1. The Mayans – A Different Global Pattern
Unit 5, Lesson 4:
The Mayans – A Different Global Pattern

2. Remember that AD is what we are now calling CE (Common Era).

3. Southern Mayan Cities

4. Han Dynasty - 206 BCE to 220 CE Roman Empire – 27 BCE to 476 CE
250 | 200 | 150 | 100 | 50 | 0 | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 | 300 | 350 | 400 | 450 | 500 CE
BCE
Han Dynasty BCE to 220 CE
Roman Empire – 27 BCE to 476 CE
Kushan Empire – 30 CE to 375 CE
Beginnings of Mayan Civilization 2000 BCE…………………………………………………..collapse by 900 CE

5. Turn and Talk:
What caused the Mayan civilization to collapse?
What do you think happened to the Mayan people when their civilization ended?

6. Chichen Itza's Kukulcan Temple
Turn and Talk:
What do these structures tell us about the Mayans? What resources and skills did they seem to have?

7. Turn and Talk:
What do these works of art tell us about the Mayans? What inferences can we make about their culture?

8. Doomsday 2012 Fact Sheet from NASA
Mayan Calendar: The Maya calendar, which is made up different cycles of day counts, does not end this year (2012). Rather, one cycle of 144,000 days (394 years) ends and the next cycle begins. Mayan Prophecy: The ancient Maya did not predict the end of the world or any disaster in December Such doomsday predictions are a modern hoax. Planet Nibiru: Nibiru is probably the minor name of a god found in ancient Mesopotamian writing. There is no planet named Nibiru, and the fictional books by economist Zecharia Sitchin about a civilization on this planet are a hoax. Rogue Planet Headed for Earth: For the past decade there have been reports of a rogue object (Planet X, or Nibiru, or Hercubolus, or even Comet Elenin) that will collide with Earth in December These claims are not true. If such a threatening world existed, it would be one of the brightest objects in the sky, and astronomers would have been tracking it for years. Planet Alignments: There is no alignment of planets in Dec There is an approximate lining up of the Earth and Sun and the center of our Galaxy in late December, but this happens every year. In any case, planet alignments have no effect on the Earth.
The End of the World: The Earth has been here for more than 4 billion years, and it will probably be several more billion years before the gradual brightening of the Sun makes our planet unlivable. While there have been numerous prophecies about the end of the world, obviously none have come to pass.

9. Possible Graphic Organizer Designs:
Mayan Society
Arts:
Architecture:
Planned cities
Pyramids
Possible Graphic Organizer Designs:
Areas of Mayan Society
Important Advances or Innovations
Mathematics
Agriculture

10. Empire Group of states Large geographic area
From Unit 4, Lesson 8
Empire
An empire is a group of states (organized societies) and peoples (ethnic groups) that span a large geographic area and are united and ruled by a central authority… either a monarch/emperor or an oligarchy (small group). Empires frequently use organized militaries to expand and maintain their territory, and they included different cultural and geographic regions.
Group of states
Large geographic area
United and ruled by a central authority
Organized military used to expand and hold territory
Territory includes different cultural and geographic regions

11. Geographic Luck:
Jared Diamond’s idea that some societies were in a better position to develop advanced civilizations than others because of their geography.
Diamond pointed out, for example, that the areas that developed agriculture first had the greatest number of large mammals that could be domesticated, as well as many more plants that could become main food crops.
The question of which peoples first developed more advanced societies then didn’t depend exclusively on the people, but also on their “geographic luck” and where they lived.

12. Major societies of the world in 100 CE

13. Mayans Rome and Han China
Mayans
Rome and Han China
Tools and technology
Metal only used for ornamentation (mainly gold); no iron
Use of wood, bone, and different stones for tools and weapons
No use of wheeled vehicles
 Bronze and then iron tools and weapons
Wheeled chariots and wagons
Cement
Transportation
 No large animals available for use in transportation
Developed system of paths and roads for trade, but all travel on foot
Use of small boats and rafts on waterways
 Range of large mammals (horses, oxen, camels, etc.)
Complex road systems
Roads paved with stone
A range of boats including larger ships
Government and military
 Several city-states with strong central rulers
No single authority over entire area
Warrior class / soldiers controlled by rulers of separate city-states
No large-scale conquest of peoples outside of Mayan area
 Strong central government with an emperor
Bureaucratic system to control outlying territories
Large, professional and centralized army under authority of emperor
Armies used to control and expand territory
Scientific and cultural advances
 Highly advanced in art and architecture with sculpture, written codices, pyramid building, organized sports
Developed knowledge of mathematics and astronomy
 Highly advanced in art and architecture with literature, sculpture, paining, monument building, public entertainment, etc.
Developed knowledge of engineering, astronomy, and medicine
Social hierarchy
 High degree of social hierarchy with political and religious leaders at the top and laborers at the bottom
Enemies enslaved and sometimes sacrificed
 High degree of social hierarchy with political leaders at the top and laborers at the bottom
In Rome, established system of slavery
In China, class of servants similar to slaves

14. Property of Oakland Schools
Authors: Stacie Woodward and Darin Stockdill
Editor: Amy Bloom
Academic Review: Ian Moyer