— Book Review —

“The Road to Ruins”“The Road to Ruins”Title: “The Road to Ruins”

Author: Ian Graham

ISBN: 978-0-8263-4754-1

$39.95 hardcover, 546 pages, 64 color photos, 79

halftones

Publication: 2011

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, unmpress.com

By Rosanne Boyett

Beacon Staff Writer

Editor’s note: Book review articles are available online at

www.cibolabeacon.com/bookreviews.

Part history, part archeological survey, and part autobi-

ography best describes author Ian Graham’s travel mem-

oir.

Graham was born in 1923 to a wealthy British family,

completed the requisite education, and then set off to ex-

plore the “new world” and hoped to sell his vintage car to

a Hollywood producer at the end of his journey.

Fate intervened and the author found himself on “the

road to ruins,” in Mexico that was an introduction to the

lost Mayan world of antiquities.

He spent decades working to document and protect

Mayan artifacts in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.

His writing style reflects an understanding of other cul-

tures and Graham’s dedication to protecting Mesoameri-

can artifacts.

The author passionately describes the ruthlessness of looters and the international market for Mayan works. Large stone

pieces were callously sawed into sections, which then simplified selling the pieces on the black market.

By 1969 UNESCO had formulated a rule that banned the international trade in antiquities. It wasn’t until 1976 that the

U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee hearings actually attempted to deal with the issue.

Many museum officials were reluctant to see restrictions because they feared repercussions would include foreign gov-

ernmental entities requesting the return of previously purchased artifacts.

Even with international agreements the damage continues.

“The truth is that poverty at the pickax level, and greed at the entrepreneurial, have been relentless engines of destruction,

impossible to control,” concluded the author.

“And yet, most unexpectedly, it was in Mexico that by happy accident I picked up the trail that would lead me into a

field of activity completely new to me, Maya archeology; and now I can state positively that never in the fifty years that

I’ve spent tilling that field have I regretted doing so. On the contrary, I can think of no other occupation that would have

been half as rewarding,” explained Graham.

“In 2004,” Bill Saturno wrote, “as we entered the cramped tunnel Ian’s eyes welled up with tears as he sat silently taking

in the masterpiece. Eventually he uttered quietly, ‘This is the greatest, really the greatest find … they’re positively ripping.’”

“Graham’s careful recordings of Maya inscriptions are often credited with making the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphics

possible. But it is the romance of his work and the graceful conversational style of his writing that make this autobiography

a must-read not just for Mayanists but for anyone with a taste for adventure in archeology,” according to the publishers.

Ian Graham lives in England. In addition to the many volumes of his “Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions,” he is the author

of a biography of the early Mayanist, Sir Alfred Maudslay.