Asia - The Largest Continent Quiz

Asia - The Largest Continent

• Asia is the largest and most populous continent in the world
• Bordered by Europe and Africa to the West, Oceania to the South, and North America to the East
• Asia's name may be derived from the Assyrian word "asu," meaning "east."
• Covers approximately 17,226,200 square miles (44,614,000 square km)

West Asia

• West Asian countries:
  • Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen

Caucasus and Central Asia

• The Caucasus includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Russia
• Central Asia is located just north of Iran and Afghanistan, and south of Russia
• Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

East Asia

• East Asian countries include:
• China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Mongolia
• Also includes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan

South Asia

• South Asian countries include:
  • Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka

Southeast Asia

• Southeast Asian countries include:
  • Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (or Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor (or Timor-Leste), and Vietnam

Origins and Cultural Evolution - Creation Story/Theory

The Origins of Species by Natural Selection

• Authored by Charles Darwin in 1859
• A challenge to the Creation Story
• This theory proposes a chain of evolution with 4 stages:
  • Hominids
  • Homo Habilis
  • Homo Erectus
  • Homo Sapiens

Man’s Earliest Ancestors - Australopithecines

• Australopithecus (meaning "Southern Ape")
• Appeared more than 4 million years ago in Africa
• Used tools made from animal bones

Ramapithecus

• Lived approximately 12 to 14 million years ago in Europe, Asia, and Africa

Australopithecus Afarensis

• Nicknamed "Lucy"
• Lived between 3.9 and 3.0 million years ago
• Retained apelike facial features, including a sloping forehead, brow ridge, flat nose, and chinless jaw
• Brain capacity of about 450 cc
• Height ranged between 3'6" and 5'
• Fully bipedal
• Strong bones

Australopithecus Africanus

• Resembled Afarensis, lived between 3 and 2 million years ago
• Bipedal, larger body size
• Slightly larger brain capacity, up to 500 cc
• Brain not advanced for speech
• Larger molars than Afarensis and much larger than modern humans

Australopithecus Robustus

• Believed to have lived approximately 1.5 to 2 million years ago
• Similar body size to Africanus, with a larger and more massive skull and teeth
• Huge, flat face with no forehead, large brow ridges, a sagittal crest
• Brain size up to 525 cc, no indication of speech capability

Australopithecus Boisei

• Nicknamed "nut-cracker man"
• Ate a hard, rough diet
• Huge molars, jaws, large sagittal crest
• Massive chewing muscles anchored to this crest
• No indication of speech function

Hominids

• Early forms of man
• Appeared during the Pleistocene or Ice Age
• "Homo" is the Latin word for "man"

Homo Habilis

• Meaning "Handy Man" or "Tool User"
• Named by Dr. Louis Leakey
• Fossils found in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Africa
• Developed from Australopithecines
• 1.22 meters (4 feet) tall
• Hands and fingers suggested ability to make simple stone tools for slicing and tearing food

Homo Erectus

• Meaning "Upright Man" or "Erect Man"
• Appeared approximately 1,600,000 million years ago in Africa
• Low forehead, large chinless jaw
• Made and used various stone tools
• Mastered the use of fire
• Hunted animals
• Used chopping tools and simple hand-axes

Homo Erectus Variants

• Pithecanthropus Erectus or "Java Man"
• Sinanthropus Pekinensis or "Peking Man"

Homo Sapiens

• Meaning "Wise Man" or "Intelligent Man"
• First found in Swanscombe, England, and in Stemheim, Germany, 450,000 years ago
• Resembled Homo Erectus, with a larger brain and smaller jaws and teeth
• Developed a round skull and long, straight limbs

Homo Sapiens - Neanderthalensis (Neanderthal Man)

• Found in the Neander Valley
• Believed to have lived between 150,000 – 31,000 years ago
• Longer skull, with a large bulge called an occipital bun
• Produced more complex tools and weapons, engaged in hunting and used fire

Homo Sapiens - Cro-Magnon Man

• Lived in Northern Africa, Western and Central Asia, and Europe
• Stood over 5 ½ feet tall
• Resembled today's Scandinavians in build
• Made flake tools, fished, and hunted birds and large mammals

Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Modern Man)

• Lived from 120,000 years ago up to the present
• Brain size of approximately 1,450 cc
• Well-proportioned face with a fully developed chin
• Used advanced tools, such as harpoons made from antlers, and stone tools for scraping

Cultural Evolution

The Old Stone Age (400,000 BCE – 8,000 BCE)

• Also known as the Rough Stone Stage or Paleolithic Age (Greek for "old" and "stone")
• Divided into three periods:
  • Lower Paleolithic
  • Middle Paleolithic
  • Upper Paleolithic

Lower Paleolithic Age

• Associated with Homo Erectus
• Acheulian, the most widespread tool-making tradition, named after the French village of St. Acheul
• Used for digging roots and other foods from the ground
• Associated with hunting prey – deer, horses, monkeys, and birds

Middle Paleolithic Age

• Associated with Neanderthals
• Tool-making revolved around Mousterian technology
• Tools for scraping, sawing, gouging, and piercing
• Example: flake tools used by Homo Neanderthalensis

Upper Paleolithic Age

• Associated with early Homo Sapiens Sapiens traditions
• Emphasized blade tools (longer than flakes)
• Modified blades produced various special-purpose tools
• Required cooperative hunting for large animals like woolly mammoths, rhinoceros, bison, wild boars, horses, bears, and reindeer

The New Stone Age (8,000 to 4,000 BCE)

• Also known as the Polished Stone Age or "Neolithic Age"
• Stone tools were generally round or oval in shape
• Signs of polishing on body and weapon blades
• Tools included axes and knives with a tongue-like shape
• People wore bark cloth, began to cultivate the soil, and domesticated animals
• Wheat and barley were the earliest grain plants

Age of Metals

• Late Neolithic Age
• Artisans in the Near East began using metals
• Divided into three periods:
• Copper Stage
• Bronze Stage
• Iron Stage

The Copper Age

• The first metal discovered by man
• Easy and readily available to extract
• The Egyptians first used copper as early as 5,000 BCE
• Soft copper was mainly used for ornamental purposes

The Bronze Age

• A mixture of copper and tin
• Used to make stronger and more durable tools, weapons, and utensils, such as swords, daggers, axes, knives, hammers, arrowheads, and farm implements

The Iron Age

• Hittites of Asia Minor were the first to smelt iron
• Iron was harder and more durable than bronze
• The discovery improved methods for working with metals
• Better roads and cities emerged during this period

Test your knowledge about Asia, the largest continent on Earth. This quiz covers various regions including West Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and more. Explore the geographical and cultural diversity of Asia through a series of questions.