an ancient land bridge over which the earliest Americans are believed to have migrated from Asia into the Americas.
Ice Age
a cold period in which huge ice sheets spread outward from the polar regions, the last one of which lasted from about 1,600,000 to 10,000 B.C.
maize
a cultivated cereal grain that bears its kernels on large ears-usually called corn in the United States.
Mesoamerica
Olmec
the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization, which flourished around 1200 B.C. and influenced later societies throughout the region.
Zapotec
an early Mesoamerican civilization that was centered in Oaxaca Valley of what is now Mexico.
Monte Alban
the first real urban center in the Americas, built around 500 B.C. in teh Oaxaca Valley of Mexico.
Chavin
the first major South American civilization, which flourished in the highlands of what is now Peru from about 900-200B.C.
Nazca
a civilization that flourished on what is now the southern coast of Peru from about 200 B.C. to A.d. 600.
Moche
a civilization the flourished on what is now the northern coast of Peru from about A.D. 100 ro 700.
potlatch
a ceremonial feast used to display rank and prosperity in some Northwest Coast tribes of the Native Americans.
Anasazi
an early Native American people who lived in the American Southwest.
pueblos
villages of large apartment-like buildings made of clay and stone, built by the Anasazi and later peoples of the American Southwest.
Mississippian
relating to a Mound Builder culture that flourished in North America between A.D. 800 and 1500.
Iroquois
a group of Native American peoples who spoke related languages, lived in teh eastern-Great Lakes region of North America, and formed an alliance in the late 1500s.
totems
animals or other natural objects that serve as symbols of the unity of clans or other groups of people.
Tikal
major urban center of Mayan civilization located in northern Guatemala.
glyph
a symbolic picture-especially one used as part of a writing system for carving messages in stone.
codex
a book with pages that can be turned, like your textbook.
Popol Vuh
a book containing a version of the Mayan story of creation.
obsidian
a hard, glassy volcanic rock used by early peoples to make sharp weapons.
Quetzalcoatl
the feathered Serpent-a god of teh Toltecs and other Mesoamerican peoples.
Triple Alliance
an association of city-states of Tenochtitlan, Texoco, and Tlacopan, which led to the formation of the Aztec Empire.
Montezuma II
after being crowned emperor in 1502, the Aztecs began a state of decline due to sacrifices, tribute payment, and the Spanish conquerors.
Pachacuti
powerful and ambitious ruler who took the Incan throne in 1438 and led the empire to prosperity and expansion.
ayllu
in Incan society, a small community or clan whose members worked together for the common good.
mita
in the Incan Empire, the requirement that all able-bodied subjects work for the state a certain number of days each year.
quipu
an arrangement of knotted strings on a cord, used by the Inca to record numerical information.
