Christophe G.B. Helmke

Christophe Helmke graduated with a BA in Anthropology from McGill University, Canada after completing an Honours Thesis on Classic period (AD 250 - 900) Lowland Maya stelae. He received his MA in Archaeology with distinction from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, England in 2001. His MA Thesis focused on identifying the social processes responsible for the dissemination of Terminal Classic (c. AD 830 - 950) Moulded-carved vases throughout the eastern Central Lowlands. He is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and expected to graduate in 2007.

He has been actively involved in archaeological fieldwork since 1993. Before working in the Maya area he participated in archaeological investigations in France and Japan. In particular he assisted in the excavations of the Aedui capital Bibracte (France; 1993 - 1994), the Mars-Mullo Sanctuary of Allonnes (France; 1994 - 1995) both dating to the Gallo-Roman period (c. 200 - 52 BC), and the Heijō-Heian period (AD 784 - 794) capital of Nagaōka (Japan; 1995). After completing the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) field school in 1996 he joined the Western Belize Regional Cave Project (WBRCP) in 1997 as archaeological illustrator, surveyor and epigrapher (1997 - 2000). Since then he has been focusing on the analysis of the ceramic assemblages recovered from central Belizean caves. Between 1999 and 2003 he served as field director of the excavations at the Pook's Hill plazuela group, in the Roaring Creek Valley of Belize. In 2005, Christophe assumed the position of co-director of BVAR and led the continued investigations of Pook’s Hill, which uncovered clear evidence for a sweatbathing structure (known as a pib’naah in Classic Mayan). These investigations were aimed at unearthing important comparative data from residential and ritual sites in the Roaring Creek Valley of Central Belize.

In collaboration with Harri J. Kettunen (University of Helsinki), he has organized and tutored introductory workshops to Maya hieroglyphic writing since 2000 in Belize, England, Germany and the Netherlands as part of the San Ignacio Hieroglyphic Introductory Lectures (SIHIL) and the European Maya Conferences (EMC - WAYEB). He has taught introduction to Maya hieroglyphic writing at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (2004) and has recently assumed the post of Lecturer in Maya Hieroglyphs at the Department of Native American Languages and Cultures, University of Copenhagen (2006).

Publications: click here

Research interests include: