Located in Golden Gate Park, the de Young is San Francisco’s oldest museum. On October 15, 2005, the de Young Museum re-opened in a state-of-the-art new facility that integrates art, architecture and the natural landscape in one multi-faceted destination that will inspire audiences from around the world.

A walk through the de Young’s collection of over 2,500 objects from Mesoamerica, Central and South America, as well as the West Coast of North America reveals the richness and complexity of art that links the Americas. Notable treasures include the largest group of Teotihuacán wall murals outside of México, a rare Lowland Maya stela dating from the 8th century A.D., a Peruvian mouth mask of hammered gold from the Nazca culture, and a ten-foot totem pole from Alaska.

This exhibit draws on the William P. Palmer III Collection, a collection of 2,228 Precolumbian ceramics, lithics, and gold work dating from 2,000 B.C. to the time of the Spanish Conquest and is one of the finest collections of its type in the nation. The exhibit includes many Maya pieces, including a stela, glyph panel, cylindrical vases, figurines, shell, bone and antler carvings, and jade pieces. It explores cultures of México and Central America ranging from Olmec to Aztec.

The Hudson Museum also features the following Online Exhibits:

"Worldviews: Maya Ceramics from the Palmer Collection" - explores the wealth of information about religion and beliefs important to the Maya and captured by artisans. Some of the internationally known pieces in this exhibit were published in The Maya Vase Book, vol. 5, by Justin and Barbara Kerr, and Hidden Faces of the Maya, by Linda Schele.

"Images for Eternity: West Mexican Tomb Figures" - discusses the progress being made by modern scholars in understanding West Mexican tomb figures that have lost their original context.

The Library of Congress presents The Cultures and History of the Americas, an online exhibition featuring fifty highlights from the more than 4,000 rare books, maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts that make up the Jay I. Kislak Collection.

This exhibition explores several themes, including the pre-Columbian cultures of Central America and the Caribbean as revealed in sculpture, architecture, and language; encounters between Europeans and the indigenous peoples; the growth of European Florida; and piracy and trade in the American Atlantic.

This exhibition is a preview of the permanent Kislak space to open in the Northeast Galleries of the Thomas Jefferson Building in 2006.

The museum’s holdings include a comprehensive collection of Pre-Columbian objects representing nearly every culture of Pre-columbian Latin America, with the best representations from West Mexico and the Maya region. The museum also possesses a cohesive collection of Guatemalan costumes and an extensive collection of Mexican masks.

Ongoing Exhibits include:

"Gods, Kings and Artisans of Ancient Mesoamerica"
"Ceramics of Ancient West Mexico"
"Painted Vessels of the Maya Elite"
"Power and Guidance - Early Classic Figurines of Mesoamerica"

Upcoming Online Exhibition:

"Ancient Mexican Art" - This upcoming online exhibition will feature pieces selected form the Barrick Museum’s collection to illustrate the cultural and historical continuity of Mexican art. The pieces all date to before the Spanish Conquest of the 1500’s. The materials, techniques, and designs used in ancient Mexico continue to enrich the folk art of today.

The collection of art of the ancient Americas is substantial, consisting of more than 1,900 pieces. The Museum is fortunate in the breadth and depth of the collection as a whole. All three principal cultural centers of the Americas are represented: Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andes. Most of the important art-producing cultures – from the West México to the Maya and Aztec, from Honduras to Panama, from the Chavín to the Inca – can be appreciated during a visit to the permanent collection galleries.

Ancient America refers to regions in Mexico, Central America and South America at a time prior to the arrival of Europeans. The diverse artistic traditions of the prehistoric people can be traced as far back as 4,000 years. The museum collection includes many examples of pottery and stonework as well as elaborate, hand-woven textiles and costumes. Large burial urns, figurines and jewelry provide a unique insight into these advanced cultures.

The permanent exhibit includes representative objects from all the archaeological regions and time periods in Pre-Columbian Guatemala. The exhibition is organized in chronological sequence, from the earliest traces of human presence in the modern territory of Guatemala, until the Spanish conquest. Three major geographic regions may be distinguished in the study of the ancient peoples of Guatemala: The Pacific Coast, The Highlands, and The Lowlands.

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century in both the Old World and the New, chocolate remained an elite drink, too expensive for ordinary folk to enjoy, and often forbidden to them. But the invention by a Dutchman of a method to extract the fat in cacao paste led to the mutation of chocolate from drink into a solid confection that could be enjoyed by the masses. Chocolate now became "big business" and the cultivation of the cacao tree was spread all across the globe.

The present exhibit: "Kakaw: Chocolate in Guatemalan Culture" brings together many lovely objects that celebrate the mysteries and rituals that surrounded the chocolate drink among the early Maya, as well as the vessels that were made in colonial times so that a new, Creole elite could indulge their new-found taste for this prestigious beverage.

The NMSU Museum is now home to a unique and comprehensive collection of both prehistoric and historical pottery. This permanent exhibit includes almost 600 pottery vessels that reflect the vibrant artistry and beauty of Southwestern and Mesoamerican ceramics. There is also an extensive type collection of sherds from New Mexico and Chihuahua to be explored, as well as other educational materials. The NMSU Museum proudly invites you to view this important and historic cultural collection.

This exhibition features more than 150 works, including 25 pieces that have never been exhibited before, made prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Europeans during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Representing a time period of more than 3,000 years, the exhibition drawn from the OMA’s Art of the Ancient Americas Collection gives a rare glimpse into the life and culture of numerous civilizations from the North, Central and South American regions including the Aztec, Maya, Moche, Nasca, Inca and Zapotec with significant ancient works of gold, silver, jade, ceramic, shell and wood.

Dig It! Explore Archaeology is a hands-on exhibit that will delight visitors of all ages. Featured is a life-size replica of an excavated trench wall where hands-on elements demonstrate the science of archaeology. A photo-mural illustrates various aspects of archaeological field work. In other hands-on elements, you'll explore how archaeologists study clues from ancient and historic sites. Learn how these clues are used in identifying artifacts, such as ancient pottery, and create your own designs using interactive magnetic drawing slates. Build your own miniature Hohokam village or take a break and enjoy the museum's orientation video in the newly rennovated theater. Both children and adults will find this gallery entertaining, engaging, and educational... in fact, they'll "DIG IT!"

The flora and fauna of the forest, the rhythm of burning and planting, and the cycles of birth and death shaped the myth, ritual, and pageantry that are celebrated in art and architecture of these ancient and contemporary peoples. This exhibit features exact copies of Classic Maya monuments–four towering stelae and two massive zoomorphs–from the ancient city of Quiriguá, Guatemala, covered with hieroglyphs that recount the stories of Maya rulers and gods. The exhibit backdrop is a colorful mural resplendent with the animals and birds of the jungle surrounding the Ceiba tree, the symbolic tree of life that links the heavens, earth, and underworld. Exhibit cases contain fine examples of Maya pottery and figurines, as well as information on how the giant monuments were carved more than 1200 years ago.

Explore objects from various areas of the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection to enrich visitors' understanding of their content, style, and historical context. The collection includes sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, and textiles created by Native Americans, the inhabitants of Teotihuacan, and the Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs of ancient Mesoamerica — the geographical area comprising New Mexico, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Includes lesson plans for the classroom, maps, glossary, books, and art projects for the home.

Pre-Columbian art from Mexico, Central and South America has been at the heart of the Bowers for many years. A series of galleries communicates the power and sophistication of the mysterious cultures that rose and fell in ancient America.

The Bowers Museum also offers the following Educational Activities for Schools (grades 3 & 4):

Pre-Columbian Art Tour
(History/Social Science content standards and Visual Arts Framework)
The series of five intimate galleries portray the rich art and culture of ancient Pre-Columbian civilizations. The exhibit details the emergence of Mesoamerican cities highlighting architecture, ritual art, the sacred ball game, funerary art, and hieroglyphic writing depicted in Mayan art. Various artifacts include the ceramics and stone carvings of the pre-Columbian Maya and Olmec peoples illustrating their sacred rituals.

Ancient Mesoamerican Art Classes
(Visual Arts Framework)
Clay Masks, Jaguar Masks, Tooled Foil Mythical Beasts, Clay Animals

In 2002, The Dayton Art Institute was fortunate enough to be able to showcase the stunning pre-Columbian collection of the late Harold W. Shaw, on loan from Mrs. Mary Louise Shaw. Thanks to Mrs. Shaw’s generosity, we are once again able to share these treasures with our members and visitors. The Shaw collection features gold, silver, jade, stone and ceramic works from ancient Meso-America and South America. Assembled during the 1960s and 1970s, this stunning collection is a testimony to the gifted eye of Harold Shaw.

Journey through history to get the complete story behind the tasty treat that we crave in Chocolate, an exciting new exhibition developed by The Field Museum.

You’ll begin in the rainforest with the unique cacao tree whose seeds started it all. Visit the ancient Maya civilization of Central America and discover what chocolate meant nearly 1,500 years ago. Then travel forward in time and northward to the Aztec civilization of 16th-century Mexico, where cacao seeds were so valuable they were used as money. Discover chocolate’s introduction into the upper classes of European society and its transformation into a mass-produced world commodity.

In addition: Opening in the Winter of 2007:
The Halls of the Ancient Americas - It tells the epic story of human life on the American continents, from the arrival of small groups of hunter- gatherers, whose way of life survived into the 20th century, to the great but fragile empires of the Aztecs and the Incas - empires that stretched thousands of miles, encompassed as many as 10 million people, and came to sudden, brutal ends. Click here for additional information.

The objects in this gallery are from "Mesoamerica," the area encompassing most of southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In parts of this culture area farming villages grew into towns and cities, tribal chiefs were made kings and emperors, trade networks became more complex, stone monuments and pyramids were erected, a calendar and writing-system developed, and devotion to nature spirits developed into state ceremonies in honor of the gods and ancestors.

This site explores Aztec and Mayan law through images and brief overviews of topics such as warfare, tribute, Aztec courts, attorneys and judges, property law, family law, punishment, drunkenness, slavery and Maya Law. Includes a small collection of annotated links on Aztec, Mayan, and other Mesoamerican civilizations.

Hundreds of earthenware pots and other Precolumbian artifacts from ancient West Mexico are now part of the collections of Wake Forest University’s Museum of Anthropology.

The objects, most dating from 300 B.C. to 400 A.D., were donated to the museum in May. The collection of 1,040 pieces includes 162 complete ceramic vessels, ceramic figurines, greenstone beads and necklaces, obsidian spear and arrow points, knives, and grinding stones.

The artworks for this exhibition, loaned by the directors of the Austen-Stokes Ancient Americas Foundation, are highlights of the foundation’s collection and include more than 120 objects. Many of the objects have never been shown before and rank among the most beautiful and striking pieces created by these cultures. In the sculptures, vessels, and jewelry, the artists and craftsmen encoded a wide range of religious beliefs in representations of humans, animals, and supernatural beings. From gem-like objects of stone and gold to paintings and ceramic figures, the intricate compositions, remarkable naturalism, and sometimes powerful abstraction indicates how much remains to be learned about these ancient cultures.

All of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica are featured, including Olmec, Maya, and Teotihuacan, among others. The exhibition focuses on small ceramic sculpture from these cultures--enigmatic figures and animals that probably served a ritual function. These pieces are complemented by larger ceramic sculptures from West Mexico, intricate gold objects from Colombia, elegant ceramics from Ecuador, and works from the Caribbean and Alaska.

Among the collection are outstanding Jaina terra-cotta figurines from the Maya period, striking figures and house models from western México. Particularly important and rare is the clay model of a ball game, which is complemented by a yoke, hachas, and additional items related to this ancient sporting activity. South American cultures are represented by a small number of vessels, sculptures, and other objects, including textiles. The exhibit also includes a painted Maya vase and the largest carved Maya femur known, along with a notable selection of Olmec and Maya pieces.

Step into the windswept world of Ice-Age mammoth hunters. Walk through a replica of an 800-year-old pueblo dwelling and imagine your entire family cooking, eating, and sleeping in one small room. Explore the Aztec empire and its island capital, Tenochtitlan, a city of more than 200,000 people and an extraordinary feat of engineering for any era. Discover what Field Museum scientists and others have learned about the Americans who lived here before us, and how it’s changing nearly everything we thought we knew!

The Field Museum’s ground-breaking new exhibition, The Ancient Americas, takes you on a journey through 13,000 years of human ingenuity and achievement in the western hemisphere, where hundreds of diverse societies thrived long before the arrival of Europeans. In this 19,000-square-foot permanent exhibition you’ll live the epic story of the peopling of these continents, from the Arctic to the tip of South America. Discover how and why the early Americans developed farming, created new forms of artistic expression, and forged mighty empires. See more than 2,200 artifacts, amazing reconstructions, and dozens of videos and interactive displays, and come to understand the ingenuity with which ancient peoples met the challenges of their times and places – as we meet ours today.

Features more than 180 works made prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Europeans during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Representing a time period of more than 3,000 years, the exhibition drawn from the OMA's Art of the Ancient Americas Collection, gives a rare glimpse into the life and culture of numerous civilizations from the North, Central and South American regions including the Aztec, Maya, Moche, Nasca, Inca and Zapotec, with significant ancient works of gold, silver, jade, ceramic, shell and wood.

Admission: $8.00

Penn Museum's unique collection of brilliantly painted Chama polychromes opens a window into the lives of the ordinary Maya of 1,300 years ago, and the way they dealt with the challenge of forced change. More than 150 objects convey vibrant evidence of ancient Maya life, as revealed by amazing archaeological discovery and scientific analysis.

3260 South Street
33rd and Spruce Streets in West Philadelphia.
Spruce Street becomes South Street just east of the Museum.
Since the South Street Bridge is closed for construction, the I-76 exits for South Street cannot be used.

In the late nineteenth century, Peabody Museum expedition teams set out to remote areas of Mexico and Central America, often with little inkling of what they might experience and barely prepared to navigate the cultural encounters essential to their missions. The Peabody Museum holds the written and visual records of these early expeditions and recently completed a two-year project to digitize over 10,000 nineteenth-century glass-plate negatives. The earliest images in this amazing and unique collection were photographed at Copán, during the museum's pioneering archaeological expeditions to the site. These images offer a wealth of archaeological information for current research along with a visual narrative of the budding town and the archaeologists ' interactions with the local community. As the excavations unfold before our eyes, scenes of the Copán community also emerge. But, who are the people in these images, and what effect did the excavations have on their community?

Focuses on St. Bonaventure University’s collection of ancient Maya pottery. A wide array of Maya images, symbols, and hieroglyphs that represent different aspects of beliefs about the universe are on display. This imagery serves as a point of departure for to discuss ancient and contemporary Maya culture. This exhibit features bilingual text.

This major exhibition explores Aztec civilisation through the divine, military and political role of the last elected ruler, Moctezuma II (reigned AD 1502–1520).

From his capital in Tenochtitlan (the site of modern Mexico City), Moctezuma’s empire comprised much of modern highland Mexico, stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean. His power was reflected in the splendour of his capital’s architecture, his command of the prestigious Jaguar and Eagle military orders, and his sacrificial rituals to the gods. Moctezuma’s world was unrivalled, and this remained so until the devastating arrival of strangers – Cortés and his Spanish fleet.

The legacy of this tumultuous event and the semi-mythical status of Moctezuma will be reassessed through the display of imposing stone sculptures and rare gold and turquoise objects, many of which will be seen for the first time in the UK.

Rediscover the world of the Aztecs and trace the foundation of modern Mexico in the British Museum’s next major exhibition on great rulers.

This major exhibition explores Aztec civilisation through the divine, military and political role of the last elected ruler, Moctezuma II (reigned AD 1502–1520).

From his capital in Tenochtitlan (the site of modern Mexico City), Moctezuma’s empire comprised much of modern highland Mexico, stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean. His power was reflected in the splendour of his capital’s architecture, his command of the prestigious Jaguar and Eagle military orders, and his sacrificial rituals to the gods. Moctezuma’s world was unrivalled, and this remained so until the devastating arrival of strangers – Cortés and his Spanish fleet.

Open daily 10.00–17.30 (last entry 16.20)
Open late on Thursdays and Fridays until 20.30 (last entry 19.20)

Maya Field Workshops introduce you to the world of Maya archaeology and epigraphy in intensive, on-site seminars. Led by renowned archaeologist David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin, we focus not on tours and traveling, but on a concentrated learning experience at a single place. In Fall 2009 we will be based in Copan, Honduras, where participants will take part in a unique, hands-on intellectual and cultural exploration of ancient Maya civilization.

Over six days you will become immersed in Copan’s ancient history and culture. A key part of your experience will be the opportunity to learn about Copan’s court and community in its original, genuine setting. Each day we will visit the temples and major architecture of Copan, reading and decoding their monuments and inscriptions. We will explore the reigns of its kings and dynasties over the course of several centuries, roughly between 400 and 850 A.D. We will combine this on-site experience with daily lectures and workshops, so participants can work directly and actively with Copan’s history, art and archaeology.

The history of the ancient Maya can be gleaned only through the combined discoveries of archaeology, iconography, epigraphy, and ethnohistory. This illustrated talk shines an interdisciplinary light on the objects excavated from one region—the Chixoy River Valley of Guatemala’s Alta Verapaz—to explain the creation of a unique pottery style, Chama Polychrome, and the events that affected the lives of the people who lived at the site of Chama in the 8th century.

Speakers:
Warren Barbour (State Universtiy of New York at Buffalo)
Host Figurines and the Social Order of Teotihuacan: Soldiers, Traders, Diviners and Peasants
George Cowgill (Arizona State University, Tempe)
Nose Pendants: Signs of Rank and Office in the Political System of Teotihuacan?
Annabeth Headrick (University of Denver)
Mass Production in a Preindustrial Age: Individuality and Ideology in Teotihuacan's Censers
Charles C. Kolb (National Endowment for the Humanities)
Classic Teotihuacan Period Ceramic Production
James Langley (Canadian Society for Mesoamerican Studies)
A Distant Prospect of Teotihuacan
Matthew Robb (Saint Louis Museum of Art)
The Torch and the Shield: Architectural and Iconographic Continuities at the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl
Saburo Sugiyama (Aichi Prefectural University, Japan)
Cosmology, Militarism, and Polity Materialized at the Major Monuments in Teotihuacan
Karl Taube (University of California, San Diego)
Teotihuacan and the Ceramic Art of Escuintla, Guatemala: Iconography and Cosmology in Early Classic Mesoamerica

Papers delivered at the symposium will focus on interactions between Maya sociopolitical entities through time and across landscapes. The analysis will cover epigraphic, iconographic, archaeological, ethnohistorical and linguistic evidence. Some of the issues expected to be touched upon include:
- the political and cultural role of interactions and alliances for a particular political entity,
- the character of political interrelations between centres, as well as their change and reorientation over time,
- the cultural impact which some centres might have had on others,
- the effect of war on political systems and relations,
- studies on trade, communication networks and tribute,
- analysis of the archaeological materials that provide evidence of interactions between some Maya political entities,
- the role of these relations for the development of Maya culture in general.


Keynote speakers will include:
Charles Golden (Brandeis University) & Andrew Sherer (Baylor University), Elizabeth Graham (University
College London), Nikolai Grube (University of Bonn), Bernard Hermes (Nakuum Archaeological Project,
Guatemala), Wieslaw Koszkul (Jagellonian University Cracow), Simon Martin (University of Pennsylvania
Museum), Robert Sharer & Loa Traxler (University of Pennsylvania Museum), Jaroslaw Zralka (Jagellonian
University Cracow)


CALL FOR PAPERS

The Wayeb Conference Board invites the submission of abstracts concerning the conference topic. Papers will be selected from all subdisciplines of Maya Studies to cover the topic in all dimensions and from various perspectives. Presentations will be accepted in English and Spanish. Abstracts may not exceed 250 words.

Contributions of authors who submit more than one abstract (including co-authored papers) will not be considered. Co-authorship needs to be indicated upon submission.

Please submit in electronic format (Word attachment) in the following order:

1. Author's name and affiliation
2. Address, Phone Number and email address
3. Title of Paper
4. Abstract

The abstracts will be forwarded without the author's particulars to an anonymous Review Committee that will be selected by the Wayeb Conference Board.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts is May 31st, 2009

Please send your abstract to the following address: callforpapers@wayeb.org
(Only abstracts sent to this address will be accepted. Do not send your abstract to the organisers!)

MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WORKSHOP

The conference will be preceded by a three-day long hieroglyphic workshop. Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced workshops will be available. All groups will be taught and supervised by experienced tutors.

Tuition will be available in English and Spanish. In the Beginners Group Polish language consultation will be provided.

The workshop includes an introductory lecture by Simon Martin (University of Pennsylvania Museum).

Professor Jaime Awe (Belize).
5700 Lindell Blvd at DeBaliveiere, Forest Park.
Parking lots located to the right and left of South entrance.

