| A | B |
| a long, cold period of time when thick sheets of ice covered the earth | the Ice Age |
| thick sheets of ice that cover parts of the earth | glacier |
| where the first Americans came from | Asia |
| a narrow waterway that connects two larger bodies of water | strait |
| the reason the people crossed over from Asia | they followed animal herds |
| the reason people were able to survive during the Ice Age | they discovered how to make and use fire to cook their food and stay warm |
| separates North America from Asia today | Bering Strait |
| large Ice Age animal hunted by the first Americans | Wooly Mammoth |
| how the people fed themselves when the Ice Age ended and the large animals became extinct | they became gatherers and farmers |
| as they learned more about farming they grew more than they needed | a surplus |
| a group of people and lands ruled by the government of one people | empire |
| a system of ditches used for bringing water to dry fields | irrigation |
| the dry land that probably joined Asia and North America during the Ice Age | land bridge |
| spend most of the time doing one kind of job | specialize |
| a culture that has developed complex systems of government, religion, and learning | civilization |
| the people could do this because they had more food than they needed | trade |
| the way a people live, think, believe, and feel | culture |
| first people in the Americas to develop a system of writing | Mayas |
| scientists who dig up things from the past to learn about a culture | archaeologists |
| objects left by the people who lived long ago | artifacts |
| a period of 10 years | decade |
| a period of 100 years | century |
| built an empire in the Andes Mountains | Incas |
| capital city of the Incan empire | Cuzco |
| how the Aztec people fed their gods | human sacrifices |
| the Aztec capital, one of the biggest cities in the world | Tenochtitlan |
| made a very accurate calendar and were excellent scientists and mathematicians | Mayas |
| why the Mayas abandoned their cities | the reason is still a mystery |
| the most successful early farmers who lived in what is now southern Mexico and Guatemala | Mayas |
| people who at one time conquered and ruled over 12,000,000 people | Aztecs |
| created a large empire in central Mexico | Aztecs |
| created an empire that stretched for more than 2000 miles and was connected by 10,000 miles of paved roads | Incas |
| how the Incans delivered messages around the empire | with runners |
| the Incan farmers built these into the hillsides | terraces |
| their ruler lived in a golden palace | Incas |
| the people made beautiful jewelry and wove wool cloth | Incas |
| the first farmers in the United States | Anasazi |
| the Anasazi lived in this section of the United States | southwest |
| the states that meet at the four corners | Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona |
| developed a system of irrigation | Anasazi |
| built villages that looked like apartment buildings into caves and on the side of canyons | Anasazi |
| largest Anasazi town | Pueblo Bonito |
| what the woodland people needed to bring into the woods so that their crops would grow | sunlight |
| a diagram that lets you see events in the order they happened and tells you how much time passed between events | timeline |
| how the woodland people killed the trees | by slashing off the bark and burning them |
| another name for the woodland people that buried their dead under piles of soil | the mound builders |
| place where many of the snakelike burial grounds are found | along the Mississippi |
| disease that probably wiped out the mound builders | small pox |
| largest village of the Mississippians | Cahokia |
| people who brought small pox to the Mississippians | the Spanish explorers |
| study or record of what happened in the past | history |
| a person who studies the past | an historian |
| eyewitness accounts, letters, newspapers,etc. | primary sources for an historian |
| accounts of the past written by someone who was not an eyewitness | secondary source for an historian |