8.1

Question 1

meso-america

Answer 1

Anthropology, Archaeology. the area extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua in which diverse pre-Columbian civilizations flourished.

Question 2

glyph

Answer 2

a sculptured figure or relief carving.

Question 3

olmec

Answer 3

of or designating a Mesoamerican civilization, c1000–400 b.c., along the southern Gulf coast of Mexico, characterized by extensive agriculture, a dating system, long-distance trade networks, pyramids and ceremonial centers, and very fine jade work.

Question 4

aztec

Answer 4

a member of a Nahuatl-speaking state in central Mexico that was conquered by Cortés in 1521.

Question 5

hernan cortes

Answer 5

was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Question 6

montezuma

Answer 6

c1470–1520, last Aztec emperor of Mexico 1502–20.

Question 7

yucatan penninsula

Answer 7

is a region of southeastern Mexico, consisting of the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. The Yucatán was the home of the Maya civilization before it was conquered by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century. Much of the population is part or all of Maya descent, and in many places the Maya language is still spoken, usually in addition to Spanish, the main language of business.

Question 8

Tikal

Answer 8

an ancient Mayan city occupied c200 b.c. to a.d. 900, an important center of Mayan civilization, situated in Petén in the jungles of northern Guatemala and the site of significant archaeological discoveries in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Question 9

chichenitza

Answer 9

the ruins of an ancient Mayan city, in central Yucatán state, Mexico.

Question 10

lake texcoco

Answer 10

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. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, efforts to control flooding by the Spanish led to most of the lake being drained. The entire lake basin is now almost completely occupied by Mexico City, the capital of the present-day nation of Mexico.

Question 11

Tenochtitlan

Answer 11

the capital of the Aztec empire: founded in 1325; destroyed by the Spaniards in 1521; now the site of Mexico City.

Question 12

chavin

Answer 12

of, relating to, or characteristic of a Peruvian culture flourishing from the 1st to the 6th century a.d.

Question 13

Inca

Answer 13

a member of any of the dominant groups of South American Indian peoples who established an empire in Peru prior to the Spanish conquest.

Question 14

Andes

Answer 14

a mountain range in W South America, extending about 4500 miles (7250 km) from N Colombia and Venezuela S to Cape Horn. Highest peak, Aconcagua, 22,834 feet (6960 meters).

Question 15

Quechua

Answer 15

the language of the Inca civilization, presently spoken by about 7 million people in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

Question 16

sacrifice

Answer 16

the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.

Question 17

francisco pizarro

Answer 17

c1470–1541, Spanish conqueror of Peru.

Question 18

Stone heads

Answer 18

The Dutch Admiral Jacobs Roggeveen had discovered a new island in the Pacific Ocean. He named it Easter Island. Near the coastline, his crew saw small boats of the local people setting off to greet his ship. Scanning the coastline of the island, he saw gigantic heads. Roggeveen gave this description of the heads: “the stone heads surprised us.

Question 19

maize

Answer 19

(chiefly in British and technical usage) corn1 (def 1).

Question 20

long count

Answer 20

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. A long count occurs when a boxer is given more than the allotted time (a notional ten seconds[1]) to rise to his or her feet.

Question 21

machu pichu

Answer 21

Machu Picchu or Machu Pikchu, is a 15th-century Inca citadel situated on a mountain ridge 2,430 metres above sea level. It is located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District in Peru, above the Sacred Valley, which is 80 kilometres northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows.

Question 22

copan

Answer 22

The ruins known as copan and Palenque are in this forest, not far from its southern edge.

Question 23

cusco

Answer 23

The principal religious ceremony was the annual celebration of the Feast of Raymi, at Cusco.

Question 24

popol vuh

Answer 24

is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic K’iche’ kingdom in Guatemala’s western highlands. The title translates as “Book of the Community”, “Book of Counsel”, or more literally as “Book of the People”. Popol Vuh’s prominent features are its creation myth, its diluvian suggestion, its epic tales of the Hero Twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, and its genealogies.

Question 25

caral

Answer 25

was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe, Barranca Province, Peru, some 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Lima. Caral is the most ancient city of the Americas and a well-studied site of the Norte Chico civilization.

Question 26

calendar

Answer 26

any of various systems of reckoning time, especially with reference to the beginning, length, and divisions of the year.
Compare Chinese calendar, Gregorian calendar, Hindu calendar, Jewish calendar, Julian calendar, Muslim calendar.

Question 27

observatory

Answer 27

a place or building equipped and used for making observations of astronomical, meteorological, or other natural phenomena, especially a place equipped with a powerful telescope for observing the planets and stars.

Question 28

pyramids

Answer 28

(in ancient Egypt) a quadrilateral masonry mass having smooth, steeply sloping sides meeting at an apex, used as a tomb.
(in ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Central America) a quadrilateral masonry mass, stepped and sharply sloping, used as a tomb or a platform for a temple.