In which part of the world did the Maya civilisation develop?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
The Maya area runs from Chiapas and the Yucatan peninsula down through the Peten and Belize into western Honduras, taking in both dry limestone plain and wet lowland forest.
Which stepped pyramid dominates the main plaza at Chichen Itza in Yucatan?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Also called the Temple of Kukulkan, it has nine terraces and four stairways of 91 steps, which with the top platform come to 365.
Which crop was the staple of the Maya diet?
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It was soaked in lime water before grinding, a treatment that softens the grain and releases nutrients the body could not otherwise take from it.
What kind of landscape did the great lowland Maya cities of the Peten stand in?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
The forest closed over the cities after they were abandoned, which is why so many were mapped only in the last century and why survey still relies on aerial laser scanning.
What is a Maya stela?
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They were set up in plazas, often in rows, and the portrait of the ruler is usually paired with a column of glyphs giving the exact day the monument marks.
The great Maya site of Tikal lies in which modern country?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
It stands in the forest of the northern Peten department, and its tallest temple rises more than 60 metres above the plaza floor.
In the Maya ball game, players mainly struck the ball with what?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
The rubber ball was solid and heavy, so players wore thick belts and yokes and kept it moving off the body rather than catching or throwing it.
What kind of signs did Maya writing use?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
A single block can combine a sign for a whole word with signs for syllables that spell it out, which is why the script resisted reading for so long.
What were the sacbeob of the Maya lowlands?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Rubble cores faced with cut stone and surfaced in white plaster, some ran for tens of kilometres between cities and were raised well above the wet-season flood.
What is a cenote, the feature that made settlement possible across northern Yucatan?
Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Northern Yucatan has almost no surface rivers, so where the limestone roof has fallen in and exposed the water beneath, towns grew up around the hole.
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