“Feasts for the Honored Dead'" with Keith Eppich 

“Feasts for the Honored Dead: Mortuary Assemblages and Funerary Ceramics from the Classic Maya City of El Perú-Waka'" with Keith Eppich
The ruins of El Perú-Waka', in the rainforest of the Laguna del Tigre National Park of northwestern Guatemala, have yielded a rich funerary tradition. This tradition includes eight major tombs and a dozen other, amply furnished burials. This presentation addresses the mortuary assemblages of this funerary tradition, arguing that such assemblages are the remains of symbolic feasts, designed to feed the body and soul of the interred individual. Such mortuary assemblages served as feasts for the honored dead, “planting” such rich materials into the earth, to assist in their funerary transfiguration into a living ancestor, entombed in masonry architecture. The mortuary assemblages and funerary ceramics of El Perú-Waka' are uniquely situated to reveal these ancient traditions, ranging from large polychrome platters and tripod cylinders of the Early Classic, thin orange bowls from Teotihuacan, Ik'-style Late Classic polychrome vases, carved cups from Tikal, ceramic figurines from Calakmul, “jaguar” bowls also from Calakmul, and the “golden-honey” polychrome vessels from the royal ceramic tradition of El Perú-Waka' itself.
Keith Eppich joined his first archaeological project at age eight, at Bedico Creek, Louisiana. Since then, he has excavated Tchefuncte shell mounds, Pleistocene bone beds, Antebellum plantations, California missions, Chumash camp sites, and ancient Maya cities. With his co-directors, he heads the Proyecto Arqueológico Waka', a large-scale and long-term archaeological project located in northwestern Guatemala at the ruined Maya city of El Perú-Waka'. Dr. Eppich holds multiple degrees from Louisiana State University, San Diego State University, and a PhD from Southern Methodist University. He specializes in the study of the Classic Maya ceramic arts, Native American urbanism, and the Mesoamerican economy. He has recently published on all three. He is the author of the recently published volume El Perú-Waka': New Archaeological Perspectives on the Kingdom of the Centipede and is co-editor of Breath and Smoke: Tobacco among the Maya. He is currently a professor in the Department of History, Geography, and Anthropology at Tyler Junior College - The College of East Texas.
This event is hosted by Jim Reed. To receive free monthly issues of The Aztlander: Magazine of the Americas, contact the host at mayaman@bellsouth.net.