scientists long doubt that humans had lived alongside mammoths?

AThey did not believe that mammoths had been present in Central Europe 26,500 years ago

BThey believed that humans’ stone tools were too ineffective to justify entering the mammoth’s environment to hunt them

CThey thought that humans would have been too frightened by the large, hairy mammoths to settle near them

DThey thought that humans would have been unable to survive in the extreme cold of the mammoths’ environment.

 

2

For many years, scientists debated nether prehistoric humans in Central Europe lived alongside the mammoth and whether they hunted it with their stone tools. The mammoth an extinct species of the elephant family, roamed across Europe during Earth’s last ice age-a period during which large parts of Earth were covered by ice. Protected from the cold by its hairy coat. it survived even the coldest period some 26 500 years ago, when Earth’s ice cover was most extensive. Archeologists did not initially believe that humans could live in this inhospitable climate. However, in the late nineteenth century the remains of ancient human settlements that incited numerous burned mammoth bones were found of the Mora won Gate, a mountain pass in what is now the Czech Republic. This suggested that humans survived even in frozen regions near the margins of the ice sheets by using mammoths for food and for raw materials used in clothing, blanket, and shifter waits. These ice-age people left behind numerous small sculptures of mammoths and other animals, formed of ceramic or carved out of stone, bone, or tusks While these works usually show animals in still positions, there are some that depict animals in motion.

According to paragraph 1, the discovery of the Moravian Gale in the late nineteenth century included evidence that

Ahumans hunted mammoths with tools made of stone and bone

Bconditions during the last ice age were not as inhospitable as previously

Cthought there were fires that endangered both humans and mammoths.

Dhumans had used mammoths for food and perhaps to make ciothing. blankots, end otner items

 

3

One such animated sculpture is the Piedmosti mammoth. The fragments from which it is restored were found by geologist Martin Krz in 1895 when he took over the excavations started by mathematician Karel Maska in 1882 in the massive deposits of loess (accumulated windblown soil) on the Bećva River in Moravia. In the intervening period Maśka had exposed an area of about 200 square meters and found over 30.000 artifacts, human burials, and more than 1.000 kilograms of animal bones, most of which were those of mammoths sometimes discovered in organized piles. It was also Maśka who joined the broken pieces of ivory to reveal the sculpture that was a unique and important find at that time. Made on a large, fat segment from a tusk of considerable size, the realism of the animal, obviously observed in life by the sculptor, immediately disproved the opinion of the Danish archaeologist Japetus Steenstrup, who had visited in 1888 and suggested that the occupants of the site had arrived much later than the mammoths whose bodies they had found frozen in the permafrost and utilized. The indisputably ancient context of the sculpture found among mammoth bones and stone tools was used to further confirm the great age of cave art when it was compared to mammoths known from the walls of caves such as Les Combarelles and Font de Gaume in southwest France, the authenticity of which had only recently been accepted after many years of doubt. However, Steenstrup’s view that the massive accumulation of mammoth remains at Predmosti and other Moravian sites was not due to hunting prevailed and still provokes questions about how we might interpret the sculpture.

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

AThe realistic sculpture was made on a large, flat segment from a tusk of considerable size, perhaps from a mammoth whose body had been found frozen in the permafrost.

BThe realistic sculpture appears to be modeled on a live animal, disproving the thaary that humans had encountered mammoths only as long-dead, frozen bodies.

CIn the opinion of Danish archaeologist Japetus Steenstrup, the sculptor had obviously based the sculpture on a large mammoth he or she had observed in life.

DThe sculpture, made on a large, flat segment of tusk, appeared to have been made much later than the piles of mammoth bones that were found throughout the site.

