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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

My daughter: it’s hard having a dad who’s an archaeologist. My wife: what’s hard about it? Going on adventures? Dau: :: sadly :: mmhmm 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

A week of Fernando Castro Pacheco, an amazing 20th century #popartist and #muralist from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. You can today find his paintings and lithographs at the Casa de Cultura Fernando Castro Pacheco in Merida. #modernart 🎨

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Teenie tiny golden froggie, one of many offerings dredged from the sacred cenote (sinkhole) at #ChichénItzá. In Mesoamerica, #Frogs were associated with rain because … well, they come out when it rains! Palacio Cantón #merida. #artifacts #ancientart #archaeology #maya 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Las Tumbas, ancient Maya building in Merida. There are flat stones of a Puuc style, so this probably had cool decorative elements. People lived here from 400 BCE to 1100 CE and 19 former residents were buried on-site. *** #maya #hiddenspots #ancientamericas #archaeology 🏺

A small ancient Maya structure with a tree growing up on the edge

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

This bloodletting bone belonged to Maya ruler Yuknoom Uht Chan of Dzibanche, an early seat of the famous Snake Dynasty. We know it was his because the glyphs on it tell us. The glyphs are probably no more than 2 cm tall. #Cancun #Maya #Museum #ancientamericas #artifacts #archaeology 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

This stunning stucco sculpture is from Oxtankah, but now hangs out at the Cancun Maya Museum. He has a twin at the site museum in Oxtankah. Probably a ruler or ancestor though maybe one of the legendary hero twins based on his jaguar spots. #ancientamericas #ancientart #sculpture #archaeology 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

This cute #Maya figurine shows the incredible colors of ancient Maya clothing. She wears a huipil with a scandalous red slip beneath. And her feet have Jaguar spots! Cool tattoos? Animal print socks? Or a sign she’s supernatural? 🤷 #Cancun Maya #Museum. #ancientamericas #ceramic #archaeology 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

The bag that ancient #maya man is holding is an … enema bag! 😅😅😅 It was one way of intaking psychedelic substances during rituals. Luckily we don’t have images of the actual administration. Jk, there totally are. Cancun Maya Museum. #ancientamericas #ceramic #archaeology #arthistory 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

A fabulous #Maya #ceramic bowl. The puffed cheeks, the closed eyes, the content smile—I love it. Cute was an intentional aesthetic and this piece shows a playful side of indigenous Americans that we are told didn’t exist. From the Cancun Maya Museum. #ancientamericas #mayanwarrior #archaeology 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

This is the cutest ancient Maya god I’ve seen. This #ceramic of Itzamnaaj emerging from a shell is from Tulum. Pieces like this use the aesthetic of cute and show a playful side of ancient Americans that we are told didn’t exist. Cancun Maya Museum. #ancientamericas #mayanwarrior #archaeology 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Cherubic column from colonial #Merida. This wooden column is one of my favorites in the Merida City Museum’s collection. #history #archaeology #religiousart 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Some breaking #archaeology news! Scholars have ID’ed an awesome new #Maya Queen at #Coba, #yucatan. Naturally connected to the Snake Dynasty. #sciencenews 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

This is U Kit Kan Le’k Tok’, ruler of #EkBalam in the late 700s CE. As great Maya cities like Tikal and Calakmul collapsed, U Kit provoked a renaissance at Ek Balam. Image from a stone covering his tomb at the Museo Mundo Maya in Merida. #arthistory #archaeology #maya

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

The Castillo at #chichenitza is one of the most famous #maya buildings, but the style isn’t actually all that Maya! It takes a lot from central #Mexico. Not a terrible building though. Here’s a view of it from the city’s ballcourt #ancienthistory #archaeology 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

This interesting #ceramic vessel from the #Calakmul area shows the #Maya corn god emerging out of a husk of corn. You see something else? What ever do you mean? It’s the corn god, I swear! 🏺#archaeology

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

This handsome man is Ek Chuah, the ancient #Maya god of #cacao and, by extension, mercantilism. He often has features associated with foreigners to the Maya area, perhaps an acknowledgement of the cosmopolitanization that comes with contact with outsiders. 🏺 #palaciocanton #ceramic #archaeology

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

This is an ancient #Maya #jade pectoral, once worn by a “priest-king” known as an Ajaw. The t-shaped slit in the center is a wind sign, possibly representing the ruler’s breath. Mundo Maya in #Mérida. #archaeology 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

This lovely carved #ceramic from the Museo Tren #Maya shows a ruler on his side passing off a headdress. A fabulous example of Maya horror vacui, there is barely any empty space not filled by designs. That’s a common trait in Maya #art and one reason their art can be difficult to interpret. 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

This image of the #VirginMary holding the baby Jesus with one hand and saving a soul from the mouth of the inferno with her other goes hard. I don’t normally care for #Colonial era #Mexican #art but this is a fun one from the #Merida city museum. 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Do you ever see a #ceramic figurine so good you can imagine the person who inspired it? A young woman in a huipil is captured mid-dance in this #Maya figurine, probably from 600s to 900s CE. The marks on her forehead, nose and mouth are #tattoos or facial scarring. Mundo Maya, #Merida🏺

