Mark Van Stone
Professor Mark Van Stone has spent his entire life studying the art and history of written forms. He started 40 years ago with Celtic manuscripts such as the 7th/8th- century Books of Kells and Lindisfarne.
Graduating to Roman and Greek inscriptions, and to Egyptian hieroglyphs, he later lived in Japan, studying netsuke carving and calligraphy. Finally receiving his Ph.D. in Maya Hieroglyphs in 2005, Dr. Van Stone combines a rare general understanding of all ancient scripts with an even rarer ability to *write* them, not just read them. Long before receiving the doctorate in Maya Hieroglyphs, Mark earned his Bachelor's Degree in Physics and worked for a few years at the Gamma-Ray Astronomy laboratory at the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center (1973-77). His background uniquely qualifies him to discuss both Maya astronomy and their hieroglyphs. He presently holds the post of Professor of Art History at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California. Mark is co-author (with Dr. Michael Coe) of *Reading the Maya Glyphs*, the finest introductory book on the subject. He has devoted the last few years to researching the ancient Maya understanding of the 2012 "event" (or non-event!). (If you Google-search his name, be sure to enclose it in "quotation marks" to focus the search. Unless, of course, you enjoy reading about Van lines, geology, and getting Stoned!)
