Giles Healey
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Giles Greville Healey (1901–1980)
Meeting his future wife, artist Sheila Healey[2] in 1940, they married in 1943, moved to Mexico in 1944 and he began a career as a Mayan archeologist, discovering 28 ruins[citation needed]. He was best known for the photography in 1946 of the pre-Columbian painted murals at the Maya site of Bonampak. He recorded his discoveries in still photographs and movie film, and produced the motion picture Maya Through the Ages,[3] based on footage shot during the 10 years he spent in Guatemala and the Yucatán Peninsula. Prior to the discovery of Bonampak's vivid murals dated to around AD 800, Mayanists had contended that the Classic Maya knew little of war and bloodshed and did not practice bloody sacrifices.[4]
An expert stellar navigator and past president of the Institute of Navigation of Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, he taught navigation for the Navy during the Korean War. An expert on optics and astronomy, he worked on the development of alloy metals, including beryllium, for the space program. He spoke seven languages,[citation needed] among them Lacandon, the Mayan dialect still spoken by the Lacandon people of Chiapas. He died in Bignor, West Sussex, in 1980.
References
- ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald, California USA March 5, 1980 p.4
- OCLC 500918348
- ^ McGown, Ken (20 May 2018). "The Maya Through the Ages". Retrieved 20 May 2018 – via roger.ucsd.edu Library Catalog.
- ^ Teotihuacan: Wonders of Man, Karl E. Meier (1973) Reader's Digest Association/Newsweek
External links
- Bonampak images with Healey from Mesoweb photographic database Archived 2016-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
- Healey images in Princeton University Library archive
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