Program in Early Cultures

Stephen Houston

Dupee Family Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, Professor of History of Art and Architecture
stephen_houston@brown.edu
Research Profile
Research Interests Royal Courts, Writing Systems, Emotions, Ontology, Concepts of Materials, Ancient Imagery and Representation, Text-Picture Relations, Lidar and Settlement, Epigraphy, Decipherment

Biography

Stephen Houston's research interests include archaeology; kingship and court systems; body concepts in antiquity; writing systems; epigraphy and decipherment; architecture and urbanism; Classic Maya; South America; Europe. He is concluding excavations at the Classic Maya city of El Zotz, Guatemala, and has finished five seasons of work at the ruins of Piedras Negras, Guatemala.

Born 1958, in Chambersburg, PA, Houston was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, A.B. (1980, the University of Edinburgh (Exchange student), and Yale University (M.Phil., 1983, Ph. D., 1987). Prior to Brown, he served as Jesse Knight University Professor at Brigham Young University.

Recent News

Department of Anthropology

Stephen Houston to Present 2023 A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. recently announced that Professor Stephen Houston will deliver the 72nd A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts beginning in April 2023.
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Cambridge University Press

The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs: Cryptic Writing and Meaningful Marks (Cambridge, 2021)

John Bodel and Stephen Houston, The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs: Cryptic Writing and Meaningful Marks. (Cambridge University Press, 2021)

John Bodel is W. Duncan MacMillan II Professor of Classics at Brown University and Director of the U.S. Epigraphy Project.
Stephen Houston serves as the Dupee Family Professor of Social Science at Brown University.
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University of Texas Press

The Adorned Body: Mapping Ancient Maya Dress. (University of Texas Press, 2020)

Edited by Nicholas Carter, Stephen D. Houston, and Franco D. Rossi. The Adorned Body: Mapping Ancient Maya Dress. (University of Texas Press, 2020)

The Adorned Body is the first truly comprehensive book on what the ancient Maya wore, a systematic survey of dress and ornaments, from head to toe and everything in between.
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Library of Congress

Houston Appointed as Library of Congress Jay I. Kislak Chair

Stephen Houston has been appointed as the inaugural Jay I. Kislak chair for the study of the history and cultures of the early Americas, at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, for the 2018-19 academic year. During his tenure at the Center, Houston will work on a project titled “Classic Choreography: The Meaning of Ancient Maya Movement.”
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