The end of Classic Maya Copn is marked by:
A. the burning of the ruler’s palace
B. an unfinished altar, dated to ad 822
C. demographic decline
D. All of the above.
MATCHING 1
1) Mokaya culture
2) Olmec culture
3) Capacha culture
4) El Opeo culture
5) Teopantecuanitln
A. Gulf Lowlands
B. Southern West Mexico
C. Guerrero
D. Chiapas-Guatemala Coast
E. Northern West Mexico
The Late Classic site of Cacaxtla in western Puebla is well known for:
A. its spectacular murals, which resemble the art of the Maya
B. competing with Teotihuacan over the trade of obsidian
C. selling “cacaxtli” (backpacks) to the merchant class
D. being very well preserved after the eruption of the volcano Popocatpetl
Adaptations in the Yucatn Peninsula from ad 800 to 1000 included:
A. an emphasis on divine kingship
B. religious practices that centered around the god of war
C. integration via sacbeob
D. the banning of marine trade routes
The artistic traditions of the Middle Formative:
A. are significant because they are the very first artistic traditions found in
Mesoamerica
B. were expressed in both portable and non-portable art forms
C. occurred only in the Mexican states of Guerrero and Tabasco
D. are not well known in the archaeological record
The early rulers at Teotihuacan:
A. lived in apartment compounds along with other city residents
B. set up residence on top of the Pyramid of the Sun
C. may have had their palace in the northern part of the city
D. built their palaces in the foothills of Cerro Gordo
In ad 300, the population of Teotihuacan was:
A. 40,000
B. as much as 100,000
C. 250,000
D. 500,000
A comparison of the construction costs for Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun and
Palenque’s Temple of Inscriptions reveals that:
A. in both cases, assistance from other polities would have been necessary to complete
the monuments
B. the Pyramid of the Sun required far greater resources than the Temple of Inscriptions
C. Palenque’s monument was costlier than Teotihuacan’s pyramid
D. despite the size difference between the two pyramids, each required similar amounts
of labor
The peak in construction of monumental shaft tombs in West Mexico:
A. coincides with the region’s highest population levels
B. is simultaneous with the peak in development of monumental circles and ball courts
C. correlates with very low population levels in the region
D. occurred during the Terminal Formative
During the Early Classic, the great city of Teotihuacan:
A. interfered in the politics of the Maya Lowlands
B. wiped out all Maya centers and established its own rulers
C. was defeated by Maya armies
D. took over the entire Maya lowlands and forged an empire
The earliest-known ceramics from Middle America (Intermediate Area) came from
_____, while Mesoamerica’s earliest-known ceramics are found at_____.
A. Monagrillo / Puerto Marques
B. Puerto Hormigo / Puerto Marques
C. Monagrillo / Puerto Hormigo
D. Puerto Marques / Monagrillo
_______ defended the humanity of Native Americans before the Council of the Indies
in 1551.
