Tikal
Major Maya city, with a population of perhaps 50,000 people.
Teotihuacan
The largest city of pre-Columbian America, with a population between 100,000 and 200,000; seemingly built to a plan in the Valley of Mexico, flourished between 300 and 600 CE, during which time it governed or influenced much of the surrounding region. The name is an Aztec term meaning "city of the gods".
"Semi-sedentary"
Term frequently used to describe the peoples of the eastern woodlands of the United States, Central America, the Amazon basin, and the Caribbean islands who combined partial reliance on agriculture with gathering and hunting.
Pueblo
"Great house", a large, apartment building-like structure that could house hundreds of people.
Niger Valley civilization
Distinctive city-based civilization that flourished from about 300 BCE to about 900 CE, in the floodplain of the middle Niger and that included major cities such as Jenne-jeno; particularly noteworthy for its apparent lack of centralized state structures, having organized instead in clusters of economically specialized settlements.
Nazca
A civilization of southern coastal Peru, became famous for its underground irrigation channels and its gigantic and mysterious lines in the desert in the form of monkeys, birds, spiders, and other designs.
Mound Builders
Members of any of a number of cultures that developed east of the Mississippi River in what is now the United States and that are distinguished by their large earthern mounds, built during the period 2000 BCE-1250 CE.
Moche
An important regional civilization of Peru, governed by warrior-priests; flourished from around 100 to 800 CE.
Meroe
City in southern Nubia that was the center of Nubian civilization between 300 BCE and 100 CE.
Maya
The major classical civilization of Mesoamerica; flourished from 250 to 900 CE.
Jenne-jeno
Largest and most fully studied of the cities of the Niger Valley civilization.
Hopewell Culture
Named from its most important site (in present-day Ohio), this is the most elaborate and widespread of the North American mound-building cultures; flourished from 200 BCE to 400 CE.
Ezana
King of Axum in the early fourth century CE who established Christianity in his state.
Coptic Christianity
The Egyptian variety of Christianity, distinctive in its belief that Christ has only a single, divine nature.
Chavin
Andean town that was the center of a large Peruvian religious movement from around 900 to 200 BCE.
Chaco Phenomenon
Name given to a major process of settlement and societal organization that occurred in the period 860-1130 CE in what is now northwestern New Mexico; the society formed is notable for its settlement in large pueblos and for its building of hundreds of miles of roads (the purpose of which is not known)
Cahokia
The dominant center of an important Mississippi valley mound-building culture, located near present-day St. Louis, Missouri; flourished from about 900 to 1250 CE.
Batwa
Forest-dwelling people of Central Africa who adopted some of the ways of their Bantu neighbors while retaining distinctive features of their own culture; also known as "Pygmies"
Bantu expansion
Gradual migration of ______-speaking peoples from their homeland in what is now southern Nigeria and the Cameroons into most of eastern and southern Africa, a process that began around 3000 BCE and continued for several millennia. The agricultural techniques and ironworking technology of ______-speaking farmers gave them an advantage over the gathering and hunting peoples they encountered.
Axum
Classical-era kingdom of East Africa; in present-day Eritrea and northern Ethiopia; flourished from 100 to 600 CE.
Apedemek
The lion god of classical Meroe, his popularity shows a turn away from the Egyptian cultural influence.
Ancestral Pueblo
Formerly known as the Anasazi, this people established a mixed agricultural and gathering/hunting society in the southwestern part of North America.