Workshops 2025

Workshop 1 - Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

Day 1: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
10:00AM - 5:00pm CST &
Day 2: Thursday, January 9, 2025
9:00am - 5:00pm CST 
Instructor: Danny Law
Fee: $110.00 

This is a two-day workshop open to all beginners and to other participants who would like a refresher course. Come learn how to read Maya inscriptions! Ancient Maya hieroglyphic texts recorded a range of topics, and their decipherment opened up new avenues for understanding ancient Maya lives. This workshop will provide an overview of ancient Maya hieroglyphic writing and get participants off to a running start in deciphering ancient Maya inscriptions for themselves. No prior experience is necessary. As this workshop will be in a closed session, only a limited number of participants can register in order to maintain optimal interaction with the workshop instructor. Each participant will receive a workbook containing all necessary background materials and exercises.  **Please note: This 2-day workshop overlaps with the thematic workshops led by Jeremy Coltman and Christophe Helmke.

Workshop 2 - A New Dawn: The Iconography of Chichén Itzá

Wednesday, January 8, 2025
10:00am - 5:00pm CST
Instructor: Jeremy D. Coltman
Fee: $90.00 

This is a 1-day workshop on the iconography of the great Northern Maya lowland metropolis of Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico. Following the Classic Maya collapse, Chichén Itzá ushered in a new dawn that synthesized the old and new with the local and foreign. This workshop focuses on the most prominent and enduring iconographic themes found in the Upper and Lower Temple of the Jaguars, the Temple of the Warriors, the Tzompantli, and the recently reopened Initial Series Group. The workshop begins with a summary of past iconographic research followed by a brief primer on methodology in iconographic analysis. Participants will gain familiarity with the gods, rituals, sacred geography, and cosmology of the site. As a cultural mediator between the Classic Maya and Central Mexico, Chichén Itzá is critical to understanding the development of Late Postclassic art and iconography. This workshop concludes with a discussion about the Toltec-Maya relationship and what this meant for the Maya legacy in Central Mexico and beyond. Each participant will receive a workbook of images and will work collaboratively on several exercises in iconographic interpretation.  **Please note: This 1-day workshop overlaps with Day 1 of the Intro Glyphs workshop led by Danny Law.

Workshop 3 - The Memory of Bones: Remembrance and Materiality in Funerary Contexts

Thursday, January 9, 2025
9:00am - 5:00pm CST
Instructor: Christophe Helmke
Fee: $90.00

This 1-day workshop explores the archaeology, epigraphy and iconography of the ancient Maya, with a special focus on artifactual materials from tombs—and tombs witnessing multiple re-entries—as privileged places of remembrance. By examining inscribed objects from such tombs, participants will explore how memory was constructed and maintained through material culture. The texts on these objects provide insights into their function in life, and into the role of the deceased as active agents in lineage and collective memory, and as sources of power and identity within ancient Maya society. Comparative materials from other Mesoamerican civilizations will also be considered, highlighting broader regional practices of commemoration and ancestral veneration. Participants will gain a deeper appreciation of the interplay between text, image, and materiality in Mesoamerican mortuary contexts.  **Please note: This 1-day workshop overlaps with Day 2 of the Intro Glyphs workshop led by Danny Law.