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Changing Perspectives on Tikal and the Development of Ancient Maya Civilization, an advanced seminar chaired by Jeremy Sabloff, University of Pennsylvania Museum, September 26-30, 1999

Participants

Jeremy Sabloff, Chair
University of Pennsylvania Museum

Robert Sharer, Discussant
University of Pennsylvania Museum
"Tikal and the Copan Dynastic Founding"

Marshall Becker
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, West Chester University
"Plaza Plans at Tikal: New Directions and Research Strategies at Lowland Maya Sites and for Inferring Social Organization and Processes of Culture Change"

Patrick T. Culbert
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona
"The Ceramics of Tikal"

Robert Fry
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University
"The Peripheries of Tikal"

Peter Harrison
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico
"The Ceremonial Precincts on the West and South Sides of the Great Plaza at Tikal, and Their Role in the Development of the City"

William Haviland
Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont
"Settlement, Security and Affairs of State at Tikal"

Christopher Jones
University of Pennsylvania Museum
"Floors, Building Blocks and Hieroglyphs: Dating the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice in the East Plaza Tikal"

Juan Pedro Laporte
Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
"Tres Decadas Despues: Algunos Resultados de la Investigacion Reciente en Tikal"

Stanley Loten
School of Architecture, Carleton University
"Tikal Architecture: Notes for a Database"

Simon Martin
London, England
"Thematic Issues in the Epigraphy of Tikal"

Hattula Moholy-Nagy
Ann Arbor, Michigan
"Beyond the Catalogue: Contexts and Chronology of Tikal Artifacts"

Summary

Changing Perspectives on Tikal and the Development of Ancient Maya Civilization 

Thirty years ago, a number of key breakthroughs in scholarly understanding of the ancient Maya were provided by the Tikal Project, field research conducted at the Maya site by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology in cooperation with the government of Guatemala. This advanced seminar examined the potential contributions that the Tikal database can make to current scholarly perspectives on Maya civilization.
     The Advanced Seminar participants included eight scholars who worked at Tikal during the 1950s and 1960s. Of particular value was the sharing of new information about Tikal that has emerged since the close of the fieldwork there. Thirty years represents a relatively short a period of time, but, said seminar chair Jeremy Sabloff, "for Maya studies, it is like an eternity."
     Several questions emerged repeatedly throughout the wide-ranging discussions conducted over the seminar week. These included the timing of the foundation of the Tikal dynasty and the initial indications of socio-political complexity, the 6th-7th century hiatus in monument erection, the reassertion of central authority around A.D. 700, and the strong evidence for collapse and depopulation during the 9th century.
     New insights from the ongoing analyses of the Tikal excavations were also brought into the discussion, such as the possibility that there was a thriving marketplace in the center of Tikal, data indicating that foreigners resided in the city, and how differences in tomb form and contents can shed light on the changing fortunes of Tikal rulers.

This advanced seminar was funded by a donation from John Borne. A volume in the Advanced Seminar series from SAR Press is planned.

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