Mesoamerican Cultures

Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in North and Central America. It extends from approximately _________ through Belize, _____________, El Salvador, _________, Nicaragua, and northern __________.

• Oaxaca/Yucatan/Guatemala/Costa Rica

• Mexico/Guatemala/Honduras/Costa Rica

• Michoacán/Veracruz/Yucatan/Guatemala

In the 16th century, Eurasian diseases such as _______ and _______ caused the death of more than 90% of indigenous peoples, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures.

• smallpox/measles

• Spanish flu/influenza

• Ebola/bubonic plague

From the year 7000 a. C., the cultivation of cacao, corn, beans, tomato, avocado, vanilla, pumpkin and chili, represented a transition from the tribal groupings of hunter-gatherers towards an organization of ___________ peoples.

• seated religious

• inactive warriors

• sedentary agricultural

Mesoamerican civilizations are credited with many inventions: building pyramid-temples, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, writing, ________________, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator, and _______________.

• black powder/the wheel

• philosophy/astrology

• accurate calendars/complex theology

Mesoamerica is one of only three regions in the world where writing is known to have developed independently, the other two regions being ancient ______ and _________.

• Sumerian/China

• Persia/Mesopotamia

• Greece/Roman

In the center of Mexico, the city of Tenochtitlan, inhabited by the _______; It flourished with the heyday of the Classic period where it formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence spread southwards, influencing the _______ culture.

• Toltecs/Inca

• Aztecs/Mayan

• Purepecha/Olmec

During the early post-Classic period, Central Mexico was dominated by the _____ culture, and Oaxaca by the _____.

• Maya/Inca

• Toltec/Mixtec

• Huichol/Tarascan

The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the _________________________________ in the 16th century.

• Spanish conquest

• diseases brought from Europe

• the evangelization of the indigenous

• All of the above

The biggest Mesoamerican cities, such as __________, Tenochtitlan, Chichen-Itza and Tikal, were among the largest ceremonial centers in the world.

• Teotihuacan

• Machu Picchu

• Nazca

_____is the ruin of an ancient city belonging to the Mayan culture, which was probably called Yax Mutal, and which is located in a tropical jungle in __________.

• Mitla/Oaxaca

• Tzintzuntzan/Michoacan

• Tikal /Guatemala