Press
for
Curator
Writing
Room
Welcome to the Mayan Museum
Museum Entrance
Religion
Room
Food
Room
Mayan Religion
Room 2
Museum
Entrance
Museum
Entrance
Mayan Food
Room 3
Mayan Writing
Museum
Entrance
Room 4
Artifact 1: Chichen Itza
•
Chichen Itza is perhaps the most famous of
all the Mayan cities. It served as the capital
of the second great Mayan empire (1,000 to
1,450 A.D.). Chichen Itza means “at the
mouth of the well of the Itza”. The city got
its water from two large sink holes called
“cenotes”. They were extremely important
because there are no rivers that run through
the northern Yucatan where Chichen Itza is.
The Temple of Kukulcan is a four sided,
step pyramid with stairways going up all
four sides. Each stairway has 91 steps
totaling 364 when all four sides are counted.
The top of the pyramid is the final step
making 365, the number of days in a year.
Image acquired at:
http://www.creighton.edu/langlab/classes/spn202fs05/mexic
o2/chichenitza.jpg
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Artifact 2: Copan
•
Settlement in the area of Copan may have
begun as early as 2,000 B.C. As the city
developed Mayan art and astronomy
flourished. While the buildings at Copan
were not as large the buildings in other
Mayan cities, the detail and elegant carvings
on the buildings are astounding. Some of the
stone carvings even give the names of
former rulers of Copan: Smoke Jaguar, 18
Rabbit, Squirrel, Leaf Jaguar, Dawn, and
Smoke Monkey. Yax-Kuk-Mo began the
first of the ruling dynasties in Copan at
about 160 A.D. From 465 A.D. to 800 A.D.
Copan was at its height of science, art, and
culture.
Image acquired at:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/maya/oldcopan.gif
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Artifact 3: Tikal
•
Tikal was occupied
between 800 B.C. and
900 A.D. At its height,
about 700 A.D., it was
home to more than
60,000
people. The city once covered an area of 23 square
miles and was made up of more than 10,000
structures; from grand temples to huts. The central part
of this city was the Great Plaza. This plaza was
surrounded by five grand temples, seventy stelae
(stone monuments covered with carved glyphs), and
rows of alters. This place is so amazing; it was used as
the set for a rebel base in the film “Star Wars”.
Image acquired at:
http://www.authenticmaya.com/images/ancienttikal.gif
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Artifact 4: Tulum
•
Tulum, which means “wall” in Maya, once
was called Zama, which means “the place of
the dawning sun”. The city is unique
because it is enclosed by walls on three
sides, with 40 foot cliffs dropping to the
Caribbean Sea on the forth side. This city
reached its height between 1,000 A.D. and
1,600 A.D. During this time it served as a
central port for Mayan trade. The city has
one main building called “El Castillo” and
other smaller structures adorned with
interesting carvings of faces on the corners.
Tulum was the only Mayan city that was
thriving when the Spanish Conquistadors
arrived in Mexico.
Image acquired at:
http://www.ecotravelmexico.com/imagenes/tulum.jpg
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Artifact 5: Itzamna
Itzamna is the Mayan god of creation and the
founder of the Mayan religion. He ruled the
heavens and was thought to be the one who began
the Mayan culture. He was believed to have
invented the Mayan math and writing systems, and
taught the Mayans the use of the calendar. He was
depicted as a large jaw, toothless, cross-eyed old
man and was considered to be the chief of the
Mayan gods. He was the lord of all the heavens
during both day and night.
Image acquired at:
http://sanghavedanta.com/macanche/index.php?option
=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=39
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Artifact 6: Chac
•
Image acquired at:
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mythol
ogy/images/chac_maya_jpg_image.html
Chac was the Mayan god of fertility, rain, and
lighting. He is one of the oldest Mayan gods. The
Mayan people believed when time began, Chac struck
a sacred stone with his axe, and the first ear of maize
sprung out. Worshipping him was done primarily at
sources of fresh water and sacred wells. The Mayan
depicted him with his body covered with the scales of
a reptile. The Mayan city of Chichen Itza was a center
of worship for his followers. Frogs were associated
with Chac, because they croak when rain is coming.
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Artifact 7: Yum Kax
•
Image acquired at:
http://www.polapa.com/tienda/imagenes/6062verdes.jpg
Yum Kax was the god of Mayan agriculture
and Maize. He was usually depicted as a
young man with a very sloped forehead,
holding a pot of maize and looking very
unhappy. While he was powerful, his power
was limited by the powers of the other gods
who controlled rain, drought, and famine. In
Mayan myths he is constantly getting into
fights with these other gods.
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Artifact 8: Ek Chuah
•
Ek Chuah was the Mayan scorpion god, the
god of war, the god of traveling merchants,
and the god of cacao planters. Cacao seeds
were a form of currency in the Mayan
empire this is why he was the god of both
cacao planters (those who grew the valuable
crop) and traveling merchants (those who
had goods to sell in exchange for the seeds).
