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The Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University conducts, supports, and publishes research in the anthropology, and especially the archaeology of Mexico and Central America. Its publications have ranged across the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. The institute provides instruction and research opportunities for graduate students in the Department of Anthropology and related disciplines at Tulane University. Its collections, which predate 1940, come mostly from Mesoamerica and Central America. A museum gallery on the fourth floor of Dinwiddie Hall is open during regular university work hours.
| In the early 1900s MARI sent a number of archaeological expeditions into southern Mexico and Central America. One of these pioneered archaeological investigations in the Olmec area, discovering the famous site of La Venta, Tabasco. From 1955 until 1974 the institute undertook research in the Maya area of Mexico, investigating several important sites, including Dzibilchaltún, Balankanché, Becán, Chicanná, and Xcaret. In 1980 MARI excavated at the early Maya site of Komchén, in northwest Yucatán. It has continued to sponsor graduate student research at other Maya sites on the Yucatán Peninsula, including Ek Balam, Muyil, and Chichén Itzá. The data from these excavations are illuminating the history of the ancient northern Maya. |
 Oliver La Farge, Frans Blom, and "Tata" Lázaro Hernández From Tribes and Temples, MARI Publication No. 1 |
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 Monumental stone head in the process of being uncovered by MARI archaeologists working at Structure 10L-29, Copán. Photo by Kathe Lawton. |
In 1990 the institute began participation in long-term, multi- institutional excavations at the Maya site of Copán, Honduras. The focus of the Tulane project is the Late Classic royal residential area. Eighteen graduate students from Tulane and several from other universities have supervised these excavations, and Copán research is providing dissertations for several Tulane students. MARI has helped fund recent archaeological research by other graduate students in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, and Peru. The institute has published more than sixty volumes and twenty shorter monographs, many on Maya archaeology and epigraphy. You can browse through and order from MARI's on-line catalog of publications by clicking on the "Publications" button below. Between the late 1950s and 1976, the 16-volume Handbook of Middle American Indians was assembled and edited at the institute. The museum gallery and collections include archaeological materials from the Americas, especially Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern United States; ethnographic specimens; negatives, photographs, and slides; and documentary research materials from archaeological expeditions. The collections are available to scholars for study at MARI, and an on-line description of institute holdings is currently under construction. Researchers who wish to study the artifact collections or photographic archives should write to the institute well in advance (E-mail: mari@tulane.edu) or phone us at (504) 865-5110. The institute is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 5:00. |
E. Wyllys Andrews V, Director
Kathe Lawton, Assistant Director
Anne C. Collins, Editor
Victoria R. Bricker
Clemency Chase Coggins
David C. Grove
Frederick W. Lange
Joyce Marcus
Jeremy A. Sabloff
George J. Bey III
Cassandra R. Bill
Clifford T. Brown
Peter D. Harrison
Christine L. Hernandez
Edward B. Kurjack
William M. Ringle III
Merle Greene Robertson
Eugenia J. Robinson
Travis W. Stanton
Philip C. Thompson
Gabrielle Vail
Walter R. T. Witschey
Elizabeth Hill Boone
Harvey M. Bricker
Victoria R. Bricker
Dan M. Healan
Robert M. Hill II
Judith M. Maxwell
Middle American Research Institute
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118-5698Phone: (504) 865-5110 M-F, 8:30 - 5:00 CST
Fax: (504) 862-8778
E-mail: mari@tulane.edu
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MARI web page design by David R. Hixson, with contributions by Jodi Rintelman, Jennifer Griffin, Aline Magnoni, and Jessica Deckard. Recent internal restructuring and additions by S. W. Horn III.