J. Eric S. Thompson
Encyclopedia
Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson (31 December 1898 – 9 September 1975) was an English
Mesoamerica
n archeologist and epigrapher
. His contributions to the understanding of Maya
hieroglyphs lead him to be one of the foremost mid-20th century anthropological scholars. He was generally known as J. Eric S. Thompson in print and Eric Thompson to his colleagues.
. Thompson was raised in the family home on Harley Street
in London
. At the age of 14 he was sent to Winchester College
to receive an independent education.
In 1915, at the beginning of WWI, Thompson used the assumed name Neil Winslow in order to join the British Army
while underage. A year into service he was wounded and sent home to recover, first in Huddersfield then Seaford. He continued to serve in the Coldstream Guards
until the end of the war, ending his service at the rank of officer.
After the war Thompson left for Argentina
to work as a gaucho on a family cattle farm. When he returned to England in the early 1920s Thompson published his first article on his experience in Argentina, titled A Cowboy’s Experience: Cattle Branding in the Argentine in the Southwark Diocesan Gazette.
at the Fitzwilliam House
at Cambridge University under A.C. Haddon
. With the completion of his degree in 1925, Thompson wrote to Sylvanus G Morley
, the head of the Carnegie Institution’s project at Chichen Itza
, to ask for a job, inquiring about a field position. Morley accepted Thompson, most likely due to the fact that Thompson had previously taught himself to read Maya hieroglyphic dates, an accomplishment that was highly valued by Morley who also had a passion for Maya hieroglyphics.
of Mexico under the direction of Morley to work at Chichen Itza. Here he started working on the frieze
s of the Temple of the Warriors. In his autobiography, Maya Archaeologist (1936), Thompson referred to the friezes as "a sort of giant jigsaw puzzle made worse by the fact the stones had been carved before being placed in position" accurately describing his fist field experience.
Later that year Morley sent Thompson to report on the site of Coba, located to the east of Chichen Itza. During the first field season at Coba, Thompson deciphered the dates on the Macanxoc stela
. Morley, the foremost epigrapher, did not originally agree with the readings of the dates. It was not until a return trip to Coba that Morley was persuaded by Thompson’s readings, marking his emergence as a prominent scholar in the field of Maya epigraphy. Within the next year Thompson took post as the Assistant Curator at the Field Museum of Natural History
in Chicago. He would work there until 1935 when he left for a position at the Carnegie Institution
in Washington D.C.
In 1926, while employed by the Field Museum Thompson, under the supervision of Thomas A. Joyce and the British Museum partook on an expedition to Lubaantun
in British Honduras
. It was during the fieldwork at Lubaantun that lead Thompson to disagree with Joyce’s argument for the early “megalith” and “in-and-out” style of architectural stratigraphy
. Thompson argued that the “in-and-out” constructions were due to root action. This root action disturbed the construction by pushing the rocks out in the fashion of the “in-and out” construction that invalidated Joyce’s argument.
Maya, would later shed light on how Thompson viewed the ancient Maya and their culture. As a result of their long conversations Thompson concluded that is “was clear that archaeological excavations were not the only means of learning about the ancient ways.” This led to his first monograph, Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and Central British Honduras(1930) which gave insight into the problems of Maya archaeological and epigraphic through the use of ethnographic and ethno-historic data.
In 1931, Thompson and Gann teamed up to publish The History of the Maya from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Additionally, Thompson started on a new field project at the site of San Jose in Belize. Here his research was focused at an “average” Maya center in which the stratigraphy produced a ceramic sequence from the Preclassic Period
to the Terminal Classic Period. The field report, published in 1939, contained Anna O. Shepard’s appendix on the temporal changes in ceramic material, which was the first use of “archaeological sciences”.
Thompson was able to produce ceramic sequences at the sites of Tzimin Kax, San Jose, and Xunantunich
. These sequences allowed for sites which lacked inscribed monuments traditionally used for dating, to produce a tentative date. The patterns presented by the data from the Petén
region and Uaxactun
allowed for these sites to fit within the cultural development of the Maya lowlands. In 1938 Thompson added to ceramic sequence, the discovery of the site of La Milpa. This sequence would hold strong until Gordon Willey’s research at Barton Ramie, which would lead to a sequence. The field season at La Milpa would be one the last ones for Thompson, though he was not aware of this at the time of his publication Maya Archaeologist.
