Ancient Cities of Guatemala’s Pacific Coast
Date and Time
Free 2026 Gordon R. Willey Series Hybrid Lecture
Speaker: Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Associate Professor, Yale University
On Guatemala’s western Pacific coast, the region of Escuintla is home to many ancient cities, and for thousands of years it has been an important crossroads, drawing traders, migrants, and invaders. In this lecture, archaeologist Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos will present discoveries from three decades of research at the Classic-period cities of Montana and Cotzumalhuapa (250–900 C.E.), highlighting how people moved, interacted, and recorded their histories along the Pacific coast. The discovery of causeways, or raised roads, has revealed the size and organization of these cities, while refined dating methods have allowed researchers to trace their connections to other urban centers across Mesoamerica. Close study of Cotzumalhuapa’s monumental sculptures has further illuminated these networks through new readings of their intricate reliefs and hieroglyphic texts. Join us to explore how archaeology is reshaping our understanding of Guatemala’s Pacific coast and its place in Mesoamerican history.
Advance registration recommended for online and in-person attendance.
Free admission. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage starting at 5:00 pm. Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture.
About the Speaker
Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos is Associate Professor at Yale University, Department of Anthropology. His research focuses on Mesoamerican archaeology, art, religion, and writing, and he has conducted extensive field research in southern Guatemala, focusing especially on the settlement patterns, urbanism, and sculptural art of the Pacific Coastal city of Cotzumalhuapa. In 2011, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on Cotzumalhuapa art and archaeology. He is the author of Cotzumalguapa, la Ciudad Arqueológica: El Baúl-Bilbao-El Castillo (2012) and Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Volume 10: Part 1: Cotzumalhuapa (2018). He has published innovative papers on Mesoamerican religion and art, and the books Imágenes de la Mitología Maya (2011), and Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya (2017), which examine mythological themes in Maya in the light of a broad, comparative assessment of relevant sources that include the Popol Vuh and other Mesoamerican narratives. He edited the book Arqueología Subacuática: Amatitlán, Atitlán (2011) and coedited The Decipherment of Ancient Maya Writing (2001), and The Technology of Maya Civilization: Political Economy and Beyond in Lithic Studies (2011).
Photo of Monument 82 from El Baúl, Cotzumalguapa by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos