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ANTH 336  New World Prehistory
Dr. Darlene Applegate
Fall 2006
Review Material for Midterm Exam 3

This exam covers Unit 3 lectures and textbook readings.

Study Guide     Practice Questions

STUDY GUIDE

DISCLAIMER:  This study guide does not necessarily contain all information that may appear on the test.

TERMS

Be careful about budgeting your time on the terms. There may be some definition questions, but most terms will simply be parts of other questions or answer choices.

• Mesoamerica
• highlands
• lowlands
• Yucatan Peninsula
• Valley of Oaxaca
• Valley of Mexico
• Tehuacan Valley

• pack animal
• meat-milk-skin animal
  
• seed crop
• legume
  
• root crop or tuber
• industrial plant
  
• incipient agriculture
• perennial vs. annual
• teosinte
• rachis
  

• ceremonial center / ceremonial complex
• plaza
• stepped pyramid
• temple
• ball court
• ball game / tlatchtli
• yoke
• plaza
• platform
  
• stelae / stela

• exotic
• greenstone
• jade / jadeite
  
• serpentine
• chlorite
• obsidian

• glyph
• hieroglyphic
• pictographic
• phonetic
• codex / codices

• ritual or sacred calendar
• secular calendar
• long count

• iconography
  
• were-jaguar

• cosmology
• religion
• pantheon
• polytheism
• ancestor worship
• shamanism

• ritualistic sacrifice
• cenote
• ritualistic cannibalism
• dietary cannibalism
• self-mutilation or autosacrifice

DATES 

• oldest evidence of domesticated squash
• oldest evidence of domesticated beans
• oldest evidence of domesticated maize
• oldest evidence of widespread food production in highlands and lowlands
  
• oldest evidence of ceremonial centers
• oldest evidence of writing

LISTS / CONCEPTS

• general trends in the development of domestication and food production
• three most important plant domesticates
  
• food and non-food animal domesticates
• major events (not specific sites or site locations except Tehuacan and Oaxaca valleys) in the three stages of MacNeish's reconstruction of the origins of domestication and food production, including percentages of domesticates in the first two stages
  
• changes in domesticated squash, beans and maize compared to wild forms

• components of ceremonial complex (ceremonial center)
• characteristics of pyramids
• characteristics of temples
• characteristics of ball courts
  
• how and why ball game was played

• uses of greenstone and obsidian exotic materials

• writing system:  type, what was recorded, what texts were recorded on
• symbols and place holders used in number system

• two calendar systems: how did they work, what was their function

• five common artistic motifs and what they symbolized
• characteristics of were-jaguar motif

• common cosmological beliefs
• common religious beliefs

• human sacrifice:  evidence, reasons, methods, who did it, who was sacrificed
• self-mutilation and blood letting:  who, why, how

PEOPLE / CONTRIBUTIONS

• Richard MacNeish
• Kent Flannery
• Bruce Smith

IDENTIFICATIONS

In addition to these images in the book, some of the following artifacts and sites are pictured in the web notes. The diagnostic features of particular archaeological cultures, as described in the web notes, may also be used as identification questions.

• ball court, p. 599
• colossal head, p. 602
• glyphs, p. 607, 609, 611, 617, 622
  
• stela, p. 611
• danzantes, p. 612
• Teotihuacan, p. 614
• Pyramid of the Sun, p. 614
• Monte Alban, p. 618
• tablero-talud (panel-slope) architecture, p. 619
• pyramid temple, p. 624, 625, 635
  
• roof comb, p. 624
• Tikal, p. 626
• Tula, p. 629
• columnated courtyard, p. 629
• Tenochitlan, p. 634
• codex, p. 637
  

TEXTBOOK MATERIAL

• Chapter 9 (pages 313-317)
• significance of Guila Naquitz site
• technological developments required for domesticated bean use
  

• Chapter 16
  
• Olmec as "mother culture"
  
• Mesoamerican calendar
• who invented Mesoamerican writing?
• three media for recording texts
• metallurgy in Mesoamerica
• Monte Alban
• Teotihuacan
• Teotihuacan writing system
• demise of Teotihuacan
• classic Maya
• Tikal
• collapse of Maya civilization
  
• Mesoamerican urbanism
• Toltecs
• Aztecs and the Late Horizon
  
• Tenochitlan
  

• boundaries of Mesoamerica culture area
• positive features of environment
• environmental challenges

• time periods in order (don't need to know starting and ending dates)

• diagnostic features of Olmec, Monte Alban, Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec (including images - possible identification questions)
  

• important sites of Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec
  

• locations of Olmec, Monte Alban/Zapotec/Mixtec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec civilizations
  

OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS
 

1.  The sites of La Venta and San Lorenzo are associated with which Mesoamerican group?

a. Monte Alban
b. Olmec
c. Tenochtitlan
d. Maya
e. Toltec

2.  Columnated courtyards, atlantean columns, chacmools, and skull racks were used by which Mesoamerican group?

a. Toltec
b. Aztec
c. Maya
d. Monte Alban
e. Teotihuacan

3.  The site of Tenochtitlan was significant because

a. the largest man-made structure in the New World is found there.
b. the oldest evidence of glyphs were found there.
c. it was the Aztec capital.
d. it was the center of the jade trade network.
e. the oldest evidence of maize was found there.

4.     According to MacNeish, during the stage of early domestication, cultigens made up what percentage of the diet?

a. 3%
b. 15%
c. 25%
d. 40%
e. 60%

5. What famous monumental public architecture is illustrated below?

a.  Temple of Quetzelcoatl
b.  Jaquar Ball Court
c.  Pyramid of Sun
d.  Pyramid of Moon
e.  Rabbit Portrait Stela

6. True or False:  The three most important cultigens in Mesoamerica were maize, beans, and sunflower.
 

7. True or False:  The fundamental subdivision of Mesoamerica's environment is coast vs interior.
 

8. True or False:  All members of Mesoamerican socieites, from kings to commoners, practiced self-mutilation.
 

9. True or False:  The earliest evidence of domesticated squash in Mesoamerica is about 8000 BC, while the earliest evidence of domesticated maize is about 4300 BC.
 

10. True or False:  Chinampas is a term referring to a farming technique of constructing field plots on lake margins.
 

11.  Tikal and Copan are sites associated with the  __________  civilization.
 

12.   The  ________     may have been the "mother culture" of Mesoamerica.
 

13.   The name for an indigenous written text in Mesoamerica is a/an  _______________ .
 

14.  The oldest domesticated beans are dated at  _________  years old.
 

15.   The capital of the Toltec state was at  ___________  .
 

Click here for answers to practice questions.
 

SHORT-ANSWER ESSAYS

1.    Describe the components and layout of a typical Mesoamerican ceremonial center.