MAYA QUEST
NOTE: Save all your work to your directory… DO NOT PRINT anything!
Before the historic expeditions of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederic Catherwood in the mid 1800’s few people outside of Mexico and Central America were aware of Maya Civilization and the fact that there were ancient ruins.
PART I: Read the following Journal excerpts from their travels, look at the maps and then click on the sites to see the photographs. Then write a 2-3 sentence response about each entry. (What did you find interesting? What did you learn? How would you have felt to be there? Or any other ideas that you thought about.)
Response:
Response:
Response:
PART 2: Maya ruins are very interesting to look at. To see photos of ruins before excavation and after look at this site: Search for the Lost Cave People. The pictures from the Palaneque palace relate to the information we read in class. The pictures of Copan will be seen in the video will watch later.
Assignment:
You are a scholar-adventurer, such as Indiana Jones or Stephens or Catherwood, on a quest for knowledge, fame or fortune. You have discovered a Maya ruin that no one else has seen. Write a journal entry about your discovery. Write about what happened to you in the process of finding a lost Mayan city?
Include some or all of the following:
When, where, and how are you traveling?
What is the purpose of your trip?
What are the geographic conditions? (jungle, mountains, etc)
What is the ruin like?
What difficulties or dangers did you encounter?
Write one page, font size 12, include a date.
DIARY FOR:
ASSIGNMENT 3:
You will design a movie poster, using the computer, for an adventure movie based on the memoirs of Stephens and Catherwood. Which actors will play the main parts? What challenges will they face?
Before you start answer the following:
What is the title of the movie?
What images will you feature on the poster?
What other words will you put on the poster?
How will the poster make people want to see the movie?
What computer program are you going to use?
Painter 6
Front Page
MS Word
Power Point
Other
Now, design your poster on a one page document. Save often.
Links
Hieroglyphs and
History at Copán
http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/Copan/text.html
On
Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology Web site, read a detailed
guide to Copán by Professor David Stuart (he of Tour Copán with David
Stuart). Also, view a remarkable QTVR of Copán's Altar Q, a copy of which
is on exhibit at the museum.
Maya Adventure
http://www.sci.mus.mn.us/sln/ma/top.html
The
Science Museum of Minnesota's Maya Web site provides science activities and
information related to ancient and modern Maya culture. Participate in a
hands-on activity demonstrating how the ancient Maya etched limestone using
organic dissolvers. Also, take an interactive tour through the ruins of the
ancient Maya world, replete with photographs from the museum's Maya archive.
The Mayan Epigraphic Database Project
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/med/home.html
This
networked scholarship Web site offers a wealth of information on Mayan language
for anyone interested in linguistics. Even if you're a linguistic layman and
don't quite know your phonemes from your morphemes, this site contains plenty
of pages that will interest you, including an archive of digitally transcribed
Mayan texts.
Collapse: Why do Civilizations Fall?
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse
If
you're interested in learning more about ancient fallen civilizations, visit
this fun, cleverly presented Web site provided by Annenberg/CPB. The site
contains dozens of pages on the Maya as well as the lost cultures of
Mesopotamia, Chaco Canyon, Mali, Songhai, and more. The site also offers an
interactive game that puts you in the role of a detective charged with the task
of finding out why these civilizations crumbled.
Mexico Connect
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/ldumois/maya/ldmayacity.html
To
read more about and see photographs of many of the Maya sites described in Map of the Maya World
as well as several not covered there, visit this Web site.