Anthony Aveni is the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy, Anthropolgy, and Native Amerifan Studies at Colgate University. He has researched and written about Maya Astronomy for more than four decades. He was named a U.S. National Professor of the year and has been awarded the H.B. Nicholson Medal for Excellence in Research in Mesoamerican Studies by Harvard's Peabody Museum.

"A good book on time is a rare thing: it requires history; it requires anthropology; it requires astronomy; and it requires physics... As an anthropologist and astronomer known for his detailed work on the archaeo-astronomy of south and central American cultures, [Aveni] speaks with special authority on the fascinating practices of the Mayan and Aztec cultures and their extraordinary fastidiousness with regard to the marking and meaning of time. But detailed knowledge and good judgement are not sufficient to produce a successful book. Aveni achieves that distinction by virtue of the fact that he also possesses a wonderfully eloquent and engaging prose style that carries the reader through fact after fact that could so easily have ossified into a list of deadly dullness. 'Empires of Time' is one of the best books on a scientific theme for the serious general reader that I have read for some time." -- The Times Higher Education Supplement.