January 9, 2010 Inga Calvin: "Text, Pseudo-Text, and Context: A Study of Classic Period Maya Ceramic Inscriptions"

Recent epigraphic studies reveal information about Classic Period Maya pottery shapes, contents and even the names of ceramic artists and owners. Yet many of the vessels excavated from royal tombs in the Southern Maya Lowlands are embellished with pseudo-glyphs, graphic elements that physically resemble, but do not conform to the canons of, Maya writing. In this presentation, Inga Calvin discussed how archaeological context and pseudo-glyph placement provide data with which to explore the nature of literacy, as well as suggest future avenues for research.
            Inga Calvin, PhD, received her  Doctorate and Masters Degrees in Anthropology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she specialized  in Mayan pottery and their inscriptions, and where she is currently an Instructor of Anthropology.  Inga has also acted as the Director of the Schele Database Project, FAMSI, as the Administrator/Director at the Center for Latin American Art & Archaeology and the Assistant Curator for Mesoamerican Art at the Denver Art Museum.  She has  performed photographic documentation of Precolumbian pottery at the Museo Popol Vuh, the Instituto Antropología e Historia, Guatemala, as well as at the University of Colorado Museum, the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and Museo Nacional David J. Guzman, El Salvador.  She served as Curator of  Unearthing the Maya: Excavations of Ann and Earl Morris at Chichen Itzá, Mexico, University of Colorado Museum, The Hero Twins of Ancient Maya Myth: Rollout Photographs by Justin Kerr,  a permanent installation, and performed the local curation of Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period  traveling exhibit, both at the Denver Art Museum.  Inga has worked at excavations at the Cerén Site, El Salvador, with the University of Colorado-Boulder, and worked on Temple Reconstruction in Copán, Honduras with  Northern Illinois University and  the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History.

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