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.