Unit 7 - Mesoamerica Vocabulary

Unit 7 - Mesoamerica Vocabulary Term: Definition/Description: Picture: Use it in a sentence: Olmec of or designating a Mesoamerican civilization, c1000–400 b.c., along the southern Gulf coast of Mexico, characterized by extensive agriculture, a dating system, long-distance trade networks, pyramid sand ceremonial centers, and very fine jade work. Olmecs are a member of the ancient people who belonged to the Olmec civilization. Zapotec a member of an American Indian people living in and around Oaxaca in southern Mexico. The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Chavin An early pre-Incan civilization that flourished in northern and central Peru from about 900 to 200 bc, known for its carved stone sculptures and boldly designed ceramics. The Chavín culture is an extinct, prehistoric civilization, named for Chavín de Huantar, the principal archaeological site at which its artifacts have been found. Quipu an ancient Inca device for recording information, consisting of variously colored threads knotted in different ways. A quipu, or knot-record (also called khipu), was a method used by the Incas and other ancient Andean cultures to keep records and communicate information. Tribute A payment or to show respect to someone or thing. They gave the knight gold to tribute to his serve in the war. Maize Became the staple food of the Mesoamerica region. Still eaten today and is yellow. The main food in mesoamerica was maize. Human sacrifice Chinampas is the act of killing one or more human beings, usually as an offering to a deity, as part of a ritual. 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. Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history. For the next 200 years, they built an ever-expanding island paradise by draining marshes, designing canals, and building artificial islands called chinampas. the site of an ancient Incan and Machu Picchu pre-Incan city, about 7000 feet (2130 meters) above sea level in the Andes, in S central Peru. Machu Picchu is an ancient Inca fortress city in the Andes northwest of Cuzco, Peru. Tenochtitlan Glyphs was the capital city of the Aztec Empire from the middle of the 1300s to the early 1500s. Mexico City was built upon some of the ruins of Tenochtitlan. a hieroglyphic character or symbol; a pictograph. Flanges painted with esoteric glyphs.