Mayan travelers and merchants use to carry
incense that they would burn each night they
were traveling and pray to Ek Chuah to
“bring them home safe.” Chuah means
"black" in Maya. Ek Chuah usually had
some black on his face. His name hieroglyph
is an eye with a black ring around it.
Image acquired at:
http://library.thinkquest.org/C004577/religion6.php3
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Artifact 9: Mayan Diet
•
The Maya ate wild animals they caught like:
fish, turtles, ducks, deer, dogs, turkeys,
parrots, eagles, foxes, rabbits, armadillo,
monkey, iguana, wild boar, and alligators.
They also ate fruit like: banana, pineapple,
guava, watermelon, and mangos. In addition
to corn, the Maya grew: beans, squash,
pumpkin, chili peppers, tomatoes, and sweet
potatoes. This variety of food gave the Maya
a good balanced diet.
Image acquired at:
http://www.civilization.ca/civil/maya/mmj01eng.html
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Artifact 10: Cacao
•
The Maya would harvest the pineapple size
fruit of the cacao tree. Inside this fruit is 20
to 60 seeds or ‘beans”. The seeds are what
the Mayas used to make “The Drink of the
Gods”. They used these ‘coco beans’ to
make many chocolate drinks. They even had
a cacao god, Ek Chuah. The cacao bean
were sometimes considered more valuable
than gold to the Maya.
Image acquired at:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/chocolate.htm
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Artifact 11: Bug Tacos
•
The ancient Maya filled their tacos with
caterpillars, worms, ants, and even crickets.
Because the Maya had so few domesticated
animals, insects, which are high in protein,
were a big part of the Maya diet. They also
ate flies, beetles, ant eggs, wasps, and
grasshoppers.
Image acquired at:
http://www.mayankids.com/mmkpeople/mkbugtaco.htm
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Artifact 12: Maize
•
Maize was the single most important crop
produced by the Maya. It has been estimated
that ¾ of the food eaten by the Maya was
maize in some form or another. Maize was
commonly dried, processed, and ground;
then it was used to make tortillas. For the
Maya, the tortilla proved to be a way to
wrap and hold other types of food while
eating. It also was a great way to take their
food out with them when working in the
fields or on some community project all day.
The Maya even had a god of maize, Yum
Kaax, who they prayed and offer sacrifices
to.
Image acquired at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Zea_mays.jpg
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Artifact 13: Mayan Writing
•
The Maya developed an original form of
hieroglyphic writing. Each picture or
symbol represented a different word or
idea. Hieroglyphics are found on many of
the Mayan buildings, on Codices (Mayan
books), and on large stone monuments
called stela. Stela are stone carvings the
Maya used to record important events on.
The Maya were the only culture to have
developed a writing system in the Ancient
Americas.
Image acquired at:
http://www.civilization.ca/civil/maya/images/maycrv3
b.gif
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Artifact 14: Mayan Numbers
•
The Maya developed an original numeric
system that allowed them to study the
stars, develop a very accurate calendar,
and to build their large and complex
buildings. Our number system uses 10 as a
base; the Mayan number system uses 20.
Their system is also unique because it only
uses three symbols (a dot, a bar, and a
shell). The dot represents 1, the bar 5, and
the shell 0. By arranging these symbols in
the correct order, the Maya could represent
any number.
Image acquired at:
http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/art-441/The-Mayan-number-systemwhich-is-base-20-with-simple
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Artifact 15: Mayan Codices
•
The Maya had books called Codices. These books
were made out of long strips of the inner bark of fig
trees. This bark was folded into sections to make the
pages of the book. The Maya would write in these
codices with turkey feather quills, thorns from cactus,
chips of bone, and animal hair brushes. Each
hieroglyph was outlined in a black ink made from coal
and then colored in. All but four codices were burned
by the Spanish when they conquered the Maya.
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Image acquired at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices
Artifact 16: Mayan Calendar
•
The Mayan Calendar was very accurate. It is
made up of three rings that have interlocking
points that are used to tell the Mayan date.
The Mayan tracked a 365 day solar year and
a 260 day Sacred Count Calendar. The
Sacred Count Calendar involved a new day
name for every set of 13 days that passed.
The 365 day Solar Calendar involved a new
month name for every set of 19 days that
passed. It also included the Long Count
Calendar that ends on Sunday, December
23, 2012.
Image acquired at:
http://www.calendariomaya.com/images/Tzolkin.gif
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Artifact 17 Title
Add text here
Image acquired at:
Place URL here
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John Yoder
John Yoder is a 4th grade teacher at
Paradise PDS. He has a B.A. in
Communications and a M.A. in Curriculum
and Instruction. He has been teaching for 3
years.
Contact John Yoder
Note: Virtual museums were first introduced by educators at Keith Valley Middle School in Horsham,
Pennsylvania. This template was designed by Dr. Christy Keeler based on one of the sample virtual museums
provided by the Keith Valley staff at ISTE’s NECC 2005. Contact Dr. Keeler for more information on using
this template.
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