Tatiana Proskouriakoff

Infobox Scientist
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name = Tatiana Avenirovna Proskouriakoff


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birth_date = birth date|mf=yes|1909|1|23|mf=y
birth_place = Tomsk, Russian Empire
death_date = death date and age|mf=yes|1985|8|30|1909|1|23|mf=y
death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
residence = Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, USA
citizenship = United States
nationality = American
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fields = Mayanist archaeology and linguistics
workplaces = Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Carnegie Institution of Washington University of Pennsylvania Museum
alma_mater = Pennsylvania State University
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known_for = Seminal contributions to Mayanist archaeology
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Tatiana Avenirovna Proskouriakoff (January 23, 1909 – August 30, 1985) was a Russian-American Mayanist scholar and archaeologist who contributed significantly to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs, the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica.

Early life

She was born in Tomsk, Russian Empire, to a chemist and his physician wife. The family travelled to the United States in 1915, her father being asked by Czar Nicholas II to oversee the production of munitions for World War I. The Russian Revolution forced the family to remain permanently. She was to visit Russia only once after that, to meet the Mayanist Yuri Knorozov.

They lived for a while in Ohio, moved to the Philadelphia area, before settling down in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. Tatiana did very well at school, was the editor of the school yearbook, and graduated valedictorian of her class.

She spent a year studying at the University of Pennsylvania, before graduating from the Pennsylvania State University in 1930. Initially educated as an architect, she later went on to work for Linton Satterthwaite and for the University of Pennsylvania Museum at the Maya site of Piedras Negras in 1936–37. She made a reconstruction drawing of the Piedras Negras Acropolis on her return to Philadelphia. She was buried there in the F group, a plaque in her honor shows her tomb.

Reconstructive archaeology

When Sylvanus Morley saw the panoramic reconstruction on a visit to the Museum, he was impressed, and prevailed upon her to make more, for the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Unable to get the institution to hire her, he raised funds to enable Proskouriakoff to travel to Copán and Yucatán, which she did in 1939. Returning after she completed the drawings, she was given the post of a research associate at the Institution in the early 1940s.

She soon became involved in Maya hieroglyphs and made significant contributions to the understanding of Mayan written language. For example, her 1942 scholarly analysis of the hieroglyphics at the Takalik Abaj ruins in Guatemala establish that the site was in part Maya, settling a debate at that time. [cite book |last= McNally|first= Shelagh|title= Guatemala: Pocket Adventure Guide|publisher= Hunter Publishing, Inc|isbn= 1588435288|pages= 264|url= http://books.google.com/books?id=x7CtmPL5DMQC&pg=PA264&dq=Tatiana+Proskouriakoff&as_brr=1&sig=ACfU3U09zsd-E5XIXYMAtMV29ZNIapMyaA] Her greatest contribution was considered the breakthrough for Maya hieroglyphic decipherment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She discovered that the writing on the monumental stela and other buildings was actually historical, dealing with the birth, accession, and death dates for the Maya rulers. Analyzing the pattern of dates and hieroglyphs, she was able to demonstrate a sequence of seven rulers who ruled over a span of two hundred years. Knowing the context of the inscriptions, Maya epigraphers were then able to decipher the hieroglyphs.

She became honorary curator, Maya art, of the Peabody Museum in 1958. Tatiana Proskouriakoff died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 30, 1985. She was 76 years old.cite news |first=Sullivan |last=Walter |title=Tatiana Proskouriakoff dies; key figure in Mayan studies |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A14FD385F0C728DDDA00894DD484D81 |publisher=New York Times |page=27 |date=1985-09-11 |accessdate=2008-09-14 ]

Awards and recognition

*Alfred V. Kidder Medal for eminence in American archaeology, 1962
*Woman of the Year by Penn State, 1971
*Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala's highest honor, 1984
*Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Tulane University, 1977
*Elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society, 1983

