Revised Maya Lesson Plan for PowerPoint

THE MAYA
Classic Period 300-900 a.d.

Start the presentation with this: They were living in the Americas thousands of years before Columbus arrived. While Paris was still a village, they were carving great cities out of the jungle. They played a ball game for life and death. They planned their lives according to the movements of the stars. They are the people who say that the gods made them from corn. They are the Maya.

Middle School Lesson Plan for POWER POINT

OBJECTIVES

HISTORY: (Places an artwork in its art historical context.)
Students will examine the culture and history of the Maya, and will be able to identify the use and purpose of hieroglyphs in their culture and art.

CRITICISM: (Informed talk about art.)
Students will be able to explain how hieroglyphic motifs in Maya art create visual movement and rhythm.

AESTHETICS: (Questions the nature, value and beauty of art.)
Students will discuss the meaning and value of art created in another culture, and whether or not, knowledge of that culture is needed for the understanding and enjoyment of that art.

PRODUCTION: (Creating art.)
A hieroglyphic carving that showed visual movement and rhythm was created.


VOCABULARY

Note to volunteers: The vocabulary words will be in bold italics throughout the lesson. They will be defined within the text of the lesson and do not need to be presented separately.

Hieroglyphs: pictorial writing, which contains signs that represent either complete words, or syllables forming part of a word.

Movement: the effect or representation of motion. In order to direct a viewer’s gaze through a two or three-dimensional composition that is stationary an artist will use compositional movement. Compositional movement is generally used to direct a viewer to the focal area of the composition. Such movement can be directed along lines, edges, shapes, colors, etc., within the work.

Rhythm: the repetition of visual movement of the elements – colors, shapes, lines, values, forms, spaces, textures and lines. Visual rhythm is closely related to movement. Movement and rhythm work together to create the visual equivalent of a musical beat. Visual rhythm depends on the repetition of a motif such as the color green, or a certain texture, but is usually done with shapes. These motifs are depicted in a certain order or pattern which creates a rhythm. Changing the size, position, or direction of the repeated motifs and alternating the intervals between them can vary rhythms.

Motif: a basic design element that is repeated in a composition. A motif may be as simple as a dot, a square, a squiggle, a single color, or a line. Motifs can also be complex, for example, a complex shape or an intricate texture.


SLIDE LIST

No slides will be used for this presentation; the file named Mayan Culture.ppsx will be used – located on the Kingston flash drive.


INTRODUCTION

Slide #1 El Castillo/Pyramid of Kulkulkan, with map animation
The Pyramid of Kulkulkan (COOL-cool-can) is one of the most recognizable symbols of the Mayan Culture. It is located in the ancient ruins of the City of Chichen Itza (Chich-in-EET-za), on the Yucatan (YOU-ka-tan) peninsula of Mexico. Also referred to as El Castillo (el-cast-ee-o), it is over 80 feet high with nine terraces and four staircases (to represent the nine heavens and four cardinal points [north/south/east/west]). Each staircase has 91 steps for a total of 364 steps, if you count the step up to the summit platform there is one step for each day of the year. On top of the pyramid is the temple of Kulkulkan, the Serpent God of the Mayans.


Slide #2 Chichen Itza 300-900 a.d.
The Maya were living in Central America and Mexico thousands of years before Columbus arrived in the Americas. While Paris was still a village, they were carving great cities out of the jungle. They planned their lives according to the movements of the planets, stars and sun.


Slide #3 Chichen Itza Spring Equinox, with animation
The alignment of the pyramid was accurately planned to align with astronomical phenomena. At the spring equinox, the play of light and shadows formed by the pyramid on one of its staircases, and ending at the large serpent's head at the base of the staircase, shows the descent of the serpent god, Kulkulkán from his temple, a sign that it is time to plant the corn.


