Mayanist

A Mayanist (Spanish: "mayista") is a scholar specialising in research and study of the Central American pre-Columbian Maya civilization. This discipline should not be confused with Mayanism, a collection of New Age beliefs about the ancient Maya.

Mayanists draw upon many inter-related disciplines including archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, ethnology, history, photography/art, architecture, astronomy and ceramics.

The term Mayanist was coined by parallel with specialised fields studying other historical civilizations; see for example, Egyptologist (Ancient Egypt) and Assyriologist (Ancient Mesopotamia). It has been in widespread use from the late 19th century onwards, particularly by those who have studied and contributed to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics, the complex and elaborate writing system which was developed by the ancient Maya.

Notable deceased Mayanists

• Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg
• Frederick Catherwood (1799–1854), British architect & draftsman; explorer and early illustrator of Maya ruins
• Désiré Charnay
• Napoleon Cordy (1902–1977)
• Ernst Förstemann
• Alfred V. Kidder (1885–1963) instituted multidisciplinary approach [anthropology/archaeology] at Quirigua with Alfred Maudslay.
• Yuri Knorozov (1922–1999)
• Teobert Maler
• Alfred Maudslay (1850–1931) photographed, sketched & made plaster casts, and published reference material on Maya sites in the late 19th century.
• Sylvanus Morley (1883–1948)
• Augustus Le Plongeon (1826–1908)
• Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909–1985)
• Leon de Rosny
• Ralph L. Roys
• Linda Schele (1942–1998), expert in Maya epigraphy and iconography.
• John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852), U.S. explorer and writer
• Edward Herbert Thompson (1857–1935), best known for excavating the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza
• J. Eric S. Thompson (1898–1975), British Mayanist, early epigraphist.
• Jean-Frédéric Waldeck (1766?–1875)
• Gordon Willey (1913-2002)

Notable living Mayanists (as of 2010)

• Michael Coe (born 1929), North-American archaeologist and iconographer, nestor
• Ian Graham, British archaeological explorer
• Nikolai Grube, German epigrapher, archaeologist, and historian
• Norman Hammond (born 1944), British archaeologist
• Peter Mathews (born 1951), Australian epigrapher
• Stephen Houston (born 1958), North-American archaeologist and epigrapher
• Simon Martin, British epigrapher and historian
• David Stuart, principal North-American epigrapher
• Karl Taube (born 1957), principal North-American iconographer

See also

• Egyptologist
• Assyriologist
• Sinologist