The Americas to 1200: AP W 2.1

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture on 'The Americas to 1200', including early migrations, major civilizations like the Olmecs, Norte Chico, Chavin, Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, Moche, and Nazca.

First Americans

Migrated from Siberia to Alaska about 15,000 years ago via a land bridge during the last ice age, then spread across the Americas.

Central American Farming

Began around 3000 B.C.E., involving selective breeding of wild grass into corn, later cultivating beans, squash, potatoes, and peppers.

Olmecs

The earliest known Central American civilization, flourishing from 1200 to 400 B.C.E. in the river valleys along the east coast of Central Mexico.

San Lorenzo

A major Olmec city, carefully laid out on a north-south axis with central earthen mounds devoted to gods.

La Venta

Another major Olmec city, known for its careful north-south axis layout and central earthen mounds.

Olmec Religion

Polytheistic, emphasizing the heavens, earth, underworld, powerful animals like eagles and jaguars, and a feathered serpent deity.

Feathered Serpent Deity

An Olmec god, potentially a human-animal mix, whose worship was passed on to the later Maya and Aztecs.

Olmec Ball Game

The earliest known ball game played in special courts in the Americas, possibly having religious significance.

Glyphic Writing

The earliest writing discovered in the Americas, developed by the Olmecs, using pictures to represent ideas, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Olmec Mathematics

Developed a system that included the concept of zero, possibly its first human use, crucial for calculations and calendars.

Olmec Colossal Stone Heads

Massive basalt sculptures, up to ten feet tall and weighing over eight tons, likely representing earlier Olmec kings.

Norte Chico Civilization

An ancient civilization along the coast of modern Peru, building settlements based on irrigation from 3500 B.C.E. to about 1800 B.C.E.

Quipu

A system of knotted ropes used by the Norte Chico civilization to record numbers and possibly other information.

Chavin Culture

A religious and cultural movement that spread from the ceremonial city of Chavin de Huántar in the Andes from 1000 to 200 B.C.E.

Chavin de Huántar

A ceremonial city high in the Andes, serving as the origin and heart of the Chavin culture and its religious practices.

Llamas

Animals important in the Chavin culture for providing meat, wool, and transportation for trade caravans.

Teotihuacan

The largest city in the Americas to its point, founded about 150 B.C.E. near modern Mexico City, known for its enormous pyramids and gridded streets.

Pyramids of the Sun and Moon

Enormous monuments in Teotihuacan, central to the city's architecture and likely its religious practices.

Maya Civilization

A civilization in Central America known for intense agricultural efforts, complex calendars, glyphic writing, and vibrant arts, with cities declining after 900 C.E.

Three Sisters

The chief crops of the Maya: corn, beans, and squash, forming the foundation of their agricultural practices.

Maya Calendars

Priests developed three complex calendars: an annual solar year, a shorter one for religious ceremonies, and a 'long count' for tracking vast cycles of time.

Toltec Civilization

A central Mexican civilization rising in the 10th century, known for continuing Mesoamerican traditions, skilled craftsmanship, and fierce warriors.

Moche Civilization

Carried on the Chavin culture from about 200 B.C.E. to 700 C.E. in northern Peru, known for irrigated fields, ceremonial platforms, and lively arts.

Nazca Lines

Large shapes and animal figures outlined on the desert floor by the Nazca people in southern Peru, created by moving rocks to expose lighter soil, visible only from the sky.