Michael D. Coe is an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigrapher, and author born in 1929. He is primarily known for his research in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican studies, particularly his work on the Maya civilization, where he is regarded as one of the foremost Mayanist scholars of the latter 20th century.
Coe has made extensive investigations across various archaeological sites in North and South America, and has specialized in comparative studies of ancient tropical forest civilizations, such as those in Central America and Southeast Asia. He currently holds the chair of Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, at Yale University, and is Curator Emeritus of the Anthropology collection in the Peabody Museum of Natural History, where he served as Curator from 1968 to 1994.
In addition to his academic work, Coe worked for the CIA as part of the front organization Western Enterprises in Taiwan, created to subvert Mao's China. This information is referenced in Tim Weiner's book, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.
With over four decades of active research experience, Coe is a prolific author of scientific papers on a broad range of archaeological, anthropological, and ethnohistorical topics. He has also authored several popular works for a non-specialist audience, including best-selling and much-reprinted books such as The Maya (1966) and Breaking the Maya Code (1992).
Coe co-authored the book Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (1962) with Rex Koontz. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University in the early 1950s. Shortly after commencing his graduate studies program, he married Sophie, the daughter of evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky, who was then an undergraduate anthropology student at Radcliffe College.
Sophie translated the work of epigrapher Yuri Valentinovich Knorosov, "The Writing of the Maya Indians" (1967),which was based on De Landa's phonetic alphabet and is credited with originally breaking the Maya code.
