SMU boasts a dynamic faculty. Take Professor David Friedel of the anthropology department, for example.
He has written three books, and already SMU has awarded him the title of University Distinguished Professor. But his superior knowledge of ancient Mayan cultures is little-known in the SMU community.
Colleagues in the anthropology department say Friedel is one of the country’s leading experts on Mayan culture.
He and a team of archaeologists, including five SMU graduates, just began a three-year research expedition in an ancient Mayan ruin of Guatemala.
This week, Friedel’s team will excavate El Peru, once the royal capital of the ancient Maya. El Peru sits in the jungle of the Yucatan Peninsula in Peten, Guatemala.
The focus of the dig will be to uncover and evaluate the monuments at the site to gain a better understanding of how the capital worked.
El Peru’s economy was based on its access to a river system.
Friedel and his team are anxious to learn exactly what the ancient Mayans were trading and who they were trading with.
“I’m studying them because they were really important to a lot of other people,” Friedel said. “I wanted to work on a site that actually had a history.”
The site certainly has a history.
Oil prospectors stumbled upon it in the 1960s. Soon after, vandals looted the site, destroying most of its structures and stripping it of its contents.
El Peru played a critical role politically and militarily in Mayan ancient culture from around AD 400 to AD 800.
Friedel’s archaeologists will focus their study on the 38 monuments near the town square, which are inscribed with ancient pictoral writings called hieroglyphs. The job will be especially difficult because 36 of the 38 hieroglyphs have decayed badly over the centuries. The crew will piece together the remains in order to decipher their meanings.
Friedel is the first archaeologist to carry out a dig at this site. Those in the archaeological community are eagerly awaiting the results.
“In the case of the Maya, we have unique opportunities,” he said. “They are the only civilization in the western hemisphere during this time to have literature of their own.”
Professor Friedel will share his findings with others beyond the SMU community.
In fact, Archaeology Magazine will follow the expedition until May and will update the team’s findings with commentary and photos on its Web site.
The magazine will also post a bulletin board to provide a place for students and others interested in the expedition to ask questions and get answers.
The magazine’s Web site can be found at www.archaeologymagazine.com.
Coleen Popson of Archaeology Magazine is very enthusiastic about sharing Friedel’s work in the bimonthly publication, especially as it’s just getting started.
“We know Dr. Friedel leads exciting field work,” she said. She believes El Peru represents a difficult and important project.
“Guatemala will present challenges,” she said. “But it’s an interesting site most people don’t know about.”
