Person

Tatiana Proskouriakoff

1909–1985 · 20th century

Tatiana Proskouriakoff was a Russian-born American archaeologist and architectural artist who transformed the study of Maya writing. In a paper of 1960 she showed that the dated monuments of Piedras Negras recorded the births, accessions and deaths of rulers, proving that Maya inscriptions contained history rather than only calendar and religion. Her work opened the way to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs.

Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Image: Ms. Char Solomon, biographer of Ms. T Proskouriakoff, and owner of site the image is sourced from · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Piedras Negras

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tatiana Proskouriakoff. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tatiana-proskouriakoff
MLA
“Tatiana Proskouriakoff.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tatiana-proskouriakoff. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Tatiana Proskouriakoff.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tatiana-proskouriakoff.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tatiana Proskouriakoff’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/tatiana-proskouriakoff (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