The American Journey © 2012

"The Maya World View"

Introduction
In this chapter you learned about the first Americans. As they developed civilizations across North and South America, these people created unique cultures. Each culture developed political and economic systems, as well as art, language, and spiritual beliefs. On this Web site you will learn more about the culture of the Maya through interpretations of their pottery.

Destination Title: Worldviews: Maya Ceramics from the Palmer Collection

Note: Clicking on the link above will launch a new browser window.
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• Click on the Introduction link, then scroll down and read the information on Maya Writing & Symbolism and Maya Civilization
.
• Use this information to answer the following questions.

1			Where was the Classic Maya civilization located?
2			What kinds of images appear on Maya ceramics?
3			Next, click on "The Cosmos" link. How do researchers know that the ceramics were actually used?
4			Which kind of ceramic is more likely to have images of the cosmos?
5			Using the description here and any information from the Web site as a whole, offer some reasons why certain kinds of ceramics contain specific images (such as the cosmos).