Caves have been used as ritual spaces in Mesoamerica from as early as 1200BC until today, but archaeologists have only begun to understand the function and meaning of caves within ancient Mesoamerican ritual practice and cosmology. This program discusses our current state of knowledge and illustrates some of the more interesting finds from caves in the last decade.

Researchers believe that the Dresden Codex was compiled in the post-Classic period, probably after 1200 CE, but Venus was important in Maya myth and
astronomy much earlier. The sun and Venus were adopted as symbols of royal authority by the hierarchical states that took shape in the pre-Classical period. The Dresden Codex contains a Venus table that permits the prediction of first appearance of the planet as morning star and as evening star over a period of 104 years. The primary function of the Venus table appears to have been to fix the dates of rituals associated with the apparitions of Venus and supply auguries for these dates. Steve Mellard will explain the major components of the table and how it was used, identifying the Venus gods and reading some of the glyphs.

Some nearly 70 years ago the Mexican composer Carlos Chavez wrote longingly about an imagined pre-Columbian music, but as no forms of musical notation or didactic sources remain, it is unlikely that the music that once flourished in Mexico and Central America will ever be re-created. Although the music is unavailable, the significance of music and dance in ancient American life , can be explored through such musical instruments as whistles, flutes, rattles, and conch shell horns or trumpets, as well as through other objects that do not appear to be musically related but have important musical properties.

Discovered by biologist Cyrus Lundell of the Mexical Exploitation Chicle Company on December 29, 1931, the find was reported to Sylvanus Morley, then working in Chichén Itzá, in 1932. Lundell named the site Calakmul, to mean the City of Two Adjacent Pyramids (Ca = two; lak = adjacent and mul = mound or pyramid.

Calakmul administered a large domain, with its emblem glyph of the head of a snake amply found around the site. The Snake Polity saw its peak in the Classic period during which time it became a rival of Tikal. Several wars were conducted between these two great super powers. One of the largest Maya cities, so far more than 6,750 structures have been identified. Calakmul is also home to the biggest Maya pyramid, Structure II, at 55 meters high.

Located in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, the largest tropical forest reserve in Mexico, Calakmul is a treasure trove of Maya history. The site extends over 10 square miles in the middle of the reserve’s 1.8 million acres of forests in the State of Campeche.

This presentation will focus primarily on the site of Izapa, considering how space was structured through the erection of stela and altar monuments, and the implications of the highly narrative imagery found on these sculptures. I will focus in particular on the images that feature avian transformation, which referenced a ruler's ability to communicate with the supernatural realm. Discussion will also turn to other symbols featured on the monuments that further illustrate rulers' emphasis on their supernatural powers as a foundation for claims to political authority.

This workshop will present recent data from ongoing archaeological investigations at the Middle Preclassic site of La Blanca, Guatemala, which is located on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. La Blanca flourished between 900-600 BC, and was the major regional power along the coast and piedmont. Upon its decline, sites such as Izapa rose to power within the same region. A quatrefoil-shaped altar found at La Blanca that anticipates images seen at Izapa, San Bartolo, Takalik Abaj, and other Late Preclassic sites, will form the basis of discussion and illustrate Middle Preclassic antecedents for ritual patterns and imagery better known from later periods.

In the tradition of past meetings, the 11th Southwest Symposium will provide a forum for archaeologists and other scholars to discuss innovative ideas and to develop networks for anthropological research in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest. We have organized the symposium to explore key topics in substantial depth and to provide ample time for discussion among all who attend.

For most of the 20th century, a handful of US institutions, their professors and students dominated archaeology in the southwestern United States. The development of contract archaeology broadened the extent of and altered the practice of archaeology in the southwest U.S. but reinforced it as a nationalist practice. By the end of the 20 th century, however, a nationalist view of the region had become parochial. The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia established regional centers, museums and expanded research in the northwest of México. Slightly later, an Indigenous archaeology developed as Indian Nations established their own archaeological programs, goals, and methods. Each of these "national" archaeologies focus on different regions, make different assumptions, asks different questions, seeks different answers, emphasize different methods and embraces different theories or worldviews. The 11th Southwest Symposium will further discussions of how to transform these national archaeologies into transnational archaeologies. Transnational archaeologies reach beyond or transcend national boundaries and they do so in numerous ways. They imply a broad vision of historical and cultural processes in the Southwest/Northwest that is not artificially limited by political, cultural, or linguistic borders. They necessarily entail a multi-sited archaeology where researchers work in different "nations". They stand strong when their foundations rest on collaborations across cultural groups. They require archaeologists to reexamine the contributions that archaeology can make to society. They expand the archaeology of the Southwest/Northwest linguistically, culturally and regionally.

1. West and North México
The international border between México and the United States and the culture area border that separates our region from Mesoamerica has long hampered our understanding of the archaeology of the Southwest/Northwest. The archaeology of West and North México does not fit easily into both culture areas and the degree of fit changes over time. Developments in these areas had direct impacts on the Southwest/Northwest. Indeed, "Mesoamerican influences" on the north most likely originated in these regions and not the core of Mesoamerica . The session will allow scholars working in West and North México to share information and interact with Southwest/Northwest archaeologists.
Email: José Luis Punzo, Michael Ohnersorgen.

2. AD 1450 to AD 1540: The Lost Century

In the century AD 1450 to AD 1540, most of the Southwest/Northwest suffered a significant demographic collapse and transformation of cultures. Scores of regional sequences ended and village based agriculture ceased in areas where it had been practiced for hundreds of years. Outside of the Pueblos , this is a lost century making it difficult to link archaeological traditions and modern Indian Nations and to understand the processes that created the ethnographically known Southwest/Northwest. The international border has hampered our understanding of this century because it structures research but has no meaning for the historical and cultural processes we wish to understand. Indian Nations hold very different perspectives on this century than either U.S. or Mexican scholars.
Email: John Carpenter, Anna Neuzil.

3. Collaborating Across Cultures

Collaborations that reach beyond or transcend national and cultural boundaries are key to transnational archaeologies. Collaboration implies the integration of goals, interests, and practices between the individuals and/or social groups that work together. It entails a dialogue that goes beyond an instrumentalist concern with resolving a conflict or respecting rights and responsibilities. It requires humility, patience, listening, careful consultation, equality, and respect. Collaboration should be transformative of the parties involved. Each party brings different resources, skills, knowledge, authority and/or interests to a collaborative labor. Collaboration involves the melding of these unique qualities into common goals and practices. This session will address collaboration both across the international frontier and between scholars and Indian Nations.
Email: Andrew Darling, Davina Two Bears.

4. Archaeology and Society

The relationship of archaeology to society varies among the nations of the Southwest/Northwest. This session will explore these relationships in the United States , in México, and in Indian Nations. Issues will include public programs, education, heritage, and identity. The papers will be aimed towards a discussion that compares and contrasts these issues in different nations with the goal of transcending and reaching beyond national interests.
Email: Elizabeth Bagwell, Cesar Villalobos.

The Mirador Group is one of El Perú-Waka’s principal architectural groups, comprised of a small temple and two of the site’s grandest pyramids. Excavations conducted from 2003-2006 demonstrate a lengthy tradition of ritual activity associated with these buildings, extending from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic period. Moreover, one of the pyramids served a long-term mortuary function for high-status elites, housing the remains of an unknown ruler and three elite women. Archaeological discoveries at the Mirador Group will be highlighted in this presentation, and also examined relative to specific historical events documented in the Mayan epigraphic record. This comparative approach allows us to explore how El Perú may have been integrated into the larger Mesoamerican world system – namely with the central Mexican metropolis of Teotihuacan and the dominant Maya capitals of Tikal and Calakmul.

The excavation of ancient tombs has always captured the imagination of intrepid explorers, professional archaeologists and an interested public alike. In the Maya area, two factors have dovetailed to create an ongoing focus on burial contexts in archaeological fieldwork. First, Classic-period Maya interments are common in both ritual and residential structures, making it virtually impossible to excavate a building without encountering a burial; and second, the Maya have a rich artistic tradition, and as a result, many burials – particularly of the ancient elite – contain elaborate funerary objects. A tomb, however, is a complex interweaving of multiple categories of information: from the typically-showcased artifacts, to human and animal skeletal material, to fine-grained data such as pigments and minerals that tend to be understudied or overlooked relative to other tomb contents. Consequently, multiple scales of mortuary data are vital when coming to conclusions about burial practices among the ancient Maya. In this informal seminar we will focus on several royal and noble tombs from El Perú-Waka’ to explore what the full range of components of a mortuary assemblage can tell us about the interred individual(s), as well as the people who conducted associated burial rituals, and how ancient re-entry activities may affect archaeological interpretations.

The Association for Latin American Art will sponsor a session for Emerging Scholars at the CAA meeting in Chicago. This year's co-chairs will be Dr. Patricia Sarro and Dr. Khristaan Villela.

This is an open session for advanced graduate students and recent Ph.D. recipients on any Pre-Columbian, Colonial, Modern, or Contemporary Latin-American topic.

Proposals must include the following items:?
1. Completed session participation proposal form
2. Preliminary abstract of one to two double-spaced, typed? pages 3. Letter mentioning speaker's interest, expertise and CAA membership status 4. CV with home and office mailing addresses, e-mail address,? phone and fax numbers. Include summer address and? telephone number, if applicable. 5. a stamped, self-addressed postcard to be returned by session chairs

Paper proposals DUE MAY 8TH.

Please submit duplicate proposals to both panel chairs in accordance with the guidelines indicated in the CAA call for participation.
Online at: http://conference.collegeart.org/2010
And
http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2010CallforParticipation.pdf

Please send proposals to:

Dr. Patricia Sarro
Department of Art
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555-3627
pjsarro@ysu.edu

Dr. Khristaan Villela
PO Box 23872
Santa Fe, NM 87502
kvillela@yahoo.com

Co-chairs will accept electronic submissions, but cannot send return postcards to applicant acknowledging receipt of proposal. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that electronic documents are in a workable format, such as .pdf. Session chairs reserve the right to refuse electronic applications sent in unreadable formats.

CALL FOR PAPERS

2010 Cleveland Symposium – Submission deadline: December 11, 2009

The 2010 Cleveland Symposium invites graduate submissions exploring cross-cultural influences throughout the history of art. The exchange of ideas across local, regional, national, and continental borders has been one of the major vehicles by which art changes over time. We are seeking papers using all methodologies that explore these convergences. Examples include cases of artists influenced by other artists, places, time, culture, history, and any other relationships that are ultimately expressed in visual and material culture. We welcome submissions from graduate students in all stages of their studies and from all fields of art history including Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, Contemporary and Non-Western. A monetary prize will be awarded to the speaker who presents the most innovative research in the most successfully delivered paper.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with a curriculum vitae, to clevelandsymposium@gmail.com by December 11, 2009.

