 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2018) |
Edward Barna Kurjack (1938 - 2014) was a Mayan anthropologist who was known for his contributions to the study of Mayan settlement patterns and society.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2018) |
Edward Barna Kurjack (1938 - 2014) was a Mayan anthropologist who was known for his contributions to the study of Mayan settlement patterns and society.
Edward Barna Kurjack was born on July 29, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Barna Joseph Kurjack was a professional photographer, building contractor and merchant seaman. His family moved to Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, where Edward graduated from Hillsborough High School, Tampa, in 1956. He went on to earn a BS degree from Florida State University in 1962, an MA from the University of Alabama in 1964, and a Ph. D. from Ohio State University in 1972.
Kurjack’s first encounter with archaeological fieldwork was a salvage project under the direction of Dr. Charles Fairbanks in the Weiss Basin of the Coosa River in northwestern Alabama during the summer of 1959. Subsequently Kurkack was appointed as Laboratory Chief of the Alabama Museum of Natural History’s Weiss Basin Archaeological Project, a position he served from June 1960 to January, 1961. Kurjack's work as field director of the Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter excavations during the summer of 1961 under the direction of Prof. David L. DeJarnette led to analysis of the Stanfield-Worley materials for publication. From September, 1961 to November, 1962 Kurjack worked as an archaeologist on the University of Alabama’s field operation in the Walter F. George Basin of the Chattahoochee River.
After completion of the University of Alabama fieldwork, E.B. Kurjack was invited to join the Middle American Research Institute’s project at Dzibilchaltun, Mexico. From November 1962 to August 1964 he worked under the direction of Dr. E. Wyllys Andrews IV on a settlement pattern study of that site.
Kurjack began his teaching career as an Instructor and Curator of the Anthropology Museum at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. In 1967 he led field investigations on the “Urn Burial Caves of Salangsang” project in the mountains of western Mindanao. He continued to teach at Miami until August 1971. After returning from the Philippines, Kurjack began residence at the Ohio State University Graduate School, where he worked as a teaching assistant from January, 1968 to March, 1969. In 1971, Kurjack joined the faculty of Western Illinois University as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology. He advanced to Associate Professor in 1973, was granted tenure in 1974, and received full professorship in 1979.
Kurjack spent his summers, leaves of absence, and sabbaticals carrying out research on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico as Coordinador of the “Proyecto Atlas Arqueológico de Yucatán, Centro Regional De Yucatán, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mérida, Yucatán, México. He served as Coordinador of the “Reconociemento del Valle, Proyecto Copán, del Secretaría de Estado en Despacho de Cultura, Turismo y Información,” from December, 1977 to July, 1978.
To facilitate foreign area research, the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University, the Precolumbian Art Research Institute of San Francisco, and the Philippine National Museum granted Kurjack honorary positions in their organizations. He held a regular civil service appointment in the Mexican government with their National Institute of Anthropology and History for several years.
Kurjack has worked extensively studying sacebeob and social organization and is involved in archaeological research projects in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador.
Kurjack proposed that Dzibilchaltun was composed of several classes, not just upper and lower class, but a middle class that could be analogous to the Western merchant class. This theory contradicts earlier arguments that state there were just two classes, the upper religious leader class and the lower 'peasant' class. He was honored with a special session, "Regional and Community Organization in the Northern Lowlands: Papers in Honor of the Life and Legacy of Ed Kurjack", at the annual meeting of the Society for American Arachaeology, San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 29, 2006.
Edward Kurjack died on August 2, 2014, in Melbourne Florida. [1]
Coba is an ancient Maya city on the Yucatán Peninsula, located in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The site is the nexus of the largest network of stone causeways of the ancient Maya world, and it contains many engraved and sculpted stelae that document ceremonial life and important events of the Late Classic Period of Mesoamerican civilization. The adjacent modern village bearing the same name, reported a population of 1,278 inhabitants in the 2010 Mexican federal census.
A sacbe, plural sacbeob, or "white road", is a raised paved road built by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Most connect temples, plazas, and groups of structures within ceremonial centers or cities, but some longer roads between cities are also known. The term "sacbe" is Yucatec Maya for "white road"; white perhaps because there is evidence that they were originally coated with limestone stucco or plaster, which was over a stone and rubble fill. Although great progress has been made on determining the roles of sacbeob in Maya society, the decision to construct sacbeob as opposed to smaller, less complicated paths is puzzling to experts. Without a profound reliance on beasts of burden to transport goods, it remains partially unclear why the Maya decided to expend so much labor constructing these impressive roads. However it remains a very possible theory that the Sacbe held significant spiritual and religious value, in the sense that the actual trekking of the Sacbe itself seemed to be a spiritual journey of sorts.
Dzibilchaltún is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of state capital of Mérida.
The Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter, located on private property in Colbert County in northwestern Alabama, United States, is one of the most important prehistoric sites excavated in the state due to the archeological evidence deposited by the Paleo-Indians who once occupied the rock shelter. Lying in Sanderson Cove along a tributary of Cane Creek approximately seven miles (11 km) south of the Tennessee Valley, the shelter and the high bluffs of the surrounding valley provided a well-protected environment for the Native American occupants.
Chunchucmil was once a large, sprawling pre-Columbian Maya city located in the western part of what is now the state of Yucatán, Mexico.
