Mayans And Aztecs

Question 0

Similar to the Olmec, classic-period civilizations were centered on what?

Answer 0

Raised platforms and pyramids devoted to religious functions

Question 1

Describe the classical period

Answer 1

A Mesoamerican mix of achievements in math, astronomy, agriculture, and political organization, built on Olmec foundation.

Question 2

People during the classical period made advancements in what 4 major areas?

Answer 2

Agriculture, astronomy, political organization, and mathematics.

Question 3

What 3 major agricultural innovations were already in place thousands of years before the classical period?

Answer 3

Irrigation, draining of wetlands, and terracing of hillsides.

Question 4

What did political and cultural innovations depend on in the classical period?

Answer 4

Elites to organize laborers and soldiers

Question 5

The Teotihuacan people expanded the use of what agricultural innovation?

Answer 5

Chinampas

Question 6

A powerful city-state in Central Mexico. Population was 150,000 at peak in 600.

Answer 6

Teotihuacan

Question 7

What was the largest city in the Americas around 450 CE?

Answer 7

Teotihuacan

Question 8

Teotihuacan was larger then all but a small number of cities where?

Answer 8

Contemporary Europe and Asia.

Question 9

Members of the elite controlled which 3 areas?

Answer 9

State bureaucracy, tax collection, and commerce

Question 10

Religious architecture in Teotihuacan was in alignment with what?

Answer 10

The path of the stars

Question 11

More than 100 Teotihuacan sacrificial victims were found where?

Answer 11

Excavation of the temple of Quetzalcoatl

Question 12

What 2 main differences occurred in Mesoamerican civilizations during the classical period?

Answer 12

Difference in language and absence of regional political integration

Question 14

Who was Quetzalcoatl?

Answer 14

A culture-God responsible for origin of agriculture and the arts.

Question 15

What 3 main similarities occurred between civilizations during the Mesoamerican classical period?

Answer 15

Similarities in material culture, religious beliefs and practices, and social structures.

Question 16

Which 2 lesser gods were also central figures in Teotihuacan’s religious life?

Answer 16

Tlaloc (storm-God), and a female associated with fertility.

Question 17

Raised fields constructed along lake-shores in Mesoamerica to increase agricultural yields

Answer 17

Chinampas

Question 18

Which civilization occupied

Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and southern Mexico?

Answer 18

The Maya

Question 19

Like the Olmec, people of Teotihuacan practice what religious ritual?

Answer 19

Human sacrifice

Question 20

Some stories written in the complex Mayan language show the importance of what?

Answer 20

Marriage in politics

Question 21

Maya women of elite groups played indirect, yet important roles in which 2 areas?

Answer 21

Politics and religion

Question 22

Religiously, what happened during the decline and collapse of Teotihuacan ?

Answer 22

Religious temples and images were destroyed

Question 23

Rapid growth of Teotihuacan urban areas resulted from what originally?

Answer 23

A series of volcanic eruptions that disrupted agriculture

Question 24

People of the classic period built of the ideas of who?

Answer 24

The Olmec

Question 25

In the later Teotihuacan urban growth, what caused farmers to abandon their farms and move to the urban core?

Answer 25

Pressure from city elites

Question 26

The elite did what to organize the draining of swamps, bringing of marginal lands into production, construction of irrigation canals, and building of hillside terraces?

Answer 26

Organized labor resources

Question 27

Which agricultural innovation allowed for year-round agriculture?

Answer 27

Chinampas

Question 28

The absence of defensive walls before 500 BC suggests what about Teotihuacan?

Answer 28

They enjoyed relative peace during early development

Question 29

How did farmers create chinampas?

Answer 29

Healed lake muck onto beds of reeds and anchored them to the shore

Question 30

What 3 events preceded Maya collapse in some areas?

Answer 30

Urban decline, social conflict, and increased levels of warfare.

Question 31

Politically, how did Teotihuacan differ from other classic-period civilizations?

Answer 31

They did not concentrate power in the hands of a single ruler

Question 32

Residents of Teotihuacan held what 2 beliefs about human sacrifice?

Answer 32

It was a sacred duty to the gods and promoted the well-being of society.

Question 33

What major defensive event occurred in Teotihuacan in 500 CE?

Answer 33

The beginning of building defensive walls

Question 34

Most classical-period civilizations were controlled by who?

Answer 34

Hereditary political and religious elites.

Question 35

Temple and palace murals make the importance of what class of people clear?

Answer 35

The priestly class

Question 36

What main factor led to the decline and collapse of Teotihuacan?

Answer 36

The mismanagement of resources by elites, and resulting conflict when elites and the general population divided.

Question 37

What happened to elite palaces during the fall of Teotihuacan?

Answer 37

They were burned and their residents killed.

Question 38

What type of agriculture do the Mayas engage in today?

Answer 38

Shifting cultivation (Slash-and-burn/Swidden)

Question 39

In addition to their own agricultural plots, the Mayans also relied on what as a food source?

Answer 39

The forests

Question 40

Describe the hierarchy of Maya city-states during the classical period.

Answer 40

Powerful cities controlled groups of smaller dependent cities using religion

Question 41

Conflict in Mesoamerica was based on what primarily?

Answer 41

Competition for resources

Question 42

In Teotihuacán, largest pyramids were dedicated to who?

Answer 42

Sun, Moon, and Quetzalcoatl.

Question 43

What 2 agricultural conditions did the Mayans face?

Answer 43

Tropical climate and fragile soils

Question 44

During Teotihuacan's decline in the north, which civilization developed further south?