 

4

One such animated sculpture is the Piedmosti mammoth. The fragments from which it is restored were found by geologist Martin Krz in 1895 when he took over the excavations started by mathematician Karel Maska in 1882 in the massive deposits of loess (accumulated windblown soil) on the Bećva River in Moravia. In the intervening period Maśka had exposed an area of about 200 square meters and found over 30.000 artifacts, human burials, and more than 1.000 kilograms of animal bones, most of which were those of mammoths sometimes discovered in organized piles. It was also Maśka who joined the broken pieces of ivory to reveal the sculpture that was a unique and important find at that time. Made on a large, fat segment from a tusk of considerable size, the realism of the animal, obviously observed in life by the sculptor, immediately disproved the opinion of the Danish archaeologist Japetus Steenstrup, who had visited in 1888 and suggested that the occupants of the site had arrived much later than the mammoths whose bodies they had found frozen in the permafrost and utilized. The indisputably ancient context of the sculpture found among mammoth bones and stone tools was used to further confirm the great age of cave art when it was compared to mammoths known from the walls of caves such as Les Combarelles and Font de Gaume in southwest France, the authenticity of which had only recently been accepted after many years of doubt. However, Steenstrup’s view that the massive accumulation of mammoth remains at Predmosti and other Moravian sites was not due to hunting prevailed and still provokes questions about how we might interpret the sculpture.

The word “indisputably” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Aextremely

Bcertainty

Ccomparably

Dsurprisingly

 

5

One such animated sculpture is the Piedmosti mammoth. The fragments from which it is restored were found by geologist Martin Krz in 1895 when he took over the excavations started by mathematician Karel Maska in 1882 in the massive deposits of loess (accumulated windblown soil) on the Bećva River in Moravia. In the intervening period Maśka had exposed an area of about 200 square meters and found over 30.000 artifacts, human burials, and more than 1.000 kilograms of animal bones, most of which were those of mammoths sometimes discovered in organized piles. It was also Maśka who joined the broken pieces of ivory to reveal the sculpture that was a unique and important find at that time. Made on a large, fat segment from a tusk of considerable size, the realism of the animal, obviously observed in life by the sculptor, immediately disproved the opinion of the Danish archaeologist Japetus Steenstrup, who had visited in 1888 and suggested that the occupants of the site had arrived much later than the mammoths whose bodies they had found frozen in the permafrost and utilized. The indisputably ancient context of the sculpture found among mammoth bones and stone tools was used to further confirm the great age of cave art when it was compared to mammoths known from the walls of caves such as Les Combarelles and Font de Gaume in southwest France, the authenticity of which had only recently been accepted after many years of doubt. However, Steenstrup’s view that the massive accumulation of mammoth remains at Predmosti and other Moravian sites was not due to hunting prevailed and still provokes questions about how we might interpret the sculpture.

According to paragraph 2. all of the following are true of the Predmosti mammoth EXCEPT

AIt was discovered in pieces, which Karel Maska later put together

BIt was a burial object discovered in a human grave

CIt was discovered by Martin Khiz in 1895 near the Bečva River in Moravia.

DIt was found at a site that contained over 30,000 other artifacts.

 

6

One such animated sculpture is the Piedmosti mammoth. The fragments from which it is restored were found by geologist Martin Krz in 1895 when he took over the excavations started by mathematician Karel Maska in 1882 in the massive deposits of loess (accumulated windblown soil) on the Bećva River in Moravia. In the intervening period Maśka had exposed an area of about 200 square meters and found over 30.000 artifacts, human burials, and more than 1.000 kilograms of animal bones, most of which were those of mammoths sometimes discovered in organized piles. It was also Maśka who joined the broken pieces of ivory to reveal the sculpture that was a unique and important find at that time. Made on a large, fat segment from a tusk of considerable size, the realism of the animal, obviously observed in life by the sculptor, immediately disproved the opinion of the Danish archaeologist Japetus Steenstrup, who had visited in 1888 and suggested that the occupants of the site had arrived much later than the mammoths whose bodies they had found frozen in the permafrost and utilized. The indisputably ancient context of the sculpture found among mammoth bones and stone tools was used to further confirm the great age of cave art when it was compared to mammoths known from the walls of caves such as Les Combarelles and Font de Gaume in southwest France, the authenticity of which had only recently been accepted after many years of doubt. However, Steenstrup’s view that the massive accumulation of mammoth remains at Predmosti and other Moravian sites was not due to hunting prevailed and still provokes questions about how we might interpret the sculpture.

Paragraph 2 suggests which of the following about cave art found at Les Combarelles and Font de Gaumo?

AThe authenticity of the art at these sites confirmed the authenticity of the Predimdsti mammoth.

BThe art at these sites showed that the Predmosti mammoth was more lifelike than originally supposed.

