Tom Swope’s first Mérida exhibition will highlight unexplained similarities between archaic Chinese motifs and Maya art. Swope, a former antiquities dealer about to open his eponymous gallery in the La Ermita neighborhood, is inspired by Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957) and has examined Chinese jades in his own collection. “I have been looking at archaic…
In the heart of Yucatán, Mexico, a group of Maya women from the village of San Simón have embarked on a journey to reconnect with their ancestral heritage while securing their financial independence. Through a community participation project initiated by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), these women are actively involved in the…
The Camino del Mayab tour traverses areas of rural Yucatan to remote archaeological zones, historic haciendas, and natural cenotes
Artist Pedro Tec, in collaboration with Fine Art America, is hosting a photographic exhibition in homage to the Maya people of his hometown. “The Last Mestizos of Ixil” represents the first time that Tec has displayed artwork in this tiny pueblo north of Conkal. His silvery black-and-white photos depict its matriarchs in stunningly dreamlike detail,…
In the 12 century Mayapán became the seat of a confederation of city-states known as Luub Mayapán or the League of Mayapán.
In the tiny Mexican town of Yaxunah (home of the Amazonas) nine women are working to ensure that traditional varieties of corn, beans, chilies, lentils and many others are not wiped out by genetically modified variants created by multinational corporations. They do this through their own community seed bank and exchange called K’an-Lol, which translates…
Sweat lodges are a feature common to many cultures around the world, including in Finland, Turkey, and across much of the American continent. In Mesoamerica, the most well-known type of sweat lodge is the temazcal — from the Nahuatl language teme “to bathe” and calli “house.” During Mesoamerican antiquity, temazcales were used as a curative…
The Dresden Codex is a Mayan book believed to be the oldest surviving book written in the Americas, dating to the 11th or 12th century.
Trying to direct the right donations to the right people, Los Mayas Eternos AC, a charitable organization that brings food and hygiene supplies to poor villages in Yucatán, is turning to smartphone technology. Pedro Tec, the organization’s founder as well as an artist from Ixil, announced the plan — dubbed K-otoch — at Mayas Eternos…
After 3,000 years, the Maya milpa has received worldwide recognition from the United Nations. The UN was impressed by the ancient milpa system for its complexity as a productive model that includes the combined cultivation of beans, pumpkin, and, mainly, corn, the basis of regional food since ancient times. The appointment of the Milpa Maya…
A group of Yucatecan speleologists have encountered a previously unknown cave system near Ticul.
Reenactments of the Mayan Pok Ta Pok ceremony returned Wednesday to Mérida’s Plaza Grande.
A wooden canoe used by the ancient Maya and believed to be over 1,000 years old has turned up in Yucatán. It is nearly intact and extremely rare. The discovery occurred as workers were preparing a path for the massive Mayan Train project, officials said Friday. The canoe was found submerged in a cenote near…
Tatiana Proskouriakoff is remembered for laying the foundation for understanding Mayan historical texts and reconstructing the political history of Mayan city-states.
A group of INAH archaeologists led by Patricia Meehan Hermanson has begun restoration work on Kohunlich’s famous giant stucco masks in Quintana Roo.
Maya language poet María Elisa Chavarrea Chim received an award from Yucatán Gov. Mauricio Vila Dosal, who honored her work.
Yucatán says goodbye spring and hello summer solstice, just as it has since antiquity.
In the Maya Tzeltal language, Toniná means house of stone, however, the original name of the city found in ancient texts appears as Po or Popo.
In the lush Lacandon jungle, visitors are likely to encounter a wide range of wild animals including toucans, tapirs, and if you are lucky even macaws.
Mexico marked the anniversary of a 1901 battle that ended one of the last Indigenous rebellions in North America by issuing an apology.
A team of speleologists and archaeologists have discovered a cave in Yucatán with 137 children’s painted handprints. Archaeologists believe the handprints to be about 1,200 years old and part of a Maya coming-of-age ceremony. The site is approximately one hour south of Mérida in an area where cenotes and cave formations are known to be…
More indigenous people have died of COVID-19 in Yucatán than in any other Mexican state. As of Jan. 28, Yucatán has recorded the deaths of 360 indigenous people from COVID-19 and a total of 2,529 infections. Critics of the government’s COVID-19 policy say that these numbers are evidence that Yucatán’s government is not prioritizing the…
Without a doubt, Uxmal is one of the most magnificent archaeological sites to be found anywhere in the world. The grandeur of its architecture, its orientation within the landscape and the magnificence of its plazas attest to the status of Uxmal as the ultimate seat of power of the prosperous Puuc region — which included…
Continuing south past Kabah and Sayil, and ever deeper into the jungle, await the ruins of Labna and Xlapak. These two archaeological sites are separated by only four kilometers, and there is good reason to believe they functioned together to produce agricultural goods such as squash and corn, as well as honey. The two sites…
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