The following is an only slightly biased synopsis of the First Maya Weekend
at UCLA, Oct. 21-23, 1994.  

Kicking off the weekend was an evening romp
though the LA County Art Museum.  The chance to see many of the Classic
Maya pottery pieces was a wonderful treat.  Several not-in-the-catalogue
pieces substituted for others from Guatemala which were unavailable but the
exhibit was all it was racked up to be and more.
Saturday began with a coffee and donuts mill-about where book sales were
brisk, the t-shirts and tote bags outstanding, and a fellow showing up with
a Mac/DOS/UNIX program of some 1600 glyphs and software to manipulate them
into the correcto arrangement.  Fortified with caffeine and sugar, the
weekend officially started with Rich Levethal and Provost Brian Copenhaver
welcoming everyone aboard.
Steve Houston gave a very interesting talk on What Mayan Glyphs Say to
Archaeologists: The Material Expression of Classic Ritual Behavior (later
subtitled A Fistful of Feathers).  The idea of the best pottery being
political pot latching ware and being very precious articles was batted
about and the concept of these objects were not important for what they
were but, rather, what they became through time, al=E1 Melanesian Kula
tradition.
Ginny Fields, in Royal Charter at Xunantunich , gave a good up-date on this
season's work at Xunantunich, including the huge stuccoed masks with "goo"
dripping from their mouths that her group has uncovered.  The comment was
made that the "goop" may be blood from a lower jaw removal job occasionally
done during sacrifice.
Ginny also read Dorie Reets-Budet paper Social Environments of Classic Maya
Polychrome Ware.  It seems that most top-notch pottery was used as regal
gifts and often underwent heavy use, sort of a "company's coming" china
set.  Once the owner died, it was then utilized as funeral ware and
consigned to the grave.
The discussions following these papers ranged from the "kill holes" in
inverted plates placed over the elite's faces at burial being psycho ducts
for the liberation of the deceased's spirits to the extrapolation of the
Central Mexican much-traveled pottery concept to the Maya realm to how long
a face-flayed sacrificial victim would stay alive in humiliation (ugh).
Rosemary Joyce gave a very good, and very funny, talk on Maya Lords and
Barbarian Princes: Painted Ceramics from the Maya Frontier.  This overview
of Honduran archaeology was excellent with the thrust of the
Maya-"Barbarian Princes" relationship being more concerned with the ability
to receive other elite and entertain them accordingly to their rank rather
than the mere fineness of the ceramics and/or the amount of pottery
acquired.  The fact that the Honduran elite had some of the most desirable
cacao in the region may have something to do with this.
Marilyn Beaudry-Corbett's Lifestyles of the Not-So-Rich And Famous:
Decorated Pottery in Household Settings  centered on the agricultural site
of Ceren(sp?) in El Salvador and how the farmers lived.  The glyphs on the
polychrome pottery she showed were almost pseudo-glyphs in form but appear
to be part of a writing system.  She also had a few photos of the supposed
"new codex" which has turned out to be a patches of paint on the remnants
of a burned gourd.
Karl Taube's talk Birth and Sacrifice in Ancient Maya Religion was very
interesting.  The idea of just who and how many goddesses are lumped
together as Ixchel (Cauchel?) was called into question.  He holds that
Ixchel is an old woman goddess while many others are younger women and thus
other goddesses.  He also spent some time on the Sky Umbilicals being the
celestial birth ropes descending from the Sky Bands much as current Maya
standing birthing practice uses ropes for support.  Another idea touched on
was that square vases apparently are representations of Maya houses.
The day ended with Andrea Stone's Decorating the Sacred Landscape: Maya
caves and Cave Art.  Especially interesting were several Yukatecan caves
near Chichen Itza which were filled with huge (ca. 0.5 m across) symbols
and/or glyphs(?) which we had never seen the likes of.  Her new book on
Maya cave art should be hitting the stands next summer.
        The banquet featured Los Angeles' best attempt at Pollo Pibil ...
and they did a pretty credible job despite it not being baked for hours in
a banana leaf.  Mike Coe then held everybody breathless for nearly an hour
and a half on the Nine Gods Vase, interpreting it on many different levels.
        Sunday started off with Wendy Ashmore's Building on Beliefs:
Construction and Spatial Order in Ancient Maya Cities.  She believes that
the arrangement of some of buildings, such at Tikal, mimics the path of the
sun laid on its side.  North is the highest "sky", south Xibalba, and
east/west remain the same dawning/setting of the sun places so if you want
to be buried in the "holiest place", you go to the north for your tomb
placement.  "Building" on this idea, the north-south, "sun path" building
arrangements at Xunantunich also appears to mimic those at Naranjo.
        Gary Gossen gave a very interesting talk on Who is the Commandante
of Sub-Commandante Marcos: Reflections on Maya Metaphysics.  Boiled down,
the elements of the Chiapas Revolution state most everything is uncertain;
self destiny is linked to a cosmic mold; symbolic identity is a function of
higher principles; and non-Maya adversaries are necessary to legitimize the
existence of the Maya as the Real People.  Gary read a wonderful release
from the Zapatista Front which summed up their ultimate aim of a free,
democratic Mexico in most elegant terms.
        Finally Dave Freidel gave another drinking-from-a-fire-hose talk on
Kings and Cosmology in the Maya North: The View from Yaxuna.  The
structures so far excavated closely mimic those at Cerros with the
ceremonial path of the elite through these Yaxuna building again being a
sun path laid on its side.  A major find this season was the third royal
stone being found in some of the previously worked material; he guesses it
just wanted to be found no matter what.  As a caper, he predicted where the
royal burial would most likely be found; bring your shovel and checkbook if
you want to know where.
        With over 220 people attending, the whole weekend was a howling
success with much new information and several gigabits of food for thought
to mull over.  Despite some small glitches, Rich Leventhal and Far Horizons
folks are to be congratulated for their stellar job of pulling this off.
We all look forward to the UCLA's Second Maya Weekend on Oct. 27-29, 1995.

Bruce Rogers & Pat Helton
@isdmnl.wr.usgs.gov