Scholarly Activities in Pre-Columbian Studies
Awards for Students
Advanced undergraduate and graduate students may apply for Bliss Symposium Awards to support attendance at the annual symposium.
Missionary Manuscripts Summer Workshop
Past Events
2020s
2023
Spatial Grammars: Meaning in the Two-Dimensional Field of the Painted Books of Aztec Mexico
September 28, 2023 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Elizabeth Hill Boone
Missionary Manuscripts in Mesoamerican Languages
June 5–16, 2023 | Pre-Columbian Workshop, in collaboration with Princeton University Library and Library of Congress
Opening Up the Eastern Andes: New Perspectives on Regional Identities and Inter-Cultural Engagements
April 28, 2023 | Pre-Columbian Roundtable; Anna Guengerich and Tamara L. Bray, Organizers
Letters from the Ancients of Water (Huarochirí, Peru)
March 16, 2023 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Frank Salomon
2022
Rulers from the West: Teotihuacan in Maya History and Politics
December 1, 2022 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, David Stuart
Beyond Representation: Ancient Indigenous Visual Culture
October 7–8, 2022 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Tamara L. Bray and Carolyn Dean, Symposiarchs
Tenochtitlan: Imperial Ideologies on Display
April 8–9, 2022 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Leonardo López Luján, Barbara E. Mundy, and Elizabeth H. Boone, Symposiarchs
Heads, Skulls, and Sacred Racks
April 21, 2022 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Vera Tiesler
2021
Water, Copper, Wak’as, and Empire: Late Prehispanic Political Ecology in the High-Altitude Atacama Desert
November 4, 2021 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Frances Hayashida
Special Lecture Series: Hidden Landscapes of the Past: Uncovering the Ancient World through LiDAR
June 16–July 28, 2021 | Interdisciplinary Summer Lecture Series
Taking the High Ground: A Model for Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns as Seen through LiDAR
July 28, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Marcello Canuto
Visualizing Bomarzo: LiDAR and the Interpretation of an Enigmatic Renaissance Landscape
July 21, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Luke Morgan and John Garton
Bathed in Light: Revealing Ohio’s Ancient Monuments with LiDAR
July 14, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Jarrod Burks
New Light under the Amazon Forest
July 7, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, José Iriarte
Lasers below the Clouds: Mapping Kuelap with Drone-Mounted and Terrestrial LiDAR
June 30, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Parker VanValkenburgh
The Garden City of Greater Angkor: Insights from Remote Sensing
June 23, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Roland Fletcher
Olmec and Maya Ceremonial Landscape Revealed through LiDAR
June 16, 2021 | Hidden Landscapes of the Past | Interdisciplinary Lecture, Takeshi Inomata
The Empire of the Ancestors: The Wari of the Middle Horizon
May 7–8, 2021 | Pre-Columbian Colloquium, Mary Glowacki and Anita Cook, Organizers
Celebrating the Life of Colin McEwan
March 28, 2021 | Virtual Celebration
Faces of Rulership in the Maya Region
March 26–27, 2021 | Pre-Columbian Symposium
2020
Heritage and Its Missions
December 11, 2020 | Pre-Columbian Colloquium, Cristóbal Gnecco and Adriana Dias, Organizers
When Cortés Met Malinche, and Montezuma Met Cortés: Alternative Facts and Disturbing Truths
November 4, 2020 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Matthew Restall
2010s
2019
Waves of Influence: Revisiting Coastal Connections between Pre-Columbian Northwest South America and Mesoamerica
October 11–12, 2019 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan, Symposiarchs
Keys to the Empire: Wari Religion and Politics in City and Country
April 25, 2019 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Anita G. Cook
Mesoamerican Codices: New Discoveries and New Directions
March 12–13, 2019 | Pre-Columbian Colloquium, Diana Magaloni Kerpel and Barbara E. Mundy, Organizers
2018
Reconsidering the Chavín Phenomenon in the 21st Century
October 5–6, 2018 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Richard L. Burger and Jason Nesbitt, Symposiarchs
Looking Ahead to the Past: An Ethnographer’s Perspective on Archaeology in the Andes
April 12, 2018 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Catherine Allen, George Washington University
2017
Imaginary Aztec: Three Views of Mesoamerica’s Central Places
December 1, 2017 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Davíd Carrasco, Harvard University
Teotihuacan: The World beyond the City
October 6–7, 2017 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Barbara Arroyo, Kenneth Hirth, and David Carballo, Symposiarchs
Everything That Shines Is Gold . . . but Does It Matter? The Conceptual Relevance of Amazonian Archaeology
March 16, 2017 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Eduardo Neves, University of São Paulo
Mirrored Reflections: Spanish Iconoclasm in the New World and Its Reverberations in the Old
February 16, 2017 | Director’s Office Public Lecture, Thomas B. F. Cummins, Harvard University
2016
Interpreting Pre-Hispanic Peru through Its Textiles
