Based on a lithograph "Broken Idol at Copan"
by Frederik Catherwood,1843
To see more images of Catherwood go to
http://www.mayancollection.com/catherwood/
Ms Hos-McGrane's Grade 5
Social Studies Class
Welcome to our Ancient Maya
Project Pages
[Main
Menu] [Amsterdam Projects]
[Other Schools] [Resources
Mayas]
Civilization of the Ancient
Maya includes the following projects:
An illustrated narrative of our webmaster's visit to the ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá in January 1998 and six research projects on the Ancient Maya from Ms Hos-McGrane's Grade 5 class of 1997-98. Don't forget to visit our Maya Stela art project.
Maya-Related Projects
from Other Schools
Grade six projects from the Penn Charter School focusing on Ancient Civilizations. Topics include: culture, daily life, geography, industry, social organization and government.
Other Maya Resources
on the Web
Mayan
Culture
Lost King of the Maya : PBS Online
The companion Web site to "Lost King of the Maya," a PBS broadcast. The site follows the work of archeologists who are using new excavations and studying Maya hieroglyphs to interpret the early history of Copán, a Classic Maya site in northern Honduras. The website includes activities on reading Maya hieroglyphs and a map of the Maya world. (NB. Certain sections require Shockwave plug-in and Quicktime.)
Web site from the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute includes The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mesoamerica, Life and Death in Ancient Mexico (understanding the system of sacrifice), Mayan Sculpture (an archive of Maya imagry), and Palenque (overview, history and the current dig at this Classic Maya site).
Mystery of the MayaThis online exhibit from Canadian Museum of Civilization includes a clear presentation of historical info, some modern information, an historical timeline, vocabulary list, and several art exhibits with explanations. There is a section on "The People of the Jaguar" and photos of a real Jaguar God mask as well as educational support for film "Mystery of the Maya" (made jointly by the governments of Canada and Mexico) in 1995.
Jaguar:
Lord of the Mayan Jungle : oneworldjourneys.com
Follow a team into the rainforest region of the Yucatan Peninsula for a 10 day webcast as they study the elusive jaguar. Learn about Jaguar Mythology, Mayan history , and the geographical setting of Mayan culture. There is a large Mayan History timeline.
Could
a changed climate be responsible for the fall of the mighty Maya? :
Why Files Too
Warm for the Maya
Kathleen Wong, California Wild, Spring 2001
Mud samples taken from the bottom of a lake on Mexico's Yucatán peninsula
suggest that a series of droughts happened at the same time as major cultural
changes among the Mayan people of the area. Hodell, David A., Jason H. Curtis,
and Mark Brenner . 1995. Possible Role of Climate in the Collapse of
the Ancient Maya Civilization
Ancient
Latin America : Minnesota State University, Mankato Virtual Museum
Lots of information on Mayan
Sites and Cultures, Achievements
and Geography
Mayan
Kids : T.M. Fisken., mayakids.com
Read about the Mayan people, pyramids, beliefs, chewing gum or download
Mayan clipart.
Maya:
Lost Kingdom of the Rainforest : Didrichsen Art Museum, Finland
Excavations in Guatemala resulted in a new view of why the Mayan culture
was destroyed. There is also information on the Mayan calendar, mathematics,
writings, gods ballgame and sauna.
A travelling exhibit of textiles and photographs produced by the Florida Museum of Natural History. Intricately woven and embroidered garments from Chiapas are exhibited with Jeffrey J. Foxx's photographs. Together these provide a rich visual portrayal of the daily and ceremonial life of the Maya of Mexico.
Several articles, abstracts and newsbriefs from a bi-monthly magazine online. Topics include: Rituals of the Modern Maya, Imagine Maya Art and Caracol: A Mighty Maya Nation, Life and Death in a Maya War Zone and Seeing With Maya Eyes.
Mayan AdventureThe Science Museum of Minnesota presents Maya Adventure, a World-Wide Web site that offers information and a photo archive related to ancient cities and modern Maya culture. The site also provides information on how the Mayas used chocolate.
