Meso America

Question 1

meso-america

Answer 1

region of Central America and southern North America that was occupied by several civilizations, especially the Maya, in pre-Columbian times

Question 2

glyph

Answer 2

a hieroglyphic character or symbol; a pictograph an ornamental carved groove or channel, as on a Greek frieze.

Question 3

olmec

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

aztec

Answer 4

a member of the American Indian people dominant in Mexico before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century.

Question 5

hernan cortes

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

montezuma

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

yutacan peninsula

Answer 7

a peninsula in southeastern Mexico that lies between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

Question 8

tikal

Answer 8

an ancient Mayan city in northern Guatemala. It flourished ad 300–800.

Question 9

chichenitza

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

lake texoco

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

chinampa

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

quipu

Answer 12

an ancient Inca device for recording information, consisting of variously colored threads knotted in different ways.

Question 13

chavin

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

inca

Answer 14

a member of a South American Indian people living in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest

Question 15

andes

Answer 15

a major mountain system that runs the length of the Pacific coast of South America.

Question 16

quechua

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

sacrifice

Answer 17

an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure

Question 18

francisco pizarro

Answer 18

Francisco Pizarro González was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Inca Empire.

Question 19

stone heads

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

maize

Answer 20

technical or chiefly British term for corn.

Question 21

long count

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

machu pichu

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

copan

Answer 23

an ancient Mayan city, the ruins of which are in western Honduras near the Guatemalan frontier.

Question 24

cusco

Answer 24

Cusco, often spelled Cuzco, is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range.

Question 25

popol vuh

Answer 25

Popol Vuh (modern K’iche’: Poopol Wuuj [ˈpʰoːpʰol ˈʋuːχ]) is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic K’iche’ kingdom in Guatemala’s western highlands.

Question 26

caral

Answer 26

Caral, or Caral-Chupacigarro, was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe, Barranca Province, Peru, some 200 kilometres north of Lima.

Question 27

calendar

Answer 27

a chart or series of pages showing the days, weeks, and months of a particular year, or giving particular seasonal information.

Question 28

observatory

Answer 28

a room or building housing an astronomical telescope or other scientific equipment for the study of natural phenomena.
a position or building that gives an extensive view.

Question 29

pyramids

Answer 29

A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single point at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense.