The 29^th Annual European Maya Conference is organised by Wayeb – the European Association of Mayanists – in cooperation with the Centro Studi Americanistici “Circolo Amerindiano” – in Perugia, Italy. The conference will begin with an introductory lecture on Monday 7^th October, followed by three-and-a-half-days of workshops (8^th–11^th October), with an afternoon off (with extracurricular activities planned, to be announced) on Friday 11^th October, and concluding with a two-day symposium held from Saturday 12^th October to Sunday 13^th October 2024, in the Sala dei Notari at Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia.

The theme for the 29^th European Maya Conference is COLOUR IN MESOAMERICA. The topic will be explored from a variety of perspectives, taking into account the time-depth and cultural and geographic expanse of Mesoamerica.

During this conference, we will explore questions concerning the use and perception of colour in Mesoamerica, including, but not limited to:

• What were (and are) the sources for different colours in Mesoamerica?
• What colours were used to paint buildings and monuments, and were all of them painted in the past?
• How do we know what colours looked like during pre-Hispanic times?
• What, if any, has been the impact of the limited survival of colour in a variety of contexts across Mesoamerica on contemporary perceptions of the past?
• How was (and is) colour perceived and represented in the art and writing systems in different eras from pre-Hispanic to modern times?
• Have there been any discrepancies in perceptions of colour between indigenous groups, between indigenous groups and colonisers, or between indigenous groups and non-local scholars over time?
• What kind of colour terminology do Mesoamerican languages use and why?
• What kind of potential symbolic meanings do different colours hold and how, if at all, have these changed over time?

The theme of the conference will be approached from various disciplinary points of view – including (but not restricted to) anthropology, archaeology, biology, chemistry, epigraphy, history, iconography, linguistics, and psychology – as well as interdisciplinary approaches exploring the intersection of these disciplinary perspectives.

Workshops, symposium talks, and posters:

Workshops:

This year, we plan to have four workshops: two on Maya hieroglyphs, one on Maya iconography, and one on Mesoamerican writing systems. These are:

• Beginner-level Workshop on Maya Hieroglyphs (Tutors: Panos Kratimenos, Marta Gambino & Maria Felicia Rega)
• Intermediate to Advanced Level Workshop on Maya Hieroglyphs: “Rulers of the White Dog: The History of Sak Tz’i’” (Tutors: Christian Prager, Dimitris Markianos-Daniolos & Marie Botzet)
• “Pictures and Pigments: A Workshop on Maya Iconography” (Tutors: Felix Kupprat, Daniel Salazar Lama & Walter Paz Joj)
• “Colours in Mesoamerican Writing Systems” (Final list of tutors to be confirmed; abstract pending)

Workshop abstracts:

Intermediate to Advanced Level Workshop on Maya Hieroglyphs: “Rulers of the White Dog: The History of Sak Tz’i’” (Tutors: Christian Prager, Dimitris Markianos-Daniolos & Marie Botzet)

This workshop will cover the hieroglyphic history of the polity known as Sak Tz’i’ (“White Dog”) and its interaction with the surrounding cities. Previously only known from hieroglyphic references on looted monuments, the location of the site of Sak Tz’i’ was long debated, until recent research identified the site of Lacanjá Tzeltal as the capital of this polity. Aside from the site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, the Sak Tz’i’ kingdom is referenced in the texts of several sites in the region. From the extant hieroglyphic sources, we know that the Sak Tz’i’ lords interacted with their counterparts from Tonina, Piedras Negras, Palenque, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, as well as El Cayo during the Late Classic period in a series of power struggles and alliances. This workshop will utilise the complete corpus of texts relevant to the history of Sak Tz’i’, and will offer an overview of the kingdom’s history. Information compiled by the workshop tutors such as lists of rulers, calendar dates, as well as a collection of drawings will offer the students the opportunity to work with and familiarise themselves with the story of Sak Tz’i’ during the Classic period. This workshop is aimed at people who possess intermediate-level knowledge of Maya hieroglyphic writing. Participants should be able to independently identify calendrical information and most common glyphs.

“Pictures and Pigments: A Workshop on Maya Iconography” (Tutors: Felix Kupprat, Daniel Salazar Lama & Walter Paz Joj)

Abstract: “Images provide insights into people’s thoughts, worldviews, ideologies, daily lives and history. They also reveal particular perspectives on the world, especially regarding ancient societies for which there are limited written sources. This is the case with the Lowland Maya of the Preclassic (1000 BCE-200CE) and the Classic period (200-900 CE), whose sculptural and pictorial representations are attested by a broad variety of artefacts that have survived to the present day. In this workshop, we will provide an overview of Preclassic and Classic iconic traditions and conventions, with an emphasis on polychrome objects such as coloured stucco reliefs, murals, and painted ceramic vessels. As part of the conference’s general theme, we will also touch upon topics relevant to the comprehension of imagery, such as colour perception, its use in figurative representations and its impact in the built environment. In addition, we will explore problems of hermeneutics by pointing out the particularities of Maya iconology as compared to the Art History of European cultures. This workshop is directed towards both beginners and advanced students of Classic Maya art. Participants will work in groups according to their skill level and interpret provided sets of spatially or contextually related images, reconstructing general meanings and discursive properties. Complementary interactive presentations will provide an overview of common motifs, themes, and artistic programs. The primary workshop language is English, but questions and comments can also be made in Spanish. All participants are encouraged to bring a laptop or tablet to use digital references and supplementary materials.”

