Tatiana
Porskouriakoff
Deciphering the Past
For centuries, scholars had been mystified by the writings carved into the walls of the Maya ruins. Ancient Maya writing, known as glyphs, consists of complex symbols and images that were once believed to be recordings that tracked the movement of the stars and religious events. The true meaning of these glyphs remained a mystery until a Russian immigrant and architect named Tatiana Proskouriakoff presented a new and innovative way of deciphering their meaning, and in the process, transformed everything we now know about Maya civilization.
Born in 1909 in Tomsk, Siberia, Proskouriakoff was raised by a family of scientists who encouraged her love of drawing. When war broke out in their homeland, the family, who had been away visiting the United States, settled in Pennsylvania. In 1926, Proskouriakoff was one of the few women enrolled in the architecture program at Pennsylvania State College, but she struggled to find work as an architect. She volunteered at the University of Pennsylvania Museum where her drawings caught the attention of the archaeologist,
Linton Satterthwaite. In 1936, Satterthwaite invited her to join an archaeology team to the ancient Maya site of Piedras Nadas, Guatemala, and through Tatiana’s drawings, create reconstructions of what the ruins once looked like.
Because Proskouriakoff was not a trained archaeologist, she received no salary for her work. But after some of her drawings were shown to the world-renowned archaeologist, Sylvanus Morley, he offered support, eventually helping her get a position as a research assistant. Now employed in the field, Proskouriakoff was able to focus on her first fascination with Maya architecture—deciphering the meaning behind Maya glyphs.
From decades spent among the Maya ruins, she had carefully observed that the glyphs were laid out in a certain order, with several images often repeating in a pattern. In 1960, Proskouriakoff published a groundbreaking article titled, "Historical Implications
of a Pattern of Dates at Piedras Negras, Guatemala." In this article, she proposed that the glyphs represented the histories of Maya
rulers and their families. She wrote that the repeating glyphs represented key moments in a ruler’s life, including his birth, ascension to the throne, the battles he had fought in, and his death.
Through Proskouriakoff’s research, scholars were eventually able to translate the glyphs, revealing that the Maya were a technologically advanced civilization that existed for over 3,000 years! Proskouriakoff spent the next 35 years researching Maya architecture and art until her death. To honor the woman who dared to think differently, her ashes were buried in Piedras Negras, the place where her life’s work began.