December 10, 2016 at the Penn Museum – Simon Martin, PhD, Associate Curator and Keeper of the American Section at the University of Pennsylvania:
“Before Calakmul: Recovering the Snake Kings of the Early Classic”
The talk gave a summary of the latest developments in the complex history of the Snake kingdom. While we now have a good understanding of the first half of the Late Classic at Calakmul, how that dynasty intersects with earlier kings, including those at Dzibanche, has been hazy at best. Now, however, recent finds in the field are lifting a veil on some enduring problems and filling some important gaps in our knowledge.
Simon Martin is an Associate Curator and Keeper of the American Section at the University of Pennsylvania. Co-author of Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens and Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, he has a long list of academic and popular publications to his name. Simon has appeared in several television programs, most notably in Nova’s Cracking the Maya Code. He has worked at the major center of Calakmul as part of the Proyecto Arqueología de Calakmul since 1994, and has made a particular study of its political history and influence across the Classic Maya central lowlands