Archaeology and Humanity’s Story:

A Brief Introduction to World Prehistory

Chapter 13 Test Bank— Mesoamerica, the Classic Maya, and the Aztec Empire

Multiple-Choice Questions (30)

1. Developments in the ____________________ were not discussed as part of Mesoamerica in this chapter.

A) Andean highlands

B) Basin of Mexico

C) Gulf Coast

D) Valley of Oaxaca

2. __________________ were staples of the Mesoamerican diet.

A) Beans

B) Maize

C) Squash

D) All of the above

3. During the Classic Maya period, Tikal and __________________ engaged in a lengthy rivalry.

A) Copan

B) Palenque

C) La Venta

D) Calakmul

4. Which of these is not the nickname of a Maya ruler?

A) Hammerhead

B) Curl Snout

C) Fire Born

D) Great Misty Claw

5. Sixteen small jade, serpentine, and sandstone figurines and celts were found at __________.

A) Pueblo Alto

B) Banpo

C) La Venta

D) Snaketown

6. ________________ was the main center in the Valley of Oaxaca after 500 cal BC.

A) Kaminaljuyú

B) Monte Albán

C) Khan

D) Mayapan

7. The basis of power in the Aztec empire was the___________________.

A) Emperor’s standing army

B) Triple Alliance

C) Mayan calendar

D) Maize doll industry

8. During the Aztec empire, the most important Aztlan group was the ______________.

A) Mexica

B) Texico

C) Olmec

D) Quetzal

9. The central figures of the Maya creation myth are _______________.

A) the Cosmic Eggs

B) the Star Lords

C) the Hero Twins

D) Fire Born and Sky Witness

10. At their peak of political complexity, the Aztecs are referred to as the Aztec ____________.

A) Empire

B) Republic

C) Tribe

D) Union

11. Archaeologists place the end of the Maya Classic period at about AD _________.

A) 250

B) 550

C) 900

D) 1524

12. In Mesoamerican archaeology, a standing carved stone is called ___________________.

A) an obelisk

B) a stela

C) a codex

D) a cenote

13. _______________ was destroyed by a volcanic eruption around AD 400.

A) Teotihuacán

B) Cuicuilco

C) Tikal

D) Cahokia

14. The lowland Maya site El Mirador featured a pyramid named ________________.

A) El Cochino

B) La Serpiente

C) El Cocodrilo

D) El Tigre

15. Which of these was the largest unit of time in the Maya calendar?

A) K’in

B) Ch’am

C) Bak’tun

D) Tun

16. ______________ was a Maya lowlands center during the Middle Preclassic.

A) Nubia

B) Nakbe

C) Narmer

D) Nabta Playa

17. Maya glyphs were based on _____________________.

A) Sumerian cuneiform

B) Egyptian hieroglyphs

C) Chinese ideograms

D) None of the above

18. Maya glyphs that represent words are ______________ and those that represent sounds are _____________.

A) phonetic; ideographic

B) syllabic; logographic

C) ideographic; syntactic

D) logographic; phonetic

19. 2000 cal BC marks the beginning of the _______________ period in Mesoamerica.

A) Formative

B) Predynastic

C) Terminal Classic

D) Basketmaker

20. Somewhat intuitively, the Maya glyph for one day (k’in) resembles a ________________.

A) hand

B) snake

C) sun

D) skull

21. _____________________ was a major center of the Olmec people.

A) Machu Picchu

B) Chetro Ketl

C) Hun Hunapu

D) San Lorenzo

22. San José Mogote was a political center in the _____________ Valley

A) Indus

B) Silicon

C) Oaxaca

D) Cuzco

23. Which of these animals was a significant element of Mesoamerican artistic motifs?

A) Hippopotamus

B) Barracuda

C) Jaguar

D) Porpoise

24. The Late Preclassic period center Kaminaljuyú controlled sources of ___________________.

A) silver and gold

B) cacao and macaw feathers

C) jade and obsidian

D) bronze and jade

25. Which of these was a prized Mesoamerican marine shell?

A) Sahelanthropus

B) Microtus

C) Equus

D) Spondylus

26. Maya dynastic rulers claimed the title of ______________.

A) Lord

B) Emperor

C) Master

D) Supreme Leader

27. According to the Maya long-count calendar, the 12th bak’tun ended in _______________.

A) 1521

B) 1955

C) 2012

D) 2001

28. Which of these periods occurs earliest in the Maya region?

A) Early Preclassic

B) Late Classic

C) Postclassic

D) Late Archaic

29. The Maya long-count calendar begins in the year _________________.

A) 3114 BC

B) 200 BC

C) AD 11

D) AD 400

30. Chichén Itzá was a Terminal Classic period city in _____________________.

A) the Basin of Mexico

B) the Yucatan Peninsula

C) the Valley of Oaxaca

D) the Giza Plateau

/Questions (10)

1. The Olmecs are famous for giant stone llama monuments. (

2. Zapotec was a state-level politically complex society that emerged in the Valley of Oaxaca about 20 cal BC. (

3. In Mesoamerican archaeology, a tree bark record of Maya glyphs is called a dendroglyph. (

4. The Maya were the first group to develop a unique symbol for the number zero. (

5. In a Maya burial, elites sometimes had flattened skulls from cradle boarding in infancy. (

6. To see Maya ruins, go to modern-day Guatemala. (

7. A key part of the Classic Maya agricultural base was millet. (

8. The Spanish defeated the Aztecs in AD 1787. (

9. Tlatilco was a site in the Basin of Mexico. (

10. The burial masks of Maya kings were customarily made from jade. (

1. What were the three most significant crops of Mesoamerican subsistence systems?

2. What evidence suggests a shift from communal to private ownership of food resources in the Formative period?

3. Why did people abandon Cuicuilco, many of them likely moving to Teotihuacán?

4. Farmers in the Preclassic Maya lowlands developed canals, but for an atypical purpose. What was this purpose?

5. What kinds of materials and objects are Maya glyphs preserved on?

6. What were some of the symbolic aspects of Teotihuacán’s layout?

7. What significant mathematical concept, independently discovered three times in human history, was first discovered by the Maya?

8. What were two uses of the cacao bean in ancient Mesoamerica?

9. How did Maya royals legitimize their rule?

10. How was a relatively small group of Spanish conquistadors able to subjugate the people of the Maya region?

1. What types of archaeological evidence demonstrate social stratification in the Classic Maya period?

2. What do you see as the ritual significance of “erasing history”? Describe two examples of this occurrence, past or present.

3. Many early politically complex societies were based on river systems. In contrast, Mesoamerica did not have a defining river. What rivers were critical to Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Harappa? How were Mesoamerican civilizations so successful, despite this difference from other world centers?

4. From the Maya perspective, what was the role of bloodletting and human sacrifice in their culture and social system?

5. Why did the Classic Maya period come to an end? What are the most commonly proposed explanations?