Maya cities, society, writing, calendars, and mathematics during the medieval and early modern periods. Earlier American cultures retain Ancient Americas.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
The ancient Maya ruins of Tikal serve as the rebel base Yavin 4 in which sci-fi franchise?
George Lucas used Tikal's towering pyramids jutting above the jungle canopy in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope to depict the remote Rebel Alliance outpost.
The Maya Dresden Codex tracks the 584-day cycle of which planet?
Venus appears as both a morning star and an evening star, depending on where the planet lies in its orbit.
Maya codices were made from paper produced mainly from what material?
Scribes coated the bark paper with a white plaster layer to create a smooth surface for painting.
How many precolonial Maya codices are known to survive?
Spanish missionaries destroyed Maya books as pagan texts, helping explain why so few survive.
How were the pages of Maya codices arranged?
The folding format let readers open several pages side by side to compare the painted tables.
El Castillo's equinox shadows trace the body of which creature down its staircase?
Sloping terrace shadows link into a serpent's body that meets the snake head carved at the stair's base, honoring Kukulcán.
Which Maya structure at Chichén Itzá served as an observatory for Venus?
Caracol means "snail" in Spanish, after its spiral staircase; its windows align with Venus's most extreme risings.
Maya mathematics uses which base for counting and calendars?
Maya scribes wrote ones as dots and fives as bars, and their shell glyph stands for zero, invented before Europe's.
What name do scholars give the Maya's 260-day ritual calendar?
The Tzolk'in pairs 13 numbers with 20 named days, and its cycle still guides Maya ceremonies today.
Ancient Maya architects built Tikal's iconic towering pyramids to serve what primary role?
Maya pyramids functioned as monumental funerary temples for deceased kings, often built by adding new limestone layers over the tombs of earlier rulers.