iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Years ago, visiting the remote ruins of Piedras Negras, I saw the moss-covered base of this monument, left behind by the looters. It’s still there. I would love to see them reunited someday.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Happy to finally see the new Rockefeller Wing at The Met. The Maya stela from Piedras Negras, Guatemala, always impresses (looted from there in the 60s). One detail I love is the elegantly carved skeleton with a cigar, probably representing a firefly (exoskeleton and cigar light, of course).

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

New to me too (or I don’t remember). Holmes was clearly doing a bit of visual restoration and clean-up in these views, like he did elsewhere. The stairway restoration he shows is pretty accurate. The site was actually kind of a mess in 1916, after the Peabody Museum investigations 20 years earlier.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

I hadn’t seen this Holmes drawing before. I was a very small part in the excavation of that building in the late 80s and early 90s.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

My next book comes out in spring of 2026 from Princeton University Press: “The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya.” More details on the way.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

How archaeology is feeling the big pinch from the cut-off of federal funding. Tina Warriner’s ancient Maya DNA project is one of the many unfortunate victims.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

As a higher ed prof, I decided last semester to use only blue books and hand-written exercises in one class. It generally worked. Students and teachers are in the same boat, confused about differing expectations from course to course. Admins need to forge broad policies and consistent guidance asap.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Of course humans have loved avocados for thousands of years. The Maya named one of their festival months, Uniw, after avocados. A guacamole-fest every 365 days sounds like a damn good idea. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/s...

nytimes.com

Humans Have Been Perfecting Avocados for 7,500 Years

Ancient peoples of Latin America saved the fleshy fruits from extinction and gradually made them tastier.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

The Ancient Maya: A New History. Coming 2026 via Princeton University Press.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

The slow decipherment of Maya writing began around this time, in the 1870s, yet still unaware of this and similar documents. “Cracking the code” began just as the very last vestiges of the old writing system were being blindly copied. Something I think about as I finish up my book on Maya history.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

The last Maya hieroglyphs. Copied ca. 1877, from a lost indigenous historical chronicle in Mani, Yucatán. The glyphs are dates, marking the k’atuns (20 year) periods of history. From the copy of the Codex Perez, now at the Princeton University Library.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Bad-ass duck. Also, Daffy’s self-image.

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Reposted by David Stuart

Dr. Stephennie Mulder @stephenniem.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

10 years ago students, staff, and faculty founded UT Antiquities Action, bringing awareness and activism re. cultural heritage to to the UT Austin campus and beyond. On Feb. 22 we'll commemorate a decade of education and advocacy at our sixth annual symposium. Join us! art.utexas.edu/events/2025-...

art.utexas.edu

Antiquities Action's 6th Annual Symposium — Cultural Heritage in Conflict Zones: Protecting Antiquities During War

6th annual symposium of Antiquities Action, a group of students, faculty, and staff at the University of Texas at Austin working to raise awareness about the destruction, looting, and illicit traffick...

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Reposted by David Stuart

Moudhy Al-Rashid (she/her) @moudhy.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Finally, an article on the decipherment of cuneiform that does justice to the many figures involved, the timeline, competition, and sheer philological grit. Fascinating and colourful synopsis of how we came to be able to read tablets from ancient Mesopotamia www.smithsonianmag.com/history/myst...

smithsonianmag.com

The Mystery of the World's Oldest Writing System Remained Unsolved Until Four Competitive Scholars Raced to Decipher It

In the 1850s, cuneiform was just a series of baffling scratches on clay, waiting to spill the secrets of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Very proud of my students who did outstanding drawings of Maya texts for their first assignment. None had any background in this stuff two weeks ago. I’ve seen far worse in published articles!

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

“Cultural heritage.” Now there’s a red flag! Absolute bullshit sweeping over the NSF.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Our article is coming out very soon in Antiquity, on an exciting find at the Maya site of Tikal (hint: foreign relations). Details to come!

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Reposted by David Stuart

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Oligarchy (noun): A government of and by a few at the top, who exercise power for their own benefit. Their power and wealth increase as they make laws that favor themselves, manipulate financial markets, and create monopolies that put more wealth into their pockets.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

I have 37 students in my Mesoamerican Writing Systems class. Holy crap (k’uhul ta’). Let’s go!

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

First drawing of a temple at Tikal, ca 1853. Earlier explorers Stephens and Catherwood (a better artist!) never penetrated the Petén region of Guatemala and Campeche, so their explorations completely missed many of the largest Maya sites, Tikal among them.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Those details may show the ancient graffiti on the walls inside. This particular drawing is probably of Temple V.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

RIP Jimmy Carter. The only president I ever personally met. Back in 1981 he and his sons were on a fishing trip in Mexico near Playa del Carmen, and they stopped at Coba to see the Maya ruins. My father and I were there too, and we all had lunch, talking Georgia archaeology. Amazing day.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Next month in Austin we’ll be hosting a conference on this theme.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Stopped a few days ago at the Maya site of Balamku, known for its well preserved temple facade, ca. 400-450 CE. The iconography shows 4 ancestral figures being reborn from cosmic mountains. Similar ideas of landscape and ancestry are found today in Maya communities in highland Guatemala & Mexico.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

My new article is out, on the importance of naming in Maya and other early writing systems. Part of an excellent new book on Maya archaeology, art and history, in honor of my friend Steve Houston.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Maybe one for each of his monuments? I’ll get to it.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Waxaklajun Ubah K’awil, the ancient Maya ruler of the city we know today as Copan, Honduras. Crowned in 695 CE, captured and executed in 738. Image: portrait on Stela A, dedicated in 731.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

I was in several Nat Geo and Nova docs on the Maya, but that old model is long gone. Best shows now are being made in UK and also in Europe. I’m convinced there is always an audience for good, accurate story-telling about the past. People are curious. Producers & new media outlets need to get on it.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

One of my favorite Mexica (Aztec) sculptures. A mad puma, just waking up from a nap. Gotta love the whiskers. Museo Templo Mayor, CDMX.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

An example of ancient Maya writing. What I’ve studied and worked to decipher over the last fifty(?!) years.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Bolo’s had enough with these cabinet picks.

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Reposted by David Stuart

Journal of Art in Society @artinsociety.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

Recently digitised, the remarkable 1577 Florentine Codex, in 10 volumes, 2,400 pages & thousands of hand-painted images, documents the language, culture, natural science & history of the Mexica and other Indigenous people of Mesoamérica. See full text at florentinecodex.getty.edu

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

“Many” archaeologists? I would say all. A firm consensus agrees that Graham Hancock and his ideas are bananas. This isn’t “gate-keeping,” just advocating for science and evidence. As an archaeologist, and alum (‘89) I’m frustrated to see this PAW article, but glad sane voices were also included.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

In addition to wearing my professor hat, I’m an author who aims to make ancient Mesoamerica far more accessible and known to the public. So, I’m now putting finishing touches my new book, The Ancient Maya: A New History, for Princeton U Press. A drudge now, but excited at the idea it’ll be out.

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David Stuart @davidsstuart.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Brand new here, to the Bluesky. Quit Twitter last year. I’m often on the fence about using social media, but I hope this can be a inspiring, nurturing place. I’m an archaeology and art history prof at UTAustin, a specialist in the ancient Maya & Mesoamerica. I like to share ideas new and old.

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