New World Archaeological Foundation

The Chronicles of the New World Archaeological Foundation, 1952-1961 was written to honor 70 years of the New World Archaeology Foundation’s (NWAF) existence. Paper 88 presents the inception of the NWAF in 1952 and its operation as a non-profit research foundation before it was incorporated into Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1961; it looks at events--and intents--behind the research published in the NWAF Papers series. The chronicles are primarily based on letters to and from the field. Letters are quoted throughout to allow past principal players to speak in their own voice and let their unique personalities and prejudices shine through. These initial players, in the face of frequent frustrations and diverse distractions, performed and published some useful research in southern Mesoamerica, particularly Chiapas, Mexico, during the foundation’s first decade. Most of the research focused on the Formative Era because the overriding objective was to discover the origins of Mesoamerican civilization.