Simon Martin is a political anthropologist and historian who serves as an Associate Curator at the Penn Museum and Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a specialist in Maya hieroglyphic writing, with a particular interest in the history, politics, and religious beliefs of the Classic Period (A.D. 250-900). His most recent book, Ancient Maya Politics (Cambridge, 2020), won the AHA James Henry Breasted Prize for a work concerning history before A.D. 1000. The same volume won three prizes from the Association of American Publishers, including the R.R. Hawkins Award. Earlier co-authored books were Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya (2004) and Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens (2000). In 2019-2020 Martin was the Jay I. Kislak Chair for the Study of the History and Cultures of the Early Americas at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. He currently directs an archaeological project at Tikal, Guatemala, after a long history of fieldwork at Calakmul, Mexico—both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
