Professor Emeritus of Archaeology, Associate of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University
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Areas of Interest
Pre-Columbian archaeology, especially Mesoamerica; comparative archaeology; history of archaeology; archaeology & the public
Excavations and Fieldwork
Since 1968 he has worked in the Maya lowlands, with interdisciplinary projects at Lubaantun (1970-71), Nohmul (1973-86), Cuello (1975-2002) and most recently La Milpa (1992-2002), a large Late Classic period (AD 250-900) city in northwestern Belize, where publication is ongoing. Professor Hammond has also published fieldwork on Afghanistan, North Africa and South America, and recently on aspects of British Colonial funerary monuments.
Publications
The Archaeology of Afghanistan From Earliest Times to the Timurid period. Revised second edition (with Warwick Ball). Edinburgh University Press. April 2019.
Cuello: An Early Maya Community in Belize. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York (1991, reissued in paperback 2009).
Inside the Black Box: Reconstructing Maya Polity. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, ed. T.P.Culbert, pp. 253-284 Cambridge University Press (1991).
Ancient Maya Civilization. Cambridge University Press and Rutgers University Press. (1982, Fifth edition 1994).
Nohmul: a Prehistoric Maya Community in Belize, Excavations 1973-1983 (2 vols, 1985).
Lubaantun: A Classic Maya Realm. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Monograph 2. Cambridge, MA (1975).
Articles:
“Advances in Afghanistan”. Minerva Vol. 31 No. 2, issue 182: 13-18 (with Warwick Ball).
“An African slave’s epitaph”. Church Monuments Society webcast 12.7.20
“A Non-Maya in a Maya Land: An African Slave’s Grave in Belize”, IMS Explorer, Vol. 48 No. 10: 2, 8, Oct 2020.
“La Arquelogía de Belice”. Arqueología Mexicana Vol. 28 No.165: 24-31 (Introduction to Special Section).
“El jade en Belice”. Arquelogía Mexicana Vol. 28 No. 165: 52-53.
Review of S.R.Hutson & T.Ardren (eds.), “The Maya World”. Antiquity Vol. 95 (377) in press for 2/21
“The Aberdeen Celt: an early 20th-century Olmec find”. Antiquity Vol. 93 (#368, 2019): 488-501 (with Karl Taube) April 2019.
“The Anatomist’s Arms: the memorials to Sir Thomas Baines (1622-1681) in Christ’s College, Cambridge”. The Coat of Arms (Heraldry Society Journal) 4th Series Vol.2, #236, 2019: 109-122.
“Losing Alfonso”, in Tiempo detenido, tiempo suficiente: Ensayos y narraciones mesoamericanistas en homenaje a Alfonso Lacadena García-Gallo, ed. Harri Kettunen et al: 1107. European Association of Mayanists WAYEB. Couvin (Belgium).
Recent Speaking Engagements
“Discovering the Maya: the Twentieth Century” McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, January 20th 2020
“Reading the Record: Deciphering Maya Hieroglyphs”, McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, February 3rd, 2020
“Making a Living: Economy, Culture and society in the early Maya village at Cuello, Belize, 1200-400 BC”, UNAM-UK Centre for Mexican Studies/British Mexican Society, King’s College London, February 13th 2020
Given aboard MS Serenissima, January 21-29 2019.
“Exploring La Milpa: a Classic Maya city in Belize”, Maya Society of Minnesota, Minneapolis, April 5th 2019.
“Making a Living: Economy and Society at the Middle Preclassic Maya village of Cuello, Belize”, Maya Society of Minnesota, Minneapolis, April 6th 2019.
Discovering the Maya: the first explorers”, McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, October XXth 2019
“Discovering the Maya: Pioneer Scholars”, McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge, November 11th 2019
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France, 2018
Max-Planck Institute, Department of Archaeogenomics, Jena, Germany, 2018
Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland, 2018
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 2018
William College, Williamstown, MA, 2018
University of Cambridge, England, 2018
Recent Scholarship
“The colours of corn” John White’s Florida watercolours”. Antiquity 89, 8/15
Dr. George Stuart 1935-2014. SAA Archaeological Record 15 (1): 43-44, January 2015
“Three New Stelae at La Milpa, Belize?” Mexicon Vol. XXXVI No.3, June 2014: 88-93 (Norman Hammond, Eric Heller, Brett A. Houk, and Gair Tourtellot, III).
