The Maya: city-states, a calendar, writing, and mathematics with zero

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   The Maya world (cards A to D; summaries in our words). Card A, a map note: the Maya homeland covers today's southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras and El Salvador. It was not one empire. Each large city, such as Tikal, was a city-state with its own ruler. Card B, Tikal and its monuments: Tikal, in the rainforest of northern Guatemala, was one of the largest cities of the Classic period, which lasted from about 250 CE to about 900 CE. Tikal's rulers raised carved stone monuments that show dates in the Long Count, a system for counting days. Card C, a farming note: Maya farmers grew maize, beans, squashes and chili peppers. Extra food from the farms fed the people in the cities who built temples and carved monuments. Card D, then and now: many cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned in the 800s CE, while some cities in the north of the Yucatán Peninsula stayed active. Millions of Maya people live today in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, and many speak Maya languages.

2. 1.

   Card B says Tikal's rulers raised carved monuments. Ari asks who made them, and for whom.

   • A distant emperor, who ordered each Maya city to raise the same kind of monument
   • Spanish priests who visited Tikal long after the rulers were gone, to describe what was there
   • Maya farmers, who carved them each year to record the size of the maize harvest
   • Tikal's own rulers ordered them, so people in the city could see the rulers' dates and deeds
3. 2.

   A student writes, "The Maya were one empire ruled from Tikal." Which card challenges that most directly, Bo asks?

   • Card D, which says cities were abandoned, so the empire must have fallen
   • Card A, which says each large city was a city-state with its own ruler
   • Card B, which says Tikal was one of the largest cities, so it ruled the others
   • Card C, which says Maya farmers grew maize, beans, squashes and chili peppers
4. 3.

   Card B dates the Classic period from about 250 CE to about 900 CE. About how many years did it last, Esme asks?

   • About 1,150 years, since 900 plus 250 is 1,150
   • About 650 years, since 900 minus 250 is 650
   • About 1,100 years, counted from 900 CE to the year 2000
   • About 6,500 years, since 900 minus 250 is 6,500
5. 4.

   Card C links farms and cities. Which chain of causes does it support, Jun asks?

   • Carved monuments with dates made the farms grow more maize each year than before
   • Trade in chili peppers paid for stone, so farmers built the temples with that money
   • Cities raised temples first, and then rulers taught nearby farmers to grow maize and beans on the land around the city
   • Farms made extra food, which fed builders and carvers, so cities could raise temples and monuments
6. 5.

   Tikal's rulers carved monuments about their own deeds. What does that mean for learning about farmers' lives, Kira asks?

   • The monuments tell the full story of the city, because rulers knew their city well
   • The monuments were made by rulers to show their own deeds, so they say little about farmers
   • The monuments show how many farmers grew maize near each city in each year
   • The monuments are useless, because rulers carved untrue things on stone to make themselves look good
7. 6.

   Card B says the Classic period began about 250 CE. About how many years ago was that, counting to 2026, Milo asks?

   • About 17,800 years ago, since 2026 minus 250 is 17,776
   • About 1,100 years ago, the time since the southern cities were abandoned
   • About 1,800 years ago, since 2026 minus 250 is 1,776
   • About 2,276 years ago, since 2026 plus 250 is 2,276
8. 7.

   Tikal's rulers put dates on public monuments. What purpose does that suggest, Noah asks?

   • To make their deeds a public record that people in the city could see and remember
   • To give farmers a calendar telling them when to plant maize in each season of the year
   • To help archaeologists in later centuries find the city again after it was left
   • To hide their deeds, since few people in the city could read the carved dates
9. 8.

   Using card D, which statement shows both change and continuity, Ren asks?

   • Some northern cities were abandoned in the 800s, while the southern cities stayed active
   • Many southern cities were abandoned in the 800s, yet Maya people and languages continue today
   • Each Maya city was abandoned in the 800s, so Maya culture came to an end then
   • Maya people moved away in the 800s, and Maya languages are spoken just in northern Yucatán today
10. 9.

    Which new find would best test card C's idea that extra farm food supported city builders, Tala asks?

    • Large storage buildings near a city that held the remains of stored maize
    • A carved monument naming a ruler's birthday and the day of a festival in the city
    • A modern book that repeats card C in new words for students who study the Maya
    • A list of chili pepper recipes that was written in the 1900s by cooks in Mexico
11. 10.

    Card A says the Maya were many city-states. Why does that matter when Zee reads, "The Maya did this"?

    • The Maya cities did the same things, since they shared one culture and one calendar across the region
    • Nothing can be said about the Maya as a group, since no two cities were alike
    • Tikal can stand for the other Maya cities, since it was among the largest
    • Different city-states may have done different things, so a claim about the Maya needs checking