Students taking part in an extended study course in Mexico are soaking up information during guided tours through museums and ancient ruins while producing data of their own as they conduct field work for Colgate professor Anthony Aveni.
The 11 students have already visited Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology and History and the ruins of Teotihuacán, Tenochtitlan, as well as other sites.
They also have started survey work near the ruins that is focusing on embedded stones that were placed in 16th century colonial churches.
Aveni and a colleague, Eleanor Wake of the University of London, believe the stones’ placement may be preferential and that it may have something to do with encoding information about native cosmologies. The students’ work will help test that hypothesis.
When they return to campus, students will present an oral as well as a written paper on a specialized research subject relating to their field experience.
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The students are fortunate to be working so closely with Aveni, who helped develop and now is considered one of the founders of .
The Russell ºÚÁÏÍø Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology and Native American Studies has been to Mexico numerous times for research, as well as Peru, Israel, Italy, and Greece.
Brooke Schechner ’09 hosts several videos, made with assistance from members of the university’s Information Technology Services, that highlight the ºÚÁÏÍø group’s activities.
In her first she shows several of the embedded stones in the colonial churches that are of interest to the researchers. And because ºÚÁÏÍø is known for its fit and active students, she also can be seen running to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán in a race with her classmates, eventually taking in great views of the area.
The extended study course runs from Jan. 1 – 21. Additional video updates will be available in the coming days. They can be found on the university’s CU@Channel 13