Selected presenters will be notified by January 1, 2010.

The ancient lowland Maya civilization of Mexico and Central America is often celebrated for its achievements in an environment unique for its lack of rivers, unlike that of the ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Indus, and Chinese civilizations. Nevertheless many major lowland Maya cities were indeed located along important rivers such as the Usumacinta, Pasión, Belize, Motagua, among others. These "River Cities" provided the rest of the Maya lowlands access to the resource-rich highlands to the south, as well as contact with to both the Caribbean and Gulf coasts. Moreover, they facilitated the movement of peoples throughout the region, allowed for critical movement and trading of exotic goods, and gave rise to innovative artistic and architectural styles. For these reasons, this conference will focus on how and why the great river cities of the ancient lowland Maya represent some of the most intriguing, opulent, and important segments of this civilization. The Middle American Research Institute [MARI] is organizing this year’s Seventh Annual Maya Symposium & Workshop with the collaboration of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies.

We are very pleased and excited to announce that the 2010 Maya Meetings will take place in Antigua, Guatemala, at UT-Austin’s new academic and conference center for Mesoamerican studies, the Casa Herrera. Since 1977 international students and scholars have gathered in Austin each year to learn and discuss the latest findings in Maya research. We are now able to take the Maya Meetings to the land of the Maya, to expand this spirit of learning and exchange. We hope to make Antigua a routine location for future conferences, alternating each year with our traditional venue on the UT-Austin campus.
As always, the 2010 Maya Meetings will offer a combination of learning workshops and academic lectures. Three workshops focusing on hieroglyphs and iconography will run for four days from March 16 through 19, accompanied by two courtyard lectures during each evening. All events will take place at the Casa Herrera, a beautifully restored 17th-century mansion located near the center of Antigua, Guatemala’s colonial capital.
Our topic in 2010 will focus on new developments in the study of early Maya iconography and writing, focusing on the sites of Kaminaljuyu, Takalik Abaj, Izapa, San Bartolo and others. More details about the presenters, the schedule and details of registration will be posted early this coming fall.

CALL FOR PAPERS

SECOLAS 2010 Conference – Submission deadline: January 1, 2010

Sponsored by: Instituto Mora, Mexico City
Local arrangement: Carmen Collado

Proposals for paper presentations should be one page that includes author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), contact information, paper title and an abstract (200-300 words). Session proposals should come from
the organizer and include all names and affiliations of the session participants, contact information for each participant and especially the session chair, title of the proposed session, and individual presentation titles as well as a brief explanation of the purpose of the session by the organizer. Abstracts for each presentation in the session may also be included.

Deadline: January 1, 2010
Email submissions are preferred.
Send proposals to:

Literature & Humanities:
Ann Gonzalez, Ph.D., Associate Chair
Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies
Department of Languages and Culture Studies
University of North Carolina Charlotte
(704) 687-8781
abgonzal@uncc.edu

History & Social Sciences:
Timothy Henderson
Distinguished Research Professor
Department of History
Auburn University Montgomery
(334) 264-6826
tjhenderson@charter.net

For the past quarter century, international scholars, Maya enthusiasts, artists, linguists, archaeologists and other have joined together for a lively weekend of engaging talks and programs centering around the Maya world. During the weekend, numerous other lectures and language workshops provide opportunities for attendees to learn about Maya culture and current archaeological work at Maya sites. Participants can expect a rich intellectual experience—and activity choices—as the weekend provides diverse opportunities for engagement.
Our 2010 Weekend theme, Maya Women ~ Figures of Enduring Strength and Power,focuses on the central role that women have always played in the social history of Maya peoples. Whether sustaining Classic era dynasties or advocating for justice in contemporary Latin America, Maya women are commanding figures. In many households, they anchor daily life and religious practice for their families and communities. Over centuries they have been pivotal figures resisting cultural annihilation, and today many have become successful political leaders and entrepreneurs.
As always, the weekend combines illustrated talks by more than a dozen world renowned scholars with engaging films, interactive hieroglyphic workshops for beginners and more advanced glyph readers-and an optional Maya banquet. $175; $140 members. Dinners, lunches extra.

Located in Golden Gate Park, the de Young is San Francisco’s oldest museum. On October 15, 2005, the de Young Museum re-opened in a state-of-the-art new facility that integrates art, architecture and the natural landscape in one multi-faceted destination that will inspire audiences from around the world.

A walk through the de Young’s collection of over 2,500 objects from Mesoamerica, Central and South America, as well as the West Coast of North America reveals the richness and complexity of art that links the Americas. Notable treasures include the largest group of Teotihuacán wall murals outside of México, a rare Lowland Maya stela dating from the 8th century A.D., a Peruvian mouth mask of hammered gold from the Nazca culture, and a ten-foot totem pole from Alaska.

This exhibit draws on the William P. Palmer III Collection, a collection of 2,228 Precolumbian ceramics, lithics, and gold work dating from 2,000 B.C. to the time of the Spanish Conquest and is one of the finest collections of its type in the nation. The exhibit includes many Maya pieces, including a stela, glyph panel, cylindrical vases, figurines, shell, bone and antler carvings, and jade pieces. It explores cultures of México and Central America ranging from Olmec to Aztec.

The Hudson Museum also features the following Online Exhibits:

"Worldviews: Maya Ceramics from the Palmer Collection" - explores the wealth of information about religion and beliefs important to the Maya and captured by artisans. Some of the internationally known pieces in this exhibit were published in The Maya Vase Book, vol. 5, by Justin and Barbara Kerr, and Hidden Faces of the Maya, by Linda Schele.

"Images for Eternity: West Mexican Tomb Figures" - discusses the progress being made by modern scholars in understanding West Mexican tomb figures that have lost their original context.

The Library of Congress presents The Cultures and History of the Americas, an online exhibition featuring fifty highlights from the more than 4,000 rare books, maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts that make up the Jay I. Kislak Collection.

This exhibition explores several themes, including the pre-Columbian cultures of Central America and the Caribbean as revealed in sculpture, architecture, and language; encounters between Europeans and the indigenous peoples; the growth of European Florida; and piracy and trade in the American Atlantic.

This exhibition is a preview of the permanent Kislak space to open in the Northeast Galleries of the Thomas Jefferson Building in 2006.

The museum’s holdings include a comprehensive collection of Pre-Columbian objects representing nearly every culture of Pre-columbian Latin America, with the best representations from West Mexico and the Maya region. The museum also possesses a cohesive collection of Guatemalan costumes and an extensive collection of Mexican masks.

Ongoing Exhibits include:

"Gods, Kings and Artisans of Ancient Mesoamerica"
"Ceramics of Ancient West Mexico"
"Painted Vessels of the Maya Elite"
"Power and Guidance - Early Classic Figurines of Mesoamerica"

Upcoming Online Exhibition:

"Ancient Mexican Art" - This upcoming online exhibition will feature pieces selected form the Barrick Museum’s collection to illustrate the cultural and historical continuity of Mexican art. The pieces all date to before the Spanish Conquest of the 1500’s. The materials, techniques, and designs used in ancient Mexico continue to enrich the folk art of today.

The collection of art of the ancient Americas is substantial, consisting of more than 1,900 pieces. The Museum is fortunate in the breadth and depth of the collection as a whole. All three principal cultural centers of the Americas are represented: Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andes. Most of the important art-producing cultures – from the West México to the Maya and Aztec, from Honduras to Panama, from the Chavín to the Inca – can be appreciated during a visit to the permanent collection galleries.

Ancient America refers to regions in Mexico, Central America and South America at a time prior to the arrival of Europeans. The diverse artistic traditions of the prehistoric people can be traced as far back as 4,000 years. The museum collection includes many examples of pottery and stonework as well as elaborate, hand-woven textiles and costumes. Large burial urns, figurines and jewelry provide a unique insight into these advanced cultures.

The permanent exhibit includes representative objects from all the archaeological regions and time periods in Pre-Columbian Guatemala. The exhibition is organized in chronological sequence, from the earliest traces of human presence in the modern territory of Guatemala, until the Spanish conquest. Three major geographic regions may be distinguished in the study of the ancient peoples of Guatemala: The Pacific Coast, The Highlands, and The Lowlands.

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century in both the Old World and the New, chocolate remained an elite drink, too expensive for ordinary folk to enjoy, and often forbidden to them. But the invention by a Dutchman of a method to extract the fat in cacao paste led to the mutation of chocolate from drink into a solid confection that could be enjoyed by the masses. Chocolate now became "big business" and the cultivation of the cacao tree was spread all across the globe.

The present exhibit: "Kakaw: Chocolate in Guatemalan Culture" brings together many lovely objects that celebrate the mysteries and rituals that surrounded the chocolate drink among the early Maya, as well as the vessels that were made in colonial times so that a new, Creole elite could indulge their new-found taste for this prestigious beverage.

The NMSU Museum is now home to a unique and comprehensive collection of both prehistoric and historical pottery. This permanent exhibit includes almost 600 pottery vessels that reflect the vibrant artistry and beauty of Southwestern and Mesoamerican ceramics. There is also an extensive type collection of sherds from New Mexico and Chihuahua to be explored, as well as other educational materials. The NMSU Museum proudly invites you to view this important and historic cultural collection.

This exhibition features more than 150 works, including 25 pieces that have never been exhibited before, made prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Europeans during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Representing a time period of more than 3,000 years, the exhibition drawn from the OMA’s Art of the Ancient Americas Collection gives a rare glimpse into the life and culture of numerous civilizations from the North, Central and South American regions including the Aztec, Maya, Moche, Nasca, Inca and Zapotec with significant ancient works of gold, silver, jade, ceramic, shell and wood.

Dig It! Explore Archaeology is a hands-on exhibit that will delight visitors of all ages. Featured is a life-size replica of an excavated trench wall where hands-on elements demonstrate the science of archaeology. A photo-mural illustrates various aspects of archaeological field work. In other hands-on elements, you'll explore how archaeologists study clues from ancient and historic sites. Learn how these clues are used in identifying artifacts, such as ancient pottery, and create your own designs using interactive magnetic drawing slates. Build your own miniature Hohokam village or take a break and enjoy the museum's orientation video in the newly rennovated theater. Both children and adults will find this gallery entertaining, engaging, and educational... in fact, they'll "DIG IT!"

