William Fash

Religion and Human Agency in Ancient Maya History: Tales from the Hieroglyphic Stairway

Originally presented as the twelfth McDonald Lecture, the following seeks to contribute to the field of cognitive archaeology by exploring how both process and agency contributed to the creation of enduring symbols in a Classic Maya kingdom. Through the examination of material remains from excavated contexts at the site of Copan, Honduras, it is proposed that the religious ideology of its rulers can be shown to have undergone four transformations. These can be framed as local responses to larger, regional processes, wherein human agency was critical in adapting to changing historical and economic circumstances. The proposed transformations were: 1) the establishment of a new charter; 2) the deification of the most powerful royal ancestor; 3) a retreat to shared religious values and social ideals; 4) an attempt to create a transcendent ideology.

Building a World-View: Visual Communication in Classic Maya Architecture

The subject of literacy and visual communication among the civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica has been a central concern since the first popular descriptions of the stone art and architecture that embellished its ancient cities (Stephens 1962 [1841]). Recently, scholarly debate has focused on three central issues: the question of what actually constitutes writing and how it was construed and constructed among the pre-Columbian peoples of nuclear America (Boone and Mignolo 1994); the concern about how many people could actually read the hieroglyphs in Classic Maya civilization (Brown 1991); and the ways in which the ancient Mesoamerican texts (and monuments) combined history, myth, and propaganda (Marcus 1992; cf. Bricker 1981). Most scholars agree that relatively few people would have been able to actually read the monumental and other hieroglyphic texts fashioned by specialized scholars, scribes, and sculptors. Likewise, most authorities on indigenous New World civilizations have concluded that art styles were effective means of communication over broad expanses of space, among numerous linguistic and ethnic groups, and without recourse or reliance on accompanying texts (Grove 1989; Proskouriakoff 1950; Rice 1993; Spinden 1913; Willey 1962). The shared elements of religion and world-view that enabled Kirchoff (1943) to define Mesoamerica as a distinct culture area have been

New Approaches to Community Stewardship, Education, and Sustainable Conservation of Cultural Heritage at Rastrojón, Copán, Honduras

Like so many countries in the developing world, Honduras has always faced severe challenges in meeting its obligations and goals in cultural heritage management. These have been exacerbated since the great recession and a series of other difficulties that have dramatically reduced the government’s ability to support heritage management throughout the country. In 2007, the authors began a new program of rescue archaeology, conservation, education, and cultural heritage management at a site in the eastern end of the Copan Valley that engaged the local community on various levels, as well as offered the Instituto Hondureno de Antropologia e Historia (IHAH) a new model for civic engagement in these endeavors. The new model engages the landowner and a local education foundation in sustaining the conservation and protection of the site, and provides technical training and K-12 educational programs to the benefit of the nearby town of Copan Ruinas and the Ch’orti’ Maya community. The site is now open to the public, with signage that emphasizes conservation and the role of the local staff in the rescue, documentation, analysis, conservation, and educational outreach that have been both the project’s and the IHAH’s goals from the onset of the work there. It is hoped that such community engagement and private stewardship will enable the government to enhance public awareness of the value of cultural heritage and the responsibilities local communities have to teach and to learn from it in the present and future.

SPRINTER, WORDSMITH, MENTOR, AND SAGE: The life of Gordon Randolph Willey, 1913–2002

On April 27, 2002, while walking in the garden of his home in Cambridge, one of the premier American archaeologists of the twentieth century was taken from us suddenly, by massive heart failure, at the age of 89. Gordon R. Willey was appointed the first Charles P. Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University in 1950 at the tender age of 37, without ever having set foot in Mesoamerica. In later years Willey happily introduced himself to people as a “Maya archaeologist,” but his importance transcends his long and distinguished career in that area.

Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence@@@Scribes, Warriors and Kings: The City of Copan and the Ancient Maya

Traces the history of the city of Copan, and describes how new discoveries are shedding light on the citys collapse.