Agricultural Adaptations & Food Systems
What farming method did the early Olmec and Maya use to clear dense rainforest land for planting crops?
Slash-and-burn agriculture.
What major geographical change did the Zapotec make to construct their city center of Monte Albán around 500 BCE?
They flattened a mountaintop in the Oaxaca Valley to build a central stone plaza.
What system of knotted colored strings did Inca accountants use to track census data and crop supplies?
Quipus
Which ancient South American civilization adapted to the hyper-arid coastal desert of Peru by farming narrow river valleys and relying on a rich seafood diet?
The Nazca culture.
Why is the Olmec civilization known as the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica?
Their cultural, artistic, and intellectual achievements set the foundational blueprint for later societies.
What were the artificial floating garden islands built by the Aztecs in Lake Texcoco called, and how were they anchored?
They were called chinampas, and they were anchored to the lakebed by willow trees.
How did Olmec sculptors transport 20-ton basalt stone heads 60 miles without wheels or pack animals?
They used wooden log rollers across land and floated them along rivers on rafts.
What two surfaces did the Maya use to record historical records, hieroglyphs, and astronomical dates?
Folding bark-paper books (codices) and tall stone pillars (stelae).
What were the subterranean stone aqueducts engineered by the Nazca to capture underground mountain water called?
Cantayo Aqueducts
How did the political structure of the Classic Maya differ from the centralized Aztec and Inca Empires?
The Maya were divided into independent city-states ruled by separate divine kings rather than one unified empire.
What stepped stone fields did Andean farmers build into steep mountainsides to create flat planting space and prevent soil erosion?
Terraces (or andenes).
What urban planning feature of Teotihuacán proves its government held strict central control over 200,000 residents?
The city was built on an exact 8-square-mile grid with 2,000 uniform apartment compounds.
What symbol did the Maya use in their base-20 math system to represent the concept of zero?
A shell symbol.
What was the purpose of the open, spiral stone wells (ojos) built along Nazca underground channels?
They allowed wind into the channels to keep water flowing and let farmers walk down to collect fresh water.
How did the Aztec Triple Alliance control conquered neighboring tribes?
They forced conquered tribes to pay heavy tribute taxes in goods, supplies, and sacrifice victims.
How did Inca families create freeze-dried potatoes called chuño for long-term food storage?
They left potatoes out during freezing mountain nights and stomped out all remaining moisture.
Why did the Aztec emperor Moctezuma I engineer a 9-mile dike across Lake Texcoco?
To block salty lake water from ruining fresh water supplies and prevent flooding in Tenochtitlán.
How did Nazca artisans create their giant desert floor drawings (geoglyphs) across the desert floor?
They scraped away dark surface pebbles to expose the lighter yellow clay subsoil underneath.
How did Chavín priests manipulate built-in stone channels inside their U-shaped temples to awe visiting pilgrims?
They routed running water through the stone channels to produce a loud roaring sound that mimicked jaguar spirits.
What was the Inca mita system, and how did common citizens fulfill it?
It was a mandatory labor tax where citizens worked on public construction projects like roads, bridges, and fortresses.
What human activity—used to produce lime plaster for building massive stone temples—ruined rainforest topsoil and triggered severe droughts around 900 CE?
Deforestation (cutting down massive amounts of trees).
Why were Inca stone buildings like Machu Picchu able to survive frequent Andean earthquakes without collapsing?
Mortarless granite blocks were cut so precisely that they shifted with earthquake waves and settled back into place.
How was information sent across the Inca Empire's 2,500-mile Royal Road network?
Fast runner relays called chaskis ran in shifts carrying verbal messages and quipus up to 150 miles per day.
Besides tracking astronomical planting cycles, how did the Nazca Lines function in relation to desert water?
Artisans used grid math and geometry to map out underground water sources beneath the desert floor.
Why did neighboring native tribes form an alliance with Hernán Cortés and the Spanish in 1521?
They deeply hated paying heavy tribute taxes and supplying human sacrifice victims to the Aztecs.