Agenda 5.6: The Maya

1) Attendance, Do Now, Guess Who (5 min)

2) Q& A: Current Event Project (5 min)

3) The Maya (25 min)

4) Reminds me of… (10 min)

5) Map Activity (10 min)

6) Exit Ticket (5 min)

Objectives

• WWBAT describe the geography of the Mayan Civilization and how this affected their culture.

• WWBAT state the cultural and scientific contributions of the Maya Civilization

Do Now

• Why did hunter gatherers settle down and stop moving all the time?

 

• What grew when people started to settle down?

Geography of Maya

• Southeastern part of Mexico,Guatamala, Belize, and Honduras

• Yucatan Peninsula

• Thick Tropical

Forests

Way of Life • 4000 years ago *(~2000 BCE – what else was

going on around this time?)

• Grew crops- cleared forests to do so

• Small isolated Villages

• Used plants and trees to build houses

What happens when people live together, make friends,

and eat well?• Population increases! (about 100k)(size of Flagstaff)

• Urban Center of Tikal (Guatamala)

Religion

• Center of Culture and Government

• Temples dedicated to gods

Polytheism

• Kukulcan, God of fire

• Chac, God of rain >>

• Itzamna, Creator

Government

• Several City-states connected by• roads (what is the benefit?)

• Strong military

• Priests were leaders of city-states

• Captured people during battles with other civilizations and used them as slaves

Sports

• Ball game called pitz – you could only hit it with knees, elbows, or hips.

• Court was a giant rectangle 30 meters (~90 feet) long and 10 meters (30 feet) wide.

LANGUAGE AND MATH• System of writing:

Pictographs and Symbols• Phonetic (representing

sounds) or could represent objects/words

MATH: Number system based on 20

They were the first people to use zeros

• 365.242198 days a year using astronomy

• 260 day religious event calendar

• About 20 other different calendars for different uses

• How were they able to calculate a 365 day year? They were really good at math!

• They recorded history using their number system

• Grouped years in 400 year cycles, equaling 5,200 years. This calendar ended in 2012, supposed to be the demarcation of a new beginning.

• Based on your birthday, you have a day name and a number that determine your character and your energy.

Calendars

Art & Architecture

• Temples aligned with the cardinal directions

• Did not have wheels or metal

• Painting

• Stelae: large stones

with Mayan art

Discussion Questions

• Why do you think roads were so important?

• How do you think the calendar system helped with farming? (use knowledge of Egypt to inform your inference!)

• Do you think it is a good idea to have religious leaders in government? Why or why not?

What happened to the Maya?

What happened to the Mayan’s?

• Many Mayans disappeared at around year 900 CE because of…• Drought?• War?• Cruel Kings?• Ran out of food?