1. Barbara Tedlock
Barbara Tedlock is an American anthropologist who primarily focuses on the cosmology and spiritual practices of the Highland Maya in Guatemala. She is a professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo and has been researching the relationship between ritual and timekeeping in Maya communities for decades. Tedlock combines scientific methodology with personal participation in indigenous ceremonies and is herself involved in the shamanic practices of the Maya communities, which provides her with a unique access to her studies. Her most well-known work, Time and the Highland Maya, examines the ritual and calendrical systems of the Highland Maya and offers a detailed insight into the connection between social structure, time, and cosmological cycles in Maya culture.
2. Michael D. Coe
Michael D. Coe (1929–2019) was a globally recognised archaeologist and anthropologist, whose research focus was on the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya. He taught for many years at Yale University and published significant works that revolutionised the understanding of Maya culture and writing. Coe was involved in breakthroughs in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs and supported the understanding of the Maya as a highly developed society. Reading the Maya Glyphs, which he co-authored with Mark Van Stone, is a practical introduction to Maya writing and provides both scholarly and interested readers with a comprehensible guide to decipherment. Coe's research significantly contributed to unraveling the political and religious complexity of the classic Maya period and underscored the importance of the Maya as a literate culture.
3. Mark Van Stone
Mark Van Stone is an American epigrapher, artist, and expert in pre-Columbian writing, particularly Maya hieroglyphs. His work as a calligrapher and artist has given him a unique perspective on ancient writing systems. Van Stone has studied the graphic and aesthetic structure of Maya writing intensively and is known for his ability to visually and textually decipher complex glyphs and symbol systems of the Maya. His collaborative work with Michael Coe, Reading the Maya Glyphs, represents a significant introduction to Maya hieroglyphs and is regarded as a standard work in epigraphy. In addition to his research, Van Stone regularly gives lectures in which he makes the art of Maya writing accessible to a broader audience and explains the cultural significance of these symbol systems.
4. Stephen D. Houston
Stephen D. Houston is a leading anthropologist, archaeologist, and epigrapher who teaches at Brown University and is known for his detailed studies of the classic Maya civilisation and its writing culture. Houston is a key figure in the exploration of the social and spiritual life of the Maya and has conducted numerous excavations and epigraphic analyses at Maya sites. In The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya, which he co-authored with David Stuart, he examines the cultural and spiritual significance of the body among the Maya, including their concepts of identity, transformation, and the supernatural. Houston has pioneered the demonstration of the relationship between text and image in Maya art and writing, contributing to the decipherment and interpretation of many glyphs. His research provides valuable insights into the social structures and cosmological order of the Maya.
5. David Stuart
David Stuart is one of the most renowned Maya epigraphers in the world and a key figure in the decipherment of Maya script. He began studying Maya hieroglyphs as a teenager and later earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University. Stuart currently teaches at the University of Texas at Austin and has published groundbreaking work on the decipherment and interpretation of the glyphs of the Classic Maya period. Together with Stephen Houston, he authored The Memory of Bones, which explores the spiritual and cultural significance of the body and identity among the Maya. Stuart is regarded as a pioneer in epigraphic research and has significantly contributed to the understanding of the Maya as a complex culture with deep spiritual roots. His work, which represents a blend of linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology, has reshaped the image of the Maya as a literate culture.
6. David A. Freidel
David A. Freidel is an archaeologist and professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. His field research and publications focus on the social, political, and religious aspects of Maya civilisation, particularly on the complex relationships between kingship, shamanism, and cosmology. Freidel collaborated closely with Linda Schele and Joy Parker to write Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path, a work that examines the profound cosmological and shamanistic traditions of the Maya. Through his work, Freidel demonstrates how religion and mythology shaped the social and political life of the Maya and how the kings served as intermediaries between the human and the supernatural worlds through rituals and visions. Freidel is a key scholar for understanding the cultural and spiritual practices of the Maya, which are still alive in Maya communities today.
7. Linda Schele
Linda Schele (1942–1998) was a prominent epigrapher and art historian who significantly contributed to the decipherment and interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs. She was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and worked closely with David Freidel to decode the cosmological and religious concepts of the Maya. Schele developed a unique approach that interpreted the glyphs as expressions of a deeply rooted cosmological worldview of the Maya. In Maya Cosmos, she illuminates how the Maya viewed the world as a living system of gods, spirits, and ancestral beings that could be influenced by rituals and the royal path. Schele was a pioneer in Maya research and a strong advocate for collaboration with modern Maya communities to preserve their heritage and create a deeper understanding of their culture.
8. Joy Parker
Joy Parker is a co-author and researcher who has extensively engaged with indigenous cultures and spiritual traditions. Together with Linda Schele and David Freidel, she worked on Maya Cosmos, in which she explored the shamanistic and cosmological elements of Maya culture. Parker brings a unique perspective to the study of the Maya by emphasising the spiritual and ritual aspects of the culture and highlighting their significance for contemporary society. Through her collaboration with Schele and Freidel, Parker helped to make the spiritual dimension of Maya civilisation accessible to a wider audience and shed light on the shamanistic aspect of Maya cosmology.
9. Anthony Aveni
Anthony Aveni is a renowned astronomer and anthropologist who specialises in archaeoastronomy, particularly in relation to the Mesoamerican cultures of the Maya and Aztecs. As a professor at Colgate University in New York, Aveni has significantly contributed to the study of the role of astronomy in the religion and culture of the Maya. His work Skywatchers is a comprehensive investigation of astronomy in pre-Columbian cultures and is regarded as a standard reference in archaeoastronomy. Aveni examines how the Maya interpreted the night sky and celestial events and integrated them into their calendar and cosmology systems. He emphasises that astronomical knowledge for the Maya was not only scientific but deeply rooted in their spiritual and social structure, as it influenced calendar cycles, rituals, and agricultural planning. Aveni has helped to clarify the significance of the sky in the worldview of the ancient Mesoamerican peoples.
