30th European Maya Conference: Bratislava, Slovakia
“TIME IN MESOAMERICA”
November 25th to November 29th 2025
The 30th Annual European Maya Conference is organized by Wayeb – the European Association of Mayanists – in cooperation with the Center for Mesoamerican Studies, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. The conference will begin with an introductory lecture on the evening of Monday 24th November, followed by three days of workshops (25th-27th November), and concluding with a two-day symposium held from Friday 28th November to Saturday 29th November 2025.
The theme for the 30th European Maya Conference is TIME IN MESOAMERICA. The topic will be explored from a variety of perspectives.
During this conference, we will explore questions concerning timekeeping, and the significance of time, in Mesoamerica, including:
– Mesoamerican Calendars:
How did different Mesoamerican cultures reckon with time and practice timekeeping? What were the key features and variations in calendar systems?
– Origins and development of calendars:
How did Mesoamerican calendar systems evolve over time? What were the influences and innovations that shaped their development?
Astronomical influences on calendar development: How did astronomical observations and knowledge shape the development and structure of Mesoamerican calendars?
– Perception of time:
How did Mesoamerican cultures perceive the nature of time? What were the implications of cyclical concepts for their cosmology, rituals, and daily life?
How is the concept of time represented in Mesoamerican languages and writing systems?
– Chronology in Mesoamerican archaeology:
How do archaeologists use chronological data to understand the development and interactions of Mesoamerican societies? What are the challenges and opportunities in establishing accurate chronologies for the region?
Dating methods and their applications: How are different dating methods used in establishing chronologies in Mesoamerican archaeology?
Case studies in Mesoamerican chronology: Exploration of specific archaeological sites or regions and the challenges of establishing their chronological frameworks.
– Temporal rituals and ceremonies:
How did Mesoamerican cultures mark and celebrate significant points in time? What were the roles of rituals and ceremonies in their understandings and experiences of time?
– Ethnohistorical perspectives on time:
How do ethnohistoric sources, such as colonial-era documents and indigenous accounts, contribute to our understanding of Mesoamerican concepts of time and their changes over time?
Continuity and change in timekeeping practices: From endogenous innovations to outside influence, how have indigenous communities in Mesoamerica maintained or adapted their timekeeping practices, both prior to European invasion and in the face of colonial and modern influences?
– Archaeoastronomy and time:
How did Mesoamerican cultures incorporate astronomical observations and knowledge into the built environment and cultural practices?
Alignment of structures and celestial events: How do the alignments of architectural features and urban planning reflect Mesoamerican understandings of time and the cosmos (including the temporality of the built environment and how it reflects broader cosmovision)?
– Archaeological approaches to the study of time:
How do archaeologists investigate and interpret the material remains of past timekeeping practices, rituals, and ceremonies?
What are the key archaeological methods and techniques used to study time in Mesoamerica, including the analysis of stratigraphy, artifacts, architecture, iconography, and epigraphy?
How can archaeological data be integrated with other sources of information, such as ethnohistoric accounts and astronomical observations, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of Mesoamerican concepts of time?
How do archaeologists’ own conceptions of time influence or guide interpretations of past cultures/lifeways in Mesoamerica?
The theme of the conference will be approached from various disciplinary points of view – including (but not restricted to) anthropology, archaeology, archaeoastronomy, biology, epigraphy, history, iconography, linguistics, and psychology – as well as interdisciplinary approaches exploring the intersection of these disciplinary perspectives.
