Name:________________________
Date:_____________
Core:______________
Page 17
Location and Land
The Maya, Inca, and Aztecs built great civilizations in Mexico and in Central and
South America between 1,800 and 500 years ago. The first of these was the Maya
civilization.
Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the
Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D.
900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples
and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.
Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have
revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples,
pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a
great many pottery fragments.
The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building
and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded
valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.
Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the
Valley of Cuzco in the Andes
Mountains of central Peru around
the year 1200. Between 1440 and
1500, they expanded their empire
until it extended nearly 2,500 miles
from north to south and included
as many as 16 million people. The
lands they occupied included
mountains, coastal desert, and
low-lying jungle.
The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed
laws to create official customs and an official
language and calendar. The Inca engineered
14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and
bridges, and built the great fortress of
Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly
advanced terracing and irrigation methods to
allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.
Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the
Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in
the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a
mild climate that was good for agriculture. The
surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter
tropical climate and an abundance of natural
resources.
Around 1325, the Aztecs
settled on an island in
Lake Texcoco, where they
built their capital and
called themselves the
ka) and became
largest city, Tenochtitlán. They
Mexica (pronounced me-sheeaccomplished corn farmers,
warriors, and temple builders.
The
ceramic shown here is one of a
pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation
of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard
at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The
aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to
conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched
over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.
Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information
The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D.
900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and
mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two
calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of
sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya
to record numbers into the millions.
The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s,
is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in
Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to
Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the
Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like
the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day
agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on
glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few
remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions
of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.
At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed
Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South
America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws,
developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the
sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a
writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords
called quipus.
Credits: Aztec Calendar Stone © Kimball Morrison/South American Pictures;
Machu Picchu © Tony Morrison/South American Pictures; eagle warrior. Museo
del Templo Mayor, Mexico City/ Photo © John Bigelow Taylor /Art Resource, New
York; Codex Madrid Fragment of the Codex of Madrid. Mayan manuscript. Museo
de America, Madrid, Spain. Photo © Scala/Art Resource, New York.
You probably already know something about the great civilizations of Latin
America. This quiz is an opportunity to check your knowledge before you start
your explorations of the Maya, the Aztecs, and the Inca. After answering all of the
questions, click "Check Your Answers."
1. Where was the Aztec civilization located?
northern Argentina
central Mexico
western Chile
the southwestern United States
2. What peninsula did the Maya culture occupy?
Baja California
Kola
Iberian
Yucatan
3. What mountain range was part of the Incan Empire?
the Sierra Madres
the Rockies
the Andes
the Himalayas
4. What was one accomplishment the Aztec, Maya, and Inca had in common?
a writing system
the use of wheeled vehicles
agriculture techniques
road-building
5. When did the Maya build their great cities?
1200–900 B.C.
250–900 A.D.
250 B.C–250 A.D.
1200–1500 A.D.
6. What type of astronomical calendar did the Maya use?
a solar calendar
A religious calendar based on
their legends
a 365-day calendar determined
by a central government
a lunar calendar
7. During what period did the Aztec empire flourish?
1500–1200 B.C.
500–1800 A.D.
200 B.C.–1000 A.D.
1200–1500 A.D.
8. What are glyphs?
written symbols that stand for a
sound or a word
large, erect stones used in
sundials
breads made from ground corn
meal
pyramids
9. What was the purpose of the Inca quipus?
to observe the stars
to record inventories
to move large blocks of stone
to carve terraces on steep
mountainsides
10. What country took control of the lands of the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca?
England
Portugal
France
Spain