Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Krijnauw, and welcome to this history lesson about non-European societies.

In this lesson, we will walk in the shoes of a group of intrepid archaeologists to uncover the mysteries of the Copan tomb.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe what archaeologists found at the Copan tomb, and it is my job to support you with the learning materials and resources of this lesson.

Before we start the lesson, there are some keywords I would like to introduce you to.

These keywords will come up during the lesson, so if you would like to, you can make a note of these and refer back to your notes when we encounter them in the lesson.

The words are: Honduras, cinnabar, offering.

Let's find out what the words mean.

Honduras.

Honduras is a country in Central America.

Cinnabar.

Cinnabar is a bright red mineral made of mercury, which is a shiny liquid metal, and sulphur, which is a yellow chemical.

Offering.

An offering is something that is given to a god as part of a religious ceremony.

Today's lesson about the mysteries of the Copan tomb has two learning cycles, and the first one is entitled The discovery of a tomb.

In Central America, between North and South America, is a country called Honduras, and in Honduras there is an ancient city called Copan.

Let's check for understanding.

Where is the ancient city of Copan located? A, Mexico; B, South America; C, in Honduras, a country in Central America.

The answer is C, Copan is located in Honduras, a country in Central America.

Now imagine that you are an archaeologist working on an archaeological dig in the western part of Honduras.

You and your team are in Copan, an ancient city close to the border with Guatemala.

The ancient Copan is well known to local inhabitants for its impressive architecture, intricate sculptures, and rich cultural history.

Copan is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means that it is a place on Earth that has outstanding universal value to humanity.

The site has also been documented in historical records since 1570.

The climate in this region is hot and tropical.

And as you admire the lush tropical vegetation, the rolling hills and river valleys, one of your colleagues gasps, for what they have unearthed is something extraordinary, something magnificent, something quite unexpected, a tomb, an underground burial chamber buried deep in the heart of the vast fortress of the archaeological site.

Well, this is exactly what happened to a team of archaeologists in 1993.

They made a remarkable discovery while on a dig in Copan.

They discovered a magnificent tomb, one underground burial chamber that had been sealed and untouched for over a thousand years.

This captivating tomb, with its intricate network of chambers and passages, held secrets that unveiled a rich tapestry of the ancient civilization.

Let's take a moment to check for understanding.

Explain to your learning partner what you think a tomb is.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready to reflect on the answer, press play.

Well, your answer could include the following.

A tomb is an underground burial chamber, or a tomb is a place that has been built to bury someone who has died.

Well done if your answers are similar to these.

The tomb that the archaeologists revealed in Copan in 1993 was truly extraordinary.

They soon realised that it was a multi-chambered tomb, which means that it had more than one room.

The tomb had an upper chamber, a lower burial chamber, and a curved staircase that connected the two chambers.

Inside the tomb, they found the remains of a person.

In other words, the physical remnants of an individual's body after they had died, such as the skeleton.

The remains were covered in cinnabar, which is a bright red mineral.

Historians think that the red colour might have symbolised life, and they possibly used it to suggest blood, which is the evidence of life.

The remains were also surrounded by shells and jade ornaments.

Jade is a green ornamental rock often used in jewellery, and it might have symbolised rebirth.

The archaeologists also found burnt offerings.

These were gifts given to the gods as part of a religious ceremony.

There was a collection of ceramic containers with the burned remains of tiny fish, for example, minnow, birds, including turkeys, and turtles.

The animals may have had symbolic importance.

Birds might have been associated with the heavens and the world of the gods.

Turtles with their long lifespans and association with water were seen as symbols of living a long, healthy life and the underworld.

Fish, which are plentiful in lakes and rivers, symbolised fertility and abundance and having more than enough of everything that the people needed to be happy.

There were also other offerings, such as a painted basket, bone needles, two small grinding stones, jade mosaic mother-of-pearl ear flares, two pyrite mirrors, and organic wrappings that were most likely textiles.

Before we continue with the lesson, let's consolidate what we have just learned.

Match the words in column A with the phrases in column B.

Column A: cinnabar, jade, fish, birds, and turtles.

Column B: offerings to a god, a bright red mineral that covered the remains, green ornamental rock that surrounded the remains.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answers, press play.

Let's find out what the answers are.

Cinnabar is a bright red mineral that covered the remains that were found in the burial chamber.

Jade is a green ornamental rock, and they surrounded the remains.

The fish, birds, and turtles were offerings to a god.

Well done if you got all those correct.