The flora and fauna of the forest, the rhythm of burning and planting, and the cycles of birth and death shaped the myth, ritual, and pageantry that are celebrated in art and architecture of these ancient and contemporary peoples. This exhibit features exact copies of Classic Maya monuments–four towering stelae and two massive zoomorphs–from the ancient city of Quiriguá, Guatemala, covered with hieroglyphs that recount the stories of Maya rulers and gods. The exhibit backdrop is a colorful mural resplendent with the animals and birds of the jungle surrounding the Ceiba tree, the symbolic tree of life that links the heavens, earth, and underworld. Exhibit cases contain fine examples of Maya pottery and figurines, as well as information on how the giant monuments were carved more than 1200 years ago.

Explore objects from various areas of the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection to enrich visitors' understanding of their content, style, and historical context. The collection includes sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, and textiles created by Native Americans, the inhabitants of Teotihuacan, and the Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs of ancient Mesoamerica — the geographical area comprising New Mexico, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Includes lesson plans for the classroom, maps, glossary, books, and art projects for the home.

Pre-Columbian art from Mexico, Central and South America has been at the heart of the Bowers for many years. A series of galleries communicates the power and sophistication of the mysterious cultures that rose and fell in ancient America.

The Bowers Museum also offers the following Educational Activities for Schools (grades 3 & 4):

Pre-Columbian Art Tour
(History/Social Science content standards and Visual Arts Framework)
The series of five intimate galleries portray the rich art and culture of ancient Pre-Columbian civilizations. The exhibit details the emergence of Mesoamerican cities highlighting architecture, ritual art, the sacred ball game, funerary art, and hieroglyphic writing depicted in Mayan art. Various artifacts include the ceramics and stone carvings of the pre-Columbian Maya and Olmec peoples illustrating their sacred rituals.

Ancient Mesoamerican Art Classes
(Visual Arts Framework)
Clay Masks, Jaguar Masks, Tooled Foil Mythical Beasts, Clay Animals

In 2002, The Dayton Art Institute was fortunate enough to be able to showcase the stunning pre-Columbian collection of the late Harold W. Shaw, on loan from Mrs. Mary Louise Shaw. Thanks to Mrs. Shaw’s generosity, we are once again able to share these treasures with our members and visitors. The Shaw collection features gold, silver, jade, stone and ceramic works from ancient Meso-America and South America. Assembled during the 1960s and 1970s, this stunning collection is a testimony to the gifted eye of Harold Shaw.

Journey through history to get the complete story behind the tasty treat that we crave in Chocolate, an exciting new exhibition developed by The Field Museum.

You’ll begin in the rainforest with the unique cacao tree whose seeds started it all. Visit the ancient Maya civilization of Central America and discover what chocolate meant nearly 1,500 years ago. Then travel forward in time and northward to the Aztec civilization of 16th-century Mexico, where cacao seeds were so valuable they were used as money. Discover chocolate’s introduction into the upper classes of European society and its transformation into a mass-produced world commodity.

In addition: Opening in the Winter of 2007:
The Halls of the Ancient Americas - It tells the epic story of human life on the American continents, from the arrival of small groups of hunter- gatherers, whose way of life survived into the 20th century, to the great but fragile empires of the Aztecs and the Incas - empires that stretched thousands of miles, encompassed as many as 10 million people, and came to sudden, brutal ends. Click here for additional information.

The objects in this gallery are from "Mesoamerica," the area encompassing most of southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In parts of this culture area farming villages grew into towns and cities, tribal chiefs were made kings and emperors, trade networks became more complex, stone monuments and pyramids were erected, a calendar and writing-system developed, and devotion to nature spirits developed into state ceremonies in honor of the gods and ancestors.

This site explores Aztec and Mayan law through images and brief overviews of topics such as warfare, tribute, Aztec courts, attorneys and judges, property law, family law, punishment, drunkenness, slavery and Maya Law. Includes a small collection of annotated links on Aztec, Mayan, and other Mesoamerican civilizations.

Hundreds of earthenware pots and other Precolumbian artifacts from ancient West Mexico are now part of the collections of Wake Forest University’s Museum of Anthropology.

The objects, most dating from 300 B.C. to 400 A.D., were donated to the museum in May. The collection of 1,040 pieces includes 162 complete ceramic vessels, ceramic figurines, greenstone beads and necklaces, obsidian spear and arrow points, knives, and grinding stones.

The artworks for this exhibition, loaned by the directors of the Austen-Stokes Ancient Americas Foundation, are highlights of the foundation’s collection and include more than 120 objects. Many of the objects have never been shown before and rank among the most beautiful and striking pieces created by these cultures. In the sculptures, vessels, and jewelry, the artists and craftsmen encoded a wide range of religious beliefs in representations of humans, animals, and supernatural beings. From gem-like objects of stone and gold to paintings and ceramic figures, the intricate compositions, remarkable naturalism, and sometimes powerful abstraction indicates how much remains to be learned about these ancient cultures.

All of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica are featured, including Olmec, Maya, and Teotihuacan, among others. The exhibition focuses on small ceramic sculpture from these cultures--enigmatic figures and animals that probably served a ritual function. These pieces are complemented by larger ceramic sculptures from West Mexico, intricate gold objects from Colombia, elegant ceramics from Ecuador, and works from the Caribbean and Alaska.

Among the collection are outstanding Jaina terra-cotta figurines from the Maya period, striking figures and house models from western México. Particularly important and rare is the clay model of a ball game, which is complemented by a yoke, hachas, and additional items related to this ancient sporting activity. South American cultures are represented by a small number of vessels, sculptures, and other objects, including textiles. The exhibit also includes a painted Maya vase and the largest carved Maya femur known, along with a notable selection of Olmec and Maya pieces.

Step into the windswept world of Ice-Age mammoth hunters. Walk through a replica of an 800-year-old pueblo dwelling and imagine your entire family cooking, eating, and sleeping in one small room. Explore the Aztec empire and its island capital, Tenochtitlan, a city of more than 200,000 people and an extraordinary feat of engineering for any era. Discover what Field Museum scientists and others have learned about the Americans who lived here before us, and how it’s changing nearly everything we thought we knew!

The Field Museum’s ground-breaking new exhibition, The Ancient Americas, takes you on a journey through 13,000 years of human ingenuity and achievement in the western hemisphere, where hundreds of diverse societies thrived long before the arrival of Europeans. In this 19,000-square-foot permanent exhibition you’ll live the epic story of the peopling of these continents, from the Arctic to the tip of South America. Discover how and why the early Americans developed farming, created new forms of artistic expression, and forged mighty empires. See more than 2,200 artifacts, amazing reconstructions, and dozens of videos and interactive displays, and come to understand the ingenuity with which ancient peoples met the challenges of their times and places – as we meet ours today.

Features more than 180 works made prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Europeans during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Representing a time period of more than 3,000 years, the exhibition drawn from the OMA's Art of the Ancient Americas Collection, gives a rare glimpse into the life and culture of numerous civilizations from the North, Central and South American regions including the Aztec, Maya, Moche, Nasca, Inca and Zapotec, with significant ancient works of gold, silver, jade, ceramic, shell and wood.

Admission: $8.00

Penn Museum's unique collection of brilliantly painted Chama polychromes opens a window into the lives of the ordinary Maya of 1,300 years ago, and the way they dealt with the challenge of forced change. More than 150 objects convey vibrant evidence of ancient Maya life, as revealed by amazing archaeological discovery and scientific analysis.

3260 South Street
33rd and Spruce Streets in West Philadelphia.
Spruce Street becomes South Street just east of the Museum.
Since the South Street Bridge is closed for construction, the I-76 exits for South Street cannot be used.

In the late nineteenth century, Peabody Museum expedition teams set out to remote areas of Mexico and Central America, often with little inkling of what they might experience and barely prepared to navigate the cultural encounters essential to their missions. The Peabody Museum holds the written and visual records of these early expeditions and recently completed a two-year project to digitize over 10,000 nineteenth-century glass-plate negatives. The earliest images in this amazing and unique collection were photographed at Copán, during the museum's pioneering archaeological expeditions to the site. These images offer a wealth of archaeological information for current research along with a visual narrative of the budding town and the archaeologists ' interactions with the local community. As the excavations unfold before our eyes, scenes of the Copán community also emerge. But, who are the people in these images, and what effect did the excavations have on their community?

Focuses on St. Bonaventure University’s collection of ancient Maya pottery. A wide array of Maya images, symbols, and hieroglyphs that represent different aspects of beliefs about the universe are on display. This imagery serves as a point of departure for to discuss ancient and contemporary Maya culture. This exhibit features bilingual text.

This major exhibition explores Aztec civilisation through the divine, military and political role of the last elected ruler, Moctezuma II (reigned AD 1502–1520).

From his capital in Tenochtitlan (the site of modern Mexico City), Moctezuma’s empire comprised much of modern highland Mexico, stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean. His power was reflected in the splendour of his capital’s architecture, his command of the prestigious Jaguar and Eagle military orders, and his sacrificial rituals to the gods. Moctezuma’s world was unrivalled, and this remained so until the devastating arrival of strangers – Cortés and his Spanish fleet.

The legacy of this tumultuous event and the semi-mythical status of Moctezuma will be reassessed through the display of imposing stone sculptures and rare gold and turquoise objects, many of which will be seen for the first time in the UK.

Rediscover the world of the Aztecs and trace the foundation of modern Mexico in the British Museum’s next major exhibition on great rulers.

This major exhibition explores Aztec civilisation through the divine, military and political role of the last elected ruler, Moctezuma II (reigned AD 1502–1520).

From his capital in Tenochtitlan (the site of modern Mexico City), Moctezuma’s empire comprised much of modern highland Mexico, stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean. His power was reflected in the splendour of his capital’s architecture, his command of the prestigious Jaguar and Eagle military orders, and his sacrificial rituals to the gods. Moctezuma’s world was unrivalled, and this remained so until the devastating arrival of strangers – Cortés and his Spanish fleet.

Open daily 10.00–17.30 (last entry 16.20)
Open late on Thursdays and Fridays until 20.30 (last entry 19.20)

Maya Field Workshops introduce you to the world of Maya archaeology and epigraphy in intensive, on-site seminars. Led by renowned archaeologist David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin, we focus not on tours and traveling, but on a concentrated learning experience at a single place. In Fall 2009 we will be based in Copan, Honduras, where participants will take part in a unique, hands-on intellectual and cultural exploration of ancient Maya civilization.

Over six days you will become immersed in Copan’s ancient history and culture. A key part of your experience will be the opportunity to learn about Copan’s court and community in its original, genuine setting. Each day we will visit the temples and major architecture of Copan, reading and decoding their monuments and inscriptions. We will explore the reigns of its kings and dynasties over the course of several centuries, roughly between 400 and 850 A.D. We will combine this on-site experience with daily lectures and workshops, so participants can work directly and actively with Copan’s history, art and archaeology.

