Merle Greene Robertson

Merle Greene Robertson
Merle Greene Robertson (foreground), in 1986 at Palenque, during a Mesa Redonda (Round Table) conference.

Merle Greene Robertson (August 30, 1913 – April 22, 2011[1]) was an American artist, art historian, archaeologist, lecturer and Mayanist researcher, renowned for her extensive work towards the investigation and preservation of the art, iconography and writing of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Central America.[2]

Contents

Early life

Robertson was born in 1913 in the small town of Miles City, Montana, but, moved to Great Falls, Montana as a small child. Her schooling was completed in Seattle, Washington.[3]

Contributions to study of the Maya

Initially trained as an artist, Robertson pioneered the technique of taking rubbings from Maya monumental sculptures and inscriptions, making several thousand of these over a career spanning four decades.[4] In many cases these rubbings have preserved features of the artworks which have since deteriorated or even disappeared, through the actions of the environment or looters. Robertson was also instrumental in initiating the series of Mayanist conferences known as the Palenque Round Tables, which have produced some of the most significant breakthroughs in Maya research and the epigraphic decipherment of the ancient Maya script.

In 2004 Robertson received the Orden del Pop award from Guatemala's Museo Popol Vuh, in recognition of her decades of work preserving the country's Maya cultural heritage through her detailed documentation of Maya monuments and hieroglyphic writing.[5]

Notes

  1. ^ Zender and Skidmore (2011)
  2. ^ Doyle (2000), Zender and Skidmore (2011)
  3. ^ Barnhart (2003, p.1). In interview, Robertson describes Mile City [sic] of the time as "..a little cattle crossing in the road."
  4. ^ Some 2,000 of these rubbings are archived at the Tulane University's Latin American Library in New Orleans; see Gidwitz (2002), Olivera (1998). In a 2003 interview Robertson estimated that she has made "probably about four thousand" (Barnhart 2003, p.4).
  5. ^ Museo Popol Vuh (n.d.)

References

Barnhart, Ed (December 2003). "Periodic Interview Series: Merle Greene Robertson" (PDF, transcript of interview with Merle Greene Robertson, recorded December 2003). Resources. Palenque, Mexico: Maya Exploration Center. http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/interview_q2_merle.pdf. Retrieved 2007-03-28. 
Coe, Michael D. (1992). Breaking the Maya Code. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05061-9. OCLC 26605966. 
Doyle, John (4 September 2000). "Digging Deep: Archaeologist Merle Greene Robertson has spent four decades uncovering treasures of Mayan civilization" (online republication at SFGate). San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco: Hearst Corporation): A-5. ISSN 1932-8672. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/09/04/MNC992.DTL&hw=MAYAN+SYMBOLS&sn=003&sc=789. Retrieved 2009-12-15. 
Gidwitz, Tom (May/June 2002). "Doyenne of Mayanists: Merle Greene Robertson has spent a lifetime chronicling Mesoamerican art" (online abstract). Archaeology (New York: Archaeological Institute of America) 55 (3): 42–49. ISSN 0003-8113. OCLC 95337645. http://www.archaeology.org/0205/abstracts/merlegreene.html. Retrieved 2007-03-28. 
Olivera, Ruth (1998). "Merle Greene Robertson Collection, 1966 - 1993". Latin American Library Manuscripts Collection. New Orleans: Tulane University. Archived from the original on 2006-12-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20061208223830/http://lal.tulane.edu/merlerobcoll.html. Retrieved 2007-03-28. 
Museo Popol Vuh (n.d.). "Dra. Merle Greene Robertson: Orden del Pop 2004". Orden del Pop. Guatemala City: Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquín. http://www.popolvuh.ufm.edu/eng/popMerle2004.htm. Retrieved 15 December 2009. 
Zender, Marc; and Joel Skidmore (2011). "In Memoriam: Merle Greene Robertson". Mesoweb. http://mesoweb.com/reports/Merle.html. 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Merle Greene Robertson — (al frente) en 1986 durante una Mesa Redonda en Palenque. Merle Greene Robertson (Montana, 30 de agosto de 1913 22 de abril de 2011) fue una historiadora, arqueóloga, grabadora, y mayista …   Wikipedia Español

  • Palenque — Infobox World Heritage Site WHS = Pre Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque State Party = MEX Type = Cultural Criteria = i, ii, iii, iv ID = 411 Region = Latin America and the Caribbean Year = 1987 Session = 11th Link =… …   Wikipedia

  • Décès en avril 2011 — Décès 1992 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 Décès en 2011 : ← Janvier Février Mars Avril Mai …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Sacrifice in Maya culture — Maya civiliza …   Wikipedia

  • Жертвоприношения майя — Жертвоприношения были частью религиозной деятельности в культуре майя, они включали в себя забой животных или кровопускание членами общины в ходе ритуалов проводимых под руководством священников. Жертвоприношение – особенность почти всех… …   Википедия

  • Mesoamerican ballgame — Ballcourt at Monte Alban …   Wikipedia

  • Maya script — Maya Type Logographic (used both logograms and syllabic characters) Languages Mayan languages Time period 3rd century BCE to …   Wikipedia

  • Linda Schele — (30 October 1942 18 April, 1998) was a noted expert in the field of Maya epigraphy and iconography. She played an invaluable role in the decipherment of much of the Maya hieroglyphics. She produced a massive volume of drawings of stelae and… …   Wikipedia

  • Mesoamerican ballcourt — Ceramic sculpture from a Western Mexican tomb showing players engaged in the Mesoamerican ballgame. A Mesoamerican ballcourt is a large masonry structure of a type used in Mesoamerica for over 2,700 years to play the Mesoamerican ballgame,… …   Wikipedia

  • Palenque — Parc national Palenque Catégorie UICN III (monument naturel) Identifiant 5405 Pays …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”