Workshop on a Workshop: Viewing Maya Mural Paintings and Inscriptions Through the Eyes of Astronomer, Archaeologist, and Art Restorer/Anthropologist

We focus on the exploration of the contents of Structure 10K-2, a tiny room in an abandoned building made over into a workshop by calendar scribes who inscribed tiny hieroglyphic texts and numbers over an extant mural painting, at the ninth-century ruins of the Classic Maya city of Xultun, Guatemala. This event emanates from collaborative work with MacArthur awardee Heather Hurst, who will present and interactively analyze replicas of the mural and texts she restored, and Franco Rossi, who will discuss the nature of the human remains he excavated beneath the floor of 10K-2 (he joins us from Germany via Skype). My own contribution, in collaboration with others on the team, will deal with the way the occupants of 10K-2 used the writing on the wall to forecast eclipses using methods unanticipated by Western astronomers—a lesson in scientific cultural diversity.

Anthony F. Aveni is the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy, Anthropology and Native American Studies, serving appointments in both the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Colgate University, where he has taught since 1963. He helped develop the field of archaeoastronomy and now is considered one of the founders of Mesoamerican archaeoastronomy, in particular for his research in the astronomical history of the Maya Indians of ancient Mexico. He is a lecturer, speaker, and editor/author of three dozen books on ancient astronomy. He has also lectured on astronomy related subjects on the Cunard & Crystal cruise lines.