We have now come to the first learning task of this lesson.

It says, complete the sentences below.

Copan is an ancient city located in hmm.

In 1993, archaeologists discovered a hmm.

Inside, they found the hmm.

The remains were covered in hmm.

The remains were also surrounded by hmm.

The archaeologists also found burnt offerings of hmm.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answers, press play.

Let's investigate what your answers could have included.

Copan is an ancient city located in Honduras in Central America.

In 1993, archaeologists discovered a tomb there.

Inside, they found the remains of a person.

The remains were covered in cinnabar, a red mineral.

The remains were also surrounded by shells and jade ornaments.

The archaeologists also found burnt offerings of fish, birds, and turtles.

Good work.

The second learning cycle of this lesson is entitled Unveiling the identity of the buried figure.

Because the tomb that the archaeologists had discovered in 1993 was so big and contained so many items, they knew that the remains had to be those of an important person, probably a powerful figure from Copan.

Only the most important people would've been buried in such a grand way.

At first, the archaeologists thought that the human remains in the tomb belonged to a male figure, but later some clever analysis of the bones revealed that they were actually the remains of a woman and that she quite possibly would've been as old as 50 when she died.

Even though no one knows the name of the woman buried there, the tomb was named the Margarita Tomb.

It is the richest female's tomb that has been discovered from the Mayan times.

Historians think that the remains might be those of a female ruler, or maybe the wife of a ruler, or even the mother of a ruler of a group of people called the Maya.

Now, the Maya were an early civilization that lived in Central America, and this society of Maya lived in Copan in Honduras.

Let's see what we can remember of what we have just learned.

Choose the word from either column A or column B which best describes the remains found in the Margarita Tomb.

So you could either choose between male or female, powerful or poor, Egyptian or Maya.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

Well, the words that best describe the remains found in the Margarita Tomb are: female, powerful, and Maya.

Well done if you got those correct.

Many historians think that the remains might belong to the wife of one of the most powerful Maya rulers, Yax K'uk' Mo, whose name is translated as Radiant First Quetzal Macaw, or Sun-Eyed Green Macaw.

They think this because of the dating of the burial, somewhere between 400 and 450 CE, its location in Copan, and how full of riches the tomb was.

We don't know her name, but like Yax K'uk' Mo, she had children who became kings and queens, ruling over the Maya at Copan for 16 generations.

Let's check for understanding.

True or false? The Margarita Tomb was named after the person buried there.

True or false? That is false.

Well, let's justify our answer.

In other words, let's give a reason why we say it is false.

Is it because A, the name of the woman buried there is unknown, or B, the tomb was named after one of the archaeologists working at Copan? Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

The answer is A, we don't know the name of the woman that was buried there.

Good work.

We have now come to the second learning task of this lesson.

It says, imagine that you are one of the archaeologists who unearthed the Margarita Tomb in 1993.

Write a letter to a friend to tell them about your discovery.

Don't forget to mention the following: Copan in Honduras, ancient Maya ruins, remains of a female, cinnabar, shells and jade, offerings.

Pause the video here to give yourself enough time to write a letter, and when you are ready to reflect on the answer, press play.

Here is an example of an answer that you may have written.

Dear friend, greetings from Copan, Honduras.

I am almost too excited to write, for today we made an extraordinary discovery among the ancient Maya ruins.

We unearthed a tomb where we found the remains of a female.

We think that she must have been someone important, possibly the ruler of the Maya at Copan because she was buried with interesting and lavish artefacts.

The remains were covered in cinnabar and surrounded by shells and jade ornaments.

There were even burnt offerings of birds, turtles, and fish.

From, your friend.

Well done if your letter looked a little bit like this one, and an extra well done if you managed to use all the words highlighted in green.

We have now come to the end of this lesson about the mysteries of the Copan tomb, but before we go, let's summarise what we have learned.

Copan in western Honduras is the site of ancient Maya ruins.

In 1993, archaeologists working at Copan discovered a tomb with the remains of a female.

The tomb was filled with magnificent artefacts, suggesting that the remains belonged to a female ruler, or the wife or mother of a ruler.

The human remains were covered in cinnabar and were surrounded by shells and jade ornaments.

Around the human remains were burnt offerings of birds, turtles, and fish.

Well done for all your hard work in this lesson, and thank you for joining me in this history lesson.

I have really enjoyed accompanying you on this learning adventure where we uncovered the mysteries of the Copan tomb.

I hope to see you again very soon.