Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project (MMARP)

The Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project, currently housed in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, is a collection of materials resulting from the activity of an interdisciplinary working group of scholars, which for over thirty years has met in a series of conferences and other events under the leadership of Davíd Carrasco.

This working group consists of leading specialists in Mesoamerican art, archaeology, history, anthropology, religion, and ecology, including Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Alfredo López Austin, Leonardo López Luján, Johanna Broda, Anthony Aveni, Laura Filloy Nadal, Guilhem Olivier, Ethelia Ruiz Medrano, Elizabeth Hill Boone, William L. Fash, Barbara Fash, Saburo Sugiyama, Charles Long, Robert Bye, Edelmira Linares, Edward Calnek, Jose Cuellar, Robert Carlsen, Lindsay Jones, Philip P. Arnold, Vincent Stanzione, Scott Sessions, and many others, in addition to Pedro Armillas, Paul Wheatley, John D. Hoag, Doris Heyden, H. B. Nicholson, and Eleanor Wake who have since passed away.

This team led in the publication of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures (2001), and over thirty monographs in the “Mesoamerican Worlds” and “Religions of the Americas” series, as well as several edited volumes, including Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes (1991, 1999), Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs (2000), and Cave, City, and Eagle’s Nest: An Interpretive Journey through the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan No. 2 (2007, 2010). Students and faculty at Harvard and other institutions in the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and Japan participate in these conferences and other events and make use of the Archive’s research collections, especially in relation to courses and publications.

These collections include: 1) a photographic archive of the excavation of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City from 1978 to the present, of past and ongoing archaeological work in Teotihuacan, of pre-Hispanic and colonial Mesoamerican pictorial codices, and of Mexica masterpieces and other artifacts from the Templo Mayor Museum and the National Museum of Anthropology; 2) an archive of audio, video, photographs, papers, and other materials related to the historic conferences and other gatherings of the Archive working group conducted in Mexico, Colorado, Princeton, Harvard, and elsewhere; 3) an extensive file of academic articles relative to specific interpretive issues involved in the study of Mesoamerica; and 4) a library of key Mesoamerican monographs, edited volumes, facsimiles, and reference works managed by the Archive’s coordinator Charlene Higbe, historian Lois Middleton, director Davíd Carrasco, and assistant director Scott Sessions.

The Archive has a robust teaching, research, and publication life and serves as an educational resource for various events and exhibitions at the Peabody Museum, including the Day of the Dead altar installed on the third floor and the annual Día de los Muertos events throughout the museum.