Temple Totals
A Maya trader carries 2,145 cacao beans and 5 bags of rice he trades 2 bags of rice for 567 cacao beans on his way to the market. How many cacao beans does he have now?
2,712 cacao beans.
A Maya merchant stores cacao beans in clay jars. Each jar holds 36 beans, and he fills 7 jars before travelling to the market. How many cacao beans does he have altogether?
252 beans
During a Maya market day in Chichén Itzá, a trader recorded how many cacao beans he earned over the course of an hour: 12, 18, 15, 9 and 21. What was the mean number of cacao beans he earned per sale over the course of an hour?
15 cacao beans
Maya builders are carving a small square stone tile for a temple floor. Each side of the square tile measures 6 cm.
What is the perimeter of the tile?
The perimeter of the tile is 24 cm.
A triangular stone marker has two equal sides and one base:
Each equal side is 9 cm
The base is 7 cm
A gold thread is wrapped once around the outside.
How long is the thread?
25 cm
A temple has 560 steps. 133 steps are damaged after an earthquake. 87 steps are replaced with the stone available. How many steps still need to be repaired?
46 steps that still need to be repaired.
A Maya trader collected 468 cacao beans during a long journey. When he returned home, he shared them equally among 9 neighbouring families. How many beans did each family receive?
52 beans per family
A Maya scribe was practising number glyphs. On one page he wrote the following counts of days between important rituals: 20 days, 24 days, 16 days and 20 days. What is the mean number of days between the rituals he recorded?
20 days
A rectangular lintel above a temple doorway measures 12 cm in length and 7 cm in height. A scribe wants to paint a decorative border all the way around the edge of the lintel.
How many centimetres of border does he need?
He needs 38 cm of border.
During a festival, Chaac sends rain across three Maya fields:
Field A receives 28 mm
Field B receives half as much again as Field A
Field C receives 6 mm less than Field B
How much rain falls across all three fields altogether?
91 mm
A scribe writes 1,248 glyphs into one the 5th volume of a codex.
The 5th volume has the most glyphs so far. The scribe counts the volumes 1-4 and find out that volume 1 has nearest amount of glyphs with 1,149.
He also find out that all the volumes together have 4,800 glyphs.
How many glyphs are in the rest of the volumes?
2,403 glyphs
A Maya priesthood prepared offerings for a grand ceremony honouring Kukulkan ("Plumed Serpent" or "Feathered Serpent" he represents wind, rain and the duality of life).
Each region sent 6,432 ceremonial feathers. 22 regions contributed. Three‑tenths of all feathers were woven into cloaks for the high priests. Of the remaining feathers, one‑quarter were used to decorate temple banners. The leftover feathers were packed into bundles of 84 feathers, but every eleventh bundle had to be reopened so that 18 feathers could be removed for sacred fire rituals.
How many feathers were removed for the sacred fire rituals?
1,440 feathers removed for the sacred fire rituals
A Maya astronomer tracked how many stars he could see clearly each night during a four‑night observation:
On the first night he counted 48.
On the second night he counted 12 fewer than the first night.
On the third night he counted 6 more than the second night.
On the fourth night he counted double the number from the third night.
What was the mean number of stars he recorded across the four nights?
52.5 stars
A Maya artisan is carving a decorative stone panel made from two shapes joined together:
Square with side length 8 cm. A rectangle that is attached to one side of the square, measuring 12 cm by 4 cm. The rectangle is joined along its 4 cm side to one side of the square.
The artisan wants to carve a jade border only around the outside edge of the combined shape.
What is the total length of the border he must carve?
44 cm
A Maya astronomer records rainfall over four ritual days. He writes:
Day 2 has one‑third more rain than Day 1
Day 3 has twice as much as Day 2
Day 4 has the same as Day 1 and Day 3 combined
The total rainfall across all four days is 180 mm
How much rain fell on each day?
Day 1 27 mm
Day 2 36 mm
Day 3 72 mm
Day 4 99 mm
A Maya city stores 73,450 maize kernels. A storm destroys 1,276 of them. They plant 30,250 in the next round of harvest. The city trades 23,000 kernels for a variety of resources to help repair the city.
