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Task 1

All About Mayan Culture

by Ariam

Hope you enjoy:)

Task 2

Mayan Buidings And Skilled Builders

The Maya were an advanced society that flourished in Mesoamerica long before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. They were skilled architects, building great cities of stone that remain even a thousand years after their civilization fell into decline. The Maya built pyramids, temples, palaces, walls, residences and more. They often decorated their buildings with intricate stone carvings, stucco statues, and paint.Today, Maya architecture is important, as it is one of the few aspects of Maya life that is still available for study.

Nobody knows where they came from, but about 2,400 years ago, a new tribe of people appeared in Central America. They settled in the rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula. They were called the Maya Indians. They were very clever people. They set about making cities in the rainforest. They did not use metal tools. They used stone tools, wood tools, and tools made from shells. They were skilled builders. They built palaces, temples, pyramids, walls, homes. They built hundreds of beautiful cities.

Task 3

Where did they live?

The ancient Mayans lived in what is now known as southern Mexico and northern Central America including Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Yucatán Peninsula and El Salvador around 2600 B.C. Their descendants still live there today, and many of them speak the Mayan languages.

Task 4

Mayan Education

In the ancient Maya society, there was a special class of priest whose job was to teach the children of the nobles. That priest, or group of priests, taught math, science, astronomy, medicine, writing, and other subjects.

But there was no formal school for the children of commoners. Most people in the Maya Empire were farmers. The job of a child was to help their parents. By the time a child turned 4 or 5, they were given daily jobs to do, so they would learn how to be a farmer or a farmer's wife. If a parent had a specialized profession, such as a artist, the boys learned that skill, even if they had no talent for it. Girls learned from their mothers and boys from their fathers, whatever their job. As time went on, children were given more difficult tasks. By the time they were 15, they were considered an adult and fully trained for their life's work.

Task 5

Maya City-States

The cities were connected with well built roads that ran through the rainforests and jungles on the Yucatan Peninsula. Every city had a ball court, at last one and usually more than one temple, and a central plaza. Each city was a center of learning and religion. Each city had its own ruling family. The Maya city-states never unified. Like the ancient Greek city-states, the Maya cities often went to war with each other. Some historians believe they were almost always at war with someone.

Task 6

A Mayan Mystery

By 900 CE, the Maya cities were mostly deserted. Some people remained, and their descendants still live in Central America today. But without enough people to take care of them, the great Maya cities fell into ruin. That's why the Maya are called "the mysterious Maya" - nobody knows where they came from, and nobody knows what happened to them. It is a history mystery.

Task 7

Maya Beauty

To become an attractive person in the ancient Maya world, you would want your forehead to slant backwards, your eyes to be slightly crossed, your nose appear broken, your ears and nose and lips pierced, your teeth filed into patterns, and your body tattooed and painted.

To achieve this perfect look, you could not wait until you were an adult. You had to start your beauty process as an infant. To get that slanted forehead look, when you were a baby and your head was still soft, a board would be fastened flat to your forehead. This forced your head to deform with a slant towards the back of your head. Within a few days, the job was done and your forehead would be slanted back for the rest of your life.

Task 8

10 Intersting Facts About The Mayans

1. It is believed that millions of Mayans populated South America before Spanish exploiters arrived here. Each large city here had more than 100,000 inhabitants.

2. Mayans had over 30 closely related languages and dialects.

3. The locations in which Maya people lived include eastern and southern Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and western Honduras.

4. This impressive civilization existed for more than 2,000 years, during which Mayan built massive stone pyramids, temples and sculptures.

5. They developed their own writing system, using hieroglyphs.

6. Mayan had a functional agricultural system, but also independent city-states.

7. One of the most popular drinks among Maya people is the blache. The beverage is made from fermented honey mixed with the bark of the blache tree.

8. The Mayan art work is still considered to be one of the most sophisticated and appreciated forms of art in history. However, their best art work is believed to come in the form of architecture. Mayan architecture is absolutely spectacular.

9. Mayans used sweat baths to purify their body. These baths were a type of saunas, but they were very important in common belief.

10. Mayans named their children based on the day in which they were born. Each day of the Mayan Calendar had a specific name for both boys and girls, which parents always used.

Task 9

Hope you enjoyed.

P.S. if you would like to find out more go on http://mayas.mrdonn.org/dailylife.html or search Daily Life - The Maya Empire for Kids - Mr. Donn Mayas.

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