New (spring into summer 2002), 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.

FLAAR prepares new report in PDF format: "How to take your own rollout photographs of Maya vases." This report is being provided all participants of FLAAR training courses at Bowling Green State University of Ohio as well as participants in Nicholas's digital photography course at Universidad Francisco Marroquin this summer 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.

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.

On the subject of digital cameras, FLAAR is the only archaeology institute in the USA to have its own Cruse digital camera-scanner system. It's a $97,000 digital camera, state of the art German technology. Came in six crates from Europe and is now in the FLAAR digital imaging studio at Bowling Green State

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

An additional studio with two 4x5 cameras has been installed by FLAAR at the Museo Popol Vuh on the campus of the Universidad Francisco Marroquin. FLAAR has been a leader in advanced photography in archaeology for three decades and all this new equipment represent achievements along the path in these long range programs of seeking to improve the quality and quantity of professional-level photography in pre-Columbian art and archaeology.

Several programs are already open to the general public. These include basic introductory course in digital photography (especially for people interested in art or nature photography, as in landscape and panorama). Second program is intermediate to advanced digital photography as input for wide format inkjet printers. Third is advanced panorama and potentially, if there is interest, in digital rollout photography.

More on summer 2002 program option: FLAAR also offers course on digital landscape panorama photography (Nov-Dec. 2002).

New for mid-November into December 2002: FLAAR offers landscape panorama photography course in Latin America. Although this version of the poster is in Spanish, the course will be taught in English and auf Deutsch as well.

Visiting Professor Nicholas Hellmuth, Francisco Marroquin University. E-mail FLAARtest@aol.com It is not possible to authenticate antiquities. Please do not send photos of antiquities; we are unable to handle such requests and are unable to forward your requests either. 99% are clever forgeries anyway or are outside our area of experience.

Now available, reports on two new museums of Maya archaeology in Antigua

F.L.A.A.R. demonstrates the potential of wide format Encad NovaJetPro color printer with photographic quality output. New 600 dpi wide format printers en route to FLAAR for testing. After 3 years with an Encad wide format color printer we upgraded to a Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 2800CP color inkjet printer (pictured here, above, in the German office of FLAAR Photo Archive).

Several new printers arrive at FLAAR-Germany office. Also, how to scan your archives of old 35mm color slides. $54,000 Scitex EverSmart Supreme scanner arrives at the F.L.A.A.R. Photo Archive. Reviews of how best to scan 35mm color slides upcoming shortly (and, how to enlarge your 35mm slides to print on a wide format printer 36 x 54 inches for museum exhibit quality, demonstrated

Illustrated abstract of the roll of digital imaging equipment in Maya archaeology lectures which Prof. Hellmuth recently presented on digital rollout photography technology at the Universitaet Bremen (Germany) and at Washington University (St Louis, MO)

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 left) 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. F.L.A.A.R. 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.


F.L.A.A.R. 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 F.L.A.A.R. Digital Imaging Technology Center is to make information available today about the digital imaging tools of scholarly research of tomorrow.

The F.L.A.A.R. Photo Archive has dedicated over three decades to document how the use of better quality photographic equipment can result in an improved documentary record of the achievements of past civilizations. We thus feel honored that Sinar-Bron, the most prestigious large-format camera company in Europe, has recognized the professionalism expoused by the F.L.A.A.R. Photo Archive and provided us with the loan of a Sinar X 4x5 inch large format camera. This camera is a great improvement over the Linhof 4x5 and other 4x5 cameras that we have available. The Sinar Bron allows an even higher quality of photography of pre-Columbian art and artifacts.

Upcoming, comparison of the Cambo 4x5 (Cambo Ultima) from Calumet Photographic/Calumet Digital Solutions.BetterLight model Super 6000 large format scan back just arrived and we will begin evaluating this as well.

Also newly arrived for tests, SunSpots from NorthLight Products, exclusive from Calumet, the ideal lights for digital photography.

Interested in photography? Check out our www.digital-photography.org and www.cameras-scanners-flaar.org.

Brought to you by Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth, Andrea David, and the Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research (F.L.A.A.R.). at Bowling Green State University of Ohio and Universidad Francisco Marroquin Cologne, Germany, and on location in Guatemala, all reached by the same e-mail flaar_maya@yahoo.com

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