Edwin M. Shook (22 November 1911 – 9 March 2000) was an American

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and Mayanist scholar, best known for his extensive field work and publications on pre-Columbian Maya civilization sites. Shook was born in Newton, North Carolina. At age 22 he took a job as a draftsman at the Carnegie Institution of Washington which was to lead him into Mesoamerican studies from 1934 to 1998. In 1955, he became the field director of the University of Pennsylvania's Tikal Project, overseeing and publishing extensive work at Tikal, the largest Classic Maya site. Other Maya sites Shook worked at include Uaxactun, Copán, Mayapan, Kaminaljuyu, Piedras Negras, Palenque, Seibal,

Chichen Itza Chichen Itza , es, Chichén Itzá , often with the emphasis reversed in English to ; from yua, Chiʼchʼèen Ìitshaʼ () "at the mouth of the well of the Itza people" was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal ...

, and Dos Pilas, in addition to pre-Columbian sites in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. In 1998 Shook donated his archives to the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. He died at his home in

Antigua Guatemala Antigua Guatemala (), commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque-influenced architec ...

two years later.

References

Obituary EDWIN M. SHOOK by Michael Love

* ttp://www.obitcentral.com/obitsearch/obits/misc/anthro16.htm Obituary at obitcentral

External links

Video: 1960 interview with Ed Shook at Tikal
by WWL-TV American Mesoamericanists 20th-century Mesoamericanists Mesoamerican archaeologists Mayanists University of Pennsylvania faculty 1911 births 2000 deaths People from Newton, North Carolina 20th-century American archaeologists {{US-archaeologist-stub