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Reposted by Zac Lindsey

EcoInventos @ecoinventos.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

🔥 ¡La naturaleza tiene aire acondicionado! 🌿☀️

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Those eyes! I adore this #ceramic K’awiil from the Palacio Canton’s #Maya collection. If the eyes don’t give him away as supernatural, his snout does. K’awiil was in charge of lightning, and leaders required his blessing. Even today, Maya daykeepers in #Guatemala talk about lightning in the blood 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Here I am at one of my absolute favorite #Maya buildings, the Temple of the Masks at #Kabah in #Yucatan. You’ll get told there are Cháak masks by even guides who know better, but don’t listen! There’s very little evidence these are the rain god Cháak, and lots of evidence it’s not. #hiddengems 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

The arch at #Labna is perhaps the most beautiful #Maya arch. These buildings stood at the entrances to the richest cities in #Yucatan to question visitors and inspect goods. Today arches exist in places like Oxkintok, Labna, Kabah, and Ek Balam. Anyone interested in an all-arch tour, lmk! 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

This dramatic young man has a long bar through his nose and holds a personified spearthrower, ready to kick butt! Although he’s #Maya, stylistically he’s central #Mexican (more formal and blockier) because he’s from #ChichenItza, where Maya and #Toltec cultures came together. Harmoniously? Hardly! 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

The cenote at #Tulum. A great site impacted by overdevelopment for tourism. It used to be one of my favorites, but these days I normally recommend checking out #Coba if you’re in the area. There’s a lot of beauty at Tulum, but you have to be patient to see it. #hiddenspots #archaeology #travel 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

The view of the Nunnery through the House of Turtles at the #Maya site of #Uxmal in #Yucatan. Turtles are associated with rain because they live in caves during the dry season. When the water levels start rising, they emerge, so they’re a sign the seasons are changing. #archaeology #travel 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

With its three towers, Xpujil in the southern #Yucatan Peninsula is one of the stranger #Maya sites. At its height during and immediately after the Classic Maya “collapse,” rulers may have used this style to imitate the pyramids of #Tikal, but on a budget. Budget or no, the results are impressive! 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

An absolute stunner from the Palacio Canton. Three-eyed woman motif existed for millennia in #Mesoamerican #art but it’s somewhat mysterious and poorly studied. This particular one is #Maya, probably Late Classic (900 CEish), but 3-eyed people at Tlatilco may be from 2000 BCE— 3000 years earlier! 🏺

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👁🌻🦊⚙️⚓ Bob, Engineer, Pusher of Paper @navmecheng.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis > It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Kids playing at the Iglesia de Jesus, Tercer Orden, #merida. Like many churches in Yucatan, it is unquestionably beautiful … and built from stones pulled from Maya structures, an attack on Maya culture, pure and simple. How should we look at these structures today? #hiddenspots

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

If you’ve visited Yucatan, you may have heard masks like this one at Labna called Chac masks, but it’s more complicated than that. Many may represent the sky god Itzamnaaj, or earth monsters. In Spanish they just call him the big-nosed god. #archaeology #hiddenspots 🏺 #maya

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Not all lost cities are in the jungle! The #Maya site of Opichen is lost right in the middle of #Merida. #hiddenplaces 🏺 #mesoamerica #archaeology

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Edzna is one of the stranger #Maya archaeological sites I’ve been to. Look at that pyramid! Most don’t have that many rooms. Its name means “House of the Itzaes,” but there’s little reminiscent of Chichen Itza. Rather, by the 600s CE, Edzna was an important ally of the Snake Dynasty of Calakmul.

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Have you heard of the magician who supposedly built this pyramid at Uxmal? 🏺 #yucatan #archaeology #mythsandlegends

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Actun Usil is a cave in Yucatan where the ancient Maya people of Oxkintok came to worship. The ceilings are covered in representations of the heavens, handprints of shamans adorn the walls, and the stones have been carved into faces. Must have been wild by torchlight. Come visit!

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Maya ceramics are some of the most beautiful in the ancient world. This young ruler’s poise and thoughtfulness are still visible more than a thousand years later, as are flakes of the famous Maya blue paint that he once wore as face paint. Palacio Canton, Mérida. 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

The Temple of the Seven Dolls at Dzibilchaltun. Named for the seven clay figurines found inside, it may have been related to sun worship. Every year on the equinoxes the sun rises through that doorway. 🏺 #archaeology #maya #mesoamerica

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Pozo 6 in Yucatán is a single beautiful Maya Puuc-style house a kilometer from the road through deep brush. Little of the Puuc-style stone facade was left, but there were a few of the cylindrical forms popular on these buildings. Probably 600-900s CE. Lovely structure. 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

How do you feed a god? In some ethnographic studies of the Maya, supernatural forces "eat" by smell. One of the most important foods of the gods is the resin of the copal tree. This bowl full of melted copal was an offering that comes from Chichen Itza, perhaps from 900 to 1200 CE.

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

My origin story: Jurassic Park (the book): "They thought it was a monkey running across the road BUT IT WAS A DINOSAUR" Me as a little kid: "Wait, there are places where monkeys just run across the road? PACK MY BAGS" 🏺

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I’m Zac. I study ancient and contemporary Maya history, which lumps me in with archaeology but I’m a historian. I want to connect you to the real people who played (and play) important roles in the development of indigenous history in the Americas. History is often dry; I’m unabashedly subjective

A goofy archaeologist in front of the site of Uxmal

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Zac Lindsey @arkeogato.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

The pyramid at Uxmal. Legend says a king with dwarfism built it in one night. The truth? The Xiu family led Uxmal for most of the late Classic but we don’t have much evidence of these rulers from their own time. Maybe one had dwarfism. I’ll leave it to you to decide if he built it in one day…

A young girl in a red dress and hat walks toward the pyramid at Uxmal

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