December 1, 2016 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Ann Pollard Rowe, The Textile Museum
Sacred Matter: Animism and Authority in Pre-Columbian America
October 7–8, 2016 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Steven Kosiba, John Janusek, and Thomas Cummins, Symposiarchs
Rethinking the Inka Empire: The View from Kollasuyu”
May 18 to 20, 2016 | Pre-Columbian Workshop co-hosted by Chilean Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica and the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
2015
A Crack in the Mirror: Desires for Pre-Columbian and American-Made Colonial Art, Then and Now
December 4, 2015 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Thomas B. F. Cummins, Harvard University
Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice
October 9–10, 2015 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Vera Tiesler and Andrew Scherer, Symposiarchs
The Art and Archaeology of Central America and Colombia
January 26–29, 2015 | Pre-Columbian Workshop cohosted by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City
2014
The Mayo Chinchipe-Marañón Culture: Pandora's Box in the Upper Amazon
December 4, 2014 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Francisco Valdez
Processions in the Ancient Americas: Approaches and Perspectives
October 10–11, 2014 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Susan Toby Evans and Stella Nair, Symposiarchs
Pre-Wari, Wari, and Inka Khipus: An Investigation of General Andean Cord Recording Principles & Technologies
April 11 and 12, 2014 | Pre-Columbian Workshop
Bringing the Pre-Columbian World to Life: The Scholar’s Role in Entertainment Media
February 6, 2014 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, John Pohl, UCLA
Ancient Central American and Colombian Art at Dumbarton Oaks
January 12 to 19, 2014 | Pre-Columbian Workshop
2013
To Write or Knot: Recent Advances in the Study of Andean Knotted Cord Records
December 5, 2013 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Gary Urton, Harvard University
Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World
October 11–12, 2013 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Cathy L. Costin, Symposiarch
Wrinkle Face and Iguana: Companions to a Moche Epic
May 16, 2013 | Pre-Columbian Public Lecture, Christopher Donnan, University of California—Los Angeles
Theorizing the Wari Collapse
April 18, 2013 | Pre-Columbian Tertulia
Sacrificial Blood, Death and Rebirth in Pre-Columbian Mural Painting
March 15, 2013 | María Teresa Uriarte, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México
2012
The Measure and Meaning of Time in the Americas
October 5–6, 2012 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Anthony Aveni, Symposiarch
2011
Conflict, Conquest, and the Performance of War in Pre-Columbian America
October 14–15, 2011 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Andrew Scherer and John Verano, Symposiarchs
2010
Merchants, Trade, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World
October 8–9, 2010 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Kenneth G. Hirth, Symposiarch
2000s
2009
Past Presented: A Symposium on the History of Archaeological Illustration
October 9–10, 2009 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Joanne Pillsbury, Symposiarch
2008
Scripts, Signs, and Notational Systems in Pre-Columbian America
October 11–12, 2008 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth Boone and Gary Urton, Symposiarchs
2007
The Place of Sculpture in Mesoamerica’s Preclassic Transition: Context, Use, and Meaning
October 5–7, 2007 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, John Clark, Julia Guernsey, and Barbara Arroyo, Symposiarchs
2006
Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests: Intellectual Interchange between the Northern Maya Lowlands and Highland Mexico in the Late Postclassic Period
October 6–7, 2006 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Gabrielle Vail and Christine Hernández, Symposiarchs
2005
The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Cities Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery
October 7–8, 2005 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, William L. Fash and Leonardo López Luján, Symposiarchs
2004
New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization
August 6–8, 2004 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Jeffrey Quilter, Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, and Andrés Alvarez Calderón Larco, Symposiarchs
2003
Classic Veracruz: Cultural Currents in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands
October 11–12, 2003 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Philip Arnold Ⅲ, Christopher Pool, and Richard Diehl, Symposiarchs
2002
En Niño, Catastrophism, and Culture Change in Ancient America
October 12–13, 2002 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Daniel H. Sandweiss and Jeffrey Quilter, Symposiarchs
2001
A Pre-Columbian World: Searching for a Unitary Vision of Ancient America
October 6–7, 2001 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Mary Ellen Miller and Jeffrey Quilter, Symposiarchs
2000
Pilgrimage and Ritual Landscape in America
October 7–8, 2000 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, John B. Carlson, Symposiarch
