 About the project
Harvard News Office writer Alvin Powell and photographer Justin Ide are accompanying scholars from Harvard's Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program (CMHI) on an expedition to Central America. The CMHI's mission since its formation in 1968 is to record and disseminate information pertaining to all ancient Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions and their associated iconography. The first stop is Copán, Honduras, where researchers Peabody Museum director and Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology William Fash and director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program Barbara Fash will check on a site they have been working on for decades while also formulating plans for further excavation nearby. The expedition will then focus on Yaxchilan, an ancient Maya city on the Usumacinta River, which forms the border between Mexico and Guatemala. The nine-member team will employ advanced technology in an effort to preserve the elaborate Maya hieroglyphics, images, and stone carvings that are free-standing or decorate various buildings at Yaxchilan. Researchers will use an optical scanner to create a digital, three-dimensional image of each carving. The image can then be examined, shared digitally, and even "printed out," layer by layer, on a special, 3-D printer that creates a three-dimensional reproduction of the carving. StoriesPeabody teams will scan other endangered monuments Notes from the field Ian Graham: Still deciphering after all these years Corpus team overcomes scanning snags Archaeological bookends in Copán Valley New technology heads south Harvard collection turns historic |
