Mesoamerica Vocab

A highly traded sharp, glasslike volcanic rock used for spearheads and sacrifices.

• Jade

• Silver

• Obsidian

• Flint

A royal retreat for the Inca rulers built on sacred mountain peaks in the Andes

• Mexico City

• Machu Pichu

• Texcoco

• Lima

Spanish soldiers, such as Hernan Cortez who conquered the Aztecs, and Francisco Pizarro who conquered the Inca

• Conquistadors

• Warfighters

• Thieves

• Spanish Soldiers

Official members of Inca society who learned long poems about Inca legends and history, so they could pass them down orally to the next generation.

• Scribes

• Montezuma

• Pacal

• Memorizers

Ancient Mayan writing system, in which logograms or small pictures represent words.

• Latin

• Hieroglyphics

• English

• Spanish

Buildings to study astronomy or the movement of the stars.

• Observatories

• Laboratories

• Chinampas

• Papal Vul

A region that includes the southern part of Mexico and Northern Central America.

• Apache Lowlands

• Argentine Coast

• Mesoamerica

• Caribean Islands

Raised roads across water or wet ground

• Codex

• Causeways

• Highways

• Paths

Raised gardens, created in the swampy conditions of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan

• Chinampas

• Quechua

• Causeways

• Maize

Stonework cut so precisely by Inca workers that they didn’t have to use cement to hold them together

• Obsidian

• Maize

• Masonary

• Carpentry