Through a series of lectures, workshops, and a roundtable discussion, specialists at next year’s symposium will discuss our current understanding of the intricacies of Maya calendars and the relevance of the completion in December of 2012 of the final baktun of the current era of the Long Count within the worldview of the ancient and contemporary Maya. Divinatory almanacs and references to Maya creation mythology in the texts and iconography of pre-Columbian codices and the Colonial Books of Chilam Balam are among the topics that will be considered, with discussions centered on the role of creation stories and foundation events in Classic, Postclassic, and contemporary Maya rituals.
Featuring guest speakers from the fields of archaeology, art history, epigraphy, ethnohistory, linguistics, and archaeoastronomy, the 2009 symposium promises to be a memorable weekend spent exploring and discussing Maya creation mythology, divination and prophecy, and calendar systems. We hope you will join us in New Orleans next February for the Sixth Annual Maya Symposium and Workshop.
Speakers
"Ends of Time: The Maya Mystery of Creation 2012" -- Anthony F. Aveni
"The Sacred Cycle of Time in the Paris Codex" -- Victoria R. Bricker and Harvey M. Bricker
"Straightaway their Vision Came to Them:” Ancestral Vision and Calendric Divination Ceremonies" -- Allen J. Christenson
"The Role of New Fire Ceremonies at Teotihuacan in Foundation Narratives at Copan and Other Classic Maya Kingdoms" -- William Fash, Alexandre Tokovinine, and Barbara Fash
"The Genres of Classical Yucatecan Creation Myths" -- Timothy Knowlton
"Cosmology and Creation in Ch'orti' and Ancient Maya Ritual" -- Matthew Looper
"The Multiple Threads of Mayan Time" -- Barbara Tedlock and Dennis Tedlock
"The Lord of the Deer: Reconstructing a Lost Maya Myth" -- Marc Zender
"Counting Time the Maya Way" -- Markus Eberl
"Sacred Space and Time: Modern and Colonial Conceptions of the 260-Day-Count Auguries, Spatial Display, and Ritual Practice" -- Judith Maxwell
"Classic Maya Mythologies" -- Marc Zender