Symposium
List of Speakers:
Marc Zender: Some Epigraphic Thoughts About Ancient Maya Astronomy (keynote talk)
Harri Kettunen, Jakub Špoták & Marc Zender: Time in Mesoamerica (introduction to the theme of the conference)
Milan Kováč: Primeras manifestaciones del arte monumental en Petén: el inicio de la tradición de estelas (Early Manifestations of Monumental Art in Petén: The Beginning of the Stela Tradition)
Jan Szymański & Julia Przedwojewska-Szymańska: The White Line that Divides Time: Archaeology of the “Before” and “After” of the Ilopango Eruption in El Salvador
Cristina Gonzalez-Esteban & James Bacon: Time to Consider Time: How Settlement Studies Can Effectively Integrate Chronological Data Through Digital Technologies
Mirko De Tomassi: Reconstructing the Timeline of Deposition Sequences in Reopened Collective Burials at Palenque, Chiapas
Francesca Glanville-Wallis: The Soils of Time: A Geoarchaeological Approach to Urban Settlement at Lamanai, Belize
Dora Maritza García Patzán: Depósitos cerámicos a través del tiempo en Uaxactun y su región noreste: Un análisis del ritualismo del Preclásico al Clásico
Socorro del Pilar Jiménez Álvarez: Entre ríos, costa y el interior: Estilos cerámicos de la pasta fina en el Área Maya
Armando Anaya Hernández: Temporal Dimensions of Settlement Patterns in Calakmul: Toward a Chronology of Urban and Agrarian Landscapes
Nikol Quardová & Jakub Špoták:Binding the Time: Power and Symbolism in the Initial Series Introductory Glyph
Nancy Martínez: Feeling Time: Ephemerality as Meaning-Bearing Quality of Writing
William Humberto Mex-Albornoz: An Approach to the Use and Symbolism of the 260-Day Count Among the Classic Maya
Catherine Nuckols: The “Burden of Time:” A Reconsideration of Full-Figure Glyphs as Carriers of Time
Christophe Helmke: Reckoning Deep Time: A Mythological Baktun 12 Text from Tulix Mul, Belize
Albert Davletshin & Sergei Vepretskii: Non-numerical Glyphs D of the Lunar Series in Classic Maya Inscriptions
Andreas Fuls: Dating of Astronomical Phenomena in the Dresden Codex and Beyond
Jakub Špoták: Tracing the Movement of Constellations: Evidence for a Possible Second 364-day Calendar Table in the Paris Codex
Natalie Korobzow: A Database for the Study of the Co-Evolution of Vigesimal Numeral Systems and the Calendar in Mesoamerica
Jan Naumenko & Sergei Vepretskii: Breaking the Lunar Code: Astronomy and Mathematics of Classic Maya Supplementary Series
Bruce Love: To Honor the Ancestors: How a Review of the Daykeepers’ Craft Over Two Thousand Years Might Resolve the Correlation Question
Victor Castillo: Layers of Conquest and Revival: The Chronologies of the Postclassic Maya Highlands
John Chuchiak: Apocalyptic Visions of Freedom: The Prophetic Roots of Colonial Maya Rebellions, 1546–1790
Workshops
Beginner’s Workshop
Introduction to Maya Glyphs and Calendars
Jakub Špoták, Eva Jobbová, Kristína Lopušanová, and Iveta Puchovanová
The Beginners’ workshop will provide a general introduction to Maya epigraphy, with a particular emphasis on the calendrical system and its role in Maya writing. It is open to anyone interested in the topic, and is especially ideal for people who have never worked with Maya inscriptions, although participants with limited previous experience are also welcome. The workshop will cover a broad range of topics, including the history of decipherment, an overview of the corpus, and the inner workings of the writing system itself. Starting from the basics, participants will learn about the principles of Maya hieroglyphic writing and the structure of texts, while special attention will be devoted to the Maya calendar and its interlocking systems — the Long Count, Tzolk’in, and Haab’, as well as the Supplementary Series and Year Bearers. Through practical exercises, participants will practice calculating distance numbers, exploring ceremonies tied to calendrical cycles, and analyzing examples from both monumental inscriptions and codices. Hieroglyphic texts from different Maya cities will be studied to illustrate how calendar reckoning structured political, ritual, and historical narratives in the ancient Maya world. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to read simple inscriptions, follow calendrical calculations, and understand the basic logic of Maya time reckoning.
Intermediate to advanced Workshop
“Deep Time and the (Grand) Long Count”
Marie Botzet and Dimitrios Markianos-Daniolos
Tracking the passage of time, the movements of celestial bodies, and the occurrence of significant days and events was a central aspect of Classic Maya culture. This emphasis gave rise to the invention of several calendars, used by the Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples, some of which remain in use today. This workshop will focus on the Long Count, which played a pivotal role during the Classic Period, and introduces most monumental texts. But just how long was it? Beginner and intermediate students of Maya hieroglyphic writing are familiar with the five main periods used to construct a Long Count date (bak’tun, k’atun, tun, winal, k’in), but there were many more periods whose lengths dwarf the five main ones we see in most inscriptions, in what has been called the “Grand Long Count”. Mathematician scribes used these periods to make calculations involving numbers of astronomical lengths. These “expanded versions” of the Long Count helped to refer to events in the deep past or even the distant future, many of them supernatural in character. These grand narratives take the reader on journeys through cosmic time and creation events which were fundamental for Classic Maya dynasties. In this workshop, we will cover the history of the Long Count system and examine a selection of “deep time” inscriptions and their enigmatic narratives. When was the world created? What came before our current era? Is there a beginning and an end to the Maya calendar? What was all the fuss with 2012? We will tackle all of these questions and more in our workshop, as we navigate through deep Maya time. By the end of this workshop, the student will have a better grasp of the Maya Long Count and will have the opportunity to read through some unique monumental texts, further appreciating the tradition of Maya timekeeping.