1990s
1999
Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia
October 9–10, 1999 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Jeffrey Quilter and John Hoopes, Symposiarchs
1998
Ancient Palaces of the New World: Form, Function, and Meaning
October 10–11, 1998 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Susan T. Evans and Joanne Pillsbury, Symposiarchs
1997
Variations in the Expression of Inka Power
October 18–19, 1997 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Ramiro Matos, Craig Morris, and Richard Burger, Symposiarchs
1996
Recovering Gender in Pre-Hispanic America
October 12–13, 1996 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Cecilia Klein, Symposiarch
1995
Archaeology of Formative Ecuador
October 7–8, 1995 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Richard Burger and J. Scott Raymond, Symposiarchs
1994
Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture
October 8–9, 1994 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Stephen Houston, Symposiarch
1993
Social Identity, Ceremony, and Cosmology in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica
October 9–10, 1993 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, David Grove and Rosemary Joyce, Symposiarchs
1992
Native Traditions in the Post-Conquest World
October 2–3, 1992 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth Boone and Tom Cummins, Symposiarchs
1991
Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices
October 12–13, 1991 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Tom Dillehay, Symposiarch
1990
Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past
October 6–7, 1990 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth Boone, Symposiarch
1980s
1989
On the Eve of the Collapse: Ancient Maya Societies in the Eighth Century, A.D.
October 7–8, 1989 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Jeremy Sabloff and John Henderson, Symposiarchs
1988
Art, Polity, and the City of Teotihuacan
October 8–9, 1988 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Janet Berlo, Symposiarch
1987
Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area
October 10–11, 1987 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Frederick Lange, Symposiarch
1986
Latin American Horizons
October 11–12, 1986 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Don Rice, Symposiarch
1985
The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor
October 12–13, 1985 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Maria Rostworoski and Michael Moseley, Symposiarchs
1984
The Southeastern Classic Maya Zone
October 6–7, 1984 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Gordon Willey, Symposiarch
1983
The Aztec Templo Mayor
October 8–9, 1983 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, George Kubler and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Symposiarchs
1982
Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes
October 8–9, 1982 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Christopher Donnan, Symposiarch
1981
Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental Sculpture in Mesoamerica
October 10–11, 1981 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Donald Robertson and Elizabeth Boone, Symposiarchs
1980
Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Mesoamerican Highland-Lowland Interaction
October 18–19, 1980 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Arthur Miller, Symposiarch
1970s
1979
Ritual Sacrifice in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
October 13–14, 1979 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Organizer
1978
Falsifications and Misreconstructions of Pre-Columbian Art
October 14–15, 1978 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1977
Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central Mexico
October 22–23, 1977 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer, in collaboration with Elizabeth H. Boone
1976
Mesoamerican Sites and World Views
October 16–17, 1976 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1975
Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America
October 18–19, 1975 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1974
The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World
October 26–27, 1974 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1973
Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America
October 27–28, 1973 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
The Junius B. Bird Conference on Pre-Columbian Textiles
May 19–20, 1973 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, given jointly with the Textile Museum, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer, in collaboration with Ann Pollard Rowe and Anne-Louise Schaffer
1971
Mesoamerican Writing Systems
October 30–31, 1971 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1970
The Cult of the Feline: A Conference in Pre-Columbian Iconography
October 31–November 1, 1970 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1960s
1968
Conference on Chavín
October 26–27, 1968 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1967
Conference on the Olmec
October 28–29, 1967 | Pre-Columbian Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer