Join UTSA professors Jason Yaeger and M. Kathryn Brown to explore the phenomenon of ancient Maya ancestor veneration. It serves as one line of evidence for reconstructing the political history of western Belize. Ancestor veneration provides a critical understanding of the nature of political authority and political organization, and how those changed over the course of nearly two millennia, from the Middle Preclassic period to the Terminal Classic period. Yeager and Brown will focus on the Classic-period royal burials at Buenavista del Cayo, which are featured in the exhibition Nature, Power, and Maya Royals.

Jason Yaeger, PhD, is the President’s Endowed Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. An anthropological archaeologist, he directs the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project, which studies the organization of ancient Maya households and communities, Maya political organization, and the dynamic relationships among climate, environment, and society in western Belize.

M. Kathryn Brown, PhD, is the Lutcher Brown Endowed Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. For over three decades, her research has examined one of anthropology’s fundamental topics, the origins of complex societies, using the ancient Maya of Belize as her primary case study. Since 2005, she has directed the Mopan Valley Preclassic Project.