Maya archaeology events we recommend
Every year, in July, an educational Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, is held in the impressive Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología (MUNAE). We recommend this for archaeologists, epigraphers, iconographers, art historians, architectural historians, ecologists, botanists, ethnobotanists, and zoologists interested in Maya part, present, and future of Guatemala and surrounding countries. Lots of people who enjoy learning about recent advances in scholarly also attend.
Educational Lectures on Maya temple pyramid architecture
Their 57th International Congress of Americanists (ICA 2021) will be in Brazil. It carefully switches: Americas one year, then the next one, EU or comparable. I will admit I prefer when it is in Mesoamerica so you can meet more of the scholars from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, etc.
I realize we are in a digital era, but I wish the reports were in printed book format in addition to being in e-format.
At the invitation of a symposium organizer I flew to Madrid and took the train to Salamanca for ICA 2018. The view from the train was worth every minute of the hour or so ride; awesome views of a part of Spain I had never seen. Then Salamanca was one of the most impressive (albeit small) cities I have seen. But the pain was to realize that most of this wealth and 90% of the fancy Spanish colonial buildings was through exploitation of the people, the treasures, and the natural resources of the New World, from Mexico on south.
If there is a super-series of Maya, Teotihuacan, Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Toltec, or Aztec presentations I might consider ICA 2021, but otherwise I will wait until ICA is in another country whose archaeology I have a deep interest in.
IMS, Institute of Maya Studies, Florida
Decades ago I gave lectures here in Florida. What I like about IMS is their newsletter. Every month it has helpful news and reports on archaeology in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, etc. Although they have a website, they say most of their material is on their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/instituteofmayastudies I write for their IMS EXPLORER monthly magazine/newsletter about two or three times each year. It is nicely designed and well edited by Jim Reed.
Belize Archaeology Symposium, BAS
This educational event is organized by the National Institute of Culture and History, Ministry of Educational, Youth, Sports & Culture. Last one on their web site was June 26-28, 2019. There is a poster elsewhere on the Internet for BAS 2020, July 1-3, 2020.
I encouraged tourists to visit Belize during the years that FLAAR organized annual study-learning focused trips. Plus I dedicated my photography experience to recording the sculptured monuments of Nim Li Punit. Unfortunately we have not been able to find all our decades-old negatives of that photography project of the Nim Li Punit sculpture. As soon as they hopefully can be located, I would like to scan them and attend a symposium to present the scans to Belize and to the archaeologists working on epigraphy and iconography. Main snag is lack of funding to do sorting, finding, and scanning of projects of past decades. But we have found some of the photographs and these we are scanning hopefully this autumn.
Tulane Maya Symposium, MARI and Tulane University
Middle American Research Institute has been world-known and respected for decades. MARI and Tulane still today have capable and experienced archaeologists doing productive and helpful field work and publications. Their 2020 conference was in early March, so before the worst of COVID hit.
Wayeb, Annual European Maya Conference
WAYEB, the European Association of Mayanists is presently scheduled for Friday to Saturday, November 20-21, with the awareness that travel situation and outbreaks may cause the event to go digital. Due to the quantity and quality of WAYEB members, this is a conference I would recommend.
Mesa Redonda Palenque
I attended several sessions at Palenque decades ago. On the Internet I see a poster for VIII Mesa Redonda Palenque 2017. There have been amazing discoveries in Palenque in the past decade. If there is another Mesa Redonda Palenque in a future year, and if I learn about it enough in advance, I will consider attending.
There are also other Mesa Redonda events besides Palenque and as soon as I learn more about them, will consider adding them.
Additional notable Maya conferences worth attending
In the recent 20 years was flown by conference and expo organizers over a million miles to give lectures around the world (albeit mainly on advanced digital technology). With COVID am now doing this by ZOOM (have a ZOOM conference “in” Dubai on 12 August 2020, with over 200 people signed up). Gave a lecture at ICA in Salamanca, Spain a year ago. And I lecture at Museo Popol Vuh, UFM about once a year every year and at Museo Ixchel (on Mayan textiles across the plaza at same university) most recently on dye colorants from 3-dimensional lichen and turkey-tail mushrooms of Guatemala).
Printer & Signage Trade Shows which we have found are worth attending
Our ability to achieve advances in digital recording of flora and fauna is moved forward every year by learning the latest technology by attending trade shows across USA, EU, Middle East and Asia. Also attend Photokina every two years in Germany.
A decade ago we attended expos literally around the world, an average of over 200,000 kilometers flights every year. Half of these expos no longer exist and we prefer to focus on the most interesting printer, signage, and visual communications expos. So for 2020 here is our list:
Dr Nicholas was a “Million Miler” on Delta Airlines since several years ago and would have reached Million Miles status on United Airlines alliance in 2020 if the pandemic had not closed all the expos. But for 2021, we look forward to attending SGI Sign Middle East in Dubai, APPPEXPO, ISA, Printing United (SGIA), Sign Istanbul, Sign Africa, and FESPA.
I will skip drupa since there are now more specialized expos for printing on glass, printing on ceramics, package printing, etc. Plus Printing United has gotten most of the exhibitors which abandoned the withering GraphExpo and the defunct Graphics of the Americas. I attended drupa in 2000, 2004, 2008 (when it noticeably began to falter), 2012 (when it was still a really silly number of excess days). I skipped drupa 2016 and will skip drupa 2021 since APPPEXPO and all the other expos offer more brands. Plus, Dusseldorf hotels are overpriced. Expos in Orlando and Las Vegas have tons of hotels at reasonable price plus within easy walking or hiking distance (I like to walk for exercise).
You can see much more of what we are doing on our www.FLAAR-Mesoamerica.org and www.MayanToons.org.
If you are in the world of wide-format inkjet printers, cutters, inks, printable substrates, RIP software, color management, etc. then we have several web different additional web sites (read by over half a million people around the world). Links are via www.FLAAR-REPORTS.org.
Updated August 2020
