AIA Lecturer/Host: Bruce Love

Mayanist and epigrapher

Archaeological Institute of America lecturer and host Bruce Love has 35 years experience in Yucatán and Central America, and began leading tours in the region in 1987. A renowned epigrapher and translator of the Paris Codex, Dr. Love has been traveling and doing field work in Yucatan since 1971, and has published a number of books and articles on subjects ranging from contemporary Maya ritual practice in the villages and towns of rural Yucatán, to hieroglyphic writing of the Classic Period Maya (A.D. 300-900). Dr. Love’s broad range of interests include hieroglyphic texts from more than a thousand years ago, sacred books of the calendar priests from just before Spanish contact, the survival of Maya culture into the Colonial Period, and the contemporary Maya of today. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from UCLA, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks Center for Pre-Columbian Studies.
Dr. Love teaches hieroglyphic workshops at California State University, the University of California, the annual Maya Meetings at the University of Texas, Austin, and at the European Maya Conference (Madrid, December 2010), and is a frequent speaker at international conferences. On our tour, he will be lecturing and guiding at the sites and museums, and also giving evening lectures on special topics, sharing with you his expertise in Maya hieroglyphics, archaeology, language, and customs. He says, "My goal as study leader is for each traveler to appreciate that Classic Maya culture was one the great civilizations of the world, with science, art, and literacy, and that it did not die, but continues today among the living Maya."