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Maya-archaeology.org covers Mayan, Olmec, Teotihuacan art, architecture, deities, hieroglyphic writing and the latest digital photography, 35mm film and flatbed scanner technology for recording the artifacts and pyramid-temple and palace architectural remains of these fascinating ancient civilizations. New, helpful hints to improve the quality of your photography, especially for professional photography in museums or on archaeological expeditions (lighting, 4x5 inch large format cameras for studio photography as well as are portable for location photography, etc).
The capabilities of scanners, digital camera equipment, the new generation of color laser printers and 1200 dpi photo quality black-and-white laser printers, and sophisticated digital imaging software offer technological opportunities for high quality desktop publishing. Whether archaeologists anthropologists, art historians, botanists, zoologists, or geologists, multi-disciplinary field expeditions can now equip themselves for the digital era. To make it easier to figure out what digital imaging hardware and software is best, we offer our experience. Our reviews and recommendations will make it easier for you to equip your entrance into the new millennium of digital imaging (see also www.digital-photography.org). For example, archaeologists can now do all their drawings with a large format color plotter, a digital wide format inkjet printer, instead of by hand.
FLAAR expands digital imaging technology training center in Guatemala
FLAAR expands its digital imaging technology training center in Guatemala. FLAAR (USA) has assisted in the development of a non-profit entity in Guatemala to encourage continued programs in studies of Latin American anthropology. The new institute is "Asociacion FLAAR Mesoamerica." The offices were in Zone 10 but have moved to Zona 15 (Vista Hermosa II). The new office has three small gardens where we are growing plants related to Mayan ethno-botany. This week we planted at copal (pom) incense tree and will have cacao trees growing by the end of the summer. The phone number of FLAAR in Guatemala is (011 502) 2365-6406 in case you are a serious aficionado or a student/scholar of pre-Columbian studies or related natural resources of Mesoamerica (flora, fauna, minerals).
FLAAR Mesoamerica is a non-profit research and educational institution formed under the appropriate laws of Guatemala. We have already begun our first projects, which are enhanced programs based on FLAAR (USA's) programs over several decades. The first project is assisting SANK, an indigenous self-help NGO organization in Chisec, Alta Verapaz.
A team from FLAAR, Eduardo Sacayon, Rodrigo Giron, and Dr Nicholas Hellmuth, took their state of the art digital camera equipment to do high quality digital photographs to record diversification of indigenous Mayan agriculture and on eco-tourism. Income from eco-tourism helps local Mayan communities further their goals. FLAAR is pleased to react to the initiative shown by SANK in proposing this collaborative project with FLAAR (USA) and FLAAR Mesoamerica of Guatemala.
Professor Hellmuth has been beta tester of the BetterLight digital turntable panorama photography system since 1997. Based in part on the experience of doing rollout photography with that prototype, Michael Collette's BetterLight company has a new version of the rollout camera which is available to any museum, to any archaeological field project, to any graduate student or professor.
Current anthropology projects in Latin America
Anthropology is the broadest term to cover a diverse range of scholarly disciplines that include ethnography, ethnology, archaeology, epigraphy, art and architectural history. In European universities Greek or Roman archaeology is taught either in an institute of archaeology or in art history departments. In Europe the archaeology of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica tends to be taught in a language department or department of “ancient America.” In the US, the archaeology of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico tends to be taught in a department of anthropology. In American departments of archaeology, or departments of art history, the studies tend to focus on Greco-Roman civilizations. Exceptions exist, but the FLAAR director has two degrees in anthropology (Harvard and then Brown University) and then an advanced degree in art history (in Europe, where pre-Columbian iconography happened to be a personal interest to the Kunstgesichte faculty of a university in Austria).
As a result of our international background, at FLAAR we are multi-disciplinary, so we don’t pigeon-hole our anthropological and archaeological research. Our current long-range programs are dedicated to encouraging higher quality digital photographic recording and utilization of higher quality photographs in publication in all fields of anthropology by means of employing advanced digital imaging technology.
Current FLAAR projects in anthropology are well-balanced to reflect current reality in Latin America today: we prefer projects that are meaningful and useful. We also are interested in applying our experience and capabilities in areas that are devoid of applications of sensible digital imaging technology. Our largest on-going anthropological research is dedicated to preparing an encyclopedic inventory of the natural resources of Guatemala, Belize, and adjacent portions of Honduras and Mexico, as well as pertinent parts of El Salvador and Costa Rica that interacted with the Mesoamerican civilizations from 2000 BC through to the time of the Spanish conquest in the 15th-16th centuries.
We include under the rubric of natural resources the plants, animals, minerals that were utilized by indigenous peoples in the daily life, rituals, religious beliefs, myths, and trading with other peoples.
Mayan ethno-botanical research
Iconography of ethno-zoology (especially bizarre composites of creatures reincarnated in Maya art as portraits of deities).
Inventory of minerals used by pre-Columbian peoples
Improved photography of hieroglyphic inscriptions as an aid for epigraphers
Archaeology museum makeover
Here Dr Nicholas Hellmuth does test scan of the two halves of the maps of Yaxha, El Peten, Guatemala, mapped by FLAAR in the1970's.
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FLAAR partners with BGSU to bring technology to assist archaeology and art history
FLAAR is presently headquartered on the campus of Bowling Green State University. The advantages are to both parties: FLAAR brings about half a million dollars worth of advanced digital imaging technology: now BGSU is one of perhaps three universities in the world with an 80-megapixel digital camera (the Cruse giclee scanner-camera, all $75,000 worth of it).
FLAAR also has two extremely powerful flatbed scanners, such as a 5700 true optical dpi Kodak Creo Scitex EverSmart Supreme. This $45,000 scanner is working on digitizing the 50,000 images in the FLAAR Photo Archive.
