Library: Ancient Civilizations by Credo Reference: Americas

Peoples

Olmec: Topic Page
The culture of ancient Mexican natives inhabiting the tropical coastal plain of the contemporary states of Veracruz and Tabasco, between 1300 and 400 B.C.
Zapotec: Topic Page
Indigenous people of Mexico, primarily in S Oaxaca and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Maya civilization: Topic Page
One of the great cultures of mesoamerica, Maya civilization extended throughout southern mexico and northern Central America.
Aztec: Topic Page
Member of an American Indian people who migrated south into the valley of Mexico in about 1168.
Inca: Topic Page
Pre-Columbian empire, W South America.
Pre-Columbian Civilizations
From Chambers Dictionary of World Historyy
The term pre-Columbian civilizations denotes the cultures that developed in parts of Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica) and western South America (Andean region) prior to European incursions into the continent from the 16c.
Mound Builders: Topic Page
Name given to those people who built mounds in a large area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mts.

Culture

Mayan Literature
From Concise Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature
The Maya were the only people of America's high cultures who developed a glyph-writ language (a partly ideographic, partly phonetic mode of writing) capable of recording events.
Mesoamerican Religion
From Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture
Important Mesoamerican religious themes: cosmic topography, power-filled inhabitants, calendrically determined transformation, and sacrifice.
Native American Agriculture
From Encyclopedia of North American Indians
Before the Christian era many Indian cultural groups of North America cultivated plants of Mesoamerican and indigenous origin. By a.d. 1000 corn (maize), beans, and squash were their most important cultivated food plants.
Native American Architecture
From Encyclopedia of North American Indians
Indian architectural traditions reflected the diversity of tribal economic patterns, social organizations, historical experiences, religious systems, and worldviews.
Popol Wuj
In A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures: Continental Europe and its Empires
The Popol Wuj (this is the modern standard native spelling, but Popol Vuh is also a traditional variant) contains a wide array of tales produced by the cultures of the Maya, and later the K’iche’, centuries before the arrival of the Spanish to the Amerindian continent.
Quipu
From Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History
Quipu is an Andean mnemonic device consisting of primary and secondary cords (spun of llama or alpaca wool) of various colors on which are several types of variously spaced knots.

Places

Cahokia
From Encyclopedia of North American Indians
Cahokia was a major Mississippian urban center. Occupied between about AD 700 and AD 1250, the core of the site covered more than two hundred acres and was surrounded by a wooden palisade containing in excess of twenty thousand logs.
Machu Picchu: Topic Page
Inca site in Peru. The imposing city is one of the largest pre-Columbian sites found virtually intact.
Mesoamerica: Topic Page
When scholars use the term Mesoamerica, they are referring to a vast and geographically varied territory unified by a set of cultural traits not shared by peoples living immediately beyond its boundaries.
Palenque
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Town in the north of the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, 150 km/93 mi southeast of Villahermosa; population (2005) 37,300. A few kilometres from the city are the ruins of a series of Maya temples dating from about the 4th century AD.
Serpent Mound
From Encyclopedia of North American Indians
The largest known serpent effigy in the world, Great Serpent Mound is located in rural Ohio. The mound's form is of an undulating serpent, uncoiling and opening its mouth to swallow a large oval.
Teotihuacán: Topic Page
Ancient commercial and religious center in the central valley of Mexico. The largest (c.7 sq mi/18.1 sq km) and most impressive urban site of ancient America.

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