Alfonso Lacadena García-Gallo (August 21, 1964 – February 9, 2018), was a Spanish archaeologist, historian and epigraphist, one of the greatest experts in Mayan culture, researcher and specialist in writing and deciphering its texts. He was also a professor at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

Biography

Born in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, Lacadena was a specialist in

Mesoamerican Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Withi ...

indigenous written sources, Mayan linguistics,

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

writing and comparative Mesoamerican literature. An author of numerous monographs on these topics, he had a Doctor in History and was awarded the Extraordinary Doctorate Award (Academic year 1994-1995) of the Faculty of Geography and History of the Complutense University for his doctoral thesis on Mayan handwriting. On October 13, 2011, the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...

, from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, awarded him the Tatiana Proskuriakof Prize for his contributions to the decipherment of Mayan and Nahuatl writing. Lacadena worked with the Ch'orti ethnic group in eastern

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, near

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. He dug in the ruins of Matxakila, in the Petén jungle. He studied hieroglyphic texts at

Ek Balam EK or Ek may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Ek Commando Knife Co., US knife manufacturer * Eastern Kentucky Railway (with reporting mark EK), now-defunct railway * Eastman Kodak (formerly with NYSE ticker symbol EK), US-based photogra ...

, about 50 kilometers from Chichén Itzá. He also taught numerous epigraphy courses at both the

Autonomous University of Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; UAM), commonly known as simply la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 alongside the Autonomous Universi ...

and the Autonomous University of Yucatán as well as at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

. He was author of two own works, seven co-works and five articles. In October 2017, the III Meeting of Gramotology honored him for his work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Married, he was father of two children. He died of cancer on 9 February 2018, aged 53.Hoy, 9 de Febrero de 2018, falleció en Madrid, el Dr. Alfonso Lacadena García-Gallo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacadena, Alfonso 1964 births 2018 deaths Mayanists Mesoamerican epigraphers Spanish Mesoamericanists Nahuatl 20th-century Spanish historians Complutense University of Madrid alumni Deaths from cancer in Spain 21st-century Spanish historians People from Zaragoza