Juan Pedro Laporte Molina (7 August 1945 – 22 January 2010)[1] was a prominentGuatemalan archaeologist best known for his work on the ancientMaya civilization.[2] He studied in the United States at theUniversity of Arizona, in which he enrolled at the age of nineteen. After just one year he transferred to theEscuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia ("National School of Anthropology and History") in Mexico. He continued his studies at theUniversidad Autónoma de México from 1972 to 1976,[1] from which he graduated with a doctorate in archaeology.[3] He worked as a research assistant at theMuseo Nacional de Antropología inMexico City from 1967 through to 1976.[1] Laporte worked at various archaeological sites while he was in Mexico, includingTlatilco,Chichen Itza andDainzú.[1] He first began working as an archaeologist in Guatemala in the 1970s, and was the head of the School of History of theUniversidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC) for more than thirty years.[4] He first entered USAC in 1977, soon after returning from Mexico.[1] In 1974 he carried out investigations at the Maya archaeological site ofUaxactun in the northernPetén Department of Guatemala.[1] Between 1974 and 1976 he carried out archaeological investigations inAntigua Guatemala, which has since been designated as aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site, and aroundLake Izabal.[1]
Juan Pedro Laporte died in January 2010 from alung tumour. An obituary in Guatemala'sSiglo Veintiuno newspaper described him as "the father of Guatemalan archaeology".[4] He was one of the founding editors of theSimposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala ("Symposium of Archaeological Investigations in Guatemala"),[2] which has been published annually since 1987.[5] His books includeLa organización territorial y política en el mundo Maya Clásico : el caso del sureste y centro-oeste de Petén, Guatemala andBibliografía de la arqueología guatemalteca.[nb 1][4]
^Laporte, Juan Pedro; Héctor Mejía.La organización territorial y política en el mundo Maya Clásico : el caso del sureste y centro-oeste de Petén, Guatemala [Territorial and Political Organisation in the Classic Maya World: The case of southeastern and west-central Peten, Guatemala] (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala.: Escuela de Historia, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.OCLC71749209. Laporte, Juan Pedro.Bibliografía de la arqueología guatemalteca [Bibliography of Guatemalan Archaeology] (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala: Ediciones de la Dirección General de Antropología e Historia.OCLC8555098.
Asociación Tikal."Asociación Tikal" (in Spanish). Guatemala City, Guatemala. Retrieved2012-03-01.
Laporte, Juan Pedro (December 1992). Christopher H. Lutz (ed.). "Los sitios arqueológicos del valle de Dolores en las montañas mayas de Guatemala" [The archaeological sites of the Dolores valley in the Maya Mountains of Guatemala].Mesoamérica (in Spanish).13 (24). Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala and South Woodstock, Vermont, USA: Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA) and Plumsock Mesoamerican Studies:413–439.ISSN0252-9963.OCLC637530955.
Iglesias Ponce de León, Pepa (2011). B. Arroyo; L. Paiz; A. Linares; A. Arroyave (eds.)."Juan Pedro Laporte y sus múltiples colaboradores"(PDF).Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala (in Spanish).24. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología:1260–1265. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2014-11-02. Retrieved2013-07-01.
Moholy-Nagy, Hattula (2011). B. Arroyo; L. Paiz; A. Linares; A. Arroyave (eds.)."Juan Pedro Laporte y Tikal"(PDF).Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala (in Spanish).24. Guatemala City, Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología:1266–1268. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2014-11-02. Retrieved2013-07-01.
