Sr. Ian Graham 
Orden del Pop 2001

When one considers the career of Ian Graham, the pioneers of Maya archaeology, particularly Alfred Maudslay and Teobert Maler, immediately spring to mind. It was they who at the end of the XIX century produced a registry of Maya sculpture of unparalleled quality all the while facing logistically unfavorable conditions. Ian Graham followed in the footsteps of these explorers braving many of the same problems and has succeeded in reaching their standards in terms of the scope and quality of his work. Since the 1950s Ian Graham has combed the Maya lowlands in search of archaeological sites and sculpted monuments, returning to visit sites first reported by investigators decades before and documenting many others for the first time. His reports are characterized by their sobriety and by the high quality of his maps and drawings. Besides mapping the site of Ceibal for the Peabody Museum project, in his book "Archaeological Explorations in Peten, Guatemala" Graham was the first to publish maps of sites that subsequently received considerable attention including El Mirador, Nakbé and Aguateca.

To scholars working during the last two decades it is difficult to understand how earlier researchers managed to get a hold of clear, detailed, reliable documentation of Maya hieroglyphic texts. Aside from the books by Maler and Maudslay, there simply was no such registry in print. Ian Graham took on the challenge of filling this void, drawing on his significant talent as photographer and illustrator. Not content to simply draw the most beautiful, best-conserved or most interesting monuments, Graham has dedicated equal attention to even the smallest fragments. What began as a personal effort evolved into the creation of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, under the auspices of Harvard University's Peabody Museum. The ambitious objective of this project is the publication of all known Maya inscriptions through photographs and detailed drawings, printed in a large format that provides researchers the clarity they need. The registry of sculptures includes basic information about their place of origin, history, location and more. Graham has modestly not included any interpretations, leaving to others the thrill of reading these ancient texts for themselves. Interpretations are subject to change, but the foundation created by the Corpus will stand the test of time just as Maudslay's and Maler's classics have. Since the beginning of its publication in 1975, 18 volumes of the Corpus have come to light, covering the sites of Naranjo, Yaxchilán, Uaxactún, Xultún, Uxmal, Cobá and many others.

In his search for hieroglyphic texts Graham often found the mutilated remains of sculptures. Many of the sculptures photographed by Maudslay and Maler are today but sad fragments, scattered in collections around the world, dissociated from themselves with large pieces missing entirely. Unfortunately, many other monuments met with the same fate before they could be photographed and documented adequately. The Corpus represents a reconstruction effort in which Ian Graham has made all possible efforts to obtain good images of monuments currently mutilated or destroyed. Besides providing indispensable documentation on Maya art and writing, the Corpus also provides a base for documenting the provenance of looted monuments for legal purposes. In numerous publications, Ian Graham has denounced the savage destruction of Maya monuments to satisfy the art market.

Ian Graham has also made valuable contributions to the study of the history of Maya archaeological research. He wrote a biography of Juan Galindo who found time to explore archaeological sites while participating in the tumultuous politics of the Central American Federation, as well as more recent works on lesser known figures such as Federico Arthés, responsible for sending molds of Maya sculptures to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.