Mayan
World View : R. Effland, Mesa Community College, Arizona
Although it is difficult to read because of strong background images, this
site does offer a number of interesting Quicktime movies and sound files
on the following topics. Maya
Creation Story, Ritual
Bloodletting, Maya
Cosmos , View
of the Heavens, View
of the Underworld and How
the Maya Saw the Planet Venus. There is also an illustration of the
Mayas
contstructing their defense systems and articles on Mayan
Prophecies and Maya
Writing.
Illustrated images from a Mesoamerican Art Page, by Edgar Martin del Campo. There is also a section on Mesoamerican Deities and Mesoamerican Art (See also The Precolumbian Ballcourt, painting of a Maya ballcourt at Copán, Honduras by Tatiana Proskouriakoff.
Maya
History The authors of this site explore the collapse of four ancient civilizations: the Mayas, the Anasazi, Mesopotamia and the African states of Mali and Songhai. Visitors can read what happens when a society collapses and how archaeologists find and interpret evidence. They can visit the Maya city of Copán and search for clues to its collapse or try their hand at "garbage-ology" and study what trash can tell us about a society.
Co-Incidents of Travel in the YucatanPeter Harris travels with his camera and his pen in the footsteps of Stephens and Catherwood's famous 1840 expedition to explore the Mayan ruins in Central America.
Calendar,
Astronomy, Numbers and Writing Systems
Mayan
Arithmetic : Steven Fought
A three part tutorial on the basics of the Mayan system of numbers by Steven
Fought published by the Math Forum site. Information includes: the Mayan
symbol for zero, Mayan place values and adding Mayan numbers.
Maya Calendar
& Maya Mathematical
System : Maya World Studies Center Mérida,, México
Explanation of calendar and mathematics developed by the Maya. Also an
illustration of a Maya stela with current date. There is a new section
on Maya Divination
using the Mayan calendar.
Rabbit
In The Moon: Mayan Glyphs and Architecture : Nancy McNelly
Find a wide variety of resources on the Maya, including information about
their calendar and the glyph system of writing. You can even learn how to
write your own name in glyphs! The explanation of the Maya Calendar is one
of the best on the Web.
Mayan Astronomy Page : Dawn Jenkins
Site from the Netherlands has an introduction to the subject. Topics include
Maya Mathematics, The Maya Calendar, Maya Writing and Maya Astronomy. Unfortunately,
some of the graphics are broken, but otherwise nice information.
Copan in
the Decipherment of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing
This web site includes an article by David Stuart entitled "Hieroglyphs
and History at Copán" which includes a brief description of the history
of hieroglyphic writing at Copan and other sites, as well as the importance
of Altar Q. There is also a related article Saving
the Maya Past for the Future: Copan's New Sculpture Museum.
Mesoamerican
Writing Systems Lawrence Lo, Ancient Scripts
of the World
History of how the Mayan glyphs were deciphered
Ancient
Mesoamerican Writing : GB Online's Mesoamerica
Information on writing from Aztec, Borgia Group, Maya and Mixtec.
There are currently 100 short articles on Mayan mythology online from the Encyclopedia Mythica
Heart of Sky > Mayan Creation Stories : B. Greider, University of Wisconsin
Information on the Mayan creation myth Popol-Vuh (see text) , the Maya Flood Myth, One Story of the Hero Twins and information on the Mayan calendar and astronomy.Jaguar in the Sun: Archaelolgy of the Ancient Mayan Civilization of Mesoamerica
A site written by Jeeni Criscenzo, the author of a novel about the ancient Maya entitled Place of Mirrors. While many pages are still under construction there is information on the Maya region, number systems, calendar, and excerpts from the Popol Vuh (the Maya creation story). There is also a good desciption of the Maya cities of Palenque and Tikal.
Maya Civilization: Past and Present
This site offers information on Mayan culture: traditional stories, language, numbers and maps of important Mayan city states.
The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI)
An excellent site with archives of Justin Kerr (Maya Vase Book & Precolumbian Photographs) and the technical drawing archives of Linda Schele and John Montgomery.
