CASAA sponsors Mayan hieroglyphics workshop at Texas State

By Ann Friou
University News Service
September 21, 2011

The 2011 Ancient Maya Hieroglyphic Workshop, sponsored by the Center for the Arts and Symbolism of Ancient America (CASAA) at Texas State University-San Marcos, will be held Oct. 14-16 on the campus.

The workshop, designed for beginners as well as participants who have some familiarity with Maya hieroglyphs, will focus on inscriptions from the ancient Maya sites of Copán in Honduras, Palenque in Mexico and Quiriguá in Guatemala. The workshop will be led by epigrapher and art historian Matthew G. Looper of California State University-Chico.

The workshop will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16, in Centennial Hall 157 (Teaching Theater). On Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall 157, the award-winning documentary on deciphering the Maya script, Breaking the Maya Code (Nightfire Films 2008, 120 min.), will be shown free to the public. This version runs nearly twice as long as the version aired on PBS television.

Workshop fees are $25 for students with ID and $50 for non-students. All participants will receive a complimentary bound workbook. Participants are asked to provide their own pencils, pens, and colored pens and markers. Coffee will be provided on Saturday and Sunday.

Participants may register online at www.txstate.edu/anthropology/casaa/workshops/hieroglyphic.html or by contacting Kent Reilly, director of the Center for the Arts and Symbolism of Ancient America, at fr04@txstate.edu or (512) 245-8272.

The workshop is co-sponsored by Texas State’s Center for Middle American Research, Department of Anthropology and the University Lecture Series.