American archaeologist and anthropologist Anabel Ford has spent four decades studying the Maya civilization, principally at El Pilar, the ancient city she discovered on the border of today’s Belize and Guatemala. She also carries out research on Maya culture, which she describes as “one of the world’s greatest civilizations”, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is Director of the MesoAmerican Research Center and President of the non-profit Exploring Solutions Past.