Mayanist

Mayanists working in this specialised field have drawn upon their expertise in many inter-related disciplines: archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, ethnology, history, photography/art, architecture, astronomy, ceramics, to name but a few.

The term has particularly been adopted 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.

The term was coined by parallel with specialised fields studying other historical civilizations; see for example, Egyptologist (Ancient Egypt) and Assyriologist (Ancient Mesopotamia).

Notable deceased Mayanists

• Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg
• Frederick Catherwood
• Désiré Charnay
• Napoleon Cordy (1902-1977)
• Ernst Förstermann
• Alfred V. Kidder
• Yuri Knorozov (1922-1999)
• Teobert Maler
• Alfred Maudslay
• Sylvanus Morley (1883-1948)
• Augustus Le Plongeon (1826-1908)
• Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909-1985)
• Leon de Rosny
• Ralph L. Roys
• Linda Schele
• John Lloyd Stephens
• Edward Herbert Thompson
• J. Eric S. Thompson (1898-1975)
• Jean-Frédéric Waldeck
• Gordon Willey

Notable living Mayanists

• Michael Coe
• Nikolai Grube
• Stephen Houston
• Simon Martin
• David Stuart
• Karl Taube