Published works

Proskouriakoff's publications include:
*"An Inscription on a Jade Probably Carved at Piedras Negras" Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology II, 1944
*"An Album of Maya Architecture", 1946
*"Middle American Art", 1950
*"A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture" Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 593, 1950
*"Varieties of Classic Central Veracruz Sculpture" American Anthropology and History LVIII, 1954
*"Historical Implications of a Pattern of Dates at Piedras Negras, Guatemala" American Antiquity XXV, 1960
*"Portraits of Women in Maya Art", 1961
*"Lords of the Maya Realm" Expedition Magazine IV(1) 1961
*"Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico" (with H E D Pollock, A L Smith and R L Roys) Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 619, 1962
*"Historical Data in the Inscriptions of Yaxchilan, Part 1" "Estudios de Cultura Maya" III, 1963
*"Historical Data in the Inscriptions of Yaxchilan, Part 2" "Estudios de Cultura Maya" IV, 1964
*"Olmec and Maya Art: Problems of Their Stylistic Relation" Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, 1968
*"Classic Art of Central Veracruz" Handbook of Middle American Indians Vol XI, 1971
*"Jades from the Cenote of Sacrifice"
*"Maya History"
*"Graphic designs on Mesoamerican pottery"
*"Maya calendar round dates such as 9 Ahau 17 Mol"
*"The Maya : An Introduction" (with L S Spotnitz, J A Sabloff and G R Willey)

Notes

References

: cite book |author=aut|Coe, Michael D. |authorlink=Michael D. Coe |year=1987 |title=The Maya |edition=4th edition (revised) |series=Ancient peoples and places series|location=London and New York |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0-500-27455-X |oclc=15895415 : cite book |author=aut|Coe, Michael D. |authorlink=Michael D. Coe |year=1992 |title=Breaking the Maya Code |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0-500-05061-9 |oclc=26605966: cite book |author=aut|Coe, Michael D. |authorlink=Michael D. Coe |coauthors=and aut|Mark van Stone |year=2005 |title=Reading the Maya Glyphs |edition=2nd edition |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=978-0-500-28553-4 |oclc=60532227 : cite book |author=aut|Marcus, Joyce |authorlink=Joyce Marcus |year=1989 |chapter=Tatiana Proskouriakoff |editor=Ute Gacs, Aisha Khan, Jerrie McIntyre, and Ruth Weinberg (eds.) |title=Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies |edition=Illini Books edition, Reprint of Westport, CT: Greenwood Press original [©1988] . |location=Urbana |publisher=University of Illinois Press |pages=pp.297–302|isbn=0-252-06084-9 |oclc=19670310: cite book |author=aut|Sharer, Robert J. |authorlink=Robert Sharer|coauthors=with aut|Loa P. Traxler |year=2006 |title=The Ancient Maya |edition=6th edition (fully revised) |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, CA |isbn=0-8047-4816-0 |oclc=28067148 : cite conference|author=aut|Stuart, David |authorlink=David Stuart (Mayanist)|year=1987 |month=December |title=Ten Phonetic Syllables |url=http://www.mesoweb.com/bearc/cmr/14.html |format=PDF|edition=online publication: October 2005 |booktitle=Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing, 14 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Center for Maya Research |accessdate= : cite journal | author=aut|Villela, Khristaan D. | year=2000 | title=Morley Hires Tatiana Proskouriakoff | journal=The PARI Journal |publisher=Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute |location=San Francisco, CA |volume=I |issue=2 |issn=1531-5398 |oclc=44780248 | url= http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/02/proskouriakoff.html |format=PDF online reproduction |accessdate = 2006-07-28

External links

* [http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/legacy/mayan_lost_tribes/maya_writing/writing.html Maya Writing. David Stuart and Stephen D. Houston (1989); Scientific American]
* [http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/02/proskouriakoff.html Morley Hires Tatiana Proskouriakoff (PDF). Villela, Khristaan D. (2000); Precolumbian Art Research Institute Journal]
* [http://www.authenticmaya.com/maya_writing.htm Guatemala, Cradle of the Maya Civilization]