On January 28th, Professor Joel Palka—along with graduate students Madeleine Halac-Higashimori, Caleb Kestle, and James Meierhoff—captivated students with an interactive presentation and workshop on Maya hieroglyphs. Attendees learned how to read and identify the kakaw (cacao) glyph in ancient Maya painted texts.

If you missed this public program, watch this video on PBS: Cracking the Maya Code or check out the Maya vessel “Vase of the Seven Gods” at The Art Institute of Chicago.