This lecture explores elements of a Classic Maya (ca. AD 250-900) material worldview; that is, how members of this ancient civilization understood, perceived, and experienced the material world around them. Information from Classic Maya hieroglyphic and iconographic sources allows for partial reconstruction of how the ancient Maya understood the materials we classify as “artifacts,” including: Maya perceptions of the material world, using categories and senses in ways that depart from our own; the person-like identities of many ancient objects, which invited social relationships and required attention; and ways that written texts were understood to behave in active and dynamic ways. As a result, we are challenged to see familiar materials differently, and to consider the methodological impacts on archaeological approaches for documenting and interpreting ancient objects.

Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:

Jackson, Sarah E.

In press           Facing Objects: An Investigation of Non-Human Personhood in Ancient Maya Contexts. Ancient Mesoamerica.

2017    Envisioning Artifacts: A Classic Maya View of the Archaeological Record. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 24(2):579-610.

2016    Pushing the Paperless Envelope: Digital Recording and Innovative Ways of Seeing at a Classic Maya Site. Advances in Archaeological Practice 4(2):176-191. Co-authored with C. Motz and L. Brown.