On Wednesday in archaeology we started in on the details of the history of archaeology. We started with an over view of the "late post-classic" period of Mesoamerica and some of the sites that were up and running during the time of the Spanish conquest: Tulum, Tenochtitlan, Iximche, and a small touch on Nohpeten. During the 1600s Mesoamerica was kind of a no-mans land in regards to archaeological information; no one was building/creating new things, and no one was looking/finding the old things. In 1790 a large monument of the Aztec deity named Coatlicue was found in Mexico city long with the famous "Aztec Calendar Stone" or "Sun Stone." During that time no one alive knew anything about these things and they became quiet famous and people were fascinated by them, so instead of destroying them, like what had happened during and after the conquest, they were set in places of importance. This was the first "archaeology" in Mesoamerica.
In hieroglyphics class we watched the long form version of "Cracking the Maya Code" a fantastic documentary based off of Michael Coe's book about how archaeologist were finally able to decipher Maya script. I have seen the short version of the film several times, but this version had a lot more information and explained things a lot clearer and in more detail. The film was a wonderful introduction to understanding where scholars are in the decipherment and what is happening in that field of research. I would recommend the film to everyone who has even the slightest interest in anything Maya.
After lunch I headed over to Spanish early to go over more of my Spanish workbook and try to get me up to speed with the class. Class was ok, but I am still very behind and very uncomfortable in the class. When I got home I did more work in my workbook and did some more readings, but I am feeling fairly discouraged with the Spanish class as it is going now.
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