Ian James Alastair Graham OBE (12 November 1923 – 1 August 2017) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Mayanist whose explorations of

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 ...

ruins in the jungles of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

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

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

helped establish the ''Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions'' published by the Peabody Museum of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Among his related works is a biography of an early predecessor, the 19th-century

Maya explorer Alfred Maudslay.

Early life and studies

Ian Graham was born 1923 in Campsea Ashe, a village in the

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

county of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

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. His father was Lord Alastair Graham, the youngest son of Douglas Graham, 5th Duke of Montrose. His family also includes relatives in publishing, specifically associated with the '' Morning Post''.

Education

Graham went to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

in 1942 as an undergraduate in physics, but his studies were put on hold the following year when he left to enlist in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

in which he served for the remainder of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, largely working in radar research and development. After the war his studies were resumed at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

from where he completed his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in 1951.

Early career

Graham’s first research position was a three-year project funded by the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

and working in the small Scientific Department of The National Gallery in London. The objective of this was to study the penetration and swelling of paint films and varnishes by solvents. Following the successful completion of the project, in 1954 he felt he needed work with a broader scope. During the three years he had enjoyed a vivid social life and the many connections this led to allowed him to take up photography semi-professionally and embark on extensive travels. These activities gave rise eventually to two books illustrated with his photographs. A visit to

in 1958 initiated his long involvement with

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Field work

Graham's field work was responsible for recording and cataloguing the single largest collection of

sculpture, carving and monumental artwork. His photography and drawings at such sites as Coba, Naranjo, Piedras Negras, Seibal, Tonina, Uaxactun, and Yaxchilan, created an original, highly detailed record of these (and other) sites; documentation that is still utilized as legal evidence, preventing the sale of looted and illegally and illicitly obtained art and artifacts. Graham was, for many years, involved as a consultant and witness in criminal cases of looted art, including important cases of artifact repatriation.

Professional achievements and honors

In 1968 Graham founded the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphics Program at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, joining the museum fully in 1970. In 1981, he became a MacArthur Fellow for his work preserving and cataloguing

relics. He received the Society for American Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. He was appointed OBE in the 1999 Birthday Honours. Graham published a memoir of his professional life and career, ''The Road to Ruins'', in 2010.

Selected bibliography

* Wheeler, Sir Mortimer and Graham, Ian, ''Splendours of the East'', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1965. * Graham, Ian. ''Archaeological Explorations in El Peten, Guatemala''. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, 1967. * Nicolson, Nigel and Graham, Ian, ''Great Houses'', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1968. Also as ''Great Houses of the Western World'', G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York 1968. * Graham, Ian. "The Ruins of La Florida, Peten, Guatemala." ''Monographs and Papers in Maya Archaeology'' 1 (1970): 427-455. * Graham, Ian. The Art of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, 1971. * Graham, Ian, Patricia Galloway, and Irwin Scollar. "Model studies in computer seriation." ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' 3.1 (1976): 1-30. * Graham, Ian. "Spectral analysis and distance methods in the study of archaeological distributions." ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' 7.2 (1980): 105-129. * Graham, Ian. ''Yaxchilan''. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 1982. * Graham, Ian, and Peter Mathews. ''Corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions''. Vol. 6. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Publications Department, 1983. * Von Euw, Eric, and Ian Graham. ''Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions: Xultun, La Honradez, Uaxactun''. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 1986. * Kamal, Omar S., et al. "Multispectral image processing for detail reconstruction and enhancement of Maya murals from La Pasadita, Guatemala." ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' 26.11 (1999): 1391-1407. * Graham, Ian, ''Alfred Maudslay and the Maya: A Biography''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 2003. * Stuart, David, and Ian Graham. ''Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions''. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 2003. * Carter, Elizabeth A., et al. "Raman spectroscopy applied to understanding Prehistoric Obsidian Trade in the Pacific Region." ''Vibrational Spectroscopy'' 50.1 (2009): 116-124. * Graham, Ian, ''The Road to Ruins''. University of New Mexico Press 2010.

Notes

References

* *

External links

Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Volumes 1–9. Published by the Peabody Museum Press and distributed by Harvard University Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Ian 1923 births 2017 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Alumni of Trinity College Dublin English Mesoamericanists MacArthur Fellows Mayanists Mesoamerican archaeologists Mesoamerican artists Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Suffolk Coastal (district) 20th-century Mesoamericanists Royal Navy personnel of World War II British expatriates in Ireland British expatriates in the United States British expatriates in Mexico British expatriates in Guatemala Military personnel from Suffolk Royal Navy sailors