Edward Herbert Thompson

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Edward Herbert Thompson (28 September 1856 - 11 May 1935) was a United States born archaeologist and diplomat.

Edward H. Thompson was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Initially inspired by the books of John Lloyd Stephens, Thompson devoted much of his career to study of the Maya civilization. In 1879, Popular Science Monthly published an article by Thompson in which he argued that the ancient Mayan monuments, which he had never seen except in books, were proof of the lost continent of Atlantis--an opinion which his later researches would change. The article attracted the attention of Stephen Salisbury III, scion of an American railroad baron and one of the founders of the American Antiquarian Society, who persuaded Thompson to move to Yucatán to explore the ruins on his behalf. Senator George Frisbie Hoar of Massachusetts agreed to help subsidize Thompson's efforts by recommending him for the post of United States vice consul to Yucatan.

Thompson arrived in Mérida, Yucatán, in 1885 and thereafter spent most of his time in Yucatán. He spent much of his time living with the local Maya peoples and became fluent in the Yucatec Maya language.

Thompson did early extensive examinations at Labná, picking that site because little work had previously been done there and the fact that because of its distance from any modern settlement had left it relatively undisturbed in modern times. He also discovered a number of smaller sites in the Puuc region.

He made a series of plaster casts of Maya sculpures and architecture, particularly some from Uxmal, which were exhibited at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893.

He first came to Chichen Itza as an assistant to Alfred P. Maudslay.

With the help of Alison Armour, Thompson in 1895 purchased the plantation that included the site of Chichen Itza for 75 United States dollars. He rebuilt the hacienda, which had been destroyed in the Caste War of Yucatán. His archaeological investigations there most famously included the dredging of Chichen's Sacred Cenote from 1904 to 1910. Thompson shipped hundreds of artifacts, including many of gold and jade, to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. In 1926, the Mexican government seized Thompson's plantation and sued him for $5 million, charging he had removed the artifacts illegally. The Mexican Supreme Court in 1945 ruled in Thompson's favor. Thompson, however, had died in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1935, so the property reverted to his heirs.

Sources: Edward H. Thompson, People of the Serpent, 1931; Clemency Coggins (ed.), Cenote of Sacrifice: Maya Treasures from the Sacred Well of Chichen Itza, 1984.