Prof. dr. Maarten Jansen

Position:
  • Professor of Mesoamerican archaeology and history
Expertise:
  • Mexico
  • indigenous peoples
  • native American cultures
  • Mixtec


Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 2439
E-Mail: m.e.r.g.n.jansen@arch.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit Archeologie, Mesoamerican and Andean
Office Address: WSD
Reuvensplaats 3-4
2311 BE Leiden
Room number 9
Personal Homepage: www.archaeology.leiden.edu/​organisation/​jansen.jsp


Maarten Jansen is professor of Mesoamerican archaeology and history (nominated by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences). He participates in the international MA program of Archaeology (track: "Archaeology and History of Native American Peoples"). Together with Prof. Dr. Willem Adelaar (dept. Comparative Linguistics, Faculty of Arts) he directs the international Ph.D. program "Amerindian Studies" (within the framework of the CNWS Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies). He was born in Zeist, the Netherlands, in 1952. After obtaining a B.A. degree in Classical Languages and Archaeology at Leiden University, he followed classes at Vienna University (Institut für Völkerkunde) and completed the M.A. specialization Archaeology of Pre-Columbian America with minors in Nahuatl and Quechua (Leiden 1976). Continuing his archaeological and historical research in combination with anthropological fieldwork in Mexico, he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the ancient pictorial manuscript known as Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus 1 (Leiden, 1983). Since then his investigations and teaching focus on Mesoamerican religion and society, involving iconographical, historical and ethno-archaeological research, with special attention for the Mixtec people (Ñuu Dzahui) in Southern Mexico. Together with Dr. Ferdinand Anders (University of Vienna) and Mrs. Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez (lecturer on Mixtec language and culture, Leiden University) he produced a series of interpretive studies of ancient Mexican pictorial manuscripts. In 1994 the Mexican government awarded him the order of the Aztec Eagle. At present he continues this work, supervising several Ph.D. projects. Cooperation exists with the Centro Oaxaca of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social.

Research Projects:

Last Modified: 31-01-2013