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Hormuzd Rassam
An Assyriologist from modern day Iraq, he recovered many celebrated sites and artifacts such as temples, a palace, the Balawat Gates, tens of thousands of inscribed objects, and a relief portraying the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal. Most notably, he discovered the clay tablets containing The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest written story ever found. He often had to fight to receive the credit he was due for his discoveries because of his ethnicity. -
Eulalia Guzmán
Known for being one of the first women in Mexican Archaeology, Guzmán got her Masters degree in Philosophy in 1933 and her Bachelors degree in Archaeology in 1945. She cataloged more than 3,000 records for the ‘Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia,’ and was well known for declaring that she found the remains of Cuauhtémoc. This discovery was later proved false but she remained popular in Mexico due to her research stemming from questions posed by local communities. -
Alfonso Caso
A Mexican archeologist best known for his excavation of Tomb Seven at Monte Alban, the earliest-known North American necropolis. His work at the site proved it had been occupied by indigenous people long before Spanish conquest. An avid advocate of the Indigenismo movement, he fought for greater representation of Mexico’s native populations in public life. Until his death, he worked in the Mexican government as the director of National Institute for Indian Affairs. -
Maria Reiche
A German-born archaeologist whose studies took place in Peru in the 1930s, where she researched and protected the Nazca Lines southeast of Lima. For over 60 years, Reiche was obsessed with these geoglyphs, which were carved into desert sands by the indigenous peoples of Peru. She was known for her staunch stances against the government’s attempts to build pipelines under the lines and her work to educate locals and tourists on their history. -
Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Tatiana started to actively work in archaeological expeditions in 1936 and worked until her retirement in 1977. She went to Pennsylvania State University, and graduated from the College of Architecture in 1930. Her work was centered around Mesoamerica and Maya civilization and proved that historical events could be recorded on monuments. She was also consistent with the use of the structural method and its application on Mayan inscriptions.