Discovering America (Vocabulary)

moving about from place to place without settling down.

• nomadic

• Arawak

• domesticate

• the New World

a member of an advanced Mesoamerican civilization, known for its hieroglyph writing system and indigenous to present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.

• Arawak

• Mayan

• Aztec

• maize

a long period of low temperatures on Earth, causing the expansion of ice caps and glaciers.

• maize

• Arawak

• Ice Age

• Aztec

the waterway that separates Alaska and Russia. Thousands of years ago, the continents of Russia and Asia were connected at this point by a land bridge.

• the New World

• Aztec

• Bering Strait

• Mayan

a grain that grows on the ears of a tall plant; an early ancestor of modern corn.

• Aztec

• Arawak

• Mayan

• maize

to breed or train; to tame a wild animal to live with humans.

• Bering Strait

• nomadic

• the New World

• domesticate

indigenous people of South American and the Caribbean

• Aztec

• Mayan

• maize

• Arawak

an Italian explorer who led several transatlantic voyages for Spain. He landed in the New World in 1492.

• Bering Strait

• maize

• Christopher Columbus

• the New World

the Western Hemisphere, made up of North and South America.

• the New World

• Arawak

• maize

• Bering Strait

a member of an advanced Mesoamerican civilization, indigenous to present-day central Mexico who were conquered by Spain in 1519.

• Mayan

• Arawak

• Aztec

• maize