Event date:    Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Event place:  Redlands, CA

Guest lecture, “Murals of Mesoamerica”

On Wednesday, April 28 at the San Bernardino County Museum, join Dr. Karl A. Taube for a special guest lecture, “The murals of San Bartolo and the mythic origins of ancient Maya gods and kings.” This presentation will be at 7:30pm, and is free to the public.

            Discovered in 2001, the underground mural chamber at San Bortolo, Guatemala constitutes one of the richest bodies of information concerning ancient Maya creation mythology. Not only of exceptional beauty, the murals are also extremely ancient, predating by hundreds of years such Classic Maya sites as Tikal, Copan, and Palengue. Dating to the first century BCE, the San Bartolo murals form an important link between the religious beliefs and practices of the still earlier Olmec and the later Classic Maya.

            In this presentation, Professor Taube will discuss the discovery and excavation of these murals and their symbolic significance, including such themes as the creation of mankind, the world directions, and the mythic origins of Maya kinship. He will also discuss the most recent findings at San Bortolo, including still finer murals from another structure and the earliest writing and mural painting known for the ancient Maya.

            Karl A. Taube, Ph.D. (Yale University), is a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. In addition to extensive archaeological and linguistic fieldwork in Yucatan, he has participated on archaeological projects in Chiapas, Mexico, coastal Ecuador, highland Peru, Copan, Honduras, and in the Montagua Valley of Guatemala. Taube is currently serving as the project iconographer for the San Bartolo Project in the Peten of Guatemala. He has broad interests in the archaeology and ethnology of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, including the development of agricultural symbolism in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, and the relation of Teotihuacán to the Classic Maya. Much of his recent research and publications center upon the writing and religious systems of ancient Mesoamerica.

            The San Bernardino County Museum is at the California Street exit from Interstate 10 in Redlands. Parking is free. For more information, visit www.sbcountymuseum.org. The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities. If assistive listening devices or other auxiliary aids are needed in order to participate in museum exhibits or programs, requests should be made through Museum Visitor Services at least three business days prior to your visit. Visitor Services’ telephone number is 909-307-2669 ext. 229 or (TDD) 909-792-1462.

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