Thompson’s focus on the non-calendric hieroglyphs produced the Carnegie monograph Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: Introduction. Thompson did considerable work in the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphics. Notably, his contributions to the field of Maya epigraphic studies included advancements in our understanding of the calendar and astronomy, the identification of new nouns, and the development of a numerical cataloging system for the glyphs (the T-number system), which are still used today.
Thompson initially supported Morley's contention that history was not to be found in the inscriptions, however in light of the work of Tatiana Proskouriakoff
in the 1960s with her article…. Piedras Negras stela, Thompson confessed that he was “completely mistaken.” His attempted decipherments were based on ideographic rather than linguistic principles. In his later years he resisted the notion that the glyphs have a strong phonetic component, as put forward by the Russian linguist Yuri Knorozov. Thompson noted the weak points in Knorozov’s research, and therefore discouraged majority of the field from taking his work seriously.
Thompson continued to work with epigraphic and ethnohistoric problems until the end of his career. Thompson was, as he himself noted, of the last generation of "generalists" engaging in activities ranging from finding and mapping new sites and excavation to the study of Maya ceramics, art, iconography, epigraphy, and ethnology (on the side). Thompson sought to present the Maya to the general public with publications such as the Rise and fall of the Maya Civilization (1954) and Maya Hieroglyphs without Tears (1972). His writing was structured in a manner that presented the data without obtuse language use which allowed scholars and lay-persons alike to understand his work.
, one of the most prominent proponents of the phonetic approach while Thompson was still alive, stated that the degree of hostility was unwarranted. Nonetheless, the phonetic approach would come to be the prominent approach to decipherment. Coe writes in Breaking the Maya Code that Thompson had held back the field of Maya hieroglyphic decipherment for nearly four decades and it was not until his death that the age of decipherment really started.
Thompson was awarded four honorary doctorates in three different countries, along with being award the Order of Isabel la Catolica by Spain, the Aztec Eagle
by Mexico in 1965 and the Quetzal by Guatemala
during his last trip to the Maya lands with the Queen of England in 1975. Thompson was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975 a few days after his 76th birthday, becoming the first New World archaeologist to receive this honored distinction. He died nine months later on September 9, 1975 in Cambridge and was laid to rest in Essex
, England.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n archeologist and epigrapher
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
. His contributions to the understanding of Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
hieroglyphs lead him to be one of the foremost mid-20th century anthropological scholars. He was generally known as J. Eric S. Thompson in print and Eric Thompson to his colleagues.
Early life
Thompson was born on December 31, 1898 to father George Thompson, a distinguished surgeon and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of EnglandRoyal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
. Thompson was raised in the family home on Harley Street
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. At the age of 14 he was sent to Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
to receive an independent education.
In 1915, at the beginning of WWI, Thompson used the assumed name Neil Winslow in order to join the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
while underage. A year into service he was wounded and sent home to recover, first in Huddersfield then Seaford. He continued to serve in the Coldstream Guards
Coldstream Guards
Her Majesty's Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, also known officially as the Coldstream Guards , is a regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division or Household Division....
until the end of the war, ending his service at the rank of officer.
After the war Thompson left for Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
to work as a gaucho on a family cattle farm. When he returned to England in the early 1920s Thompson published his first article on his experience in Argentina, titled A Cowboy’s Experience: Cattle Branding in the Argentine in the Southwark Diocesan Gazette.
Education
Thompson first considered a medical or political career however he later decided to study anthropologyAnthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the Fitzwilliam House
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Fitzwilliam College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in England.The college traces its origins back to 1869 and the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer students from less financially privileged backgrounds a chance to study...
at Cambridge University under A.C. Haddon
Alfred Cort Haddon
Alfred Cort Haddon, Sc.D., FRS, FRGS was an influential British anthropologist and ethnologist.Initially a biologist, who achieved his most notable fieldwork, with W.H.R. Rivers, C.G. Seligman, Sidney Ray, Anthony Wilkin on the Torres Strait Islands...
. With the completion of his degree in 1925, Thompson wrote to Sylvanus G Morley
Sylvanus Morley
Sylvanus Griswold Morley was an American archaeologist, epigrapher, and Mayanist scholar who made significant contributions toward the study of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early twentieth century....
, the head of the Carnegie Institution’s project at Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán state, present-day Mexico....