Answer 44

The Maya

Question 45

What 2 religious practices did powerful classical Maya cities use to control smaller cities?

Answer 45

Building religious temples (and pyramids) and creating rituals linking the power of kings and gods.

Question 46

What was the effect of classic Mayan proliferation?

Answer 46

The masses were drawn to certain centers for political and religious rituals.

Question 47

Mayan architecture often featured what aspect?

Answer 47

Elaborate decoration

Question 48

Near major temples, Mayas erected what 2 architectural features?

Answer 48

Carved altars and stone monoliths (statues)

Question 49

What event disrupted Maya trade and undermined the legitimacy of their rulers?

Answer 49

The fall of Teotihuacan

Question 50

Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatán peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras, but never unified into a single empire.

Answer 50

The Maya

Question 51

How did the Mayas manage the forests?

Answer 51

Favored trees and shrubs that were useful to them and conserved game animals such as deer.

Question 53

Scholars suggest that who ruled Teotihuacan?

Answer 53

Alliances of elite families

Question 53

Which civilization shared a common culture but never unified to a single state?

Answer 53

The Maya

Question 54

What happened to many pilgrims who traveled to Teotihuacan?

Answer 54

They became permanent residents

Question 55

What made Maya architecture so unique?

Answer 55

It was built without the use of wheels or metal tools.

Question 56

What three resources helped create Maya architecture?

Answer 56

Mass labor, levers, and stone tools

Question 57

How many days, months, and days per month were in the Maya ritual calendar?

Answer 57

260 days/13 months of 20 days

Question 58

The Mayas living near urban centers used which 2 practices to improve agricultural productivity?

Answer 58

Irrigation (draining swamps) and terraced hillsides (elevates fields)

Question 59

The temple precincts of Maya cities represented what?

Answer 59

Their cosmology (the 3 "layers")

Question 60

What ultimately led overall to the collapse of the Maya?

Answer 60

The growing scale and destructiveness of warfare.

Question 61

Many Maya cities were destroyed with what?

Answer 61

Violence

Question 62

Describe the Mayan religious foundation.

Answer 62

Cosmos divided into 3 layers connected along a vertical axis tracing the course of the sun. Sacred tree growing through the 3 layers.

Question 63

The most common Maya themes in decoration where what 3 things?

Answer 63

Religious allegories (references), the genealogies of rulers, and important historical events.

Question 64

What was the third calendar kept by the Maya?

Answer 64

A long count calendar, beginning with creation in 3114 BCE

Question 65

Maya mathematics were limited by what?

Answer 65

Lack of notational signs

Question 66

Open classic Mayan plazas were surrounded by what?

Answer 66

High pyramids and elaborately decorated paces built on high ground or on constructed mounds

Question 67

In addition to taking part in rituals, Maya women were also what?

Answer 67

Healers and shamans

Question 68

Name each of the three Maya calendars

Answer 68

1) Ritual calendar 2) Solar calendar 3) Long count calendar

Question 69

Describe the 3 Mayan "layers" of cosmology

Answer 69

1) Heavens 2) Earth 3) Dark underworld

Question 70

What happened to elite Maya captives?

Answer 70

They were almost always sacrificed

Question 71

What two areas of study were the foundation of calendars and the astronomy they were based on?

Answer 71

Writing and mathematics

Question 72

What happened to Maya commoner captives?

Answer 72

They were forced into labor.

Question 74

Why did the classic Mayas not use shifting cultivation?

Answer 74

High population levels required more intensive forms of agriculture

Question 75

Why did Maya women participate in rituals?

Answer 75

It helped legitimize their husband's rule

Question 76

What shattered the delicate agricultural system of the Maya?

Answer 76

Rising regional population, climatic change, and environmental degradation.

Question 77

How did Maya cities trace their lineage?

Answer 77

Through male ancestors (patrilineal)

Question 78

Maya elite deified royal ancestors with what 2 practices?

Answer 78

Bloodletting and hallucinogenic trances

Question 79

Evidence suggests that Teotihuacan built an army for what 2 main reasons?

Answer 79

Protection of long-distance trade and to compel agriculturalists to send surplus products to the city.

Question 79

The Maya identified each day with how many calendars?

Answer 79

Three

Question 80

Their system of math incorporated which 2 main concepts?

Answer 80

The concept of zero and place value

Question 82

Maya military forces sought what?

Answer 82

Captives, rather than land.

Question 82

How many days, months, and days per month were in the Maya solar calendar?

Answer 82

365 days/18 months of 20 days, plus 5 unfavorable days at the end of the year

Question 84

What did the Maya believe about the days when the two calendars (solar and ritual) coincided?

Answer 84

The survival of humanity was threatened (every 52 years)

Question 86

What major event occurred with the Maya between 800 and 900 CE?

Answer 86

They abandoned many of their urban cities

Question 87

Describe Maya writing

Answer 87

A form of hieroglyph inscription that signified whole words or concepts as well m as phonetic cues or syllables.

Question 87

Where did scribes record Maya records?

Answer 87

On pottery and the stone columns of buildings of urban centers.

Question 88

What was the central concern of the Maya society?

Answer 88

Time

Question 89

Under what condition did Maya make rulers trace their lineage through the female line?

Answer 89

When the female line held higher status

Question 89

Why were women essential to the household economy and family life?

Answer 89

They maintained essential garden plots and weaved.

Question 89

In what way was every Maya city a sacred text?

Answer 89

Scribes engraved records onto pottery and the stone columns of buildings in urban centers.