Posted January 09, 2026
Written by Nicholas Hellmuth
We focus on flora and fauna associated with national parks of today and plants and animals in the ceramics and stone sculptures of the Classic Maya. So for insects we are studying giant beetles that are in Tepeu 1 polychrome bowls and plates, plus large beetles that are edible, plus lightning bugs (firefly) that are featured in Maya myths of the sacred Popol Vuh.
We continue research on bats in Maya art together with chiropterologist Jose Octavio Cajas.
For plants we are continuing our long-range research concept of Palm Paradise Peten, especially palms with edible parts that don’t require destructive slash-and-burn milpa agriculture.
For archaeology we focus in iconography, epigraphy, cosmology of scenes in Classic Maya art, especially scenes with plants and animals.
You can see our past, present, and future research on:
Our goal is to make documentation available to students (especially for their thesis or PhD dissertation), to scholars (for their classroom lectures, symposia and conference presentations, and for their publications) and for the interested general public so they have reliable documented information on Mesoamerica.
For social media posts, you can find the work of director Vivian Hurtado on FLAAR-Mesoamerica.org and social media sites.
