Peter Mathews (born 12 June 1951 in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, Australia) is an Australian

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, epigrapher, and

Mayanist A Mayanist ( es, mayista) is a scholar specialising in research and study of the Mesoamerican pre-Columbian Maya civilisation. This discipline should not be confused with Mayanism, a collection of New Age beliefs about the ancient Maya. Mayan ...

. He was a professor at the University of Calgary, and is Co Director of the Naachtun Archaeology Project. Between 1979 and 1986 he taught in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He was a professor of Archaeology and Maya Hieroglyphs at La Trobe University until his retirement at the end of 2011. He continued to lecture at the university throughout 2012, until his end of tenure in 2013. He graduated with a B.A. in 1975 from the University of Calgary where he studied with

David H. Kelley David Humiston Kelley (April 1, 1924 in Albany, New York – May 19, 2011) was an American archaeologist and epigrapher. He was associated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and later with the University of Calgary. He is most noted for his ...

, and Yale University with a MPhil, and PhD, where he studied with Michael D. Coe. During his time at Yale he was a MacArthur Fellow, at the age of 33. In the 1960s, he dubbed artifacts to be from an unknown "Site Q", which some think is La Corona. In 1973, he was invited to the first Mesa Redonda, Palenque conference. In 1997, he and ten Mexican colleagues were attacked, held, and released, near the Maya site of

El Cayo San Ignacio and Santa Elena are towns in western Belize. San Ignacio serves as the cultural-economic hub of Cayo District. It got its start from mahogany and chicle production during British colonisation. Over time it attracted people from the su ...

."Ordeal in Chiapas: Archaeologists Survive Attack During Attempt to Rescue Maya Altar from Looters"
''SAA Journal'', John W. Hoopes, 15-4

Awards

* 1984

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...

* 2002 Fellow of the Academy of the Humanities in Australia

Works

* * * * *
"MAYA HIEROGLYPH DICTIONARY"
''FAMSI'' *Foster, Lynn V., Mathews, Peter
''Handbook to life in the ancient Maya world''
Oxford University Press US, 2005,

References

External links

''Archeology'', Tom Gidwitz, Volume 55 Number 3, May/June 2002

''NOVA: Cracking the Code''

''The New York Times'', JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, 16 May 2006

Department of Anthropology, Cleveland State University, Fall 2004, Barbara Grale, Editor {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathews, Peter 1951 births Living people MacArthur Fellows Yale University alumni University of Calgary faculty La Trobe University faculty People from Canberra Australian archaeologists Australian Mesoamericanists 20th-century Mesoamericanists 21st-century Mesoamericanists Mayanists Mesoamerican epigraphers University of Calgary alumni