HISTORY

Slide #4 Caracol Observatory, Chichen Itza
The cosmology of the Maya was a living, religious philosophy that permeated their lives to a degree that might seem excessive to modern people. They were astute observers, sensitive to the cyclical nature of the sun, moon and planets. The Maya were corn farmers, so their lives were ruled by the rhythms of the natural world, planting and harvesting, birth and death. The lives they led were very precarious, sometimes teetering on the brink of starvation. They came to believe that the stars, planets and moon, were the ancestors and gods of their universe, coming from the Underworld after dark, and taking position in the night sky.
Maya astronomer-priests used observatories, shadow-casting devices, and observations of the horizon to trace the complex motions of the sun, the stars and planets in order to observe, calculate and record this information in their chronicles, or "codices".
FYI: From these observations, the Maya developed calendars to keep track of celestial movements and the passage of time. Of all the world's ancient calendar systems, the Maya and other Mesoamerican systems are the most complex, intricate and accurate. Calculations of the congruence of the 260-day and the 365-day Maya cycles are almost exactly equal to the actual solar year in the tropics, with only a 19-minute margin of error.
Certain positions of the stars and planets told them when to plant, when to harvest, when to go to war and when to make sacrifices and perform ceremonies that would please the gods and ensure their help. Many of the Maya temples and pyramids were astronomically aligned with the sun and Venus, and were used as observatories. The domed structure in this slide was an observatory. The Maya developed such a sophisticated mathematical system that they could track the movement of the planets in the night sky.

The planet Venus was particularly significant to the Maya; the important god Quetzalcoatl (ket-zul-co-OT-ul), for example, is identified with Venus. The Maya could track the planet to within 1 hour over a 500-year period. They used the position Venus to time their rituals, their sacrifices, and the precise times when they would conduct war.

Slide #5 Dresden Codex, Jade Carving, Glyphs Carved in Stucco at Palenque

When the Spanish encountered the Maya, they burned all their books because they looked evil. The Dresden Codex, one of four surviving Maya chronicles, contains an extensive tabulation of the appearances of Venus, and was used to predict the future.
We have learned to interpret nearly all of their language through these codices. The Maya’s greatest achievements were in mathematics and astronomy. The Maya precision in tracking the movements of the sky was not attainable in Europe until the time of Galileo, 1,000 years after the Maya.
They valued jade more than any other mineral and created elaborate carvings with no metal tools.
Hieroglyphs: pictorial writing, which contains signs that represent either complete words, or syllables forming part of a word.

The detail that they used to create these carvings as well as the hieroglyphs carved into the walls and recorded in their books shows us the complexity of a language that was one of only five original writing systems in the history of the world. The first major decipherment occurred in the 1950s with major advances occurring in the 1970s and 1980s. Today most Mayan texts can be read, although there are still some unknown glyphs.
Let the students know that the hieroglyphs are representative of the art project that we will be doing in the production.

Slide #6 Overview of the Ball Court at Chichen Itza

One of the most sacred rituals performed by the Maya was the ballgame. It was a game that often resulted in the ritual beheading of the defeated team. The defeated team had been captured in war. In fact, the Maya went to war for the express purpose of capturing people for sacrifice. The wars usually involved a small number of people…most often, high ranking and elite people. The more important the captive was, the better and more pleasing the sacrifice to the gods.

Slide #7 Ball Court at Chichen Itza, Ring and Viewing area

The object of the ball game seemed to be to keep the ball in motion. The ball was a metaphor for the movement of the sun, also by extension, the moon and stars. The regular movement of the ball ensured the regular movement of the sun and stars. The Maya thought that if they played the game in the right way, and honored the gods in the right way, they would ensure the agricultural cycle and would enable the sun to rise and the rains to come on time and to ensure a bountiful harvest. When the winner was finally determined, and the victims were killed, it was their blood that would keep the sun in perpetual motion. This elaborate system, of ceremony, ritual and sacrifice, secured power for the kings and the ruling elite in the Maya world.

Slide #8 Detail of Ring at Ball Court
The rings at Chichen Itza were 6 meters high (18 feet off the ground). Since arms or hands could not be used to propel the ball (only chest, hips and legs), the ball through the ring signified a decisive victory.


Slide #9 Stone Carvings, Ball Court at Chichen Itza, with animation
Even though some of the carvings are no longer intact, we can see that this scene represented the end of a ball game. The captain of the winning team holds an ear of corn as well as the decapitated head of the losing team captain, representing victory at the harvest.

Slide #10 Stone Carvings, Ball Court at Chichen Itza, with animation
The body of the losing captain is displayed with blood from the body represented as seven snakes that feed the earth to ensure a good planting. The following carving shows the snakes flowing into vines and flowering plants.

