Deck 12: Lowland Mesoamerica

Question 1

Ancestral Mesoamerican chiefs and nobles (i.e., elites) controlled human and natural resources by their possession of objects imbued with ideological associations of …

A) capability.
B) courage.
C) motivation.
D) authority.

Answer 1

authority.

Question 2

What is the "Mother civilization" of ancestral Mesoamericans?

A) Copán.
B) Olmec.
C) Maya.
D) San Lorenzo.

Answer 2

Olmec.

Question 3

At San Lorenzo, kin communally produced exceptional crop yields by farming dry gardens and fields on …

A) outlying plots of land.
B) lots adjacent to their homes.
C) river levees.
D) drained salt marshes.

Answer 3

river levees.

Question 4

Which animals were believed to symbolize the mythic origins of ancestral Mesoamerican rulers?

A) Bears.
B) Serpents.
C) Crocodiles.
D) Jaguars.

Question 5

What archaeological site from about 1000 BC has the earliest evidence of Maya civilization?

A) Cuello, Belize.
B) La Venta, Mexico.
C) San Bartolo, Guatemala.
D) San Lorenzo, Mexico.

Question 6

The Mayan calendar was composed of how many interlocking cycles?

A) One.
B) Two.
C) Three.
D) Five.

Question 7

The elaborate hieroglyphic script of the Maya was developed to record their …

A) commercial transactions.
B) passage of sacred time.
C) mythical origins.
D) rulers' genealogies.

Question 8

The first stages in the Marcus model of evolution among Mesoamerican states includes …

A) rapid territorial expansion through political marriages, diplomacy, and conquest.
B) slow territorial expansion through diplomacy and conquest.
C) maximum territorial limits before a state's decline.
D) initial fissioning.

Question 9

The core state in Mayan society survived the fissioning process by reinvesting its energy and resources in …

A) new territorial expansion.
B) obtaining new resources.
C) more diversified trade routes.
D) its home base.

Question 10

The Maya developed what one archaeologist calls "microwatersheds," elaborate water management systems that …

A) made up for deficiencies in rainfall.
B) gave it a flexibility and resilience to short-term climatic events.
C) included gravity canals that released water from the elevated reservoirs.
D) All of these.

Question 11

Tikal's military growth and expansion took place with assistance from its trading partner, Teotihuacan, in …

A) the Yucatan peninsula.
B) Honduras.
C) the Mexican highlands.
D) Guatemala.

Question 12

Indications of Teotihuacan's growing influence throughout Mesoamerica are archaeological artifacts made from …

A) black obsidian.
B) green obsidian.
C) malachite.
D) All of these.

Question 13

Archaeologists assume that when they see artifacts from a single source spread across a region, there is accompanying …

A) exchanges of social and religious beliefs.
B) lattice motif exchange.
C) military conquest.
D) political unification.

Question 14

At the height of Maya civilization in AD 800, how many Maya lived in the lowlands?

A) 500000
B) 1 to 2 million
C) 4 to 5 million
D) 8 to 10 million

Question 15

Perhaps as a way for Maya rulers to gain political support in times of trouble, what new political pattern that began to appear in Copán during the late Classic era?

A) Major edifice construction was accelerated.
B) A wave of more permanent military alliances were formed.
C) The religious elite were given more authority.
D) Carved inscriptions began to appear in the houses of local nobles.

Question 16

To understand the architectural sequence and the ritual and political motivation for building Copán's hieroglyphic stairway, archaeologists worked closely with …

A) architects.
B) engineers.
C) epigraphers.
D) All of these.

Question 17

Paleoethnobotanical findings from Ceren indicated that household members cultivated a nearby garden where they grew …

A) tobacco and maize.
B) medicinal herbs and maize.
C) beans and squash.
D) corn and peppers.

Question 18

The central institution of Maya civilization was …

A) nobility.
B) kingship.
C) religious beliefs.
D) None of these.

Question 19

The fundamental cause of the Maya collapse was …

A) an earthquake in central Mexico.
B) the arrival of Spanish conquistadors.
C) four major droughts.
D) None of these.

Question 20

During the Postclassic period of Maya civilization, an important northern center was …

A) Chichén Itzá.
B) Tamrindo.
C) Copán.
D) Aguateca.

Question 21

Describe how Olmec beliefs about kingship, religion, and architecture developed or changed during the Mayan civilization.

Question 22

Mayan civilizations were characterized by systems of inequality, long distance trade networks, and conspicuous consumption. How did this affect the common man? How do these elements appear in the archaeological record?

Question 23

Discuss some of the features that distinguish each of the three periods of Maya civilization.

Question 24

Explain what the design of Maya temples, such as Smoke Shell's Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copán, reveal about the ruler who commissioned it and the society in which it was built.

Question 25

Discuss some of the elements that archaeologists feel may have contributed to the collapse of Mayan civilization.