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Napoleon Cordy

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Hannibal Napoleon David Alfred Thomas ("Nap") Cordy (July 29, 1902 — January 30, 1977) was an amateur scholar in the field of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, who made some notable contributions in the 1930s and 1940s to the early study and decipherment of the Maya script, used by the pre-Columbian Maya of southern Mexico and northern Central America.

Life and accomplishments

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Cordy was born in 1902 in Cheltenham, England. His family immigrated to the United States in 1913, settling in Globe, Arizona.[1] The son of a coal and copper miner, Cordy briefly studied mining engineering at the University of Arizona. He moved to Los Angeles, California in 1922.[2]

While working as an electrician at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power from 1922–62, Cordy became fascinated with the Maya civilization, especially Maya hieroglyphs. He wrote a number of articles on the subject for various publications, and was a respected contributor to the journal The Masterkey, published by the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. He was also a founding member of the Southwestern Anthropological Association.[3] Cordy died in Los Angeles in 1977, aged 74.[2]

His daughter, Alana Cordy-Collins, became an anthropologist/archaeologist, specializing in the Peruvian prehistory, especially the Chavin and Moche civilizations. She was a professor of anthropology at the University of San Diego. A cousin, Ross Cordy, is an anthropologist specializing in Polynesian civilizations. He was chief archaeologist for the state of Hawaii's Historic Preservation Division and teaches at the University of Hawaii.

Publications

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Cordy's publications include:[4]

  • "Meaning of Maya day-names". The Masterkey. 5 (5): 135–144. 1931.
  • "Origin of the Tonalamatl". The Masterkey. 7: 80. 1933.
  • "Cardinal point south in Maya language and glyph and its implications". Maya Research. 3: 326–329. 1936.
  • "The Maya Year at the Inauguration of the Calendar, MS.740". Braun Research Library Collection, Autry National Center, Los Angeles. 1940.
  • Cordy, N. (1946). "Examples of phonetic construction in Maya hieroglyphs". American Antiquity. 12 (2): 108–117. doi:10.2307/275343. ISSN 0002-7316. JSTOR 275343. S2CID 163534642.
  • "Quetzal-Serpent and the Smoking Mirror," posthumously published novel, (ISBN-13: 979-8218458829), 2024 [5]

Notes

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  1. ^ Hughes (1989).
  2. ^ a b "Napoleon Cordy (1902 - 1977)", AskART; Hughes (1989)
  3. ^ SWAA, "Early History of SWAA," https://swaa-anthro.org/early-history-of-swaa/
  4. ^ Drawn from listing at Bibliografía Mesoamericana
  5. ^ https://www.amazon.com/Quetzal-Serpent-Smoking-Mirror-Ragnar-Roriksson-ebook/dp/B0D7T5BY8R/

References

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