Archaeology of Maya Worlds

This class is about the archaeology of the Maya, a diverse group of millions of people who live globally today, and whose ancestors built a thriving society in the rainforests of Mesoamerica. In our exploration of ancient Maya archaeology, we will pay special attention to dynamic continuities from ancient to contemporary worlds. We begin with an introduction to ancient words, both by reading Maya literature and learning to decipher hieroglyphs. We will then learn about all facets of ancient Maya society, including cosmology, environment, cities, and gender. The course concludes with considerations of what lessons we can learn by studying the ancient Maya past, and why the stories we tell about the past are important to the present.