Alfred Percival 1850-1931 Maudslay

Alfred Percival Maudslay (1850-1931) was a British colonial administrator, diplomat, explorer, and pioneering archaeologist who conducted extensive fieldwork on Maya ruins in Central America, including six or seven expeditions to sites in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and British Honduras.[1][2][3] He meticulously documented his discoveries through photographs, plans, and casts, publishing them in the influential five-volume *Biologia Centrali-Americana: Archaeology* (1889–1902), which remains a key reference for Maya studies, and later translated Bernal Díaz del Castillo's *Historia* in 1908.[1][2] Born into a family distinguished in engineering, he served in the colonial service in places like Fiji and Samoa before resigning in 1880 to pursue independent archaeological work.[2][3][7]