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Hormuzd Rassam
Hired for the first expedition (1845-47) of the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, he excavated at the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. He studied at the University of Oxford before a second expedition to Iraq (1849-51). He continued independent field work (1852-54) at Nimrud and Nineveh, making discoveries including clay tablets with the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest notable example of literature. He then undertook four successful expeditions on behalf of the British Museum (1877-1882). -
Alfonso Caso
Caso is known best for his research on the early civilization of Mexico, including the Olmec, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec. He is most known for his theory that the Olmec were the earliest of the Mesoamerican societies. One of his notable discoveries includes the excavations at Monte Alban, where several pieces of gold were discovered. He is also known for his discoveries of Mixteca societies, Yucuita, Yucunudahui, and Monte Negro. -
Maria Reiche
Maria Reiche was best known for work on the Nazca Lines, working primarily in Peru, she focused on the origins of the Nazca Lines and the people who created them and reasons behind them. Originally from Germany, she moved to Peru following the work of Paul Kosok to discover the true usage of the Nazca Lines, discovering that the lines were used for Astrology, and continued to work on the land as well as protecting it from reckless usage. -
Kathleen Kenyon
Known for her excavation of the ancient city of Jericho and the Jewry Wall in Leicester as well as many other impressive excavations as well throughout her career. Advanced ceramic methodology by suggesting that the strata of ceramics should be separated and numbered. She also pioneered the Wheeler-Kenyon Method during Jericho where she dug checkerboard-like trenches where there were walls between each square which better showed time periods. -
Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Proskouriakoff is well known for her work on deciphering Maya hieroglyphs and laid the foundation for understanding Mayan culture, texts, and political history. Before her inspection, only the calendars and astronomical factors were recognized. By using a consistent structural method on Mayan inscriptions during the classical period, she was able to decipher the writing on monuments indicating historical events. -
Harriet M. Smith
Harriet M. Smith was Illinois’s first female field archaeologist. She began her career as a graduate of one of the only programs at the time that trained women in archaeology. Sh worked at the Illinois State Museum and is best known for leading WPA excavations at Cahokia in 1941, directing the first professional large-scale excavations there. Smith contributed many original, although controversial at the times, ideas about Cahokian archaeology; several for which she never received credit. -
Eulalia Guzmán
Guzmán was an educator, activist and archaeologist. They were one of the first women to assist in the excavation of Tomb 7 in Monte Albán and one of the first people to study the pre-Columbian site of Chalcatzingo. They became the Director of the Department of Archaeology of the National Museum, founding the historical archive at the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia. They graduated with a degree in archaeology in 1945.
