Meso America Flashcards
(29 cards)
meso-america
region of Central America and southern North America that was occupied by several civilizations, especially the Maya, in pre-Columbian times
glyph
a hieroglyphic character or symbol; a pictograph an ornamental carved groove or channel, as on a Greek frieze.
olmec
a member of a prehistoric people inhabiting the coast of Veracruz and western Tabasco on the Gulf of Mexico (c. 1200–400 bc), who established what was probably the first Meso-American civilization.
aztec
a member of the American Indian people dominant in Mexico before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century.
hernan cortes
1485–1547), first of the Spanish conquistadors. He overthrew the Aztec empire by conquering its capital, Tenochtitlán, in 1519 and by deposing its emperor, Montezuma.
montezuma
octezuma II, variant spellings include Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin,[N.B. 1] was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520.
yutacan peninsula
a peninsula in southeastern Mexico that lies between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
tikal
an ancient Mayan city in northern Guatemala. It flourished ad 300–800.
chichenitza
a site in northern Yucatán, Mexico, the center of the Mayan empire after ad 918 until about 1200. Its pyramids, temples, and other structures have been partly restored.
lake texoco
Lake Texcoco was a natural lake within the Anáhuac or Valley of Mexico. Lake Texcoco is most well known as where the Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan, which was located on an island within the lake.
chinampa
Chinampa is a type of Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.
quipu
an ancient Inca device for recording information, consisting of variously colored threads knotted in different ways.
chavin
The Chavín culture is an extinct, prehistoric civilization, named for Chavín de Huantar, the principal archaeological site at which its artifacts have been found. Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological site containing ruins and artifacts constructed beginning at least by 1200 BC and occupied by later cultures until around 400-500 BC by the Chavín, a major pre-Inca culture.
inca
a member of a South American Indian people living in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest
andes
a major mountain system that runs the length of the Pacific coast of South America.
quechua
a member of an American Indian people of Peru and parts of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador.
relating to the Quechua people or their language.
sacrifice
an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure
francisco pizarro
Francisco Pizarro González was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Inca Empire.
stone heads
Mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500 CE.
maize
technical or chiefly British term for corn.
long count
Long Count or Slow count is a term used in boxing. When a boxer is knocked down in a fight, the referee will count over them and the boxer must rise to their feet, unaided, by the count of ten or else deemed to have been knocked out.
machu pichu
a fortified Inca town in the Andes Mountains in Peru that the invading Spaniards never found. It is noted for its dramatic position, perched high on a steep-sided ridge.
copan
an ancient Mayan city, the ruins of which are in western Honduras near the Guatemalan frontier.
cusco
Cusco, often spelled Cuzco, is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range.