Advanced Workshop
“Ancient Maya Astronomy and Timekeeping”
Marc Zender, Felix Kupprat & Harri Kettunen
The academic study of Maya calendars and astronomy began in the late 19th century, predating the phonetic decipherment of Maya writing by over 75 years, and has produced a complex and multilingual literature. For these reasons, but also due to the demanding specializations of astronomy and mathematics, the findings of this field are often inaccessible to anthropologists, iconographers, epigraphers, and linguists who might otherwise be fascinated by Maya astronomy, but lack the necessary background to absorb the frequently forbidding literature on this subject. Our purpose in this team-taught seminar-style long workshop is to provide that background, as well as a thorough review of what can be said with some confidence about ancient Maya astronomy and timekeeping.
The workshop begins with a review of the major Maya calendars (i.e., the so-called Tzolkin, Haab, Calendar Round, Long Count, and Lunar Series). We then provide a ‘crash course’ in observational astronomy, focusing on the major bodies and phenomena observed and recorded by the Maya: (1) the Sun (particularly the length of the year, and its natural division by solstitial and equinoctial stations); (2) the Moon (including its phases and central involvement in both lunar and solar eclipses); (3) Venus; (4) Mars, and; (5) the constellations. These provide a ‘springboard’ to several linked, thematic surveys of Maya astronomical records in Colonial sources, Postclassic codices, and Classic stone monuments.
Over the course of this three-day workshop, students will be exposed to all of the most important astronomical information in Maya art, writing, and language, including (but not limited to): rare but important colonial Maya terms for stars, planets, and constellations (e.g., ek, ac ek, chac ek, çinan ek, tzab ek, xux ek, etc.) and their echoes of Classic Maya terms; the Madrid Codex cosmogram; the Dresden Codex eclipse pages and relevant Classic texts from Poco Uinic, Xultun, and Quirigua; the Venus tables of the Dresden and Grolier/Mexico codices, the alignments of the Caracol observatory at Chichen Itza. and a rare Venus event recorded in Copan’s Temple 11 EN Panel; the Dresden Codex Mars Table; and the Paris Codex constellations, with relevant evidence from skybands and depictions of constellations in Maya art. It is of course impossible to cover everything that has been either discerned or guessed about Maya astronomy in a mere three days, but we are confident that the most important and consensual topics can indeed be introduced and explained in the time we have before us.
Special Workshop
“Fragmentos que hablan, el lenguaje de la cerámica maya”
Dora Maritza García Patzán & Socorro del Pilar Jiménez Álvarez
El taller especial de cerámica maya iniciará con el aprendizaje de los conceptos básicos para el análisis de este material tan importante que trasciende el tiempo, abordando el lenguaje técnico especial para su descripción y estudio. En este punto también se abordarán las metodologías existentes y se realizarán comparaciones de estilos regionales e iconografía. La cerámica también es importante para el establecimiento de cronologías y tipologías a través de métodos modernos que nos ayudan a ubicar los hallazgos a través del tiempo. Por lo tanto, nos adentraremos en el papel e importancia de los recipientes de barro en la vida cotidiana y en varios tipos de contextos, su significado, iconografía e interpretación. La pregunta principal a abordar será ¿qué nos dicen los objetos de barro de sus creadores?, el objetivo es adentrarnos en el mundo del barro, además de las descripciones formales y técnicas. En cuanto a las técnicas de manufactura también nos adentraremos en los estudios etnográficos sobre la elaboración de cerámica prehispánica y su permanencia en las comunidades actuales, estaremos analizando materiales audiovisuales de algunos ejemplos en Guatemala. La cerámica, por tanto, no son solo objetos sino también sujetos de acción que poseen una función y papel dentro de las comunidades. Finalmente tendremos algunos ejercicios prácticos donde los participantes podrán aplicar los conocimientos adquiridos.