The history of the ancient Maya can be gleaned only through the combined discoveries of archaeology, iconography, epigraphy, and ethnohistory. This illustrated talk shines an interdisciplinary light on the objects excavated from one region—the Chixoy River Valley of Guatemala’s Alta Verapaz—to explain the creation of a unique pottery style, Chama Polychrome, and the events that affected the lives of the people who lived at the site of Chama in the 8th century.

Speakers:
Warren Barbour (State Universtiy of New York at Buffalo)
Host Figurines and the Social Order of Teotihuacan: Soldiers, Traders, Diviners and Peasants
George Cowgill (Arizona State University, Tempe)
Nose Pendants: Signs of Rank and Office in the Political System of Teotihuacan?
Annabeth Headrick (University of Denver)
Mass Production in a Preindustrial Age: Individuality and Ideology in Teotihuacan's Censers
Charles C. Kolb (National Endowment for the Humanities)
Classic Teotihuacan Period Ceramic Production
James Langley (Canadian Society for Mesoamerican Studies)
A Distant Prospect of Teotihuacan
Matthew Robb (Saint Louis Museum of Art)
The Torch and the Shield: Architectural and Iconographic Continuities at the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl
Saburo Sugiyama (Aichi Prefectural University, Japan)
Cosmology, Militarism, and Polity Materialized at the Major Monuments in Teotihuacan
Karl Taube (University of California, San Diego)
Teotihuacan and the Ceramic Art of Escuintla, Guatemala: Iconography and Cosmology in Early Classic Mesoamerica

Papers delivered at the symposium will focus on interactions between Maya sociopolitical entities through time and across landscapes. The analysis will cover epigraphic, iconographic, archaeological, ethnohistorical and linguistic evidence. Some of the issues expected to be touched upon include:
- the political and cultural role of interactions and alliances for a particular political entity,
- the character of political interrelations between centres, as well as their change and reorientation over time,
- the cultural impact which some centres might have had on others,
- the effect of war on political systems and relations,
- studies on trade, communication networks and tribute,
- analysis of the archaeological materials that provide evidence of interactions between some Maya political entities,
- the role of these relations for the development of Maya culture in general.


Keynote speakers will include:
Charles Golden (Brandeis University) & Andrew Sherer (Baylor University), Elizabeth Graham (University
College London), Nikolai Grube (University of Bonn), Bernard Hermes (Nakuum Archaeological Project,
Guatemala), Wieslaw Koszkul (Jagellonian University Cracow), Simon Martin (University of Pennsylvania
Museum), Robert Sharer & Loa Traxler (University of Pennsylvania Museum), Jaroslaw Zralka (Jagellonian
University Cracow)


CALL FOR PAPERS

The Wayeb Conference Board invites the submission of abstracts concerning the conference topic. Papers will be selected from all subdisciplines of Maya Studies to cover the topic in all dimensions and from various perspectives. Presentations will be accepted in English and Spanish. Abstracts may not exceed 250 words.

Contributions of authors who submit more than one abstract (including co-authored papers) will not be considered. Co-authorship needs to be indicated upon submission.

Please submit in electronic format (Word attachment) in the following order:

1. Author's name and affiliation
2. Address, Phone Number and email address
3. Title of Paper
4. Abstract

The abstracts will be forwarded without the author's particulars to an anonymous Review Committee that will be selected by the Wayeb Conference Board.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts is May 31st, 2009

Please send your abstract to the following address: callforpapers@wayeb.org
(Only abstracts sent to this address will be accepted. Do not send your abstract to the organisers!)

MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WORKSHOP

The conference will be preceded by a three-day long hieroglyphic workshop. Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced workshops will be available. All groups will be taught and supervised by experienced tutors.

Tuition will be available in English and Spanish. In the Beginners Group Polish language consultation will be provided.

The workshop includes an introductory lecture by Simon Martin (University of Pennsylvania Museum).

Professor Jaime Awe (Belize).
5700 Lindell Blvd at DeBaliveiere, Forest Park.
Parking lots located to the right and left of South entrance.

Caves have been used as ritual spaces in Mesoamerica from as early as 1200BC until today, but archaeologists have only begun to understand the function and meaning of caves within ancient Mesoamerican ritual practice and cosmology. This program discusses our current state of knowledge and illustrates some of the more interesting finds from caves in the last decade.

Researchers believe that the Dresden Codex was compiled in the post-Classic period, probably after 1200 CE, but Venus was important in Maya myth and
astronomy much earlier. The sun and Venus were adopted as symbols of royal authority by the hierarchical states that took shape in the pre-Classical period. The Dresden Codex contains a Venus table that permits the prediction of first appearance of the planet as morning star and as evening star over a period of 104 years. The primary function of the Venus table appears to have been to fix the dates of rituals associated with the apparitions of Venus and supply auguries for these dates. Steve Mellard will explain the major components of the table and how it was used, identifying the Venus gods and reading some of the glyphs.

Some nearly 70 years ago the Mexican composer Carlos Chavez wrote longingly about an imagined pre-Columbian music, but as no forms of musical notation or didactic sources remain, it is unlikely that the music that once flourished in Mexico and Central America will ever be re-created. Although the music is unavailable, the significance of music and dance in ancient American life , can be explored through such musical instruments as whistles, flutes, rattles, and conch shell horns or trumpets, as well as through other objects that do not appear to be musically related but have important musical properties.

Discovered by biologist Cyrus Lundell of the Mexical Exploitation Chicle Company on December 29, 1931, the find was reported to Sylvanus Morley, then working in Chichén Itzá, in 1932. Lundell named the site Calakmul, to mean the City of Two Adjacent Pyramids (Ca = two; lak = adjacent and mul = mound or pyramid.

Calakmul administered a large domain, with its emblem glyph of the head of a snake amply found around the site. The Snake Polity saw its peak in the Classic period during which time it became a rival of Tikal. Several wars were conducted between these two great super powers. One of the largest Maya cities, so far more than 6,750 structures have been identified. Calakmul is also home to the biggest Maya pyramid, Structure II, at 55 meters high.

Located in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, the largest tropical forest reserve in Mexico, Calakmul is a treasure trove of Maya history. The site extends over 10 square miles in the middle of the reserve’s 1.8 million acres of forests in the State of Campeche.

This presentation will focus primarily on the site of Izapa, considering how space was structured through the erection of stela and altar monuments, and the implications of the highly narrative imagery found on these sculptures. I will focus in particular on the images that feature avian transformation, which referenced a ruler's ability to communicate with the supernatural realm. Discussion will also turn to other symbols featured on the monuments that further illustrate rulers' emphasis on their supernatural powers as a foundation for claims to political authority.

This workshop will present recent data from ongoing archaeological investigations at the Middle Preclassic site of La Blanca, Guatemala, which is located on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. La Blanca flourished between 900-600 BC, and was the major regional power along the coast and piedmont. Upon its decline, sites such as Izapa rose to power within the same region. A quatrefoil-shaped altar found at La Blanca that anticipates images seen at Izapa, San Bartolo, Takalik Abaj, and other Late Preclassic sites, will form the basis of discussion and illustrate Middle Preclassic antecedents for ritual patterns and imagery better known from later periods.

In the tradition of past meetings, the 11th Southwest Symposium will provide a forum for archaeologists and other scholars to discuss innovative ideas and to develop networks for anthropological research in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest. We have organized the symposium to explore key topics in substantial depth and to provide ample time for discussion among all who attend.

For most of the 20th century, a handful of US institutions, their professors and students dominated archaeology in the southwestern United States. The development of contract archaeology broadened the extent of and altered the practice of archaeology in the southwest U.S. but reinforced it as a nationalist practice. By the end of the 20 th century, however, a nationalist view of the region had become parochial. The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia established regional centers, museums and expanded research in the northwest of México. Slightly later, an Indigenous archaeology developed as Indian Nations established their own archaeological programs, goals, and methods. Each of these "national" archaeologies focus on different regions, make different assumptions, asks different questions, seeks different answers, emphasize different methods and embraces different theories or worldviews. The 11th Southwest Symposium will further discussions of how to transform these national archaeologies into transnational archaeologies. Transnational archaeologies reach beyond or transcend national boundaries and they do so in numerous ways. They imply a broad vision of historical and cultural processes in the Southwest/Northwest that is not artificially limited by political, cultural, or linguistic borders. They necessarily entail a multi-sited archaeology where researchers work in different "nations". They stand strong when their foundations rest on collaborations across cultural groups. They require archaeologists to reexamine the contributions that archaeology can make to society. They expand the archaeology of the Southwest/Northwest linguistically, culturally and regionally.

1. West and North México
The international border between México and the United States and the culture area border that separates our region from Mesoamerica has long hampered our understanding of the archaeology of the Southwest/Northwest. The archaeology of West and North México does not fit easily into both culture areas and the degree of fit changes over time. Developments in these areas had direct impacts on the Southwest/Northwest. Indeed, "Mesoamerican influences" on the north most likely originated in these regions and not the core of Mesoamerica . The session will allow scholars working in West and North México to share information and interact with Southwest/Northwest archaeologists.
Email: José Luis Punzo, Michael Ohnersorgen.

2. AD 1450 to AD 1540: The Lost Century

In the century AD 1450 to AD 1540, most of the Southwest/Northwest suffered a significant demographic collapse and transformation of cultures. Scores of regional sequences ended and village based agriculture ceased in areas where it had been practiced for hundreds of years. Outside of the Pueblos , this is a lost century making it difficult to link archaeological traditions and modern Indian Nations and to understand the processes that created the ethnographically known Southwest/Northwest. The international border has hampered our understanding of this century because it structures research but has no meaning for the historical and cultural processes we wish to understand. Indian Nations hold very different perspectives on this century than either U.S. or Mexican scholars.
Email: John Carpenter, Anna Neuzil.

3. Collaborating Across Cultures

Collaborations that reach beyond or transcend national and cultural boundaries are key to transnational archaeologies. Collaboration implies the integration of goals, interests, and practices between the individuals and/or social groups that work together. It entails a dialogue that goes beyond an instrumentalist concern with resolving a conflict or respecting rights and responsibilities. It requires humility, patience, listening, careful consultation, equality, and respect. Collaboration should be transformative of the parties involved. Each party brings different resources, skills, knowledge, authority and/or interests to a collaborative labor. Collaboration involves the melding of these unique qualities into common goals and practices. This session will address collaboration both across the international frontier and between scholars and Indian Nations.
Email: Andrew Darling, Davina Two Bears.

