Meso America Flashcards
Meso-American
a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica, within which pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Glyph
hieroglyphic character or symbol; a pictograph
Olmec
a member of a prehistoric people inhabiting the coast of Veracruz and western Tabasco on the Gulf of Mexico ( circa 1200–400 BC), who established what was probably the first Meso-American civilization.
Aztec
people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries.
Hernan Cortes
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.
Montezuma
was emperor of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish conquest.
Yucatan peninsula
separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea, encompassing 3 Mexican states, plus portions of Belize and Guatemala.
Tikal
an ancient Mayan citadel in the rainforests of northern Guatemala.
Chichenitza
a world-famous complex of Mayan ruins on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
Lake texcoco
was a natural lake within the Anáhuac or Valley of Mexico.
Chinampa
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
series of colored, knotted strings
Chaüin
excessive or blind patriotism — compare
Andes
running along South America’s western side, is among the world’s longest mountain ranges.
Quechua
member of an American Indian people of Peru and parts of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador.