, to ask for a job, inquiring about a field position. Morley accepted Thompson, most likely due to the fact that Thompson had previously taught himself to read Maya hieroglyphic dates, an accomplishment that was highly valued by Morley who also had a passion for Maya hieroglyphics.
Early career
In 1926 Thompson arrived in the YucatanYucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
of Mexico under the direction of Morley to work at Chichen Itza. Here he started working on the frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
s of the Temple of the Warriors. In his autobiography, Maya Archaeologist (1936), Thompson referred to the friezes as "a sort of giant jigsaw puzzle made worse by the fact the stones had been carved before being placed in position" accurately describing his fist field experience.
Later that year Morley sent Thompson to report on the site of Coba, located to the east of Chichen Itza. During the first field season at Coba, Thompson deciphered the dates on the Macanxoc stela
Stele
A stele , also stela , is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab...
. Morley, the foremost epigrapher, did not originally agree with the readings of the dates. It was not until a return trip to Coba that Morley was persuaded by Thompson’s readings, marking his emergence as a prominent scholar in the field of Maya epigraphy. Within the next year Thompson took post as the Assistant Curator at the Field Museum of Natural History
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
in Chicago. He would work there until 1935 when he left for a position at the Carnegie Institution
Carnegie Institution for Science
The Carnegie Institution for Science is an organization in the United States established to support scientific research....
in Washington D.C.
In 1926, while employed by the Field Museum Thompson, under the supervision of Thomas A. Joyce and the British Museum partook on an expedition to Lubaantun
Lubaantun
Lubaantun is a pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in southern Belize, Central America...
in British Honduras
British Honduras
British Honduras was a British colony that is now the independent nation of Belize.First colonised by Spaniards in the 17th century, the territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, became a British crown colony from 1862 until 1964, when it became self-governing. Belize became...
. It was during the fieldwork at Lubaantun that lead Thompson to disagree with Joyce’s argument for the early “megalith” and “in-and-out” style of architectural stratigraphy
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....
. Thompson argued that the “in-and-out” constructions were due to root action. This root action disturbed the construction by pushing the rocks out in the fashion of the “in-and out” construction that invalidated Joyce’s argument.
Field Work
Toward the end of the first season at Lubaantun, the site of Pusilha was discovered and Thompson was sent to investigate with his guide, Faustino Bol. Thompson’s subsequent interactions with his guide, who was a MopanMopan people
Mopan are one of the Maya peoples in Belize and Guatemala. Their indigenous language is also called Mopan and is one of the Yucatec Maya languages....
Maya, would later shed light on how Thompson viewed the ancient Maya and their culture. As a result of their long conversations Thompson concluded that is “was clear that archaeological excavations were not the only means of learning about the ancient ways.” This led to his first monograph, Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and Central British Honduras(1930) which gave insight into the problems of Maya archaeological and epigraphic through the use of ethnographic and ethno-historic data.
In 1931, Thompson and Gann teamed up to publish The History of the Maya from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Additionally, Thompson started on a new field project at the site of San Jose in Belize. Here his research was focused at an “average” Maya center in which the stratigraphy produced a ceramic sequence from the Preclassic Period
Preclassic Maya
The Preclassic Period in Maya history stretches from the first Maya settlements until 250 AD. The major cites of this period were Kaminaljuyu and El Mirador. By the end of the Preclassic, the city state of El Mirador had united the southern Maya lowlands. However, from 100-300, this empire began...
to the Terminal Classic Period. The field report, published in 1939, contained Anna O. Shepard’s appendix on the temporal changes in ceramic material, which was the first use of “archaeological sciences”.
Thompson was able to produce ceramic sequences at the sites of Tzimin Kax, San Jose, and Xunantunich
Xunantunich
Xunantunich is a Maya archaeological site in western Belize, about 80 miles west of Belize City , in the Cayo District. Xunantunich is located atop a ridge above the Mopan River, within sight of the Guatemala border...
. These sequences allowed for sites which lacked inscribed monuments traditionally used for dating, to produce a tentative date. The patterns presented by the data from the Petén
Petén (department)
Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest in size — at it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores...
region and Uaxactun
Uaxactun
Uaxactun is an ancient ruin of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some north of the major center of Tikal...
allowed for these sites to fit within the cultural development of the Maya lowlands. In 1938 Thompson added to ceramic sequence, the discovery of the site of La Milpa. This sequence would hold strong until Gordon Willey’s research at Barton Ramie, which would lead to a sequence. The field season at La Milpa would be one the last ones for Thompson, though he was not aware of this at the time of his publication Maya Archaeologist.
