Tikal Project 1112 Finding Aid Prepared by Jody Rodgers
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Tikal Project 1112 Finding aid prepared by Jody Rodgers. Last updated on March 02, 2017. University of Pennsylvania, Penn Museum Archives 2/4/13 Tikal Project Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 5 Administrative Information........................................................................................................................... 8 Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................8 Collection Inventory...................................................................................................................................... 9 Correspondence........................................................................................................................................9 Financial.................................................................................................................................................22 Field notebooks......................................................................................................................................23 Original data cards.................................................................................................................................39 Post Excavation notes............................................................................................................................42 Tikal Reports..........................................................................................................................................52 Plans....................................................................................................................................................... 63 Drawings................................................................................................................................................ 70 Photographs............................................................................................................................................75 Contact sheets........................................................................................................................................ 99 - Page 2 - Tikal Project Summary Information Repository University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives Creator Coe, William R. , 1926-2009 Title Tikal Project Call number 1112 Date [inclusive] 1948-2008 Extent 65 linear foot Language English Abstract The planning for the Tikal Project began in the mid 1940s when Museum President Percy C. Madeira along with engineer John Dimick and Board member Samuel B. Eckert conceived of a ten year long expedition to the Maya site in the dense forest region of Guatemala. Previous expeditions to investigate the Maya necessarily focused on more accessible sites such as Piedras Negras, Copan, Uxmal and Chichen Itza. Following the construction of a landing strip by the Guatemalan Air Force in 1950 the first scientists arrived in January 1956 for what would turn out to be a thirteen year expedition. For ten of the thirteen years, the project was directed by William Robertson Coe who accomplished major excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace and Acropolis sections of the project. Coe also conceptualized the data collection system and reporting guidelines that resulted in the publication of the seventeen volume Tikal Reports. The Tikal Project records contain 134 archival boxes of material that include correspondence, financial records, field notebooks, post excavation notes/analysis, pre-publication material for the Tikal Reports, plans, drawings, photographs, contact sheets and oversize items. Miscellaneous card files complete the collection. The original field - Page 3 - Tikal Project cards are held in a forty-four drawer file cabinet installed in the Tikal Room at the museum. Biography/History The planning for the Tikal Project began in the mid 1940s when Museum President Percy C. Madeira along with engineer John Dimick and Board member Samuel B. Eckert conceived of a ten year long Maya expedition to the dense forest region of Guatemala. Previous expeditions to investigate the Maya necessarily focused on more accessible sites such as Piedras Negras, Copan, Uxmal and Chichen Itza. Following the construction of a landing strip by the Guatemalan Air Force in 1950, Penn scientists arrived in January 1956 for what would turn out to be a thirteen year expedition. The first three years were headed by Edwin Shook, on leave from the Carnegie Institute of Washington. The directorship passed to Robert Dyson in 1962. William R. Coe, already working at Tikal, succeeded Dyson in 1963. Coe supervised the site until it was turned over to the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Guatemala in 1970. William Robertson Coe was born in New York City in 1926 and attended a succession of private schools before enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania. Coe referred to his early educational institutions as "snob schools" that "had little pertaining to what went on in the world." A self described "lazy as hell" student, Coe's interest in anthropology was fueled during a family trip to pre-Castro Cuba. While in Cuba, Coe and his brother, Michael, also to become a Maya scholar, embarked on a side trip to the Yucatan seeking the monuments they had seen in books. Coe received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His association with the Penn Museum began as a student assistant during the 1952-1953 school year. He was named assistant curator of the American section in 1959. Dr. Coe also worked as an instructor in the department of anthropology beginning in 1958 attaining full Professorship in 1970. Dr. Coe brought his considerable skill in excavation, photography and draftsmanship to the Tikal Project. Coe's most impressive excavation involved a section of the trench through the North Acropolis. His massive drawing of this section is possibly the most complex recording of Maya construction ever accomplished. Dr. Coe's exceptional organizational skills were reflected in his conceptualization of a detailed system for recording the massive amount of information generated by the expedition. Dr. Coe's volume of the Tikal Reports, number fourteen, is an extensive work titled Excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace, and Acropolis at Tikal. The project produced sixteen additional volumes of the Tikal Reports, several co-authored by Coe and other investigators in the years between 1958 and 2012. Two additional reports are being finished at the present time. Assisting Dr. Coe in writing the Tikal Reports were colleagues Edwin Shook, Vivian Broman de Morales, Linton Satterthwaite, Robert Carr, James Hazard, William Haviland, Dennis Puleston, Christopher Jones, Marshall Becker, H. Stanley Loten, Patrick Culbert, Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Helen Trik, Michael Kampen and Virginia Greene. The - Page 4 - Tikal Project dig also provided practical experience for numerous students who used the material as a basis for their dissertations. In addition, the Tikal Reports authors wrote scholarly and popular pieces for many venues. Coe later directed at the site of Tayasol, southwest of Tikal and, in 1975, initiated the program at Quirigua, another Maya site in southeastern Guatemala. In later life, Coe spent time completing the publication of the Tikal Reports series. William Robertson Coe died in November 2009 at the age of 82. Scope and Contents The Tikal Project records contain 134 boxes of correspondence, financial records, post excavation notes/ analysis, field notebooks, data cards, pre-publication material for the Tikal Reports, plans, drawings, photographs, oversize items and a miscellaneous card file. The collection is completed by a wall length file cabinet for the original cards from the expedition installed in the Tikal Room of the Penn Museum. The forty-four drawers of original five-by-eight inch cards are cross-referenced. They are grouped by operation, lot, function and/or composition of the artifact, architecture, and a general index file. The headings in the general index file are listed under the general file heading in the finding aid. The entire card file is meticulously organized by the creator and did not need to be processed. All other materials were well organized in titled binders. The data in the binders was placed in folders within archival boxes, the original order and titles maintained, with the exception of the contact sheets which remain in binders on shelves in the Tikal Room. Throughout, the notes of William Coe have been designated and maintained as found including material that was marked as "superceded." Two groups of William Coe's notes were found loose in unmarked envelopes without apparent order. They were in poor condition and mostly undated. These were integrated with other notes on the same topic whenever possible or given their own folder. Six boxes of additional materials which arrived as processing was nearly completed were also integrated with the original materials. In most cases, the drawings, plans and photographs found with the written