Slide #11 Eagle eating heart of sacrificial victim, Platform of Skulls, animation

The Maya believed that the gods guided the Sun and Moon across the sky. Even in the darkness of night, the Maya believed that the Sun and Moon continued to journey through the Underworld, threatened all the way by evil gods who wanted to stop their progress. For this reason, the Maya believed that the heavenly bodies needed human help, which was provided through sacred rituals. To the Maya, offering this help was simply the price to be paid for the continued survival of the universe. Death from such rituals was a privilege, and conferred immortality on those who died, or who offered themselves as victims. The eagle was considered the predator of the sky and was considered sacred. It watched over the Sun and Moon in the day to protect them from evil spirits. Here the eagle is being fed a sacrificial heart to give it strength to protect the Sun and Moon.
Slide #12 Jaguar eating heart of sacrificial victim, Platform of Skulls, animation
The Maya observed the jaguar’s strength and formed the belief that it was able to combat evil spirits. Jaguars were also believed to have the ability to move between the human world and spirit world because they were comfortable in both the trees and water, and their habit of hunting during the day as well as the night. The living and the earth were associated with the day while the spirit world and the ancestors were associated with the night. They also slept in caves, places often associated with the deceased ancestors. Since jaguars were comfortable at night, Mayan gods with jaguar attributes were considered underworld gods. Here the jaguar is being fed a sacrificial heart to give it strength.

Slide #13 Platform of Skulls, Chichen Itza
This platform was near the ball court and the skulls of sacrificial victims were placed here to warn the evil spirits that their presence would not be tolerated. The skulls carved onto this 8 ft tall platform are a perfect example of the use of a motif.

Motif: a basic design element that is repeated in a composition. A motif may be as simple as a dot, a square, a squiggle, a single color, or a line. Motifs can also be complex, for example, a complex shape or an intricate texture.

Slide #14 Buildings decorated with Chak Mool
The Mayans repeatedly decorated their buildings with Chak Mool (shock-MOOL) motifs, which included wide set eyes, a curly protruding nose and a gaping jaw. Chak Mool was the God of Rain and Lightning, and by placing these motifs all over their architecture they were hoping to gain favor with the God during the February through May months of drought.

Slide #15 The Nunnery, with animation
The nunnery (so called by the Spanish Explorers) – has a lattice motif on the roof comb, complete with chak (shock) masks and an undulating serpent along the cornice. The façade (fa-SAWED) is completely covered with several rain god masks with a central richly clad human figure over the doorway. From a distance, however, the whole building is a chak mask with the human figure above the doorway being the nose and the doorway as the mouth of the mask.

Artists make your eyes move around an artwork with a device called visual movement. Artists create this movement by directing your eye along lines, edges, shapes, colors, etc., within the artwork. As you look at the undulating serpent you experience something more than just visual movement – you also experienced something called visual rhythm. Movement and rhythm work together to create the visual equivalent of a musical beat. Rhythm depends on repeating a motif or a design unit. A motif might be the color green or a line, but in this case it was the similar shape and size of the hieroglyphs. The motif was depicted in a certain order or pattern which created a rhythm. Rhythms can be varied, by changing the size, position, or direction of the repeated motifs and alternating the intervals between them.

Slide #16, Lintel 24, 43” x 30” Yaxchilan (yah-SHIL-on), British Museum, with animation
Lintel (or carving) was commissioned by Lady Xoc (chalk), first wife of King Shield Jaguar II. This lintel displays the ritual bloodletting that the king and queen would perform on special occasions. By pulling the rope studded with obsidian shards through her tongue, she causes blood to drip onto paper strips held in a woven basket to be burned as depicted on Lintel 25. Note the depiction of the Sun God of the Queen’s clothing.

FYI Additional detail: The king’s hair is pulled back with Quetzal (ket-zul) feathers (indicating that he will also let blood in this ceremony) in Yaxchilan (yah–SHIL-on). Attached to his head band is what appears to be a representation of the Jester Mask. The jester mask is considered analogous to the glyph for kingship, ajaw, and is named so for the vegetation often depicted coming from the crown of it. Since the rest of the costume is depicted without much abstraction, it is suggested that Maya kings may have literally attached a shrunken head to their head band as a representation of power. He is shown wearing a pectoral with a representation of the sun god depicted. It is strung from a jade bead necklace that is counter balanced by a long strand of jade beads and what are probably carved shells going down his back. The artist was careful to show such minute details as the strings that are tied to hold on the wrist cuffs worn by both royals, and the pattern woven on Shield Jaguar’s beautiful cape. The queen also wears an elaborate headdress. There are flower tassels on the main part of the head band and a mosaic depiction of Tlaloc sprouting quetzal feathers. Her elaborately carved huipil is trimmed with fringe and pearls. Her necklace also appears to have a pectoral depiction of the sun god. It is probably made of shell or jade plaques, as are her wrist cuffs.


