Happy to finally see the new Rockefeller Wing at The Met. The Maya stela from Piedras Negras, Guatemala, always impresses (looted from there in the 60s). One detail I love is the elegantly carved skeleton with a cigar, probably representing a firefly (exoskeleton and cigar light, of course).

The last Maya hieroglyphs. Copied ca. 1877, from a lost indigenous historical chronicle in Mani, Yucatán. The glyphs are dates, marking the k’atuns (20 year) periods of history. From the copy of the Codex Perez, now at the Princeton University Library.

Very proud of my students who did outstanding drawings of Maya texts for their first assignment. None had any background in this stuff two weeks ago. I’ve seen far worse in published articles!

Next month in Austin we’ll be hosting a conference on this theme.

Stopped a few days ago at the Maya site of Balamku, known for its well preserved temple facade, ca. 400-450 CE. The iconography shows 4 ancestral figures being reborn from cosmic mountains. Similar ideas of landscape and ancestry are found today in Maya communities in highland Guatemala & Mexico.

My new article is out, on the importance of naming in Maya and other early writing systems. Part of an excellent new book on Maya archaeology, art and history, in honor of my friend Steve Houston.

Waxaklajun Ubah K’awil, the ancient Maya ruler of the city we know today as Copan, Honduras. Crowned in 695 CE, captured and executed in 738. Image: portrait on Stela A, dedicated in 731.

One of my favorite Mexica (Aztec) sculptures. A mad puma, just waking up from a nap. Gotta love the whiskers. Museo Templo Mayor, CDMX.

An example of ancient Maya writing. What I’ve studied and worked to decipher over the last fifty(?!) years.

Bolo’s had enough with these cabinet picks.