Giles Greville Healey (1901–1980) was born in 1901 in New York City. He was educated in France and Germany and later attended Choate Preparatory School; graduating from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1924 with a degree in chemistry. In 1928 he volunteered for a two-year expedition to South America to collect

curare Curare ( or ; or ) is a common name for various alkaloid arrow poisons originating from plant extracts. Used as a paralyzing agent by indigenous peoples in Central and South America for hunting and for therapeutic purposes, curare only ...

for medicinal purposes, during which he accomplished extensive cartographic work on the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

for the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. Meeting his future wife, artist Sheila Healey in 1940, they married in 1943, moved to Mexico in 1944 and he began a career as a Mayan archeologist, discovering 28 ruins. He was best known for the photography in 1946 of the pre-Columbian painted murals at the

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

site of

Bonampak Bonampak (known anciently as ''Ake'' or, in its immediate area as ''Usiij Witz'', 'Vulture Hill') is an ancient Maya civilization, Maya archaeological site in the Mexico, Mexican Political divisions of Mexico, state of Chiapas. The site is approxi ...

. He recorded his discoveries in still photographs and movie film, and produced the motion picture ''Maya Through the Ages'', based on footage shot during the 10 years he spent in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

. Prior to the discovery of

's vivid murals dated to around AD 800, Mayanists had contended that the Classic Maya knew little of war and bloodshed and did not practice bloody sacrifices.Teotihuacan: Wonders of Man, Karl E. Meier (1973) Reader's Digest Association/Newsweek An expert stellar navigator and past president of the Institute of Navigation of Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, he taught navigation for the Navy during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. An expert on optics and astronomy, he worked on the development of alloy metals, including

beryllium Beryllium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, hard, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with ...

, for the space program. He spoke seven languages, among them Lacandon, the Mayan dialect still spoken by the Lacandon people of

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

. He died in Bignor, West Sussex, in 1980.

References

External links

Bonampak images with Healey from Mesoweb photographic database

Healey images in Princeton University Library archive
20th-century American explorers 1901 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Mesoamericanists American Mesoamericanists Mayanists Yale University alumni American expatriates in France American expatriates in Germany American expatriates in Mexico {{US-archaeologist-stub