Slide #17, Lintel 25, 51” x 34” Yaxchilan, British Museum,
The Maya would then burn the paper strips that contained the blood of the sacrifice. The Maya believed that they could see a vision serpent rising in the smoke from the burning paper. The vision serpent opened a doorway to the gods and ancestors, so that the beings of the Underworld could come into this world and commune with the Maya rulers.

This is another stone lintel, showing the same royal wife we saw in the last slide. Here she holds the bowl filled with the blood-spattered papers. Below, the papers are placed in preparation for burning. A serpent rises with the smoke, bringing the vision of a warrior-ancestor (the founder of the dynasty) from the watery Underworld.


CRITICISM

Slide #18 Temple of the Warriors, 1960s aerial photo
Slide #19 Temple of the Warriors, 2008 photo
Slide #20 Temple of the Warriors, closeup of Chak Mool with animation

Sensory Properties: (What do you see?)
Remember that a motif is a basic design element like a color, shape or line that is repeated. What are some of the motifs you see in this pyramid? (The stone pillars, the tiers of the pyramid, the steps on the stairway, the bricks on the face of the pyramid.)


Formal Properties: (How is it arranged?)
Do the motifs create a regular, predictable rhythm? (Yes.)
What could the builders of this pyramid have done to create a rhythm that wasn’t so predictable or regular? (Varied the size and spacing and any of the motifs.)

Technical Properties: (What media, tools and techniques were used?)
When building their pyramids the Maya never used the wheel – to them the wheel, was sacred. Do you think this would have made construction more difficult? (Yes, everything had to be carried by hand or by animal. Stones weighing up to 2,000 pounds could not be transported on carts.)
Stones for building were quarried by hand, using stone tools – how long do you think it might have taken the Maya to build a temple like this one? (Years and years – no one knows for sure.)


Expressive Properties: (What mood or idea does it express?)
Does the fact that human sacrifices took place here change the way you look at this architectural achievement?
To the Maya, blood sacrifice was part of their lives and religion. They felt that the people who were sacrificed would be reborn – death was just part of the cycle of death and rebirth. Do you think of Maya art in a different way, knowing what their religious and cultural beliefs were?


AESTHETICS

Note to volunteers: These questions are meant to be open-ended; there is no right or wrong answer.

When we look at Maya art, we are looking at books, buildings, paintings, and carvings that were produced for religious and documentary purposes – the Maya didn’t intend for these things to be viewed as “art.”

1. How important is it to understanding the background about an artwork, such as when and where and by whom it was made?
2. Does the meaning of an artwork change when it is viewed in another culture?
3. Can something be art in one culture and not art in another?



Slide #21 Stela D, King 18-Rabbit in the guise of an old God
In Closing: By documenting their history, and the history of their ancestors, the Maya kings were telling the people they ruled of their power, their connection to the gods, and their right to rule. What we know today of the Maya, we have learned through their hieroglyphic histories – in today’s world we call what they created “art.” During the centuries that the Maya created all of their amazing monuments, vases and books, they never thought of their work as art. To the Maya, these works were a part of their religion and everyday lives. Nevertheless, they have left behind an amazing and rich history.