Professional career
While Thompson continued to publish on chronology, during the 1940s his main goal was to decipher the non-calendric hieroglyphs which composed the majority of the unread texts. Of the 8 papers he published in 1943, half were on epigraphic research. Thompson’s particular epigraphic focus was on the fish symbol and directional glyphs. Additionally, outside of epigraphy Thompson investigated tattooing and tobacco use by the ancient Maya.Thompson’s focus on the non-calendric hieroglyphs produced the Carnegie monograph Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: Introduction. Thompson did considerable work in the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphics. Notably, his contributions to the field of Maya epigraphic studies included advancements in our understanding of the calendar and astronomy, the identification of new nouns, and the development of a numerical cataloging system for the glyphs (the T-number system), which are still used today.
Thompson initially supported Morley's contention that history was not to be found in the inscriptions, however in light of the work of Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Tat’yana Avenirovna Proskuriakova was an American Mayanist scholar and archaeologist who contributed significantly to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs, the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica.-Early life:...
in the 1960s with her article…. Piedras Negras stela, Thompson confessed that he was “completely mistaken.” His attempted decipherments were based on ideographic rather than linguistic principles. In his later years he resisted the notion that the glyphs have a strong phonetic component, as put forward by the Russian linguist Yuri Knorozov. Thompson noted the weak points in Knorozov’s research, and therefore discouraged majority of the field from taking his work seriously.
Thompson continued to work with epigraphic and ethnohistoric problems until the end of his career. Thompson was, as he himself noted, of the last generation of "generalists" engaging in activities ranging from finding and mapping new sites and excavation to the study of Maya ceramics, art, iconography, epigraphy, and ethnology (on the side). Thompson sought to present the Maya to the general public with publications such as the Rise and fall of the Maya Civilization (1954) and Maya Hieroglyphs without Tears (1972). His writing was structured in a manner that presented the data without obtuse language use which allowed scholars and lay-persons alike to understand his work.
Post Professional Life
After his death many young Maya epigraphers blamed Thompson for holding back what became a very fruitful approach to the glyphs with his forceful and articulate disagreements. This sort of criticism seems, however, to rest on a gross overestimation of the actual power wielded by Thompson, since the value and correctness of the phonetic approach was not obvious in the 1960s and early 1970s. Michael D. CoeMichael D. Coe
Michael D. Coe is an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigrapher and author. Primarily known for his research in the field of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican studies , Coe has also made extensive investigations across a variety...
, one of the most prominent proponents of the phonetic approach while Thompson was still alive, stated that the degree of hostility was unwarranted. Nonetheless, the phonetic approach would come to be the prominent approach to decipherment. Coe writes in Breaking the Maya Code that Thompson had held back the field of Maya hieroglyphic decipherment for nearly four decades and it was not until his death that the age of decipherment really started.
Thompson was awarded four honorary doctorates in three different countries, along with being award the Order of Isabel la Catolica by Spain, the Aztec Eagle
Order of the Aztec Eagle
The Order of the Aztec Eagle is a Mexican order and is the highest decoration awarded to foreigners in the country.It was created by decree on December 29, 1933 by President Abelardo L. Rodríguez as a reward to services given to Mexico or humankind by foreigners...
by Mexico in 1965 and the Quetzal by Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
during his last trip to the Maya lands with the Queen of England in 1975. Thompson was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975 a few days after his 76th birthday, becoming the first New World archaeologist to receive this honored distinction. He died nine months later on September 9, 1975 in Cambridge and was laid to rest in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, England.
See also
- Madrid Codex
- Yuri Knorozov
- Tatiana ProskouriakoffTatiana ProskouriakoffTat’yana Avenirovna Proskuriakova was an American Mayanist scholar and archaeologist who contributed significantly to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs, the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica.-Early life:...
- Maya civilizationMaya civilizationThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
- Chichen ItzaChichen ItzaChichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán state, present-day Mexico....
- Yuri Knorozov
- David Stuart (Mayanist)David Stuart (Mayanist)David Stuart is a Mayanist scholar and professor of Mesoamerican art and writing at the University of Texas at Austin.-Early life:He is the son of Mayanist scholars George Stuart and Gene S. Stuart...