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Information about Tatiana Proskouriakoff

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Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Tatiana Proskouriakoff (January 23, 1909 - August 30, 1985) was a 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, Russia, to a chemist and his physician wife. The family travelled to the USA 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 Knorosov.

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

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Proskouriakoff's reconstructive drawing of Structure 1 at Xpuhil (1943)
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 '40s.

She soon became involved in Maya hieroglyphs and made significant contributions to the understanding of Mayan written language. Her greatest contribution was considered the breakthrough for Maya hieroglyphic decipherment in the late 1950s and early '60s. 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.

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

Bibliography

  • 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)

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Mayanist is a term which has been in widespread use from the late 19th century onwards, to refer to scholars who have specialised in research and study of the Central American pre-Columbian Maya civilization.
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The Maya script, also commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered Mesoamerican writing systems.
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Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its spectacular art, monumental architecture, and sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems.
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Piedras Negras is the modern name for a ruined city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization located on the north bank of the Usumacinta River in the Petén department of Guatemala. The name Piedras Negras means "black stones" in Spanish.
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Sylvanus Griswold Morley (June 7, 1883 – September 2 1948) was an American archaeologist, epigrapher, and Mayanist scholar who made significant contributions toward the study of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early twentieth century.
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The Maya script, also commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered Mesoamerican writing systems.
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