Tatiana Proskouriakoff
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Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909-1985) was a Mayanist. She was born in Russia and later migrated to the USA in her childhood. Initially educated as an architect, she later went on to work for Linton Satterthwaite and for the Peabody Museum at the Maya site of Piedras Negras. It was there that she became involved in Maya hieroglyphics and subsequently made significant contributions to the understanding of Mayan written language. She is also remembered for her artistic skill in making her amazing reconstruction drawings of many Maya sites and monuments that help archaeologists visualize what these sites and monuments may have looked like during their apogee. Her greatest contribution was considered the breakthrough for Maya hieroglyphic decipherment. 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. Knowing the context of the inscriptions, Maya epigraphers were then able to decipher the hieroglyphs.
External links
- [Proskouriakoff Biography from the University of South Florida Anthropology Department]
- [Proskouriakoff Biography from Minnesota State University]
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