4. Archaeology and Society

The relationship of archaeology to society varies among the nations of the Southwest/Northwest. This session will explore these relationships in the United States , in México, and in Indian Nations. Issues will include public programs, education, heritage, and identity. The papers will be aimed towards a discussion that compares and contrasts these issues in different nations with the goal of transcending and reaching beyond national interests.
Email: Elizabeth Bagwell, Cesar Villalobos.

The Mirador Group is one of El Perú-Waka’s principal architectural groups, comprised of a small temple and two of the site’s grandest pyramids. Excavations conducted from 2003-2006 demonstrate a lengthy tradition of ritual activity associated with these buildings, extending from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic period. Moreover, one of the pyramids served a long-term mortuary function for high-status elites, housing the remains of an unknown ruler and three elite women. Archaeological discoveries at the Mirador Group will be highlighted in this presentation, and also examined relative to specific historical events documented in the Mayan epigraphic record. This comparative approach allows us to explore how El Perú may have been integrated into the larger Mesoamerican world system – namely with the central Mexican metropolis of Teotihuacan and the dominant Maya capitals of Tikal and Calakmul.

The excavation of ancient tombs has always captured the imagination of intrepid explorers, professional archaeologists and an interested public alike. In the Maya area, two factors have dovetailed to create an ongoing focus on burial contexts in archaeological fieldwork. First, Classic-period Maya interments are common in both ritual and residential structures, making it virtually impossible to excavate a building without encountering a burial; and second, the Maya have a rich artistic tradition, and as a result, many burials – particularly of the ancient elite – contain elaborate funerary objects. A tomb, however, is a complex interweaving of multiple categories of information: from the typically-showcased artifacts, to human and animal skeletal material, to fine-grained data such as pigments and minerals that tend to be understudied or overlooked relative to other tomb contents. Consequently, multiple scales of mortuary data are vital when coming to conclusions about burial practices among the ancient Maya. In this informal seminar we will focus on several royal and noble tombs from El Perú-Waka’ to explore what the full range of components of a mortuary assemblage can tell us about the interred individual(s), as well as the people who conducted associated burial rituals, and how ancient re-entry activities may affect archaeological interpretations.

The Association for Latin American Art will sponsor a session for Emerging Scholars at the CAA meeting in Chicago. This year's co-chairs will be Dr. Patricia Sarro and Dr. Khristaan Villela.

This is an open session for advanced graduate students and recent Ph.D. recipients on any Pre-Columbian, Colonial, Modern, or Contemporary Latin-American topic.

Proposals must include the following items:?
1. Completed session participation proposal form
2. Preliminary abstract of one to two double-spaced, typed? pages 3. Letter mentioning speaker's interest, expertise and CAA membership status 4. CV with home and office mailing addresses, e-mail address,? phone and fax numbers. Include summer address and? telephone number, if applicable. 5. a stamped, self-addressed postcard to be returned by session chairs

Paper proposals DUE MAY 8TH.

Please submit duplicate proposals to both panel chairs in accordance with the guidelines indicated in the CAA call for participation.
Online at: http://conference.collegeart.org/2010
And
http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2010CallforParticipation.pdf

Please send proposals to:

Dr. Patricia Sarro
Department of Art
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555-3627
pjsarro@ysu.edu

Dr. Khristaan Villela
PO Box 23872
Santa Fe, NM 87502
kvillela@yahoo.com

Co-chairs will accept electronic submissions, but cannot send return postcards to applicant acknowledging receipt of proposal. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that electronic documents are in a workable format, such as .pdf. Session chairs reserve the right to refuse electronic applications sent in unreadable formats.

CALL FOR PAPERS

2010 Cleveland Symposium – Submission deadline: December 11, 2009

The 2010 Cleveland Symposium invites graduate submissions exploring cross-cultural influences throughout the history of art. The exchange of ideas across local, regional, national, and continental borders has been one of the major vehicles by which art changes over time. We are seeking papers using all methodologies that explore these convergences. Examples include cases of artists influenced by other artists, places, time, culture, history, and any other relationships that are ultimately expressed in visual and material culture. We welcome submissions from graduate students in all stages of their studies and from all fields of art history including Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, Contemporary and Non-Western. A monetary prize will be awarded to the speaker who presents the most innovative research in the most successfully delivered paper.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with a curriculum vitae, to clevelandsymposium@gmail.com by December 11, 2009.

Selected presenters will be notified by January 1, 2010.

The ancient lowland Maya civilization of Mexico and Central America is often celebrated for its achievements in an environment unique for its lack of rivers, unlike that of the ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Indus, and Chinese civilizations. Nevertheless many major lowland Maya cities were indeed located along important rivers such as the Usumacinta, Pasión, Belize, Motagua, among others. These "River Cities" provided the rest of the Maya lowlands access to the resource-rich highlands to the south, as well as contact with to both the Caribbean and Gulf coasts. Moreover, they facilitated the movement of peoples throughout the region, allowed for critical movement and trading of exotic goods, and gave rise to innovative artistic and architectural styles. For these reasons, this conference will focus on how and why the great river cities of the ancient lowland Maya represent some of the most intriguing, opulent, and important segments of this civilization. The Middle American Research Institute [MARI] is organizing this year’s Seventh Annual Maya Symposium & Workshop with the collaboration of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies.

We are very pleased and excited to announce that the 2010 Maya Meetings will take place in Antigua, Guatemala, at UT-Austin’s new academic and conference center for Mesoamerican studies, the Casa Herrera. Since 1977 international students and scholars have gathered in Austin each year to learn and discuss the latest findings in Maya research. We are now able to take the Maya Meetings to the land of the Maya, to expand this spirit of learning and exchange. We hope to make Antigua a routine location for future conferences, alternating each year with our traditional venue on the UT-Austin campus.
As always, the 2010 Maya Meetings will offer a combination of learning workshops and academic lectures. Three workshops focusing on hieroglyphs and iconography will run for four days from March 16 through 19, accompanied by two courtyard lectures during each evening. All events will take place at the Casa Herrera, a beautifully restored 17th-century mansion located near the center of Antigua, Guatemala’s colonial capital.
Our topic in 2010 will focus on new developments in the study of early Maya iconography and writing, focusing on the sites of Kaminaljuyu, Takalik Abaj, Izapa, San Bartolo and others. More details about the presenters, the schedule and details of registration will be posted early this coming fall.

CALL FOR PAPERS

SECOLAS 2010 Conference – Submission deadline: January 1, 2010

Sponsored by: Instituto Mora, Mexico City
Local arrangement: Carmen Collado

Proposals for paper presentations should be one page that includes author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), contact information, paper title and an abstract (200-300 words). Session proposals should come from
the organizer and include all names and affiliations of the session participants, contact information for each participant and especially the session chair, title of the proposed session, and individual presentation titles as well as a brief explanation of the purpose of the session by the organizer. Abstracts for each presentation in the session may also be included.

Deadline: January 1, 2010
Email submissions are preferred.
Send proposals to:

Literature & Humanities:
Ann Gonzalez, Ph.D., Associate Chair
Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies
Department of Languages and Culture Studies
University of North Carolina Charlotte
(704) 687-8781
abgonzal@uncc.edu

History & Social Sciences:
Timothy Henderson
Distinguished Research Professor
Department of History
Auburn University Montgomery
(334) 264-6826
tjhenderson@charter.net

For the past quarter century, international scholars, Maya enthusiasts, artists, linguists, archaeologists and other have joined together for a lively weekend of engaging talks and programs centering around the Maya world. During the weekend, numerous other lectures and language workshops provide opportunities for attendees to learn about Maya culture and current archaeological work at Maya sites. Participants can expect a rich intellectual experience—and activity choices—as the weekend provides diverse opportunities for engagement.
Our 2010 Weekend theme, Maya Women ~ Figures of Enduring Strength and Power,focuses on the central role that women have always played in the social history of Maya peoples. Whether sustaining Classic era dynasties or advocating for justice in contemporary Latin America, Maya women are commanding figures. In many households, they anchor daily life and religious practice for their families and communities. Over centuries they have been pivotal figures resisting cultural annihilation, and today many have become successful political leaders and entrepreneurs.
As always, the weekend combines illustrated talks by more than a dozen world renowned scholars with engaging films, interactive hieroglyphic workshops for beginners and more advanced glyph readers-and an optional Maya banquet. $175; $140 members. Dinners, lunches extra.

Located in Golden Gate Park, the de Young is San Francisco’s oldest museum. On October 15, 2005, the de Young Museum re-opened in a state-of-the-art new facility that integrates art, architecture and the natural landscape in one multi-faceted destination that will inspire audiences from around the world.

A walk through the de Young’s collection of over 2,500 objects from Mesoamerica, Central and South America, as well as the West Coast of North America reveals the richness and complexity of art that links the Americas. Notable treasures include the largest group of Teotihuacán wall murals outside of México, a rare Lowland Maya stela dating from the 8th century A.D., a Peruvian mouth mask of hammered gold from the Nazca culture, and a ten-foot totem pole from Alaska.

This exhibit draws on the William P. Palmer III Collection, a collection of 2,228 Precolumbian ceramics, lithics, and gold work dating from 2,000 B.C. to the time of the Spanish Conquest and is one of the finest collections of its type in the nation. The exhibit includes many Maya pieces, including a stela, glyph panel, cylindrical vases, figurines, shell, bone and antler carvings, and jade pieces. It explores cultures of México and Central America ranging from Olmec to Aztec.

The Hudson Museum also features the following Online Exhibits:

"Worldviews: Maya Ceramics from the Palmer Collection" - explores the wealth of information about religion and beliefs important to the Maya and captured by artisans. Some of the internationally known pieces in this exhibit were published in The Maya Vase Book, vol. 5, by Justin and Barbara Kerr, and Hidden Faces of the Maya, by Linda Schele.

"Images for Eternity: West Mexican Tomb Figures" - discusses the progress being made by modern scholars in understanding West Mexican tomb figures that have lost their original context.

The Library of Congress presents The Cultures and History of the Americas, an online exhibition featuring fifty highlights from the more than 4,000 rare books, maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts that make up the Jay I. Kislak Collection.

This exhibition explores several themes, including the pre-Columbian cultures of Central America and the Caribbean as revealed in sculpture, architecture, and language; encounters between Europeans and the indigenous peoples; the growth of European Florida; and piracy and trade in the American Atlantic.

This exhibition is a preview of the permanent Kislak space to open in the Northeast Galleries of the Thomas Jefferson Building in 2006.

The museum’s holdings include a comprehensive collection of Pre-Columbian objects representing nearly every culture of Pre-columbian Latin America, with the best representations from West Mexico and the Maya region. The museum also possesses a cohesive collection of Guatemalan costumes and an extensive collection of Mexican masks.

