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106 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is related to farming?
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agrarian
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What is an ancient book that was written by hand?
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codex
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Who was an Aztec emperor?
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Moctezuma
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What is a floating garden that was first created by the Aztecs?
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chinampa
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What is a system of ranking members of a group according to their importance?
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hiecrarchy
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What are vast grassy plains of Argentina & uruguay?
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pampas
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What is a carved stone slab or pillar usually created to celebrate an event or a person among the Mayas?
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stela
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Who was an Inca emperor?
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Pachacuti
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What is a kind of farming technique by which farmers clear small lots of land by cutting down the forest & burning the felled trees & plants to use as fetilizer?
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slash - and - burn agriculture
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What is a flat strip of level land?
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terrace
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When do the Mayas begin building elaborate cities?
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AD 300's
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When does King Pacal come to power in Palenqe?
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AD 615
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When did the Maya civilization revive in the Yucatan?
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AD 900's
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When did the spanish conquest bring the Maya civilization to an end?
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AD 1500's
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What are the lowlands like?
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- hot
- flat |
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What does pre and post mean?
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- pre: before
- post: in the future |
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What are some reasons why scholars believe the Maya civilization fell?
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- warfare
- food shortages - disease - drought |
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Why was slash - and - burn agriculture necessary?
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so they could use the dirt as fertilizer
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Why did John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood go to Centeral America in 1839?
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to find out if rumors about hidden ancient ruins were true
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What are the highlands like?
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forested mountains and valleys, active volcanoes, fertile and rich soil, cool climate with wet and dry seasons
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What problems did the Mayas have with their rain forest environment?
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the soil was thin & fragile
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What was their farming technique?
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slash - and - burn agriculture
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Who rediscovered the Maya civilization?
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- John L. Sthephens
- Frederick Catherwood |
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When did they rediscover it?
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in 1839
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What did they find?
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ancient sites buried underneath the jungle growth
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How long did the pre classic period last?
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1800 BC - AD 250
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How long did the classic period last?
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AD 250 - 900
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How long did the post classic period last?
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900 - 1500's
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Where did the people live?
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- farming villages led by chiefs
- lands outside the city - simple houses |
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Why did the Maya civilization decline?
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the Spanish conquest of Mexico
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What event marked the ending of the Maya civilization?
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conquest of Mexico
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When did it end?
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1500's
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What is an aristocrat?
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nobels that were born into a powerful family
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What was the basic social unit of Maya society?
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extended family
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Why did Maya kings fight?
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- for control of trade routes & land
- for captives |
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Which groups formed a type of middle class in Maya Society?
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the commoners
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According to the Maya belief, how were kings related to the gods?
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because they were descended from the gods
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What were the social groups of the classic period?
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- nobles
- commoners |
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What did the peasant farmer men do?
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- worked in the fields
- hunted - maintained the village buildings |
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What did the peasant farmer women do?
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- raised the children
- tended livestock - tended gardens - weaved - made pottery |
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What were the goods the sea traders brought?
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- salt
- dry fish - shells - stingrays - pearls |
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What was their currency?
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- stone or shell beads
- red beans - feathers |
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Why was the ball game considered sacred?
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because victory showeed the kings ability to please the gods
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What did kings ruled over?
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- spheres of influence
- lands |
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How did kings increase their power?
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- warfare
- alliances |
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What were the pupose of wars?
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- captives
- traderoutes - land |
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What were the natural events that the gods were represented by?
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- spilling of blood
- festivals |
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the maya were farmers
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maya lived in presentday Guatemala in area known as the Yucatan peninsula
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maya area included two graphic locations - highlands & lowlands
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due to difficult growing conditions in rain forest, the maya used this technique (slash - and - burn agriculture) to cultivate the crops
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maya would cut down trees and burn them to enrich the soil
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maya had picture vase writing system
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maya planned lives according ot heaven
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maya think godss made them from corn
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each mya kingdom had a unique mystery
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maya gok pile was a pile of rocks they had to put together
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maya had no interest in metal
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david was the son of maya scholars
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maya predicted eclipses
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maya included important events on stones
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maya buildings were made from stone rise
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maya game - keep the ball in movement
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name of the maya ball game was pok - a - tok
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maya represented gods movement
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on special occasionsmaya king gave blood
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maya had many ceremonies
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they had many ceremonies
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maya statues showed patterns
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maya believed they went to the underworld after death
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may people were buried under their homes
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certain maya places in temple were sacred so built over it
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used maya blood for human sacrifies
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first people to have a written language
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pre classic maya lived in small villages led by local chiefs and most members were farmers
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classic maya society broke up into separate soial groups - commoners & nobles
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nobles:
- kings - top officials - priests |
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commoners
- peasant farmers - slaves |
maya lived in extended families or several related families that live together
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for entertainment the maya would sometimes attend a ball game called pok - a - tok
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victory of his game showed that a maya king or city pleased the gods
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each makor maya city had its own king
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maya kings based their power on religion
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many maya rituals involved the spilling of blood
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maya kings hoped to win the favor of the gods by piercing themselves with thorns
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maya also had many festivals throughout th eyear
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maya festivals had costumes, music, and rituals
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dancing played an important role in these religious festivals
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maya were well known for writting, astronomy, math, & architecture
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maya built stone pyramids
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many maya pyramids were based on the movement of the sun
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Kukulcan is a maya pyramid in Chihen Itza creates a serpent shaped shadow on the first day of spring
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this maya pyramid has 365 steps for each day of the year
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maya wrote in hieroglyphs which was the earliest wrtten language of the americas
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maya had sophisticated and accurate calanders based on their observations the stars, moon, and sun
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maya also developed the dea of "zero" long before the europeans did
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In 1200 the Incas settled in the Cuzco Valley.
