Mitla Activities

Download these instructions as: PDF Microsoft Word docx

Background Research

Students will use maps to locate and identify the country of Mexico, and the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. In the state of Oaxaca, they will identify the city of Oaxaca, and the town of Mitla. In the state of Guerrero they will identify the town of Metlatonoc.

Optional – students will identify Mixtec towns where classmates’ families come from.

Students will go to SIL Mexico’s web site and learn about where Mixtec people live. http://www.mexico.sil.org/language_culture/mixtec

Students will go to SIL Mexico’s web site and learn about Mitla.

http://www.mexico.sil.org/language_culture/zapotec/zapotec-zaw

Questions:

  1. What languages are spoken in Mitla today?
  2. How do you say, “May your trip go well” in Mitla Zapotec?

Students will go to the Field Museum’s web site and learn about archeological explorations at Mitla.

http://expeditions.fieldmuseum.org/zapotec-archaeology

Click on “About the Exhibition”

Read the first section, as well as “Meet the Zapotec” and “Mitla Fortress”

Questions:

  1. When did the Zapotec empire begin to collapse?
  2. During the time of the Zapotec empire, how did people bury the dead? Why?
  3. When did Mitla become important to the Zapotec empire?
  4. What is the origin of the name Mitla? What is the Zapotec name?

http://expeditions.fieldmuseum.org/zapotec-archaeology/blog/4-stone-workers-mitla

Questions:

  1. Why were archeologists confused by the stone designs at Mitla?
  2. Why do some archeologists think that Mitla was inhabited by Mixtecs?

Pre-Reading Discussion questions

  1. Why would it be important for Mixtec students in Metlatonoc to learn about Mitla?
  2. What have you learned about Oaxaca or about Mixtecs before this class?
  3. What do you think you will learn from this book?

Book questions:

  1. According to the book, why do people believe that the Mixtecs lived in Mitla? (pg 6-7)
  2. What are some of the designs that the architects and stone-masons used? (pg 8-9)
  3. What is the Mixtec word for priest? (pg 12-13)
  4. Where were the tombs located? What type of people do you think were buried there? (pg 16-17)
  5. What types of historical events were recorded in the fresco writings on the walls? (pg 20-21)
  6. What system of writing did Mixtec people use when they lived in Mitla? (pg 22-23)

Activities

See the attached calendar activities:

Day Count Calculation (PDF) — Student’s version

Day Count Calculation (PDF) - Teacher’s version

Twenty Day Signs

Students will go to FAMSI’s date converter and type in their birthdays. To check their work, students should use the web site listed below.

http://research.famsi.org/date_mayaLC.php (Mixtec equivalents are at the bottom)

Calendar wheel activity

Students will use cardboard to create two wheels out of card stock, one with 20 teeth and one with 13 teeth. Students will decorate and label the wheels. Students will attach wheels to a piece of card stock using brads or tacks. See example below.