{ "source": "https://peabody.kids/flashcards/ancient-civilizations-of-the-americas", "id": "ancient-civilizations-of-the-americas", "title": "Ancient Civilizations of the Americas", "category": "history", "subject": "World History", "levels": [ "3-5", "6-8", "9-12" ], "description": "The Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Inca and other great societies of Mesoamerica and South America.", "tags": [ "maya", "aztec", "inca", "olmec" ], "frontLabel": "Term", "backLabel": "Meaning", "cards": [ [ "Mesoamerica", "Region of Mexico and Central America where several great civilizations arose" ], [ "Olmec", "Earliest known Mesoamerican civilization, about 1200-400 BCE, known for giant stone heads" ], [ "Colossal heads", "Huge carved stone heads made by the Olmec" ], [ "Mother culture", "Nickname for the Olmec, who influenced later peoples" ], [ "Maize (corn)", "The most important crop in Mesoamerica" ], [ "Maya", "Civilization of southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, with city-states and writing" ], [ "Classic Maya", "The peak of Maya civilization, about 250-900 CE" ], [ "Tikal", "Large Maya city in Guatemala with tall temple pyramids" ], [ "Chichen Itza", "Maya city in Yucatan with the pyramid El Castillo" ], [ "Palenque", "Maya city in southern Mexico known for its Temple of the Inscriptions" ], [ "Pakal the Great", "Long-ruling king of Palenque" ], [ "Maya glyphs", "Writing system combining pictures and sounds" ], [ "Maya calendar", "Used interlocking cycles including a 260-day count and a 365-day year" ], [ "Long Count", "Maya system for counting days from a starting date" ], [ "Maya zero", "Maya used a symbol for zero in their math" ], [ "Maya astronomy", "Observed Venus, the Sun and Moon carefully" ], [ "Popol Vuh", "K'iche' Maya sacred book with creation stories" ], [ "Cacao", "Maya and Aztec used cacao beans for chocolate drinks and as money" ], [ "Ball game", "Mesoamerican game with a rubber ball played in stone courts" ], [ "Maya collapse", "Many southern lowland cities were abandoned after about 800-900 CE" ], [ "Teotihuacan", "Huge city near Mexico City with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, flourished 100-550 CE" ], [ "Toltec", "Culture whose capital, Tula, flourished after Teotihuacan" ], [ "Aztec (Mexica)", "People who founded Tenochtitlan around 1325" ], [ "Tenochtitlan", "Aztec capital on an island in Lake Texcoco, now Mexico City" ], [ "Chinampas", "Floating garden plots the Aztec built in shallow lakes" ], [ "Causeway", "Raised road across water, used to reach Tenochtitlan" ], [ "Templo Mayor", "Great temple in the center of Tenochtitlan" ], [ "Moctezuma II", "Aztec ruler when the Spanish arrived in 1519" ], [ "Hernan Cortes", "Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Aztec Empire" ], [ "La Malinche", "Nahua woman who served as Cortes's interpreter" ], [ "Triple Alliance", "Aztec league of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan" ], [ "Tribute", "Goods demanded from conquered peoples" ], [ "Nahuatl", "Aztec language, still spoken by many today" ], [ "Tlaxcalans", "Neighbors of the Aztecs who allied with the Spanish" ], [ "Fall of Tenochtitlan (1521)", "Spanish and allies captured the city after a long siege and an outbreak of smallpox" ], [ "Quetzalcoatl", "Feathered serpent god" ], [ "Huitzilopochtli", "Aztec god of the sun and war" ], [ "Tlaloc", "Aztec god of rain" ], [ "Codex", "Folded book painted by Aztec or Maya scribes" ], [ "Inca Empire", "Largest empire in the Americas, in the Andes, peaked in the 1400s-1500s" ], [ "Cusco", "Inca capital in Peru" ], [ "Pachacuti", "Ruler who began the Inca's great expansion in the 1430s" ], [ "Sapa Inca", "Title of the Inca emperor" ], [ "Machu Picchu", "Inca mountain estate in Peru, built about 1450" ], [ "Quipu", "Inca record-keeping device of knotted strings" ], [ "Inca road system", "Thousands of miles of roads across the Andes" ], [ "Chasqui", "Inca relay runners who carried messages" ], [ "Mit'a", "Inca labor service owed to the state" ], [ "Terrace farming", "Stepped fields on mountainsides in the Andes" ], [ "Potato", "Crop first domesticated in the Andes" ], [ "Llama", "Pack animal of the Andes" ], [ "Alpaca", "Animal raised for soft wool in the Andes" ], [ "Quechua", "Language of the Inca, still spoken by millions" ], [ "Atahualpa", "Last independent Inca emperor, captured by Pizarro in 1532" ], [ "Francisco Pizarro", "Spanish conquistador who defeated the Inca" ], [ "Inca bridges", "Rope suspension bridges woven from grass" ], [ "Norte Chico (Caral)", "One of the oldest civilizations in the Americas, in coastal Peru, about 3000 BCE" ], [ "Chavin", "Early Andean culture known for temple center Chavin de Huantar" ], [ "Nazca", "Peruvian culture famous for giant desert line drawings" ], [ "Nazca Lines", "Huge figures of animals and shapes etched into the desert" ], [ "Moche", "Peruvian culture known for pottery and gold work" ], [ "Tiwanaku", "Andean city near Lake Titicaca" ], [ "Lake Titicaca", "High-elevation lake on the Peru-Bolivia border" ], [ "Mound Builders", "Ancient peoples in what is now the US who built earthen mounds" ], [ "Cahokia", "Largest city north of Mexico before 1492, near St. Louis" ], [ "Ancestral Puebloans", "Southwestern builders of cliff dwellings" ], [ "Tainos", "Indigenous people of the Caribbean who met Columbus" ], [ "Land bridge theory", "Idea that early people crossed from Asia to the Americas over Beringia" ], [ "Beringia", "Land that once connected Siberia and Alaska" ], [ "Clovis points", "Stone spear tips found at sites across North America" ], [ "Domestication", "Mesoamericans bred corn from a wild grass called teosinte" ], [ "Turquoise and jade", "Highly valued stones in Mesoamerica" ], [ "Obsidian", "Volcanic glass used for sharp tools" ], [ "Sacrifice", "Religious offerings, including human offerings, were part of Aztec and Maya ritual" ] ] }