This course explores the field of Mesoamerican Archaeology, focusing on the peoples and cultures of this region that includes modern day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. We will explore the development of many cultures, states, and empires, including the Olmec of the Gulf coast, the city of Teotihuacan in central Mexico, the Maya in Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Aztec Empire that conquered much of Mexico.

Through studying these places and cultures, we will investigate the political organization, economy, and belief systems of these ancient people through their material culture, architecture, and texts. We will also explore how archaeology is practiced in this region, focusing in particular on the questions and techniques that have shaped our knowledge of these ancient civilizations, while also being mindful and critical of the colonial and imperialist histories of archaeology.

Though this course will primarily focus on Mesoamerica’s pre-Columbian history, this course will also include frequent readings from Colonial documents and modern-day ethnographies to explore how this ancient past remains relevant and impactful in the present.

Lecturer: Dr Alex Geurds

'My work focuses on human histories in parts of Mesoamerica, the regions of southern Central America and Colombia. In this, the ideas of landscape and monumentality play an important part, as I try to consider how communities understood and shaped their natural surroundings. On the one hand, this study of ritualised elements of landscape, is significantly informed by the many contemporary indigenous societies that continue such ways of being and doing—and this is also why the Americas is such a rewarding part of the world to conduct archaeological studies. My specialisation combines archaeological fieldwork, the analysis of object collections, and designing collaborative aspects of archaeology. 

Transferring ideas and knowledge about my specialisation is a central motivator, from sparking an interest with new undergraduate students, to working with smaller groups of graduate students and providing supervision for thesis subjects. Also central in my teaching duties is creating critical awareness with students, encouraging them to take a reflexive stance, and be explicit about what their views are on archaeological work today. While there is room both for ponderously footnoted articles as well as countless hours spent microscopically peering at a petrographic cosmos, our work is always consequential, and everyone needs to build a perspective on this during their studies.

I’m happy to consider a wide range of thesis subjects regarding the past human histories of Middle and South America. While I’m always available to provide advice on possible subjects, I’m not a proponent of suggesting ‘ready-made’ subjects to students. Zeroing in on a well-defined thesis subject is a dialectical exercise that may generate some friction and uncertainty, but once identified, the gratification is usually all the greater for it.'