Talk:Sylvanus Morley

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	Sylvanus Morley is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on December 27, 2006.
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Contents 1 Chichen Itza 2 Two Sylvanus G. Morleys 3 The inspiration for Indiana Jones? 4 Needs more work 5 Pun 6 The "other" Sylvanus G. Morley?

[edit] Chichen Itza

Good article! However I removed the phrase refering to Chichen Itza "of which little was known other than it covered an extensive area." This seems to me an inaccurate overgeneralization. Certainly no major archeological project of the like had been conducted there previously, but the surface structures had been photographed, drawn, and mapped repeatedly for generations by a number of researchers (eg Maudslay, Maler, etc). (There had even been some earlier excavations, from amateur Edward H. Thompson and crackpot Augustus Le Plongeon -- I think our article on Le Plongeon is too kind, but that's a seperate issue.) Cheers, -- Infrogmation 16:15, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, Infrogmation, and I agree with your alteration. I ran out of time last night to properly expand what Morley actually achieved in his excavations, and overlooked the work of his predecessors. As for the le Plongeons, I certainly agree that they were at the very least eccentrics, and that today their contributions are noted more for curiosity value than anything substantial. They did pioneer some photographic techniques, but of course their theories were not widely held even at the time; even so they might have then sounded more plausible back then than they do today. The most comprehensive account on the le Plongeons available would seem to derive from someone who did his PhD on them, and is perhaps a little biased in their favour; if I get around to it I may put a little more context into their articles. Ciao, --cjllw | TALK 23:28, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

I removed the phrase "whose scholarly investigations he commenced" from the introduction refering to Chichen for about the same reason as mentioned above. -- Infrogmation 17:28, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Infrogmation- fine with me.--cjllw | TALK 04:05, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Two Sylvanus G. Morleys

As noted in the article, there were actually two individuals named Sylvanus Griswold Morley in operation at the time: the archaeologist, and his older cousin the Spanish professor. This has resulted in some confusion of their biographical details in some sources; in particular, several sources used here give the archaeologist's birthplace as Baldwinville, MA. However, according to the Spanish professor's autobiography, he was born in Baldwinville, so I have elected to follow Columbia Ency. and give Chester, PA. as the archaeologist's birthplace- at least until more definitive sources can be found.--cjllw | TALK 23:17, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The inspiration for Indiana Jones?

I wonder if Mr. Morley was the inspiration for Indiana Jones - I mean, he looks uncannily like Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark. This Fire Burns Always 02:15, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Heh - I guess he does! It has been speculated, and is mentioned in the article (see the "Summation" section. It may have been him, according to one source, although the Carnegie Institution notes it might have been one of his field directors, Earl Morris. I'm not sure if Speilberg himself has said anything about it, tho'.--cjllw | TALK 02:28, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Needs more work

Going through the article, I found many of the sentences to be wordy, loaded, written in the passive voice, and needlessly rambling. Much of the content needs to be rewritten for clarity and brevity; I'm not sure that it should remain a Featured Article. — BRIAN0918 • 2006-12-23 21:07Z

I agree with your conclusions and was about to correct a glaring error when I decided to come here first to see if I would be tampering with someone's sacred cow. It seems that I would not as there is no mention of an edit war so I will change "artefacts" to "artifacts" and press on through the article. JimCubb 03:22, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

"Artefact" is the accepted British spelling.

Before we get into artefact / artifact changing there is an established Wikipedia rule about such variant spellings - where there are differences in accepted usage its the first major author who selects the spelling for the article and later authors follow suit, however much it pains them. See the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#National_varieties_of_English for clarification 60.242.50.195 05:46, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

The original author, an Australian, used 'artefacts', the spelling in Commonwealth English. I am reverting Jim Cubb's changes, as it hasn't yet been done, despite the above discussion. 86.142.110.18 18:23, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

I am the original author of the article, which was written over a year ago now, so any deficiencies are largely mine, I'm afraid. Thanks to all who took the time to review and improve the phrasing; unfortunately, this came up (unexpectedly) for a main page appearance while I was away for a couple of weeks, hence this late response.

I guess a few of the sentences were constructed in a round-about fashion- partly due to my own idiosyncracies and partly to the desire to avoid the staccato effect that a run-on of purely active sentences (of the "Morley did this. Then he did that." variety) can produce. While some style guides may frown on passive voice constructions, IMO they have their place and function in english usage & remain grammatically acceptable, if not stylistically so. Still I've no real complaints with those changes; again, thanks. I do think the assessment of it perhaps not meeting FA standards is a little harsh, and there have been no issues raised re content, comprehensiveness and citations.

As for the choice of english spelling conventions, like anybody else I guess I went with what I (even unconsciously) am in the habit of using, although there were some areas where (in links like Maya civilization for example) I used variants. Others have subsequently come by and changed a few, so it's probably a bit of a blend at the moment. I suppose it could be argued that American spelling ought to apply for an American subject, but there are times when I'm not altogether sure what the 'correct' Americanisation [sic!] should be...--cjllw | TALK 08:08, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pun

"uaxactun, from the Mayan languages,[..] and its pronunciation is also perhaps a pun on "Washington", the home of his sponsoring institute" Seems a stretch to me. Rich Farmbrough, 09:07 27 December 2006 (GMT).

I put that bit in there as it was mentioned by one of the sources used in compiling the article, though I'm not sure whether it was their own take on it or they were working from a more direct knowledge of the name's coinage. I should've footnoted it at the time though, as presently I'm unable to recall which particular source it appeared in. Will see if I can track it down, though it's really only of passing interest so I suppose it doesn't have to be there.--cjllw | TALK 07:27, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The "other" Sylvanus G. Morley?

The title for the section about Sylvanus G. (Small) Morley sounds rather weakly contructed. There should be a better way to title that section about the "other" Sylvanus Morley. —Black and White (_TALK^CONTRIBS) 21:39, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

I dunno, it still seems ok to me. Open to any suggestions, can't think of a better one offhand. I also don't see the need for the moment for the hatnote added to the article disambiguating the two, at least unless or until the Spanish professor acquires his own article...--cjllw | TALK 07:24, 3 January 2007 (UTC)