Description
This biography, the first ever published of Alfred Maudslay (1850-1931), describes an interesting man. Maudslay worked as a junior Colonial Workplace official within the South Seas, but found his true vocation aged thirty-one, when he arrived in Guatemala, where he played a the most important role within the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing. He made accurate web site maps, painstakingly recorded inscriptions and made plaster casts of large stone monuments. His five great volumes of photographs, drawings, plans and text, published a century ago as a part of a vast compendium entitled the Biologia Centrali-Americana, remain a valuable resource in Maya studies. In all probability his greatest legacy is his choice of magnificent glass-negative photographs, many of which can be reproduced on this book.