Vocab
This agricultural method involves clearing land by cutting down and burning trees.
What is slash-and-burn agriculture?
This civilization is known for carving massive stone heads like the one pictured.
Who are the Olmec?
The Maya lived in what are now parts of these five countries.
What are Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and El Salvador?
The Agricultural Revolution in Mesoamerica was the cause; this was a major effect.
What is the ability for people to settle permanently in villages?
The Maya used these buildings to study the sun, moon, and planets.
What are observatories?
The Olmec people lived in this region of Mesoamerica.
What is the lowlands of south-central Mexico?
This is the name of the largest Maya city, located in present-day Guatemala.
What is Tikal?
The invention of a complex calendar system was a cause; this was an effect for the Maya.
What is the ability to track time for religious rituals and farming?
This system of writing uses a picture or symbol to represent a word or idea.
What is hieroglyphic writing?
This civilization is considered the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica because its beliefs and practices influenced later civilizations.
Who are the Olmec?
Besides astronomy, this area of study allowed the Maya to create complex calendars.
What is mathematics?
This was a major cause for the downfall of many great Maya cities.
What is warfare and drought?
While the Maya's system of writing used hieroglyphs, this is the name of the sacred paper or bark books they assembled from tree bark.
What are codices?
The Olmec people were the first major civilization in Mesoamerica and established a pattern of social structures and farming. This happened around this year.
What is 1200 BCE?
This third social class in Maya society included skilled craft workers, soldiers, and scribes.
What is the middle class?
This term refers to the region in Mesoamerica where the Olmec and Maya lived.
What is the Yucatán Peninsula?
This term refers to the three main social groups in Maya society: nobles, the middle class, and commoners.
What is a complex society?
The names of the two major Olmec cities are La Venta and this other one.
What is San Lorenzo?
Located in the Petén Basin rainforest, this is the name of the sacred place where the famous temple is located.
What is Tikal?
This civilization believed that their priests and kings could communicate with the gods through religious rituals and human sacrifice.
Who were the Maya?