FLAAR has an enviable arsenal of digital cameras, such as two 48-megapixel BetterLight large format scan-backs. These are both digital systems that can do rollout photography at extremely high precision. We would like to donate one of these to INAH and provide training to them as well.
Dr Nicholas Hellmuth also has a Canon EOS 5D, a 13-megapixel Kodak SLR/n, a Nikon D100, and is in the process of acquiring a Nikon D200. This summer (2006) we are testing a 33 megapixel Phase One P 30.
All this equipment is available to utilize at reasonable cost-basis to museums and universities in the US and Canada, and to archaeological projects in Mesoamerica. We also have Leica and Nikon 35mm (film, not digital) cameras that we would like to donate to archaeologists in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, or Belize who prefer the benefits of film over the downsides of digital. We also potentially have a Hasselblad ELX camera to donate (medium format 110/220 roll film).
FLAAR also has more than 23 wide format inkjet printers. We would like to donate our excess printers, again to INAH, or IHAH, or to the archaeologists in Belize, if there is interest. We donated one Epson 5500 desktop printer to the El Mirador Project (of Dr Richard Hansen).
FLAAR Mesoamerica, a separate but obviously related institute, is permanently headquartered in Guatemala, and offers reasonable budget priced but high professional quality digital photography and scanning to archaeological field projects, both in Guatemala City as well as out on location anywhere in Mesoamerica.
We can be reached at Bowling Green State University, best by snail mail: Dr Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR at BGSU, 111 Saddlemire, Bowling Green, OH 43403.
Since BGSU has no anthropology department, and no museum on campus, FLAAR is looking for a more appropriate home for its photo archive of 50,000 images of pre-Columbian artifacts photographed over the last 40 years in museums and collections all over the world. FLAAR is especially interested in opening an office in Europe, in cooperation with an appropriate European Hochschule, museum, cultural institute, or company interested in advanced digital imaging and digital photography.
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FLAAR now has a 5000+ true optical dpi flatbed scanner to scan its Photo Archive.
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FLAAR Photo Archive Re-Activated
We are pleased to report that after three years effort we have obtained from Creo a $45,000 flatbed scanner, the absolute top quality brand in the world. This Creo EverSmart Supreme scanner can scan 40 slides at a time. The entire FLAAR PhotoArchive has been moved from dead storage in Florida to Bowling Green State University in Ohio to be scanned. As soon as the 50,000 original 35mm, 8,000+ medium format negs, and thousands of 4x5 chromes have been scanned, we will seek a museum, library, or archive either in the US, Canada, or Europe that might wish to acquire the originals. BGSU does not have an anthropology department nor a museum, so we do not intend to house the original negatives here in Ohio.
The FLAAR Photo Archive is one of the largest of its kind in the world and represents over 30 years photography by Nicholas Hellmuth throughout Mesoamerica and in museums from Japan, Europe, Canada, through out Mexico, and Australia. There are probably more photos of Puuc and Chenes architecture in the FLAAR Archive, for example, than in the Carnegie Institution of Washington archives at the Peabody Museum, Harvard.
Universities, departments, libraries, or museums who would like to bid for the original of this archive should communicate with FLAARmaya@aol.com
The quality of the originals results from all being shot with the camera firmly on a tripod, with professional lighting, using a Leica for 35mm, Hasselblad for medium format, and Linhof for wide format 4x5. |
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Continued Research on Digital Imaging Technology to Aid Mayan Archaeological Research.
FLAAR is engaged in researching 3D printing technologies (3D rapid prototypers), 2D CO/2 laser engravers and laser cutting technology, and 3D scanning technology to assist Mayan archaeologists and others who are working in other parts of pre-hispanic Mesoamerica. |
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FLAAR engages in research on how digital imaging (photography and digital printing), can improve documentation for scholars, museums, and the general public about archaeological art, artifacts and ancient architecture. FLAAR provides research reports on "how to" use digital cameras, scanners, and inkjet printers in this increasingly digital era. FLAAR gives lectures worldwide in three languages relative to our core research, educational experiences and capabilities, especially on how new printing technologies can assist museums to better display materials and provide educational signage in the museum as well as outside in archaeological parks. This popular website, www.maya-archaeology.org, is read by over 100,000 people a year.
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MUSEO IXCHEL: 
Each museum is an ideal classroom, so this web site features four museums.
The access possible on the Internet provides an awareness of the educational potential within each museum.
Pictured here (to the rigth) is the Museo Ixchel, facing the Museo Popol Vuh. FLAAR is doing photography of the textiles in the Museo Ixchel later this year.
Not only will people of many countries learn about the existence of these museums in these Web pages, but we hope to encourage people to visit these archaeology museums in person when they travel to Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.
This web site
We provide information about Maya Archaeology with links to Maya-Art and Books, digital photography, and cameras and scanning. FLAAR also has additional web sites on wide format printers (www.wide-format-printers.org), scanners (www.flatbed-scanner-review.org), laser printers (www.laser-printer-reviews.org), and dye sub printers.
Brought to you by Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth, the Asociacion FLAAR Mesoamerica, and the Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research (FLAAR).
FLAAR research in pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica is dedicated to a standard of academic excellence which may be defined as scholarship in the European university tradition. For centuries, academics was based on simple classroom presentations, as we all remember from our own school years. But today, technology impinges upon both student and faculty alike. In the 21st century, digital technology will offer improvement in instructional methods that will make chalk, blackboards, and even slide projectors look like the Paleolithic era. The goal of the FLAAR Digital Imaging Technology Center is to make information available today about the digital imaging tools of scholarly research of tomorrow.
Most recent update July 3, 2006. Previously updated April 25, 2005.
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