A. King Charles V
B. Bartolom de las Casas
C. Cuauhtmoc
D. A Franciscan priest
On the face of things, the “management style” of the Aztec tlatoani could be classified
as:
A. collaborative
B. bottom-up
C. top-down
D. totalitarian
Mesoamerica’s northern frontier provided Mesoamerica with:
A. semi-precious greenstone
B. limestone
C. pottery
D. mirrors
Following its decline at the beginning of the Terminal Formative, Kaminaljuy was
revitalized after interaction with:
A. Monte Albn
B. Teotihuacan
C. Chalchuapa
D. Tikal
The Early Formative era:
A. is when the first ball court was built
B. dates from 1200 to 900/800 bc
C. is when evidence for state-level societies first appears
D. spans a few centuries from ad 600 to 800
The great Tikal earthwork:
A. completely surrounds the site
B. forms a protective enclosure containing the whole of Tikal’s settlement
C. is over 100 miles long
D. may have had several functions
The only complete Aztec tecpan to have been excavated in the Basin of Mexico is that
at the farming village of Cihuatecpan because:
A. other tecpan were destroyed or built over by later inhabitants
B. no other tecpan was constructed in the area
C. residents still occupy the other tecpan
D. other tecpan are too large to be fully excavated
The Guil Naquitz Cave in Oaxaca, Mexico:
A. is the site of the earliest Mesoamerican Paleoindians
B. was primarily occupied between 8000 and 6500 bc
C. provides a portrait of an early Archaic farming village
D. contains evidence for early irrigation works
MATCHING 1
1) Northern Arid Zone
2) Northwest Frontier
3) West Mexico
4) Michoacn and the Bajo
5) Guerrero
6) Central Highlands
7) Gulf Lowlands
8) Southern Highlands
A. Rugged terrain surrounding Balsas depression
B. Mobile hunter-foragers
C. Central Mexican symbiotic region
D. Shaft tombs
E. Pacific coast lowlands and mountains
F. Tarascan homeland
G. Early hearths of domestication
H. Tuxtla Mountains and tropical lowlands
The largest ancient ball court in the Americas is found at:
A. Chichn Itz
B. Pueblo Viejo
C. Tenochtitlan
D. Copn
Aztec feasting was a cultural event:
A. enjoyed by people of all statuses
B. reserved for nobles who could afford it
C. that happened nearly every day of the ritual calendar
D. intentionally hidden from the Spaniards
A key feature of Mixtec society in the Early Postclassic period was its:
A. rigid social stratification
B. exogamous classes with regard to marriage
C. rulers, who frequently mixed with the commoners
D. egalitarian attitude to the distribution of resources
The Maya are thought to have originated from the Chiapas interior, in Mexico, and the
Guatemalan highlands. This hypothesis is based on:
A. styles of pottery
B. the great diversity of Mayan languages
C. the early temples built in these regions
D. types of jade artifacts
The use of the term “preceramic” is important to understand in the cultural evolution of
Mesoamerica because it:
A. connotes a sedentary lifestyle
B. generally symbolizes a mobile lifestyle
C. is not always possible to recover remains of ceramics
D. is unique to Mesoamerica
Mirrors in ancient Mesoamerica were:
A. used as modern people use them today for providing an image of themselves
B. found inside residences in areas where the bathrooms were located
C. made by chipped stone manufacture
D. probably used by shamans
The population of the Basin of Mexico increased throughout the Postclassic period
from 200,000 in 1200 to _______ in 1519.
A. 400,000
B. 750,000
C. 1,000,000
D. 10,000,000
Archaeologists have concluded that during the Epiclassic, Uxmal may have served as a
central place for northwestern Yucatn. This deduction is based on:
A. its extremely large population, which rivaled that of Teotihuacan
B. the several sacbeob leading from it to other sites
C. hieroglyphic inscriptions that boast of its conquests
D. oral history that has been passed down through the centuries
During the Late Classic, centers in the Mixteca Alta:
A. built vast empires around their hinterlands
B. constructed fortified municipalities on the valley floors
C. saw their population decline
D. moved their residential areas to fortified hilltop locations
During Mesoamerica’s Middle Formative:
A. the Olmec heartland was the only place that flourished
B. most Mesoamerican people were not yet practicing farming
C. the site of Teotihuacan reached its prominence
D. population sizes increased all over Mesoamerica
The Tarascan language is also known as:
A. Purpecha
B. Ptzcuaro
C. Quechua
D. Chibchan
During the Early Postclassic, metalworking:
A. spread throughout Mesoamerica and dominated tool production
B. began in Tula
C. was advanced with the new technology of bronze-making
D. was discontinued in Mesoamerica since it was too difficult to extract metals from
their ores
The Classic period of Mesoamerica was characterized by:
A. bands
B. tribes
C. chiefdoms
D. states
Just as Tenochtitlan dominated and intimidated other polities in the Basin of Mexico
during the Late Postclassic, Quich rulers controlled the Maya highlands from the center
of:
A. Chiapo de Corzo
B. Canajast
C. Iximch
D. Utatlan