CThe art at these sites includes mammoth paintings similar in age and style to the Predmcsti mammoth

DThe art at these sites was discovered alongside mammoth bones and stone tools.

 

7

Arguments against the hunting of mammoths in Mora surfaced o the twentieth century when Wolfgang Soergel and later, Olga Soffer suggested that humans had exploited the lemons of mammoths that had died natural deaths rather than hunting such potentially dangerous prey. Herds of animals migrating through the Moravian Gate mountain pass stopped at mineral licks （exposed mineral deposits）， which provided them with he salts essential to the diet particularly of young animals and pregnant females during late spring-early summer, but weak, tired animals would also die there. Humans just moved in to take advantage of them. This picture is contested by Martin Oliva, who reiterates the archaeological evidence for hunting combined with some searching for available food and in so doing proposes that culture as well as nature made the mammoth important to society in ways over and above bare survival. He points out that some humanly constructed accumulations of mammoth remains discovered within these sites have no apparent utilitarian function and notes that mammoth bones and teeth were placed in human burials. Such behavioral gestures, now incomprehensible, may have been influenced by engagement with and dependence on the animal which consequently acquired special significance. Oliva also argues thot people do not avoid hunting dangerous animals but take them on for the thrill of the competiton in which they acquire social prestige and status.

The phrase “This picture” refers to the idea that

Aherds of mammoths passed through the Moravian Gate

Bmineral licks provided pregnant females and young animals the salts essential to their diets

Cweak, tired animals died when they reached the Moravian Gate

DHumans did not hunt mammoths but used the remains of mammoths that had died natural deaths

 

8

Arguments against the hunting of mammoths in Mora surfaced o the twentieth century when Wolfgang Soergel and later, Olga Soffer suggested that humans had exploited the lemons of mammoths that had died natural deaths rather than hunting such potentially dangerous prey. Herds of animals migrating through the Moravian Gate mountain pass stopped at mineral licks （exposed mineral deposits）， which provided them with he salts essential to the diet particularly of young animals and pregnant females during late spring-early summer, but weak, tired animals would also die there. Humans just moved in to take advantage of them. This picture is contested by Martin Oliva, who reiterates the archaeological evidence for hunting combined with some searching for available food and in so doing proposes that culture as well as nature made the mammoth important to society in ways over and above bare survival. He points out that some humanly constructed accumulations of mammoth remains discovered within these sites have no apparent utilitarian function and notes that mammoth bones and teeth were placed in human burials. Such behavioral gestures, now incomprehensible, may have been influenced by engagement with and dependence on the animal which consequently acquired special significance. Oliva also argues thot people do not avoid hunting dangerous animals but take them on for the thrill of the competiton in which they acquire social prestige and status.

In paragraph 3, why does the author include the information that herd animals sometimes died at salt licks?

ATo present Soergel and Soffer’s expianation of how humans were able to obtain materials from mammoths without hunting them

BTo support Soergel and Soffer’s claim that mammoths would have been too dangerous to hunt

CTo explain why Soergel and Soffer believed that salt licks on the Moravian. Gate mountain pass attracted weak and tired animals.

DTo suggest that humans focused their hunting on animals that were young pregnant, weak. or tired

 

9

Look at the four squaresthat indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage

It was well adapted to these conditions.

Where would the sentence best fit？Click on a square  sentence to the passage.

10

Archaeologists have been studying mammoth remains found in Central Europe.

AThe discovery of a large number of mammoth remains in human settlements suggested that humans depended on mammoths for a variety of important needs during Earth’s last ice age

BSculptures like the Predmosti mammoth and other evidence suggest that humans hunted live mammoths, rather than just using the remains of mammoths that had died from natural causes.

CCave paintings found in Franco supported the view that at the Moravian Gate many mammoths came together at a water hole or mineral lick.

DPieces of what may have been clothing, blankets, or perhaps shelter walls made from animal remains suggost that mammoths may have been valued primarily for their warm, hairy coats.

EThe accumulation of mammoth remains by humans and their placement in burials suggest that there may have been a cultural element to the human-mammoth relationship.

FBased on the large amount of mammoth bones found in Moravia, Martin Oliva has argued that hunting by humans may have been so significant as to have caused the animals’ extinction.

 

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