November 12, 2011 Drs. Victoria and Harvey Bricker: "Astronomical Records in the Hieroglyphic Writings of the Pre-Columbian Maya"

Harvey M. Bricker is an archaeologist who received his B.A. in history from Hamilton College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University. His early research was in French Palaeolithic archaeology. He was associated for many years with the excavation and analysis of a prehistoric rockshelter at Les Eyzies, in the Périgord region of southwestern France, and he directed the excavations of a late Neanderthal site in the French foothills of the Pyrénées.  Since the early 1980s he has been collaborating with Victoria R. Bricker in a program of research on Maya archaeoastronomy, a program that has resulted in numerous articles and, most recently, a co-authored book, Astronomy in the Maya Codices, published by the American Philosophical Society.  Bricker was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1985 for contributions to paleoarchaeology in France and to the archaeoastronomy of the Maya, and in 1987 he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the government of France pour services rendus à la culture française.  He is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University and Courtesy Professor of Anthropology and Research Associate of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
            Victoria R. Bricker is a cultural anthropologist who received her B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University.  Her fieldwork in Mexico includes several years with the Tzotzil-Maya Indians of highland Chiapas, first investigating their ritual humor, followed by oral history and archival research on Colonial and Postcolonial revitalization movements in Chiapas, Yucatan, and highland Guatemala.  Since 1971, she has carried out research on the Maya language of Yucatan, including ethnobotanical research for a Maya-English dictionary.  In 1978, she began to study the language of Maya hieroglyphs, later focusing on astronomy in the Precolumbian Maya codices, in collaboration with Harvey M. Bricker.  She was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1991 and to the American Philosophical Society in 2002.  She is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University and Courtesy Professor of Anthropology and Research Associate of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
NOTE: Astronomy in the Maya Codices, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 65,  $75.00, by Drs. Harvey and Victoria Bricker, is newly published and is the recipient of the 2011 J.F Lewis Award.  A  synopsis and glowing reviews by Anthony Aveni, Susan Milbraith, and Jeremy Sabloff are available at http://www.amphilsoc.org/publications/current/memoirs . The book may be purchased through the APS, using the  email address: fulfillment@amphilsoc.org, as well as from Amazon.com

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