Opportunities for volunteer work in Maya art and archaeology and studies of tropical plants and animals related to Maya culture

Positions available for volunteers to assist in research on Maya art, especially iconography and hieroglyphic inscriptions. We are also interested in programs on tropical flora and fauna, especially economic botany of the Maya.

This is not a dig; there is no treasure hunting. This is a scholarly project in the FLAAR office in Guatemala City. Most of the research involves digital photography and large format printing of rollout photographs of Maya vases.

Volunteers cover their own expenses (airfare, housing, meals, etc.) and especially their own insurance (medical insurance must include air ambulance service... standard insurance for travelers that flies you back home if you get bitten by the BerryBerry Bug.

You must read the U.S. State Dept. description of travel to Guatemala and Central America. Guatemala is conservative and the university is conservative as well. Drugs are not tolerated, for example.

You will get a learning experience that no university, no college course or seminar outside of the Maya area can possibly provide. You will work with sophisticated digital imaging equipment and studio photography equipment. It is not expected that you know how to use this equipment in advance, but you do need to know (in advance) how to use a Macintosh OS X and how to use Adobe Photoshop version 6, 7, or CS. There are plenty of books on Photoshop to learn from.

We are also interested in individuals who can help update our Maya archaeology website and publications. This requires learning Adobe Photoshop ver 7 or CS, and either Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe inDesign. We do not use Quark Xpress (it is a good program but we don't use it).

If you are a scientific illustrator, we have a need for individuals to illustrate our publications on digital imaging equipment, especially on inkjet printers.

If you survive these hurdles and still wish to volunteer, please e-mail us.

The university and museum are in an especially beautiful part of Guatemala City (a city which otherwise is rather solid concrete and noticeable poverty). The university is well equipped and capably run, indeed just as good if not better than many American universities. The museum has one of the largest collections of Maya ceramic art in the world. Furthermore, all the ceramics are authentic. Most museums elsewhere have partial forgeries, pots that were once original but which have been faked with repainting and "restoration."

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

What does it cost to live in Guatemala City? eating meals at the university is perhaps 20% less than eating at your school at home. Living (housing) however is considerably higher, in part because the university is in the absolutely nicest part of a large city and mostly because, as a foreigner, it is not easy to live in the low-rent areas of the city. $1000 a month, minimum, should be budgeted; better would be to budget $1600 a month.

What about Spanish language courses? It is not required that you speak Spanish when you arrive but it would make sense to learn while you are in Guatemala. However keep in mind that an archaeology volunteer position is full-time. This is not the appropriate manner to learn Spanish most of the day and volunteer in the leftover hours. If you are agile you can learn Spanish while helping out with the project. The Spanish courses in Antigua are too far away to commute daily (but are a good place to learn Spanish before or after your stint in Guatemala City).

How can I see in advance what this Maya art study project involves? Peruse the sites of the FLAAR network,

This program in Maya art is devoted to iconography, epigraphy, and style, especially of Peten Maya ceramic art: Early Classic, Late Classic, and Terminal Late Classic. PreClassic is not as crucial here because this program is interested in figural and non-figural decoration. Most PreClassic pots had no such decoration (they are important, but not for iconography). ProtoClassic pottery, however, is included due to the decorative form of the mammiform supports and the peccary supports that develop in the following century.

Teotihuacan influence on Maya art, and especially Teotihuacan influence on the art of the Tiquisate (non-Maya) portion of Guatemala, is a featured part of all FLAAR Photo Archive research.

In epigraphy, main interest is finding and photographing Primary Standard Sequences that have not previously been available to epigraphers to study.

Can I use material for my courses, seminars, thesis or dissertation back at my campus at home? Let us know the subject of your projected research and we will do our best to see if it fits into the FLAAR program. As with any field project, naturally the raw files are for use of the project and require (especially since they are digital files) considerable work ("digital imaging") before they are usable for outside purposes.

What previous experience is necessary? Other than knowing the Macintosh OS and Adobe Photoshop (which you can learn the basics in an intensive weekend) common sense and innate intelligence are equally as important as whether you know how to use a large format camera. If you are intelligent you can learn to use the equipment in a few days once you arrive in Guatemala. Patience and flexibility are probably the most important traits of all.

Keep in mind that other people are also applying. Also realize that whereas you will gain all kinds of experience in Maya iconography, ceramic analysis, and photography skills during any session with FLAAR, that there is no course in and of itself. You learn by doing the job; you learn by your own ability to watch and understand. This is a working project, not a course where a professor stands in front of a class and teaches you point by point.

Most Maya archaeology field projects assess a fee in addition to the volunteer covering their own personal expenses. It is not required that you pay a fee, though if the New Economy and Internet stock market boom has been a boon for your bank account, a tax deductible donation to the Maya iconography program/FLAAR Photo Archive would indeed be appreciated. If you are unable to make such a donation, you should still apply. There is no fee for applying.

It is inefficient to have too many assistants and volunteers (also the various studio spaces can't hold all that many people at one time). Thus we usually limit the volunteer position to a single individual, or rarely, to a pair. The exception would be if the sole volunteer has already been selected and at the last minute another individual or couple apply and can make a financial contribution to the project. Naturally we would not cancel out the initial (nonpaying) volunteer, but might consider making an exception to the maximum number of assistants and also accept a person(s) who can contribute financially. The project needs to purchase additional Macintosh G5 computers for this program and thus we welcome financial contributions.

You are welcome to telephone, but we are in a foreign time zone, hence e-mail is easier, ReaderService@FLAAR.org if you come from our technology sites). We do our best to answer about 50% of the incoming e-mails. Even with several new employees we are unable to answer every inquiry that arrives.

Most recently updated June 28, 2005