Under the direction of Dr. Richard Leventhal MS Julia Sanchez will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will study glyphs present at a number of Mayan archaeological sites. The Mayans were one of the few prehistoric New World societies to develop writing and their glyphs are preserved in stone and plaster in many places. Because they reached an advanced level of social complexity, built elaborate temples and survived in lowland tropical environments with few or no inhabitants today they constitute a focus of intense anthropological interest. Many archaeologists and eipgraphers have translated and studied Mayan writing for insight provided into the elite elements of the society which produced them. In her analysis MS Sanchez will examine not only the content of glyphic messages but also the physical context in which they are located. She has realized that contexts vary markedly and that some inscriptions are in public places and thus visible to large and diverse numbers of people while others are located in areas such as temple interiors where access was limited. She will visit five archaeological sites, plot inscription positions and categorize them in terms of public access and visibility. She will relate this variable to the message which these writings contain and determine how the message varies in relation to intended audience. Archaeologists wish to understand how social hierarchies emerge and how, in traditional societies, elites and rulers maintain social control. The political organization of the prehistoric Maya is not well understood and MS Sanchez's study is important because it should shed new light on mechanisms of control. The work is also important because it will assist in the training of a very promising young scientist.
