by way of Atlantis. He and Alice constructed an imaginative "history," with the Maya sites in Yucatán being the cradle of civilization, with civilization then traveling east first to Atlantis and later to Ancient Egypt. The Le Plongeons named kings and queens of these dynasties and said that various artworks were portraits of such ancient royalty (such as the famous Chacmool, which the couple excavated at Chichén Itzá). The Le Plongeons reconstructed a detailed but fanciful story of Queen Moo and Prince Coh (also known as "Chac Mool") in which Prince Coh's death resulted in the erection of monuments in his honor (similar to the commemoration of Prince Albert by Queen Victoria). Works Vestiges of the Mayas (New York, 1881) Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 Years Ago (New York, 1886) Later career and legacy While most of Le Plongeon's contemporaries dismissed his theories, individuals such as Ignatius L. Donnelly and Helena Blavatsky drew upon Le Plongeon's research for their own theories. Augustus spent the remainder of his life in Brooklyn, New York, writing about the connections between Maya and Egypt and defending himself against detractors. Augustus le Plongeon died in Brooklyn in 1908 at the age of eighty-three; Alice followed in 1910 at the age of fifty-nine. A collection of the works of the Le Plongeons currently resides at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. The archive contains original records covering their travels from the 1860s through the early 1900s, including diaries, unpublished scholarly manuscripts and notes, correspondence, and extensive photographic documentation of ancient architecture and sculpture, city views, and ethnographic studies. Le Plongeon was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1878. Footnotes References Desmond, LG (1999). 'Augustus Le Plongeon. A fall from archaeological grace', in AB Kehoe & MB Emmerichs (edd.), Assembling the Past: Studies in the Professionalization of Archaeology, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 81–90. . Desmond, LG (2011). 'A Critique of the Wikipedia Augustus Le Plongeon article' at archaeoplanet.wordpress.com Desmond, Lawrence G. (2009) Yucatan through her eyes: Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, writer and expeditionary photographer. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN-10 : 0826345956 ISBN-13 : 978-0826345950 External links Augustus and Alice Dixon Le Plongeon papers, 1763–1937, bulk 1860–1910. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California. Lawrence Gustave Desmond papers relating to Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute.