Norman Hammond is a British archaeologist, academic and Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

nist scholar, noted for his publications and research on the pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

 Maya civilization

Maya civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...

. Educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...

, Hammond is a professor in the Archaeology Department at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

's College of Arts and Sciences

Boston University College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is Boston University's largest undergraduate school, offering Bachelor of Arts degrees in 23 different departments and 20 interdisciplinary programs...

 (CAS), where he has been a faculty member since 1988. As well as specialising in the archaeology of Maya lowland sites in Belize

Belize

Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

, Hammond has also written on the emergence of complex societies

Complex society

In anthropology and archaeology, a complex society is a social formation that is otherwise described as a formative or developed state. The main criteria of complexity are:...

 in general, and the history of archaeology

History of archaeology

The history of archaeology has been one of increasing professionalism, and the use of an increasing range of techniques, to obtain as much data on the site being examined as possible.-Origins :...

.

Since 1968, Dr. Hammond has worked in the Maya lowlands at the following sites in Belize, Central America:
Lubaantun (1970-1971),
Nohmul

Nohmul

Nohmul is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site located on the eastern Yucatán Peninsula, in what is today northern Belize. Nohmul was occupied initially during the Preclassic era of Mesoamerican chronology...

 (1973-1986),
Cuello

Cuello

Cuello is a Maya archaeological site in northern Belize. The site is that of a farming village with a long occupational history stretching back to approximately 1200 BC, during the Middle Preclassic period. Its inhabitants lived in pole-and-thatch houses that were built on top of low plaster-coated...

 (1975-1986),
and most recently La Milpa (1992-2002).

Professor Hammond is currently teaching at Boston University.
He held previous positions at:
Cambridge University (1967-75),
Bradford University (1975-77),
Rutgers University (1977-88)
and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Jilin University (China), the Sorbonne and the University of Bonn.

Norman Hammond has served on the Editorial Boards of Ancient Mesoamerica and the Journal of Field Archaeology. He has also been the archaeology correspondent for The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

 newspaper in London.

In 1998 Hammond was elected as a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy

British Academy

The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

 (FBA), honouring his contributions to the field of Mayanist

Mayanist

A Mayanist is a scholar specialising in research and study of the Central American pre-Columbian Maya civilization. This discipline should not be confused with Mayanism, a collection of New Age beliefs about the ancient Maya....

research.

Published works

Hammond's published works include:

• Cuello: An Early Maya Community in Belize. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York (1991).
• Ancient Maya Civilization. Cambridge University Press and Rutgers University Press. (1982, Fifth edition 1994)
• Lubaantun: A Classic Maya Realm. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Monograph 2. Cambridge, MA (1975).

External links

• Faculty profile, Archaeology Dept, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences