Sunday I, Zeb the Duck and Soapy Smith Duck visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Sunday was the last day for the exhibit Maya:  Hidden Worlds Revealed, and our moms took us to see the exhibit. It was wonderful.

We liked this stela dedicated to the Quirigua’s most important king, K’ah’ Tiliw Chan Yo’at meaning, “Fire burning Celestial Lightning God.

By holding a jaguar headed throne made at the dawn of the universe, he aligns himself with the creative powers of the Maize God.  All the artifacts had signs explaining what we were seeing.  Quirigua is a Mayan site in southeast Guatemala.

This is a Mayan altar.

The altars commemorated important occasions and served as the settings for elaborate sacrifices, including human offerings, to the gods.

Throughout the exhibit, we watched short videos.  They were very interesting.

This artifact was displayed in a case.

The accompanying sign explains the importance of this statue.  Copan ruins are in western Honduras near the Guatemala border.

Did you know that the Mayan people invented the bouncing rubber ball?  They did. The Spaniards were so impressed with the bouncing ball and the games played that they took a ball team to Spain to perform for Spanish royalty.  The ball was made with liquid from the rubber tree.

To make a bouncing rubber ball, the Maya cooked latex from the rubber trees with juice from the morning glory vine.   Experts shaped the elastic mixture into spheres or pulled it into strips that they wound into balls.

This rubber ball is very heavy.  It weighs 8 pounds.

We also saw clothing, cooking utensils, knife blades, tombs and jewelry.  The Mayan exhibit has left Denver now and is going to Boston.  If this exhibit comes to your area, you would like to see it.  This was on the front of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Please go to any exhibit that comes to your town.  We see many of them and they are all very interesting.  You will enjoy visiting these exhibits.