Today was an exciting day in Applegarth. Dr Diane, the UK‘s only Maya Archeologist, visited us to share her experiences from the Guatemalan rainforest. She told us about finding her way through the dense foliage to be able to get to the sites her team were studying at. She talked about rainforest animals: the jaguar being a symbol in royalty, spider monkeys being pesky, throwing nuts at her and snakes in the toilet!
While on site in the Maya rainforest, Dr Diane, lives in a tent, with basic provisions. There is no electricity so meals usually consist of beans and rice. She explained that the nights are far from silent, that in fact some nights there are some quite ferocious sounds coming from howler monkeys.
Dr Diane’s walk to work is not without danger. She has to watch out for vipers and rattlesnakes and was saved by her friend when she was nearly attacked by one of them.
It was fascinating to find out what the Maya were capable of building. Some of the Maya pyramids were over 70m tall, built without the use of metal tools, the wheel or animals!
We learnt about stelae, pok-ta-tok (a Maya ball game that players only use elbows, knees and hips to score goals), chocolate (kings were buried with chocolate pots), art (including finding some art about a king dating from 100BC), writing and astronomy and their link to Star Wars and finally the calendar!
In our workshop we examined Maya artefacts thinking about what they were made from, what they were used for and who might have owned them. We also made a 52 year Calendar round.
Olivia was very excited to tell me about her day and everything that she had learnt today !
It’s fantastic to see the children getting the opportunity to interact with experts like Dr Diane and to do so many activities. I hope it inspires some more adventurous spirits!