A Virtual Tour of Chichén Itzá
Explore the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá through the information and photographs published by this webmaster.
Mesoamerican Art :
Dr. Manuel Aguilar, Cal State University
Art slides from a course on Mesoamerican art. Select from many civilizations and go to a collection of small thumbnail image. Click on small image to go to information page and from there click on small image to go to larger screensize image. Large collection of images--good for browsing or selecting representative images from a particular perod.Ancient Latin American Civilizations > Olmecs > Mayas > Aztecs
Professor Antonio Rafael de la Cova, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana.
Archive of images and articlesTimeline of Mesoamerican Art : Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Click your way through a timeline of centuries of art from Olmecs, Mayas and other Mesoamerican cultures. See what other cultures existed at the same time at the Timeline of Art History.Mesoamican Photo Archives : David Hixson. Tulane University
Archive of slides and prints from all over Mesoamerica. Currently includes photos from Bonampak, Cacaxtla, Chalcatzingo, Cholula, Loltun Caves, Monte Alban, Teotihuacan, & the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico CityThe Toltecs & The Quetzalcoatl Myth & Borgia Codex : R. James
Origins of Mesoamerican Toltecs, the myth of Quetzalcoatl , cities, decline and arrival of the Aztecs and Spanish. There are also historical panels from the Borgia Codex, a pictorial record of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica .The Cities of the Ancient Maya
Here is a collection of photographs and descriptions of Christopher Reeves' many visits to the ancient Mayan cities of Chichén Itzá, Labna, Uxmal, Coba, Kabah, and Xlapak. There is also information on the Mayan Calendar.
Web pages by Stevan Davies, Professor of Religious Studies, College Misericordia in the US. Here are two collections of Mayan art containing painting and sculpture produced by the Mayan civilization during its classic period (400-800 A.D.). One collection contains over 130 roll-out photographs of Maya Vases. The other is a photographic journey through the classic Mayan site of Copan, located in Honduras. The author has provided photographs of the principal stelae and sculpture as well as the heiroglyphic inscriptions on the stelae.
Maya: Portraits of a People : McClung Museum, University of Tennessee
Selected artifacts from a museum exhibit site.
Read about the history and ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Tulum, located in what is today the Yucatan in Mexico. At the site you will find photographs of the ancient city of Tulum and its magnificent setting.
The community of Los Loros has started a museum of Mayan artifacts found in the area, pieces rescued from being sold to foreign collectors. There are well over 100 artifacts currently in the museum.
A collection of photographs and information about several Maya ceremonial centers from photographer and anthropologist Martin Gray. These include: the Monastery of Izamal, the Pyramid of Kulkulkan (Chichén Itzá), the Pyramid of the Magician (Uxmal), and the Temple of the Inscriptions (Palenque).
Photo essay based on the author's travels to the Yucatan. In addition to contemporary photogrphs of nine major Mayan sites (including Uxmal), the author has used original engravings, diagrams, and expedition photos from some of the earlier explorations of the area. There is also an interesting chart of the development of Mayan architecture.
A Precolumbian graphic arts web site which features the Maya cities of Yaxchilán, Bonampak, Piedras Negras, Palenque, and Pomoná (all of which are represented with photographs and in some cases drawings). There is also an excellent section with several animated drawings of Maya scenes *.
Precolumbian Art Research Institute > Recent Findings in Maya History
Contains results of much of the latest in Maya research including The Fate of Jaguar Paw Copán's Founder and Captor of a Palenque KingMaya Civilization > The Cities of the Maya with Photos : Mexico Connect
To read more about and see photographs of many of the Maya sitesMayan Ruins : Ken Goehring
An overview of Mayan architecture listed by architectural periods such as late classic, rio bec, and puuc.Trip to the Maya Ruins of Mexico : Phil Konstantin
Over 200 photographs of selected Mayan cities including Chichen Itza, Kabah, Uxmal, Labna, Xlapak and Sayil, and Palenque.