Komchén is a community in the Mérida Municipality in the state of Yucatán, located in southeastern Mexico. Komchén is located 15 kilometers north of the city of Mérida, in the northwestern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula and is approximately 20 km from the northern peninsular coast. Its name comes from the Yucatec Mayan and means: In the well of the hollow. Its infrastructure includes, educational services, a clinic of the Mexican Social Security Institute as well as recreational parks and marinas. 90% of Its streets are paved.
Chichén Itzá was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period. The archeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality, Yucatán State, Mexico.
Xlapak is a small Maya archaeological site in the Yucatan Peninsula of southeastern Mexico. It is located in the heart of the Puuc region, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from the archaeological site of Labná and a similar distance from Sayil, lying directly between the two sites. It consists of three main groups in a valley of the Puuc Hills in Yucatán State, a region of karst limestone forming the only major topographical feature of the peninsula. The closest town is Oxkutzcab, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) to the northeast.
Robert Norman Zeitlin is an American professor emeritus of anthropology at Brandeis University. He has a B.A. in psychology from Cornell University, a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Boston University, an M.A. in anthropology from City University of New York, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale University.
Hacienda Cacao is located off the Carretera Uman-Hopelceh within Abalá Municipality, Mexico, and is in the South West Region 8 area of the State of Yucatán. It is one of the properties that arose during the nineteenth century henequen boom, and was owned by José María Ponce.
Hacienda Chichén is located within the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza, in the county of Tinum, Yucatan, Mexico. It was one of the first haciendas established in Yucatán and was in ruins by 1847. Edward Herbert Thompson, U.S. consul in Yucatán, purchased Hacienda Chichén, including the archaeological site visited today in 1894. He excavated, explored and exported goods from the site to the Peabody Museum for over 3 decades. In 1926, he was charged with trafficking of antiquities but the charges were later dropped and his heirs sold the site. The purchaser, Fernando Barbachano Peon is credited with beginning the tourism industry of Yucatán and being the first hotelier to change a hacienda into a hotel.
Hacienda Kancabchén was a farm in the Halachó Municipality in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. It is one of the properties that arose during the nineteenth century henequen boom. There are numerous other properties of this name in the Yucatán including Hacienda Kancabchén in Baca, Hacienda Kancabchén (Homún), Hacienda Kancabchén (Motul), Hacienda Kankabchén (Seyé), Hacienda Kankabchén (Tixkokob), Hacienda Kancabchén (Tunkás), Hacienda Kancabchén Ucí and Hacienda Kancabchén de Valencia.
Hacienda Kancabchén is located in the Homún Municipality in the state of Yucatán in southeastern Mexico. It is one of the properties that arose during the nineteenth century henequen boom. There are numerous other properties of this name in the Yucatán including Hacienda Kancabchén in Baca, Hacienda Kancabchén (Halachó), Hacienda Kancabchén (Motul), Hacienda Kankabchén (Seyé), Hacienda Kankabchén (Tixkokob), Hacienda Kancabchén (Tunkás), Hacienda Kancabchén Ucí and Hacienda Kancabchén de Valencia.
Hacienda Kancabchén is located in the Motul Municipality in the state of Yucatán in southeastern Mexico. It is one of the properties that arose during the nineteenth century henequen boom. There are numerous other properties of this name in the Yucatán including Hacienda Kancabchén in Baca, Hacienda Kancabchén (Halachó), Hacienda Kancabchén (Homún), Hacienda Kankabchén (Seyé), Hacienda Kankabchén (Tixkokob), Hacienda Kancabchén (Tunkás), Hacienda Kancabchén Ucí and Hacienda Kancabchén de Valencia.
Hacienda Kankabchén is located in the Seyé Municipality in the state of Yucatán in southeastern Mexico. It is one of the properties that arose during the nineteenth century henequen boom. There are numerous other properties of this name in the Yucatán including Hacienda Kancabchén in Baca, Hacienda Kancabchén (Halachó), Hacienda Kancabchén (Homún), Hacienda Kancabchén (Motul), Hacienda Kankabchén (Tixkokob), Hacienda Kancabchén (Tunkás), Hacienda Kancabchén Ucí and Hacienda Kancabchén de Valencia.
The Quad site is a series of Paleoindian sites and localities in Limestone County near Decatur, Alabama. It was first reported by Frank Soday in 1954, and later findings were also documented by James Cambron, David Hulse and Joe Wright and Cambron and Hulse. The Quad Locale can seldom be viewed at current lake levels, even during normal winter pool, due to extensive erosion, but is considered one of the most important and well known Paleoindian sites in the Southeastern United States.
The Middle American Research Institute was established at Tulane University in 1924.
David Lloyd DeJarnette (1907-1991) was an archaeologist and professor with the University of Alabama, generally considered the "Father of Alabama Archaeology".
Edward Wyllys Andrews IV was an American archaeologist noted for research of Maya civilization. During his career with Tulane University's Middle American Research Institute, Andrews focused on Mayan ruins, rediscovering several sites and leading investigation into Balankanche, Kulubá, Coba, and more.
Fernando Cámara Barbachano was an academic, museologist, ethnologist, and social anthropologist who was the founder and director of the Yucatecan Institute of Anthropology. Likewise, he was deputy director of both the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH).