Philip Ainsworth Means

author

Philip Ainsworth Means

1892–1944

Drawn to Peru again and again, this early 20th-century scholar helped bring the history of the Inca world to a wider English-speaking audience. His books blend archaeology, history, and a clear sense of curiosity about South America's past.

1 Audiobook

History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII.

History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII.

by Philip Ainsworth Means

About the author

Born in Boston in 1892, Philip Ainsworth Means became an American anthropologist, historian, and author best known for his work on Peru and the Inca Empire. He studied anthropology at Harvard and took part in the Yale Peruvian Expedition of 1914–1915, an experience that helped shape the rest of his career.

Means made several extended trips to Peru, studied the Cuzco region, supervised excavations, and later served as director of the National Museum of Archaeology in Lima in 1920–1921. He was widely respected for bringing together fieldwork, historical documents, and readable narrative, which made his writing useful both to specialists and to general readers.

Alongside his research career, he published books and articles that introduced many readers to the civilizations of the Andes. He died in Boston in 1944, remembered as a lively and influential interpreter of the ancient cultures of South America.