The Mayan civilization is famed for sophisticated achievements in math, astronomy, art and architecture.

Discovery Place Children’s Museum teaches youth a little about that culture in a new exhibit, “Mystery of the Mayan Medallion,” that runs through August.

And it turns that learning into an adventure.

Partnering with other Arkansas Discovery Network museums on the newly developed exhibit, Discovery Place sets up a mystery to consider and solve after archaeologists disappear from a Mexican excavation site.

Kids can be student archaeologists (perhaps following in the famed bootprints of Indiana Jones) tasked with fathoming the mystery of a jade medallion rumored to be buried in a temple.

Several stations at the exhibit provide clues, but they also inspire youngsters to show some interactive gusto and thought as they learn about archaeology, astronomy, “astromathematics,” burial rituals and wildlife. It’s an anthropological zoo.

At the archaeological field tent, one can decode Mayan glyphs. At the royal tomb see what kind of treasures are buried with royalty. Along the way, clues are discovered about the location of that medallion.

“The basic idea is for them to have fun and actually learn at the same time,” said Sammy Wacasey, archivist for the Texarkana Museums System, while giving a tour of the exhibit.

Kids can find the Mayan symbols for their very own birthday or design their own Mayan number. According to the exhibit, the Mayan culture was among the first to use the zero as a place holder.

Mayans also knew how to play sports games, with the kings participating.

“Most of the kings were ballplayers here, so this is a ballplayer statue. And most of them were actually very masterful ballplayers, so this might be something that would be buried with the king in his tomb,” Wacasey said.

Field stations give an up-close view of some of the agricultural wonders and different species of critters that lived with the Mayan.

They include toucans, jaguars and monkeys on the animal side and red pepper, allspice and corn on the botanical side. In Mayan culture, pepper was used to stave off sicknesses like colds and viruses, Wacasey said.

The observatory offers a glimpse of how Mayans arranged their constellations and took notes about stars that are being rediscovered now.

The exhibit gets students moving back and forth between the stations, getting to know a culture at the same time they figure out a puzzle of sorts.

“They’re wanting kids to be interactive and actually come in here and discover some of this stuff and go back to the other station and do some extra, added things that they wouldn’t have thought of originally going through those,” Wacasey said at one stop.

Want to get a bit of a challenge before visiting the exhibit and jumping into the Mayan way of things? Visit the Arkansas Discovery Network site www.arkansasdiscoverynetwork.org/mayanchallenge.



(Discovery Place Children’s Museum is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $4.50 for ages 5 and older, free for 4 and younger. Info: 903-793-4831.)