Robert Burkitt excavation records Bulk, 1913-1930 1903-1939

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Robert Burkitt excavation records Bulk, 1913-1930 1903-1939

http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/pacscl/ead.html?id=PACSCL_UPENN_MUSEUM_PUMu1102

Robert Burkitt lived and worked in Guatemala for most of his life. A graduate of Harvard University, he first traveled to Central America in 1894 with George Gordon as Gordon's assistant on the Fourth Coban Expedition. Burkitt became enamored with the culture and language of the Maya and never returned to North America. He traveled the countryside, corresponding with Gordon, and collecting items for the Museum under a loosely binding agreement with Gordon and later Horace Jayne. Burkitt's letters and catalogues are rich documents depicting the cultural, linguistic, topological, and historical features of the Guatemala Highlands. Burkitt wrote and worked from the areas of Chama, Chipal, Coban, Senahu, Chiantla, Chocola, and other areas of the Alta Verapaz region. He produced a detailed catalogue of his discoveries accompanied by photgraphs and drawings. Among Burkitt's discoveries is the Ratinixul Vase unearthed in 1923. His work was published in the Museum Journal in 1924 and 1930. Burkitt also wrote about the languages of the Maya, leaving an unfinished grammar and dictionary of the Kekchi language at his death in 1945.

1.4 Linear feet; The collection is contained in 3 manuscript boxes. Correspondence is 16 folders; Catalogues and Reports are 14 folders; Photographs are contained in 16 folders; and 13 folders of Notes and Studies on Collection.

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives

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SNAC Resource ID: 6328723

Related Entities

There are 4 Entities related to this resource.

Gordon, G. B. (George Byron), 1870-1927

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn0b0n (person)

Sir Leonard Woolley directed the excavations at Ur in southern Iraq from 1922 to 1934 for the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. As part of this involvement, the University of Pennsylvania Museum sent Leon Legrain, Curator of the Babylonian Section, as a cuneiformist during the 1924–1925 and 1925–1926 seasons. Most of the records of the Ur expedition are located at the British Museum. The Museum Archives hold only a few records. From the...

Butler, Mary, 1903-1970

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66g0gwz (person)

Burkitt, Robert James, 1869-1945

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64k4pvx (person)

The Robert Burkitt Papers were collected by Elin Danien on a trip to Guatemala in 1985. Danien, the Coordinator of Public Programs at the Penn Museum, was also a student in the Ph.D.program in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania at the time of her trip. She hoped to determine if the writings and notebooks of Robert Burkitt, reportedly destroyed at his death, were indeed lost to history. Robert Burkitt. a Harvard graduate and friend of George Byron Gordon, acco...

Jayne, Horace H. F. (Horace Howard Furness), 1898-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61v5hbb (person)

Sir Leonard Woolley directed the excavations at Ur in southern Iraq from 1922 to 1934 for the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. As part of this involvement, the University of Pennsylvania Museum sent Leon Legrain, Curator of the Babylonian Section, as a cuneiformist during the 1924–1925 and 1925–1926 seasons. Most of the records of the Ur expedition are located at the British Museum. The Museum Archives hold only a few records. From the...