Scholar reflects on decade at Y.

PROVO — While Stephen Houston was studying European archaeology as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1980s, he found the subject matter less than inspiring.

Then he discovered a field of study for which he would become one of the world's foremost experts: Mayan culture.

Houston, who is internationally known for his studies on the Mayan language, says he "became fascinated by areas that seemed less fully explored. The Mayans seemed wide open."

Houston, who has taught anthropology the past 10 years at Brigham Young University — and will begin teaching at Brown University this fall — has taken full advantage of that hole in current research on the Mayans.

During his 25 years of research, Houston, with the help of his colleagues at BYU and around the globe, is closer to understanding the language of the Mayan people and their ancient civilization.

Some of his most significant research in deciphering the Mayan language has come in collaboration with BYU linguistics professor John Robertson. "That work wouldn't have been possible unless I had come here and fortuitously met John and began to collaborate with him," Houston says.

"It is hard to have historical perspective when one is part of an important historical happening," Robertson says. "But I suspect that when the history of the decipherment of the Mayan hieroglyphs is written, it will turn out that Steve Houston will be reckoned as one of the major players — and some of his best work and major contributions will have been during his ten years here at BYU."

Along with Oxford Egyptologist John Baines and Johns Hopkins' Jerrold Cooper, who studies Middle Eastern forms of writing, Houston helped direct a groundbreaking study that revealed that as civilizations die so do their forms of writing.

"Changes in writing systems mirror larger changes that take place, not because of technological 'advances,' but because of feelings about the associations of past kinds of communication," Houston says. "This is a new take on communicative 'technologies' — that they are completely saturated with cultural values and conditioned by history."

Michael Coe, professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale University and the author of the bestselling book "Breaking the Mayan Code," was impressed by the trio's research.