Ongoing Exhibits include:

"Gods, Kings and Artisans of Ancient Mesoamerica"
"Ceramics of Ancient West Mexico"
"Painted Vessels of the Maya Elite"
"Power and Guidance - Early Classic Figurines of Mesoamerica"

Upcoming Online Exhibition:

"Ancient Mexican Art" - This upcoming online exhibition will feature pieces selected form the Barrick Museum’s collection to illustrate the cultural and historical continuity of Mexican art. The pieces all date to before the Spanish Conquest of the 1500’s. The materials, techniques, and designs used in ancient Mexico continue to enrich the folk art of today.

The collection of art of the ancient Americas is substantial, consisting of more than 1,900 pieces. The Museum is fortunate in the breadth and depth of the collection as a whole. All three principal cultural centers of the Americas are represented: Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andes. Most of the important art-producing cultures – from the West México to the Maya and Aztec, from Honduras to Panama, from the Chavín to the Inca – can be appreciated during a visit to the permanent collection galleries.

Ancient America refers to regions in Mexico, Central America and South America at a time prior to the arrival of Europeans. The diverse artistic traditions of the prehistoric people can be traced as far back as 4,000 years. The museum collection includes many examples of pottery and stonework as well as elaborate, hand-woven textiles and costumes. Large burial urns, figurines and jewelry provide a unique insight into these advanced cultures.

The permanent exhibit includes representative objects from all the archaeological regions and time periods in Pre-Columbian Guatemala. The exhibition is organized in chronological sequence, from the earliest traces of human presence in the modern territory of Guatemala, until the Spanish conquest. Three major geographic regions may be distinguished in the study of the ancient peoples of Guatemala: The Pacific Coast, The Highlands, and The Lowlands.

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century in both the Old World and the New, chocolate remained an elite drink, too expensive for ordinary folk to enjoy, and often forbidden to them. But the invention by a Dutchman of a method to extract the fat in cacao paste led to the mutation of chocolate from drink into a solid confection that could be enjoyed by the masses. Chocolate now became "big business" and the cultivation of the cacao tree was spread all across the globe.

The present exhibit: "Kakaw: Chocolate in Guatemalan Culture" brings together many lovely objects that celebrate the mysteries and rituals that surrounded the chocolate drink among the early Maya, as well as the vessels that were made in colonial times so that a new, Creole elite could indulge their new-found taste for this prestigious beverage.

The NMSU Museum is now home to a unique and comprehensive collection of both prehistoric and historical pottery. This permanent exhibit includes almost 600 pottery vessels that reflect the vibrant artistry and beauty of Southwestern and Mesoamerican ceramics. There is also an extensive type collection of sherds from New Mexico and Chihuahua to be explored, as well as other educational materials. The NMSU Museum proudly invites you to view this important and historic cultural collection.

This exhibition features more than 150 works, including 25 pieces that have never been exhibited before, made prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Europeans during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Representing a time period of more than 3,000 years, the exhibition drawn from the OMA’s Art of the Ancient Americas Collection gives a rare glimpse into the life and culture of numerous civilizations from the North, Central and South American regions including the Aztec, Maya, Moche, Nasca, Inca and Zapotec with significant ancient works of gold, silver, jade, ceramic, shell and wood.

Dig It! Explore Archaeology is a hands-on exhibit that will delight visitors of all ages. Featured is a life-size replica of an excavated trench wall where hands-on elements demonstrate the science of archaeology. A photo-mural illustrates various aspects of archaeological field work. In other hands-on elements, you'll explore how archaeologists study clues from ancient and historic sites. Learn how these clues are used in identifying artifacts, such as ancient pottery, and create your own designs using interactive magnetic drawing slates. Build your own miniature Hohokam village or take a break and enjoy the museum's orientation video in the newly rennovated theater. Both children and adults will find this gallery entertaining, engaging, and educational... in fact, they'll "DIG IT!"

The flora and fauna of the forest, the rhythm of burning and planting, and the cycles of birth and death shaped the myth, ritual, and pageantry that are celebrated in art and architecture of these ancient and contemporary peoples. This exhibit features exact copies of Classic Maya monuments–four towering stelae and two massive zoomorphs–from the ancient city of Quiriguá, Guatemala, covered with hieroglyphs that recount the stories of Maya rulers and gods. The exhibit backdrop is a colorful mural resplendent with the animals and birds of the jungle surrounding the Ceiba tree, the symbolic tree of life that links the heavens, earth, and underworld. Exhibit cases contain fine examples of Maya pottery and figurines, as well as information on how the giant monuments were carved more than 1200 years ago.

Explore objects from various areas of the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection to enrich visitors' understanding of their content, style, and historical context. The collection includes sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, and textiles created by Native Americans, the inhabitants of Teotihuacan, and the Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs of ancient Mesoamerica — the geographical area comprising New Mexico, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Includes lesson plans for the classroom, maps, glossary, books, and art projects for the home.

Pre-Columbian art from Mexico, Central and South America has been at the heart of the Bowers for many years. A series of galleries communicates the power and sophistication of the mysterious cultures that rose and fell in ancient America.

The Bowers Museum also offers the following Educational Activities for Schools (grades 3 & 4):

Pre-Columbian Art Tour
(History/Social Science content standards and Visual Arts Framework)
The series of five intimate galleries portray the rich art and culture of ancient Pre-Columbian civilizations. The exhibit details the emergence of Mesoamerican cities highlighting architecture, ritual art, the sacred ball game, funerary art, and hieroglyphic writing depicted in Mayan art. Various artifacts include the ceramics and stone carvings of the pre-Columbian Maya and Olmec peoples illustrating their sacred rituals.

Ancient Mesoamerican Art Classes
(Visual Arts Framework)
Clay Masks, Jaguar Masks, Tooled Foil Mythical Beasts, Clay Animals

In 2002, The Dayton Art Institute was fortunate enough to be able to showcase the stunning pre-Columbian collection of the late Harold W. Shaw, on loan from Mrs. Mary Louise Shaw. Thanks to Mrs. Shaw’s generosity, we are once again able to share these treasures with our members and visitors. The Shaw collection features gold, silver, jade, stone and ceramic works from ancient Meso-America and South America. Assembled during the 1960s and 1970s, this stunning collection is a testimony to the gifted eye of Harold Shaw.

Journey through history to get the complete story behind the tasty treat that we crave in Chocolate, an exciting new exhibition developed by The Field Museum.

You’ll begin in the rainforest with the unique cacao tree whose seeds started it all. Visit the ancient Maya civilization of Central America and discover what chocolate meant nearly 1,500 years ago. Then travel forward in time and northward to the Aztec civilization of 16th-century Mexico, where cacao seeds were so valuable they were used as money. Discover chocolate’s introduction into the upper classes of European society and its transformation into a mass-produced world commodity.

In addition: Opening in the Winter of 2007:
The Halls of the Ancient Americas - It tells the epic story of human life on the American continents, from the arrival of small groups of hunter- gatherers, whose way of life survived into the 20th century, to the great but fragile empires of the Aztecs and the Incas - empires that stretched thousands of miles, encompassed as many as 10 million people, and came to sudden, brutal ends. Click here for additional information.

The objects in this gallery are from "Mesoamerica," the area encompassing most of southern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In parts of this culture area farming villages grew into towns and cities, tribal chiefs were made kings and emperors, trade networks became more complex, stone monuments and pyramids were erected, a calendar and writing-system developed, and devotion to nature spirits developed into state ceremonies in honor of the gods and ancestors.

This site explores Aztec and Mayan law through images and brief overviews of topics such as warfare, tribute, Aztec courts, attorneys and judges, property law, family law, punishment, drunkenness, slavery and Maya Law. Includes a small collection of annotated links on Aztec, Mayan, and other Mesoamerican civilizations.

Hundreds of earthenware pots and other Precolumbian artifacts from ancient West Mexico are now part of the collections of Wake Forest University’s Museum of Anthropology.

The objects, most dating from 300 B.C. to 400 A.D., were donated to the museum in May. The collection of 1,040 pieces includes 162 complete ceramic vessels, ceramic figurines, greenstone beads and necklaces, obsidian spear and arrow points, knives, and grinding stones.

The artworks for this exhibition, loaned by the directors of the Austen-Stokes Ancient Americas Foundation, are highlights of the foundation’s collection and include more than 120 objects. Many of the objects have never been shown before and rank among the most beautiful and striking pieces created by these cultures. In the sculptures, vessels, and jewelry, the artists and craftsmen encoded a wide range of religious beliefs in representations of humans, animals, and supernatural beings. From gem-like objects of stone and gold to paintings and ceramic figures, the intricate compositions, remarkable naturalism, and sometimes powerful abstraction indicates how much remains to be learned about these ancient cultures.

All of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica are featured, including Olmec, Maya, and Teotihuacan, among others. The exhibition focuses on small ceramic sculpture from these cultures--enigmatic figures and animals that probably served a ritual function. These pieces are complemented by larger ceramic sculptures from West Mexico, intricate gold objects from Colombia, elegant ceramics from Ecuador, and works from the Caribbean and Alaska.

Among the collection are outstanding Jaina terra-cotta figurines from the Maya period, striking figures and house models from western México. Particularly important and rare is the clay model of a ball game, which is complemented by a yoke, hachas, and additional items related to this ancient sporting activity. South American cultures are represented by a small number of vessels, sculptures, and other objects, including textiles. The exhibit also includes a painted Maya vase and the largest carved Maya femur known, along with a notable selection of Olmec and Maya pieces.

Step into the windswept world of Ice-Age mammoth hunters. Walk through a replica of an 800-year-old pueblo dwelling and imagine your entire family cooking, eating, and sleeping in one small room. Explore the Aztec empire and its island capital, Tenochtitlan, a city of more than 200,000 people and an extraordinary feat of engineering for any era. Discover what Field Museum scientists and others have learned about the Americans who lived here before us, and how it’s changing nearly everything we thought we knew!

The Field Museum’s ground-breaking new exhibition, The Ancient Americas, takes you on a journey through 13,000 years of human ingenuity and achievement in the western hemisphere, where hundreds of diverse societies thrived long before the arrival of Europeans. In this 19,000-square-foot permanent exhibition you’ll live the epic story of the peopling of these continents, from the Arctic to the tip of South America. Discover how and why the early Americans developed farming, created new forms of artistic expression, and forged mighty empires. See more than 2,200 artifacts, amazing reconstructions, and dozens of videos and interactive displays, and come to understand the ingenuity with which ancient peoples met the challenges of their times and places – as we meet ours today.