Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909–1985)
Born 1909 CE, died 1985 CE.
Tatiana Avenirovna Proskouriakoff (Russian: Татьяна Авенировна Проскурякова, Tatyana Avenirovna Proskuryakova; January 23 [O.S. January 10] 1909, – August 30, 1985) was a Russian-American Mayanist scholar and archeologist who contributed significantly to the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphs, the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. Born in Tomsk, Tatiana moved to the US with her parents in 1916. In 1924, she accepted American citizenship. She graduated from the College of Architecture at Pennsylvania State University (1930). In 1936–1937, she took part in two seasons of an archeological expedition to Piedras Negras (Guatemala). In 1939, she made scientific trips to Copán and Chichen Itza. From 1940 to 1958, she was a staff member of the Carnegie Institute and developed methods of dating ancient Mayan monuments based on the peculiarities of the fine arts style. From 1950 to 1955, she worked at the excavations of Mayapan. In 1958, Proskouriakoff moved to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, where she worked until her retirement in 1977.
Text from the Wikipedia article Tatiana_Proskouriakoff, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.