Tatiana Proskouriakoff: Interpreting the Ancient Maya

by Char Solomon

Overview

Born in Siberia during a turbulent period in Russian history, Tatiana Proskouriakoff came to America with her family when her father was commissioned during World War I by Czar Nicholas II to oversee the production of munitions in the United States. With the Czar’s abdication and the onset of the Russian Revolution, the Proskouriakoffs’ brief visit became a relocation.

Proskouriakoff excelled in art and completed a degree in architecture. She entered the field of Mesoamerican archaeology in the mid-1930s as a draftsperson and artist for a University of Pennsylvania archaeological project in the Petén rainforest of Guatemala. During her career, which spanned fifty years, Proskouriakoff became known for her thorough scholarship. In her landmark work, An Album of Maya Architecture, Proskouriakoff combined her artistic talents and architectural background to produce a vision of ancient Maya sites, such as Copán and Chichen Itza, at the height of their grandeur. By the end of her life, she had become one of the premier scholars of Mayan civilization.

In this first full-length biography of Proskouriakoff, Char Solomon chronicles the life of this remarkable woman.

For more information about this title, please visit www.charsolomon.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806134451
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	12/16/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Char Solomon, a freelance writer, researcher, and music teacher, served as a volunteer assistant to Tatiana Proskouriakoff from 1972 to 1973, when she worked on Proskouriakoff's catalog of Maya jade.

Editorial Reviews

No scholar is more beloved by Mayanists than Tatiana Proskouriakoff, the Russian-born archaeologist and artist whose reconstruction drawings of sites duch as Piedras Negras and Copan are world famous...A new biography of this amazing scholar, Tatiana Proskouriakoff: Interpreting the Ancient Maya...is sure to fascinate readers...Filled with a large supporting cast of colorful characters and absorbing details of early archaeological expeditions to the Maya world, [it] wins over the reader with a compelling portrait of one of archaeology's most important early personalities.
—Archaeology, Jan-Feb. 2003

Traci Arden

"If you're in a women's book club that needs a good selection for March - Women's History Month - consider "Tatiana Proskouriakoff." The title is a mouthful. But the book is a concise, moving account of a Russian-born American who made a huge mark in the male-dominated field of Maya studies...Proskouriakoff came to the United States as a girl when her father ran a Russian munitions program here. The Russian Revolution forced the family to stay. "Tania" grew up in Philadelphia and went to Penn State, where she was a rare female student in architecture. She began her career doing measurements and sketches for archaeologists studying what's left of the ancient Maya cities of Central America. For four decades, she traveled regularly to the sites, enduring rugged travel, primitive conditions and political upheaval. Her drawings imagining Maya cities in their heyday thrilled specialists and helped others to appreciate the ancient Maya culture. She also did crucial analysis of Maya hieroglyphs...This book draws on journals kept by the never-married Proskouriakoff. These reveal that she suffered self-doubt. She was often lonely, and had complicated relationships with male colleagues. None of that stopped Proskouriakoff, which is one reason Solomon...feels she...is too important to be a legend only within Maya studies. Young women in particular, need to know the Proskouriakoff story."
—The Charlotte Observer Book Editor

Sam Hodges

"This intimate biography of a revered scholar in Maya studies describes the problems and pleasures of archaeological fieldwork, the organization of research, and the personalitites of well-known archaeologists...Rich in details about Proskourikoff's work and her personal life, the book is derived from her diary, correspondence, and interviews with colleagues, friends, and family; the author herself had talked with Proskouriakoff while assisting her in museum studies. The book will attract general readers and anyone interested in the ancient Maya."
—Vol 41, No. 01 (September, 2003)

Choice