Transcending Time: The Ancient Maya through Art and Writing
About this Event
Opening Lecture | Transcending Time: Ancient Maya Through Art and Writing
Join Archaeology Now for the opening lecture of our 2026–2027 program series, Transcending Time: Ancient Maya Through Art and Writing, exploring the ancient Maya and the vibrant living cultures of the Maya world today. Designed for a general audience, the series welcomes everyone to explore and engage with the Maya world through accessible, expert-led lectures and events.
About the Lecture
The story of the Maya extends across millennia, connecting an extraordinary ancient past with a vibrant living culture today. This introductory lecture explores how ancient Maya art and writing were grounded in time and the calendar. Maya rulers commissioned monumental works of art and architecture to commemorate key calendrical cycles and significant events of their reigns. Through these works, rulers were able to transcend time, maintaining a presence over their communities after death and continuing to communicate with us today.
About the Speaker
Dr. Lori Boornazian Diel is the L.H. Favrot Professor of Humanities in the Department of Art History at Rice University. Her teaching focuses on the art of ancient and colonial Latin America, while her research considers how visual works created by Aztec artists in the years after the Spanish invasion and imposition of Hispano-Christian rule could be used as tools of persuasion, reconciliation, and identity formation under a colonial system.
Her books include The Codex Mexicanus: A Guide to Life in Late Sixteenth-Century New Spain (2018), which was awarded the Roland H. Bainton Prize from the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, and Aztec Codices: What They Tell Us about Daily Life (2020). Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
FREE ADMISSION
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