PRODUCTION

Spackle Hieroglyphics
Materials:
Quick-dry, lightweight wall spackle – available at paint and hardware stores –
a container of 8 fl. oz. will cover about 20 matboards
Matboard – 5 x 5”
Gray (multiple shades of gray), white and black acrylic paint – available at craft stores – Ceramcoat and Americana -
Sponge brushes
Plastic palette/putty knife – available at paint or craft stores
Bamboo skewer, nail, or other pointed tool
Pencil
Water container
Paper towels

Directions:
Some brands of quick-dry wall spackle are more crumbly than others. All tend to be a little difficult to spread smoothly over a surface. To make the spackle smoother and easier to spread, mix some gray acrylic paint with the spackle. 1-2 tablespoons of gray acrylic paint would be enough to mix into an 8 fl. oz. container of spackle.
Spread the spackle/paint mixture onto the surface of the matboard, covering the entire surface. The layer of spackle/paint should be about 1/16” to 1/8” thick.
Allow the spackle to dry.
Using a pointed tool (nail or bamboo skewer), carve or engrave into the surface of the spackle. If desired, a design can be lightly drawn onto the surface of the spackle with a pencil before carving.
When carving or engraving the surface, try to make the lines deep enough to reach to the matboard. It is easier to do several strokes to deepen the lines rather than trying to do this with one stroke.
When the design is completely carved or engraved, paint over the lines with watered black acrylic paint. Use a sponge brush, making sure that all of the design lines are filled in with black paint. Do not worry about getting the black paint onto the surface areas of the spackle – you will be painting over the surface again with gray paint.
Using different shades of gray acrylic paint and a sponge brush, dry brush the paint over the entire surface of the spackle. Do not add water to the gray paint. Brush lightly across the top of the design as you do not want the gray paint to sink into the carved lines.
Repeat step #7 using lighter shades of gray and white until you have built up a textured surface that covers the black paint on the surface but leaves the black in the carved lines of the design.
FYI - Fun Facts
During 1,000 years of observing the revolution of the planet Venus, which is completed in 583.92 days, Maya astronomers calculated the length of the Venusian year as 584 days.
Maya astronomers could make difficult calculations, such as finding the day of the week of a particular calendar date many thousands of years in the past or in the future.
The Maya could predict solar and lunar eclipses.
The Maya used the concept of zero, an extremely advanced mathematical concept.
The Maya used only three symbols to write any number. The dot represented a unit of 1. A bar represented a unit of 5. A football or shell shape represented 0.
The Maya counting system was based on the number 20 – fingers and toes, whereas the number system we are familiar with is based on the number 10.
The Maya would bind a newborn infant’s head between two boards for several days. This pressure was sufficient to reshape the skull on a permanent basis, leaving it elongated and backswept. It is thought that this was done to make the head resemble an ear of corn, the Maya staple crop and the substance, from which they believed, all humankind was originally created.
The Maya found a slight degree of cross-eyedness attractive. To achieve this they would hang a ball of resin so that it fell between their children’s eyes, in the hope that this would bring about the desired effect.
The Maya inlaid their teeth with pyrite, obsidian, or jade. They also filed their incisor teeth to a point. Ears, noses and lips were pierced to accommodate jewelry made from jade, shells, wood, etc.
The Maya often tattooed their bodies.
The Maya considered jaguar pelts to be the finest in dress wear.
The Maya did not value gold, to them, jade was priceless.
The Maya used cacao beans (chocolate) as a form of currency.
Maya hieroglyphs are one of only five original writing systems in the history of the world.
The Maya built their cities and pyramids without using the wheel. Although they had knowledge of the wheel, they considered it sacred.
The Maya were not a western culture and looked at death in a way that is very different from our views. To them, death was a part of life and rebirth and they did not fear it – rather they embraced and lived with death. When family members died, they were placed under the floor of the family’s house, so they would be close to the people who cared about them. Often they buried more than one family member in one space. The elite were buried in tombs.
The Maya built their cities to replicate the sacred geography of their world. The pyramids were the “mountains” - a group of pyramids, a range of mountains. The stelae (stone pillars) were symbolic of the tropical forests. Temple doors were symbolic of the entrance to caves that were thought to be the entrances to the Underworld.
The Maya considered their temples and pyramids to be sacred and extremely powerful spaces. The passage of time increased this power and sacredness. The Maya would build their temples one on top of another. They would collapse the upper levels of an existing structure, encase what was left with heavy fill and build a new structure around it. Some of the great pyramids have several smaller pyramids and temples underneath them.
Early (pre-Classic) Maya civilization dates from 1500 b.c – 250 a.d. Classic Maya civilization dates from 250 a.d. – 900 a.d. Post Classic Maya civilization dates from 900 a.d. – 1500 a.d.

Melody Ball/2004
Joanna Wilbur/2009