Biography
Maya Exploration Center Director Dr. Ed Barnhart has
over a decade of experience in Mesoamerica as an archaeologist,
an explorer and an instructor. He has published over
a dozen papers and given presentations at five international
conferences. His involvement in Maya studies began
in 1990 as an archaeological intern in the ruins of
Copan, Honduras. In January of 1996 he was invited
to return to Copan and help the University of Pennsylvania
excavate the early acropolis and the tomb of the city's
lineage founder.
From
1992-1995 he had been studying art, iconography and
epigraphy (hieroglyphic translation) under the late
Dr. Linda Schele at the University of Texas at Austin.
During that same time he worked across the state of
Texas as a contract archaeologist.
In
1994 he began working as a surveyor and a UT field
school instructor in the jungles of Northwestern Belize.
After finding numerous small villages, Dr. Barnhart
discovered the ancient city of Ma'ax Na (Monkey House),
a major center of the Classic Maya Period. He mapped
over 600 structures at Ma'ax Na between 1995 and 1997
before moving his research focus to Chiapas, Mexico.
Also while in Belize, Dr. Barnhart worked with the
Belize Post Classic Project mapping the island of
Caye Coco and excavating a series of burials on an
island in Laguna de On.
Dr.
Barnhart received his Masters degree in May of 1996
and began teaching Anthropology classes at Southwest
Texas State University the following September. He
taught Archaeology and Anthropology classes at SWTS
until 1998 when he was invited by the Mexican government
to direct the Palenque Mapping Project.
The
Palenque Mapping Project was a three-year effort to
survey and map the unknown sections of Palenque's
ruins. Over 1100 new structures were documented, bringing
the site total to almost 1500. The resultant map has
been celebrated as one of the most detailed and accurate
ever made of a Maya ruin. He received a Ph.D. from
the University of Texas at Austin in 2001 with his
dissertation entitled The Palenque Mapping Project:
Settlement Patterns and Urbanism in An Ancient Maya
City (PDF). He is a Fellow of the Explorer's Club
and teaches National Science Foundation classes for
college professors on Maya astronomy and sacred geometry.
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