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| Form of government with an internally specialized and hierachically organized decision-making apparatus. A state generally has three or more administrative levels. |
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| Union of dispersed territories, colonies, states, and unrelated peoples under one sovereign rule. |
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| Low area along a coast where the wide mouth of a river meets the sea and the waters of the two mix. |
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| Study of human cultures through firsthand obeservation. |
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| codex (plural codices)(Latin) |
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| Handpainted book on bark paper or animal skins folded like a screen. |
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| Archaeological analysis of past houses and associated residential remains to learn about domestic life and activities. |
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| Open pan or ceramic vessel used for holding hot coals. |
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| Black iron oxide that can be polished to a lustrous surface. |
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| Bony tail spines of stingrays that were used in the past to draw blood in human autosacrificial rites. |
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| Dancer, life-size carving of a captive or a prisoner of war depicted in bas-releif on stone slabs at San Jose Mogote and Monte Alban, Oaxaca. |
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| Mesoamerican cultural tradition generally associated with the Valley of Oaxaca and smaller adjacent valleys in central Oaxaca. |
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| Aztec name for the large prehispanic inhabitants of the Gulf Coast region of Mexico. |
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| Large ornament worn across the chest, especially for defensive purposes. |
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| Representation of a supernatural figure that is half jaguar and half human. |
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| Broad, flat, clay-lined depression in the Maya Lowlands that fills with water during the rainy season. |
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| Arrangement of buildings designed to mark the position of the rising sun during imnportant solar events, such as equinoxes and solstices in Mesoamerica. |
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| Type of plaster, often made of lime, used for decoration. |
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| Face, or front, of a building. |
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| stela (plural stelae) (Latin) |
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| Erect stone monument that is often carved. |
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| Originally, the pictographic script of ancient Egypt; any depictive, art-related system of writing, such as that of Mesoamerica. Also may refer to an individual symbol. |
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| A carving; a drawn symbol in a writing system that may stand for a syllable, a sound, an idea, a word, or a combination of these. |
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| Architectural style characteristic of Teotihuacan during the Classic period, in which recessed rectangular panels (the tablero) are separated by sloping aprons (the talud). |
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| Describing a residence pattern in which married couples live with or near the husband's family. |
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| Aztec word for their ritual ballgame. |
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| Type of farming in which the ground is cleared by cutting and burning the vegetation on the spot. The burned vegetation serves as a natural fertilizer. The field is farmed until yields decrease, then it is allowed to lie fallow. |
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| Architectural feature, frequently carved with glyphs and figures, that is placed on the top of Mesoamerican temples. |
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| Horizontal beam of wood or stone that supports the wall above a doorway or window. |
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| The Maya word for a raised causeway constructed of stone blocks and paved with gravel and plaster. |
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| acropolis (plural acropoli) (Greek) |
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| A raised complex of palaces and courtyards, especially in Mesoamerica and Greece. |
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| The Classic Maya system of dating that records the total number of days elapsed from an initial date in the distant past (3114 B.C.). The system is based on multiples of 20. |
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| A set of Maya hieroglyphs; generally, each emblem glyph is specific to a given Classic Maya city. |
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| A tree that grows abundantly in the tropical forests of the Maya Lowlands and bears an edible fruit, also called breadnut. |
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| An agricultural field created by swamp drainage or landfill operations along the edges of lakes. |
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| Stone coffin, usually decorated with sculpture and/or inscriptions. |
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| A written or painted symbol that more or less portrays the represented object. |
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| A written symbol that represents an abstract idea rather than the sound of a word or the pictorial symbol of an object (pictograph). |
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| Pertaining to the sounds of speech. |
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| A carved human figure serving as a decorative or supporting column. |
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| The Maya word for a sinkhole, a natural well in the Yucatan that provides water for drinking and bathing. |
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| A life-size stone figure in a reclining position, with flexed legs and head raised and turned to one side. |
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| An arched structure of masonry that forms a ceiling or roof. The construction of vaults with corbelled, or stepped,ceilings was a common building technique of the Maya. |
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| A steadfast blue pigment made by fusing an extract from the plant indigo with a fine white clay, palygorskite. The Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples applied this pigment on a range of materials including ceramics, sculptures, and murals. |
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| A term loosely applied to the peoples who lived beyond the northern limits of Mesoamerica; nomadic people, considered to be uncivilized barbarians. |
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| A small, socially stratified political unit prevalent in Mesoamerica at the time of the Spanish conquest. |
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| A privileged, hereditary guild of long-distance Aztec traders. |
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| An exchange system that frequently involves currencies and generally extends beyong close kinsmen and a small group of trading partners. Market participants try to minimize their costs and maximize their returns to make a profit. |
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| A bean of the cacao tree, native to Mesoamerica; used to make chocolate. Cacao beans also were used as money by the Aztecs. |
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| The practice of eating human flesh. |
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