“Alfred Maudslay” in The Great Archaeologists, ed. Brian M. Fagan, Thames & Hudson 2014: 78-82.
Book chapters
2016 “Maya States: The Theoretical Background In Historical Overview” in The Origin of Maya States, ed. Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler: 33-57. University of Pennsylvania Press 2016 (with Astrid Runggaldier).
2015 The Big Sleep: Early Maya Mortuary Practice”, in Death Rituals, Social Order and the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World: “Death shall have no dominion”, ed. Colin Renfrew, Michael J. Boyd, and Iain Morley: 237-254. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.
Journal Articles
2017 “Boxing Day: a Maya polychrome pot from southern Belize”. Antiquity 91 355 e6: 1-7. doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.223.
2016 “An Ulua marble vase from Moho Cay, Belize”, Mexicon XXXVIII: 3-5 (with Christina Luke).
2015 Dr. George Stuart 1935-2014. SAA Archaeological Record 15 (1): 43-44,
2015 “The colours of corn” John White’s Florida watercolours”. Antiquity 89.
2015 J.S.Curl and S.Wilson, “The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture”. Church Monuments 30: 228-229
2015 “A Hapsburg ducal chronogram on a lost monument”, The Coat of Arms Vol. XI No 2 (Third Series), No. 230: 139-142.
2014 “Three New Stelae at La Milpa, Belize?” Mexicon Vol. XXXVI No.3, June 2014: 88-93 (Norman Hammond, Eric Heller, Brett A. Houk, and Gair Tourtellot, III).
Reviews
2019 Kathryn Brown and George J. Bey III (editors) athways to Complexity: A View from the Maya Lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 30: 234-236.
2019 Jennifer and Alexander John The Maya Gods of Time. Times Literary Supplement #6048, March 1st 2019: 31.
2018 S.Hutson (ed.) “Ancient Maya Commerce: Interdisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil”. Antiquity 92: 548-549.
2017 G. Iannone, B.A.Houk and S.J.Schwake (eds.) “Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings”. American Anthropologist 119: 769-770.
2017 “Digging up the past”. Review of Renfrew & Bahn (eds) The Cambridge World Prehistory (3 vols). Times Literary Supplement #5941: 9.
2017 J.Goodall, “Parish Church Treasures: the Nation’s Greatest Art Collection”. Church Monuments 31: 223-227 (with J.L.Wilson).
2016 G.L.Cowgill, “Ancient Teotihuacan: Early Urbanism in Central Mexico. Antiquity 90: 828-830.
2015 Maya: revelation and re-evaluation”. Review-article of eight books on the Maya. Antiquity 89: 1503-1510.
2015 Review of S.Tarlow and L. Nilsson Stutz (eds) “The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial”. Church Monuments 29: 191-2
2015 “Tikal Reports: the series continues”. Review-article of W.A.Haviland, Excavations in residential areas of Tikal: non-elite groups without shrines. Tikal Reports 20A+B. Antiquity 89: 743-745.
2014 Review of Andrew Robinson, “Cracking the Egyptian code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion”, European Journal of Archaeology 17 (1): 176-179
Member, Editorial Advisory Boards
Stein-Arnold Exploration Fund, British Academy, Appointed member, 2018-2021.
The Times of London, Advisor on Archaeology
Acta Mesoamericana European Mayanist Conference, Board of Editors 2010 –
Afghanistan [Journal of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies] 2018-.
Ancient Mesoamerica, 1989-2019; Advisory Board 2019-
Arqueología Mexicana, Consejo de Asesores 2015-
hurch Monuments, Editorial Consultant 2018-
Wayeb Monographs, Board of Editors 2018 –