Revitalizing Ancient Knowledge: A Community-based Outreach Project Sharing Classic Maya Epigraphy in Ox Mul Kah (San Antonio), Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster introduces a community engagement program I designed to teach Classic Maya epigraphy to members of my community, Ox Mul Kah (San Antonio, Belize). While the Classic Maya ancestors left us with an elaborate culture, which was passed on to modern communities like Ox Mul Kah, many Maya today are unaware of the ancestral achievements like hieroglyphic writing, and even fewer can read these texts. The goal of my project is to revitalize Maya connection to our ancestral past through teaching epigraphy. The project began with my love of my ancestral culture, this led me to learn epigraphy so I could teach my family and community. The project involved teaching introductory epigraphy to the point where people could create personalized phrases, and then paint these onto pottery or carve them onto slate. The poster also outlines the struggles encountered. At first, people did not seem interested, however these issues were overcome when they began to understand the writing of their ancestors. The project represents more than showing appreciation for traditional culture, it involves a community-based approach to spreading knowledge so people have a personal connection with their past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36562.0