Edward Wyllys Andrews lived an extremely fulfilling life. At age 17, Andrews entered into Harvard and graduated cum laude with a major in anthropology and immediately entered graduate school. He graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in 1942. Beginning at only 16 years of age, he went on numerous archaeological digs in Yucatan, Guatemala and Honduras.
Andrews wrote several literary works, his first being in 1934 on Glyph X of the supplementary series of Maya inscriptions, published in the American Anthropologist. He lectured in many classrooms and was mainly affiliated with Tulane University which sponsored and backed most of his expeditions financially. Probably the most unique of Andrews' discoveries was in the cave of Balankanche with the finding of a shrine to the rain god. His most well-known project is that of the excavation and restoration of the site of Dzibilchaltun which lasted twelve years. On a trip to Piedras Negras in El Peten, Guatemala, Andrews came across a new hieroglyphic text which had not yet been translated. Before he died, Andrews was working on three major manuscripts; two on Dzibilchaltun and Becan, one on the social implications of mason kits found at Dzibilchaltun and Muna, but was only able to complete the last.
References
Stirling, Matthew, American Anthropologist, page 295,Washington D.C., 1973
Wauchope, Robert, American Antiquity, vol 37, No. 3, page 400. Dept of Anthropology at Tulane University
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