UNIVERSITY NEWS - OCTOBER 2003

MEDIA CONTACT: Stacia Smith
561-297-2971, ssmith@fau.edu

FAU Hosts Maya Lectures and Hieroglyphic Workshop

BOCA RATON, FL (October 1, 2003) - The Fourth Annual Maya Lecture and Hieroglyphic Writing Workshop will be held at Florida Atlantic University Thursday, October 9 through Saturday, October 11. The lectures, which will explore classic Maya civilization with its fabled cities, are free and open to the public. There is a fee for supplies for the hieroglyphics workshop.

"Fortress of the Plumed Serpent: Recent Research at Mayapán," will be presented by FAU Anthropology Professor Clifford Brown on Thursday, October 9 at 7 p.m. at FAU's Performing Arts Center, Room 101. Brown will discuss recent research at Mayapán, Yucatán, the last great Maya capital. After decades of neglect, Mayapán is once again the focus of archaeological research.

The second lecture, "The Usumacinta River and its Great Maya Cities," will be presented by Florida State University Professors Nick Hopkins and Kathryn Josserand on Friday, October 10 at 7 p.m. in FAU's Social Science Building, Room 250. This lecture and slide show will focus on the great Maya cities of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, and Yaxchilan, México, which are both located on the Usumacinta River, the major trade route of the southeastern Maya. The Usumacinta sites are now in danger of flooding from planned dam projects. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

The Hieroglyphic Workshop will be held Saturday, October 11 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in FAU's Social Science Building, Room 190. Hopkins and Josserand will combine guided instruction and hands-on analysis of hieroglyphic texts from Piedras Negras and its neighbors. Participants will learn to read parts of the inscriptions themselves and will be able to follow discussions of the historical content of all the monuments. Admission to the workshops is $35; FAU students with valid ID are free. Registration is required.

The series is sponsored by Ann Adams and the Public Speakers Fund, and the Department of Anthropology of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters at FAU. These events are part of the year-long Latin American series "Voices and Images from Latin America." For more information, call Michael Horswell, director of FAU's Latin American Studies Program, at 561-297-3863 or email mhorswell@fau.edu.
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