Grade 6 Social Studies · Early Humans

Grade 6 Early Humans Practice Test

Build Grade 6 Social Studies skills with five 10-question practice tests on human origins, migration, hunter-gatherers, tools, fire, art, farming, domestication, settlements, and archaeology.

Early Humans Practice Tests

These Grade 6 Social Studies practice tests help students explain early human origins, migration, adaptation, technology, food systems, and settlement. Students examine fossils, artifacts, hunter-gatherer life, fire, tools, art, the Neolithic Revolution, domestication, archaeology, and the movement of people across changing environments.

Skills covered

  • Using fossils, artifacts, sites, and scientific dating as historical evidence
  • Explaining bipedal movement, adaptation, migration, and environmental change
  • Understanding hunter-gatherer life, cooperation, tools, fire, art, and symbolic communication
  • Explaining agriculture, domestication, food surpluses, villages, storage, and irrigation
  • Comparing Paleolithic and Neolithic societies without treating all groups as identical
  • Analyzing cultural diffusion, trade, and the limits of archaeological evidence

How to use these practice tests

Begin by identifying whether the evidence describes movement, technology, food production, settlement, or culture. Then connect the evidence to the environment and the needs of the group. When more than one explanation is possible, choose the answer that is best supported and most careful about the limits of the evidence.

For more Grade 6 Social Studies practice, return to the Grade 6 Social Studies category.

3. Test

Grade 6 Early Humans Practice Tests

A 10-question Grade 6 Social Studies practice test on early human evidence, migration, hunter-gatherers, tools, fire, art, farming, domestication, settlements, and archaeology.

Use evidence about environment, tools, food production, migration, settlement, and archaeology to choose the best answer about early human history.

10 Questions
0/10 Questions0 %
Correct 0
Incorrect 0
Unanswered 10
1. QuestionMultiple choice

What was the Neolithic Revolution?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is The transition from mostly hunting and gathering to farming and herding.

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: The Neolithic Revolution describes major changes in food production, settlement, and technology.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

The Neolithic Revolution describes major changes in food production, settlement, and technology.

2. QuestionMultiple choice

What is domestication?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is The process of changing plants or animals through human selection and care.

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Domestication involved selecting useful traits and managing plants or animals over generations.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Domestication involved selecting useful traits and managing plants or animals over generations.

3. QuestionMultiple choice

Why did agriculture encourage permanent settlements?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: C

The correct answer is People could grow food in one area and store supplies for later use..

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Cultivation and storage encouraged people to remain near fields, water, animals, and shared facilities.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Cultivation and storage encouraged people to remain near fields, water, animals, and shared facilities.

4. QuestionMultiple choice

Which was a possible result of food surplus after the development of agriculture?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: D

The correct answer is Population growth and the development of specialized jobs.

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Surpluses could support larger populations and workers who did not grow food full time.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Surpluses could support larger populations and workers who did not grow food full time.

5. QuestionMultiple choice

What was one risk of relying heavily on one crop?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is A disease, drought, or pest could damage much of the food supply..

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Dependence on a narrow food base could make communities vulnerable to environmental problems.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Dependence on a narrow food base could make communities vulnerable to environmental problems.

6. QuestionMultiple choice

How did domesticated animals help some farming communities?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is They provided food, materials, labor, transportation, or protection..

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Animals could support agriculture and daily life in several ways, depending on the environment.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Animals could support agriculture and daily life in several ways, depending on the environment.

7. QuestionMultiple choice

Why did irrigation become useful in some early farming communities?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: C

The correct answer is It helped move water to fields when rainfall was limited or unreliable..

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Irrigation increased control over water and could expand farming in dry regions.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Irrigation increased control over water and could expand farming in dry regions.

8. QuestionMultiple choice

Which change often accompanied the growth of farming villages?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: D

The correct answer is More permanent buildings, storage areas, tools, and community organization.

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Settled farming communities needed structures, storage, shared labor, and systems for managing resources.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Settled farming communities needed structures, storage, shared labor, and systems for managing resources.

9. QuestionMultiple choice

Why did pottery become useful in many farming societies?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is It could store food, water, seeds, and other materials..

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Containers supported storage, cooking, transport, and the management of agricultural supplies.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Containers supported storage, cooking, transport, and the management of agricultural supplies.

10. QuestionMultiple choice

How did farming change the relationship between people and the environment?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is People increasingly modified land, water, plants, and animals to produce food..

  1. Identify the early human history concept: Determine whether the question focuses on evidence, movement, technology, subsistence, settlement, or social change.
  2. Use the evidence: Agriculture increased human control over food production but also created new environmental challenges.
  3. Check the historical connection: Connect environment, adaptation, technology, resources, and archaeological evidence to confirm the answer.

Agriculture increased human control over food production but also created new environmental challenges.

Frequently asked questions about Grade 6 Early Humans

What topics are covered?

The page covers human origins, fossils, artifacts, adaptation, migration, hunter-gatherers, tools, fire, art, the Neolithic Revolution, domestication, farming, settlements, archaeology, trade, and cultural diffusion.

How should students analyze early human evidence?

Identify the evidence, consider its archaeological context, connect it to environment and human needs, and avoid conclusions that go beyond what the evidence supports.

How many questions are on this page?

The page includes five mini tests with 10 questions each, for 50 Grade 6 Early Humans questions in total.