Julia A. Hendon (1957-)was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of an anthropologically trained linguist who taught at Yale University for many years. Intrigued by her father's collection of books on such ancient languages as Egyptian hieroglyphics and Hieroglyphic Hittite, she decided while still in grade school to be an archaeologist. Following through on this early aspiration, she studied anthropology as an undergraduate at University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1979) and as a doctoral student at Harvard University, receiving her Ph.D. in 1987. She has been studying the prehistoric civilizations of Mesoamerica, with special emphasis on Honduras, for thirty years. She teaches anthropology and archaeology at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.