Symposium:

• Gaia Carosi, Harri Kettunen & Maria Felicia Rega: Conference opening talk
• Beata Anton: “Feathers as a Source of Colour in the Classic Maya Culture”
• David Buti, Davide Domenici, Joanne Dyer, Chiara Grazia & Danny Zborover: “Unveiling the Materiality of Codex Tonindeye: Palette and Painting Process of a Mesoamerican Painted Manuscript”
• Gaia Carosi: “The Colours of Cartography in New Spain”
• John Chuchiak: “Sacred Hues: Exploring the Role of Color in Late Postclassic and Colonial Yucatec Maya Religion and Effigy Censer Imagery”
• Albert Davletshin: “Reconstructing Proto-Tepehua-Totonacan Basic Colour Terms”
• Davide Domenici: “Twenty Years of Non-invasive Analyses of Mesoamerican Codices: Results and Open Problems”
• Élodie Dupey García: “Polychromy in Nahua Art: An Exploration from Indigenous Categories and Aesthetics”
• Cristina Gonzalez-Esteban & James Bacon: “Overcoming the Challenges of Whitewashing: Using 3D Source-Based Reconstructions to Present the Multiple Possibilities the Vibrant Maya Past Had to Give”
• Christophe Helmke: “Colors and Cosmology in Script and Image: A Vantage from Central Mexico”
• Mónica Itzel Sosa Ruiz: “No-Color, the Process to Obtain the Black and White on Ceramics with Negative Effect, in Michoacán, Clues for the Symbolic Interpretation of the Decoration”
• Harri Kettunen: “On Chromatology: A Mesoamerican Perspective”
• Carlos López Puértolas: “Chromatic Encounters at El Tajín (Veracruz, México): A Comparison Between Maya and Gulf Coast Color Technology During the Epiclassic (ca. AD 700-1100)”
• Catherine Nuckols: “In Living Color: Personified Color Terms in Late Classic Maya Inscriptions”
• Walter Paz Joj: “Los colores de ayer y hoy: La incorporación de la colorización digital en el arte maya contemporáneo”
• Marie Ramelet: “Materiales coloreados, materiales entrelazados: Tejer la historia del complejo Color rojo / Objeto textil en el área maya”
• Sergio Romero: “Color, Affect and Discourse in Highland Mayan Languages”
• Daniel Salazar Lama & Ana García Barrios: “Dark Caves Beneath a Bright Sky: Visual Perception and the Use of Colour in the Calakmul Substructure IIC”
• Sanja Savkic Sebek: “Exploring the Expressive Potential of Colours in Mesoamerican Art”
• Jan Szymański & Julia Przedwojewska-Szymańska: “Remembering the Code: Continuity and Change of Colourful Altar Overlays in Modern Ritual Performances of -Southeastern Mesoamerica”
• Ma. Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual & Cristina Vidal Lorenzo: “Remembering the Ancestors: Pre-Hispanic Colors in Colonial Houses of Chajul, Guatemala”

Poster session:

• Valeria Bellomia, David Buti, Brenda Doherty, Francesca Sabatini, Claudia Caliri & Davide Domenici: “Colorful Wefts: Detecting Natural Dyes in a Feathered Textile from New Spain”
• Ángela Ejarque Gallardo: “Exploring the Stylistic Variations and Color Materiality of Effigy Censers from Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico)”
• Benjamín Esqueda Lazo de la Vega & Natalia Hernández Tangarife: “Una pintura mural poco reconocida en el Puuc: Registro fotogramétrico y conservación del Mural de la Batalla de Chacmultún, Yucatán, México”
• Claudia Araceli García Solís: “El código de color en la representación de la imagen en Chichén Itzá”
• Kathryn M. Hudson: “Coats of Many Colors: Animals, Color, and Identity in Mesoamerica’s Southeastern Borderlands”
• Zoé Le Bacquer: “Mapmaking Allegories, The Colours of Archetypes”
• Rubén Morales Forte, Marc Zender & William Marcos: “Colors for the Field: Understanding the Sijoom “Months””
• Javier A. Rivas Romero, Paulina Poot Franco, Isabel Silva León & Mayra Manrique Ortega: “Moler en Calakmul y Uxul: Análisis arqueométricos a los metates “miniatura” como posibles elementos en la producción de pigmentos”
• Camille Simon, François Gendron & Estela Martínez Mora: “Colores de la Huasteca potosina: Análisis químico e iconográfico de frescos en sitios de la periferia de Tamtoc, SLP”
• Lorraine A. Williams-Beck: “The Color of the Cosmos: Teabo’s Sixteenth Century Mural Paintings”

Stay tuned for more info, including workshop, symposium, and poster session abstracts, and relevant information regarding this year’s EMC, the city of Perugia & surroundings. The final program will be available closer to the event.