Tatiana Proskouriakoff

A pioneering figure in Mesoamerican archaeology, Tatiana Proskouriakoff successfully challenged established beliefs about Maya civilization and helped provide scholars with a revolutionary approach to the decipherment of ancient Maya hieroglyphs. At a time when men of wealth dominated the field of Mesoamerican exploration and women archaeologists were rare, Proskouriakoff excelled. In the first full-length biography of Proskouriakoff, Char Solomon chronicles the life of this remarkable woman.

Born in Siberia during a turbulent period in Russian history, 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.

Nurtured by her close-knit family, Proskouriakoff shone 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 Peten 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 Copan and Chichen Itza, at the height of their grandeur. By the end of her life, she had become one of the premier scholars of Maya civilization.

In Tatiana Proskouriakoff: Interpreting the Ancient Maya, Char Solomon draws on extensive interviews with Proskouriakoff'sfamily, friends, and colleagues, as well as her unpublished personal diaries and correspondence, to provide an in-depth picture of this pioneering anthropologist and archaeologist.