Peter Mathews (archaeologist)


Peter Mathews is an Australian archaeologist, epigrapher, and Mayanist.
He was a professor at the University of Calgary, and is Co Director of the Naachtun Archaeology Project. Between 1979 and 1986 he taught in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He was a professor of Archaeology and Maya Hieroglyphs at La Trobe University until his retirement at the end of 2011. He continued to lecture at the university throughout 2012, until his end of tenure in 2013.
He graduated with a B.A. in 1975 from the University of Calgary where he studied with David H. Kelley, and Yale University with a MPhil, and PhD, where he studied with Michael D. Coe. During his time at Yale he was a MacArthur Fellow, at the age of 33.
In the 1960s, he dubbed artifacts to be from an unknown "Site Q", which some think is La Corona. In 1973, he was invited to the first Mesa Redonda, Palenque conference.
In 1997, he and ten Mexican colleagues were attacked, held, and released, near the Maya site of El Cayo.

Awards