Mesoamerica
Mexico and Central America
Olmec
The first Mesoamerican civilization. Between ca. 1200 and 400 B.C.E., the Olmec people of central Mexico created a vibrant civilization that included intensive agriculture, wide-ranging trade, ceremonial centers, and monumental construction.
Mayan Math
Contributed to mathematics by inventing the number zero, and used a symbol to represent zero mathematically, which allowed for manipulation of large numbers.
Mayan Calendar
Reflected a powerful urge to identify meaningful cycles of time and to understand human events in the context of those cycles. It consisted of two kinds of years, a solar year that consisted of 365 days for agriculture, and a ritual year for daily affairs
Chavin Cult
A new religion that appeared in the Andes mountains after 1000 BCE; enjoyed enormous popularity during the 900 to 800 BCE; spread in the area of modern Peru; vanished about 300 BCE; no information survives on the significance of the cults
Aboriginal
Being or composed of people inhabiting a region from the beginning
Pyramid of The Sun
Pyramid found in ancient Teotihuacan, it was 200-feet tall and had a base larger than that of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
Temple of the Giant Jaguar
A stepped pyramid that was 47 meters high (154 feet) and was located in Tikal
Lapita
Society from New Guinea to Tonga (1500-500 B.C.E.) with agricultural villages, networks of trade and communication, and hierarchical chiefdoms.
Olmecs
(1400 B.C.E. to 500 B.C.E.) Earliest known Mexican civilization, lived in rainforests along the Gulf of Mexico, developed calendar and constructed public buildings and temples, carried on trade with other groups.
Maya
Mesoamerican civilization concentrated in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala and Honduras but never unified into a single empire. Major contributions were in mathematics, astronomy, and development of the calendar.
Austronesian
People who as early 2000 B.C.E. began to explore and settle islands of pacific ocean basin
Mochica
Mochica was a society in the Andean valleys, near the Moche River, that left behind a remarkable artistic legacy. They made ceramics that represented gods and everyday life.
Tikal
The most important Maya political center between the 4th-9th centuries. It was a city that had temples, pyramids, palaces, and public buildings.
Chichen Itza
An ancient Mayan city located on the Yucatan Peninsula
Teotihuacan
A powerful city-state in central Mexico (100-75 C.E.). Its population was about 150,000 at its peak in 600.
Popol Vuh
A book containing a version of the Mayan story of creation.