Ed Barnhart

Early life and education Born in Englewood, New Jersey, on October 29, 1968, Barnhart attended Greenhill School in Addison, Texas. He grew up in Irving, Texas, where his early curiosity about ancient civilizations began. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1992, with a double major in anthropology and Latin American studies. Barnhart studied under Linda Schele at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 2001.

Career Barnhart's early career focused on surveying and mapping in Mesoamerica. He re-discovered the city of Ma'ax Na ('spider-monkey house') in Belize in 1995. He also led the Palenque Mapping Project in 1998–2000, at the invitation of the Mexican government, which documented 1,478 structures in the Maya ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico.

Barnhart is a public speaker on archaeology topics. He has appeared on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and on Japanese public television. He also produced five lecture series for the Teaching Company's Great Courses including "The Olmecs: Mesoamerica's Mysterious First Civilization" (2025) and has a podcast called ArchaeoEd.

In 2010, Barnhart developed a Maya calendar mobile app that received recognition from Archaeology magazine as an "Editors' Pick", with the publication praising the app for rising "above the silliness" surrounding Maya apocalypse claims.