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When did the incas conquer much of the west coast of South America?
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1300's
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When does Pachacuti become the inca ruler?
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1438
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When does the civil war start after Huayna Capac's death?
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1525
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What were the types of nobles in the inca society?
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- by birth
- appointed - non - inca chiefs |
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Who existed first, the Sapa Incas or Inti?
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Inti
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What are two gods the incas worshiped?
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- Viracocha
- Inti |
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How was Inca society divided?
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- nobles
- commoners |
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Why were religious rituals important to the Incas?
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because they never developed a writting system
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What doed "bring together" mean?
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unify
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inca built a vast empire in the Andes Mountains of south america about 800 years ago
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the inca culture like the maya was heavily influenced by geography
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inca empire was located on the pacific ocean and included topical lowlands, pampas, mountains, and many rivers inculding the amazon
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first advances in culture of south america appeared in the andes region
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inca fished the pacific ocean
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inca hunted animals on mountains and slopes
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inca grew a variety of different crops like:
- peppers - beans - squash - nuts - cotton - potatoes |
inca lived in steep, rocky mountains
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inca developed techniques for farming on hillsides called terraces
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like the maya the inca had rigid social structures divided into 2 large classes each with their own hierarchy: nobles and commoners
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inca shared everything like:
- land - food - animals - work - resources |
barteering was the only way of trade
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to inca government owned the land and the peasants had to grow the food
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1/3 of the food went to government
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1/3 food went to the priests
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1/3 food went to the ayllus or a group of related families that lived on the same part of land
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inca didnt have a written language
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today we don't know a lot about their religion
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do know that they worshipped many gods
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emperor was viewed as a descendant of Inti or the sun god
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not known for massive, grusome, and bloody human sacrifice
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but the did take children up to the top of a mountain a let the freeze ot death
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the sacrifice that the inca did involved no blood what so ever
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in a museum today there is a girl that some people found that was frozen and her blood was still red when the took a test on her to see how old she was and you could still see the braids in her hair and the position that she died in..... isnt that amazing
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aztes were hunters & gatherers
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aztecs lived in present day Mexico
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like mayas, aztecs used sophisticated calanders to tell them when to plant crops and preform rituals
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aztecs were fierce warriors
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aztecs eventually had the largest empire in MesoAmerica
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aztecs lived in a high basin called the valley of Mexico
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several shallow lakes covered the basin floor
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land around the aztecs was fertile and the climate was mild
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aztecs founded their capital city in 1325 on an island in the middle of lake Texcoco
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aztecs called it Tenochtitlan which meas place of the cactus fruit
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it was centrally locatedd, easy to defend, and allowed the aztecs to strengthen their position in the valley of Mexico
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in the early 1400's th eaztec joned forces with 2 other city - states in a pace called the Triple Alliance
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the aztec had help from other allies, they conquered most of the valley of mexico
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in 1502 the aztec empire reached its height
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aztecs were mostly farmers
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aztecs were separatedinto nobles and commoners
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chinampas or floating gardens were used to farm
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aztecs had highly trained warriors
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aztecs were dedicated to the practice of war
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winning wars allowed the aztecs to collect a tribute
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people would be used for ritual sacrifices to gods
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like maya, preformed human sacrifices on a HUGE daily basis
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most sacrificial victims were prisoners of war
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only aztec priests would preform the sacrifies to ensure political stability
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in 1519, aztecs came to contact with spanish explorer led by Hernan Cortes
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spanish eventually killed and conquered the aztecs by joining forces with other local tribes who didn't like the aztecs
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