How many maize kernels are left in storage?
There are 18,924 maize kernels left in storage.
Question
A Maya observatory recorded star‑movement data during a rare celestial event.
Each astronomer collected 4,368 measurements.
There were 18 astronomers working that night.
After the event, one‑sixth of all the measurements were removed after a group of slaves sabotaged the measurement process.
The remaining measurements were then shared equally between 24 Maya scholars for analysis.
How many measurements did each scholar receive?
2,730 measurements per scholar
A Maya farmer harvested maize from several terrace farms. He has to give away 10% of each of his terrace farms to the Ajaw (Lord/Ruler of his lands)
The first plot produced 70 baskets of cobs.
The second plot produced 20% more than the first plot.
The third plot produced 14 fewer baskets than the second plot.
The fourth plot produced the same as the average of the first two plots.
What is the mean number of maize cob baskets harvested across all four plots also accounting for the amount the Ajaw takes?
67.725 maize cob baskets
A Maya architect designs a stepped temple platform made from three rectangles, each centred on the one below:
Lower platform: 30 m by 20 m
Middle platform: 24 m by 14 m
Upper platform: 18 m by 8 m
Each platform is perfectly centred, creating equal overhangs on all sides. A ceremonial golden rope must run only around the outside edge of the entire stepped structure, following every change in direction.
What is the total length of rope required?
108 M
Chaac fills three ceremonial reservoirs. After a storm:
Reservoir A is 70% full of its 90‑litre capacity
Reservoir B is three‑fifths full of its 75‑litre capacity
Reservoir C contains the same amount of water as A and B combined,
but then loses 18 litres due to evaporation. After evaporation, all three reservoirs together contain 180 litres
How much water is in Reservoir C before evaporation?
108 litres
The Maya priests say Chaac (the Maya god of rain) requires a sacrifice. They suggest sacrificing 634 sheep twice a day for a whole week.
They also say Kinich Ahau (the Maya sun god) needs a a sacrifice. The priests say the omens show they cannot offer Kinich Ahau sheep. The priests instead sacrifice 30 slaves a day for the whole week.
On the 4th day the priests notice something wrong with the omens and decide not to go ahead with the sacrifice for Chaac but they go ahead with the sacrifice for Kinich Ahau. They continue the sacrifices as normal on the 5th day onwards.
By the end of the week what have the Maya priests sacrificed to the two gods?
7608 sheep 210 slaves
A Maya pyramid‑building project required limestone blocks to be transported from a distant quarry.
Each quarry team cut 7,584 blocks. There were 16 teams working. Three‑eighths of all blocks were used immediately for repairing ancient staircases.The remaining blocks were packed into bundles of 64 blocks for storage.Every ninth bundle had to be reopened so that 22 blocks could be removed for sculptors.
How many blocks were removed for the sculptors?
2,882 blocks removed for the sculptors
During preparations for a Maya festival, four groups of village workers collected obsidian blades for ceremonies. Here is what is known:
Group A collected 42 blades.
Group B collected one‑third more than Group A.
Group C collected the difference between Groups A and B, multiplied by 4.
Group D collected the mean of Groups A, B and C, but then lost 9 blades during transport.
What is the mean number of obsidian blades collected by the four groups after Group D’s loss?
49 1/12 or 49.08 blades
A Maya surveyor is mapping a sacred courtyard shaped like an irregular hexagon. He knows the following:
The north side is 18 m
The north‑east side is 12 m
The south‑east side is 18 m
The south side is 24 m
The south‑west side is 12 m
The north‑west side is unknown, but it is 3 m longer than the north‑east side and 3 m shorter than the south side
He must place a rope exactly around the entire boundary.
What is the total length of rope he needs?
90 m
Mayan priests fill the four sacred jars of Chaac:
Jar A: 60% of its 50‑litre capacity
Jar B: 310 of its 80‑litre capacity
Jar C: 25 litres
Jar D contains the same as A, B, and C combined, however 15 litres is used by the priests as part of a sacred ceremony.
After the loss, the total amount of water in all four jars is 150 litres.
How much water was in Jar D before it lost any water?
70 litres