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“Each year Lafayette has encouraged me to take my academic endeavors a step further,” says Peter Davis, a senior anthropology and sociology major from Forked River, N.J., and a graduate of Glen Ridge High School. “Lafayette is an excellent institution where your personal dreams can be met, no matter what they are. But the means to accomplish these goals do not fall into your lap. You need to be self-motivated. Lafayette pushes your academic potential each year just a little bit more.”
A visit to a Mayan archaeological site while studying abroad in Central America inspired Peter Davis to write an honors thesis about Copan, an important ancient Mayan city located about 35 miles west of the modern town of Santa Rosa de Copán in western Honduras near the border of Guatemala. At its peak during the 9th century, the city may have been home to as many as 20,000 people.
“My thesis entails identifying the social variables and cultural values that stabilized Copan and its surrounding satellite city-states. I then will reexamine the social, religious, and political concepts that survived or were reapplied following Copan’s overthrow at the hands of Quirigua, one of Copan’s satellite communities,” Davis says.
His thesis adviser, Susan A. Niles, professor of anthropology, says, “Peter got interested in this topic when we made a brief visit to a site in Guatemala last spring while on a Lafayette semester abroad. We looked at art and architecture and expressions of kingship. It’s an area not as well studied by the experts as it should be.”
For Davis, the lack of scholarly material is a challenge. As a result, he has completed much primary research as well as fieldwork.
“There is a lack of research on Quirigua,” he says. “Compared to other Maya sites, academics have not analyzed the site’s architectural and sculptural symbolism. Also, many of the publications on the site are outdated and extremely rare.”
Davis has done fieldwork at the site last spring during his semester abroad and during this year’s winter break. To enhance his skills, he took a field methods course.
Writing an honors thesis proved a natural progression for Davis.
“Each year Lafayette has encouraged me to take my academic endeavors a step further,” he says. In fact, he welcomes the challenge presented by more advanced work. “Lafayette is an excellent institution where your personal dreams can be met, no matter what they are. But the means to accomplish these goals do not fall into your lap. You need to be self-motivated. Lafayette pushes your academic potential each year just a little bit more.”
“Peter is a very creative and independent thinker,” Niles says. “He is very committed to grappling with tough ideas and finding a practical application for them. And he is good at making field observations.”
Davis hopes to continue in the field of Mayan archaeology as a career.
“This is my future work,” he says. “I hope to teach in high school or college, then do Mayan archaeology or research in Central America. Children need to learn more about pre-Columbian history in the Americas.”