Maya, Aztec and Inca Study Guide
1. What are an indigenous people?
2. What does polytheistic mean? Which early American empires were polytheistic?
3. What is a caracol and who built them? Why did they build them? What were they good at?
4. Why were noblemen important in the Mayan empire?
5. What are hieroglyphics?
6. What is a city-state? Which empires used them and how did they work?
7. What is the difference between a subsistence item and a luxury item?
8. What crops were important in the early American empires?
9. When did each civilization occur? Please list the years they started and stopped and any important details, like how long each empire lasted.
10. What were the different names of the Inca ruler?
11. Describe some of the differences between the nobles (wealthy) and the commoners (poor) in each of the three empires.
a. In the Inca empire commoners…
b. In the Aztec empire commoners…
c. In the Mayan empire commoners…
12. Where was each empire located?
a. The Mayan empire was located…
b. The Aztec empire was located…
c. The Inca empire was located…
13. What climate was important to the Aztecs? What was unique about this climate?
14. Why were sacrifices important to the early American empires?
15. What did the Mayan’s wear and what was it made out of?
16. What did the Aztec’s wear and what was it made out of?
17. What did the Inca’s wear and what was it made out of?