Piedras Negras: The Archaeological "Biography" of a Classic Maya City

FAIN: FA-53340-07

Stephen Douglas Houston
Brown University (Providence, RI 02912-9100)

The Classic Maya (c. AD 250-850) created a landscape of dynastic capitals in and around Yucatan peninsula. One of the most important of these cities was Piedras Negras, Guatemala, whose inscriptions allowed Tatiana Proskouriakoff to prove, in 1960, that glyphic texts of the Classic period recorded royal history. Five seasons of excavation at Piedras Negras by the applicant and his team now need to be written up. Such a volume, currently under contract, will distill the results of a multi-disciplinary project, integrate glyphic accounts with extensive archaeological research, and amplify the “biography” of a dynastic capital and its courtly practices, at a city where scholarly inquiry in such matters first began.