About

Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos is an archaeologist specializing in the complex societies of ancient Mesoamerica. His research interests include Mesoamerican art, religion, and writing, with a focus on ancient urbanism and social complexity, particularly along the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. He has conducted extensive field research at sites such as Cotzumalhuapa and other locations in southern Guatemala. Chinchilla has contributed to the understanding of Maya religion and art through his publications, including the books Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya (2017) and Imágenes de la Mitología Maya (2011), which offer innovative perspectives and methodological advances. He co-curated the 2022 exhibition Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His scholarly work has been recognized with a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011 for his work on Cotzumalhuapa art and archaeology. Chinchilla holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, obtained in 1996, and is a faculty member at Yale University, where he serves as Associate Professor of Anthropology, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Archaeology, and Director of Graduate Studies (Spring 2026).

Research topics

• Ancient history
• Demography
• History
• Archaeology
• Geography

Selected publications

• La Estela 87 de Tak’alik Ab’aj: ensayo de un estudio colaborativo

  Estudios de Cultura Maya · 2022 · 3 citations

  • Geography
  • Archaeology
  • Ancient history

  The discovery of Stela 87 in situ in a secondary context, as a reused element of sacralization in a possibly royal residence from the Early Classic, allows us to locate the time of the original function as a stela in the Late Preclassic. It is in the Late Preclassic that the image and the text with 4 glyphic signs allude to the ruler represented there. It is in the early part of the Late Preclassic that stelae at Tak’alik Ab’aj and other early cities represent their rulers, still without a long count date. This was implemented in the second part of the Late Preclassic, of which a good example is Stela 5 (126 ad). For this reason, the iconography and writing of Estela 87 adds another exponent and opportunity, particularly for the Pacific Coast region, to the study of the still small universe of early texts, and more precisely, of the first part of the Late Preclassic (100 BC-50 ad) (Schieber de Lavarreda, 2020a). It is this opportunity that motivated the present collaborative study.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• María Clara Álvarez

  Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires

  138 shared

• Geoffrey E. Braswell

  University of California, San Diego

  138 shared

• María Gutiérrez

  105 shared

• Liz Haberkorn

  University of California, San Diego

  89 shared

• Sarah Baitzel

  Washington University in St. Louis

  80 shared

• Geoffrey Brasweli

  University of California, San Diego

  57 shared

• Sarah Beniamino Volta

  Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires

  57 shared

• Cindy Delano

  University of California, San Diego

  48 shared

Awards & honors

• John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2011)

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