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,4x5inch 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.

Precolumbian Mayan archaeology

FLAAR expands major new digital imaging technology training center in Guatemala. Major grant from a large international corporation facilitates this new digital photography/digital printing studio on the campus of the Universidad Francisco Marroquin. These modern state-of-the-art facilities are already being used by Guatemalan students and will be opened to archaeologists working in 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.

First rollout of a Quiche urn by Nicholas Hellmuth and Tanja Rathjen, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, urn courtesy of Museo Popol Vuh.

Yes, now you can have your own rollout camera. To facilitate the "rollout camera for everyone" concept FLAAR volunteer Tanja Rathjen (from Germany) has spent several months in the new FLAAR photo studio in the Museo Popol Vuh preparing the detailed instruction manual.

FLAAR now has a 5000+ true optical dpi flatbed scanner to scan its Photo Archive.

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.

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.

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, Andrea David, 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.

Training programs in digital photography by FLAAR
See more information	See more information	See more information
Summer 2004 Introductory Level Taught in Guatemala / Lecture in Spanish Request information	August 2004 Introductory to intermediate Taught in via Internet / Lecture in English Request information	September 2004 In-depth panoramic course Taught in Guatemala / Lecture in Spanish, English or Deutsch Request information
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