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What It Was Like to be … (3) – What it was like to be an Ancient Maya
Embark on a captivating exploration into the rise and fall of the rich and colourful Maya civilisation with Blue Peter Award-winning author David Long.
Largely forgotten for centuries, the ancient Maya were incredible. Their cities across Central and South America featured astonishing pyramids and palaces, while they were also successful farmers and highly creative artists. The Maya were the first people in the Americas to learn how to read and write, and they invented things like rubber, chocolate and chewing gum. They had a deep understanding of astronomy, mathematics and timekeeping, though they also had some horrible, bloodthirsty traditions such as making human sacrifices. Find out what life as an Ancient Maya was actually like while also investigating why this mysterious civilisation was close to dying out when the region was conquered by Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
Largely forgotten for centuries, the ancient Maya were incredible. Their cities across Central and South America featured astonishing pyramids and palaces, while they were also successful farmers and highly creative artists. The Maya were the first people in the Americas to learn how to read and write, and they invented things like rubber, chocolate and chewing gum. They had a deep understanding of astronomy, mathematics and timekeeping, though they also had some horrible, bloodthirsty traditions such as making human sacrifices. Find out what life as an Ancient Maya was actually like while also investigating why this mysterious civilisation was close to dying out when the region was conquered by Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
96 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 9, 2024
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April 15, 2024
I just love David Long's books for Barrington Stoke. I have been lucky enough to read the Roman and Viking book in this series but also Everest, Tutankhamun's Treasure and Tragedy at Sea:The Sinking of the Titanic and they are all quite brilliantly written. Thank you to Poppy at Barrington Stoke for this early copy, it is out on 9th May.
The 'What it was like' series features a different part of life for each section - almost a chapter about that area. Stefano Tambellini has beautifully illustrated all David's books bringing the words to a visual for those learners who find it difficult to imagine.
Ancient Maya? Well, I certainly learnt a lot! They're pretty blood thirsty and not very tolerant of each other. Sacrifices were part of their religion and these included children (boys mostly), women were seen as not very worthwhile and just looked after the house and garden. Although there were a few female rulers.
They were however, like many Ancient civilisations, very clever. They read and wrote using pictures rather like the Egyptians, were mathematicians who devised clocks system based on the moon and understood the number of days as we do. They built pyramids, a sophisticated system for watering crops and caves for use as reservoirs. They were able to clean the water for drinking and use tree sap for filling holes in teeth!
But the end of the Maya came...nobody can quite agree on why but several factors are taken into account.
The 'What it was like' series features a different part of life for each section - almost a chapter about that area. Stefano Tambellini has beautifully illustrated all David's books bringing the words to a visual for those learners who find it difficult to imagine.
Ancient Maya? Well, I certainly learnt a lot! They're pretty blood thirsty and not very tolerant of each other. Sacrifices were part of their religion and these included children (boys mostly), women were seen as not very worthwhile and just looked after the house and garden. Although there were a few female rulers.
They were however, like many Ancient civilisations, very clever. They read and wrote using pictures rather like the Egyptians, were mathematicians who devised clocks system based on the moon and understood the number of days as we do. They built pyramids, a sophisticated system for watering crops and caves for use as reservoirs. They were able to clean the water for drinking and use tree sap for filling holes in teeth!
But the end of the Maya came...nobody can quite agree on why but several factors are taken into account.
Displaying 1 of 1 review