Yuri Knorosov

Yuri Valentinovich Knorosov (Russian: ???? ???????????? ????????; b. November 191922 ? d. March 31 1999) was a Russian linguist, epigrapher and ethnographer, who is renowned for the pivotal role his research played in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics.

Early life

He was born near Kharkov in the Ukraine, into an academic Russian family. As a young man, Knorosov served in the Red Army during World War II as an artillery spotter. By some accounts he took part in the final push into Berlin during May, 1945, although later sources question this. Nevertheless, the following well-known anecdote has been published, possibly as a retrospective "embellishment" to his biography: the story goes that during this exercise he and his unit passed by the National Library as it was being consumed in a blaze. Knorosov apparently managed to retrieve from the building a one-volume edition containing copies of the three Maya codices which were then known. He later said that this chance discovery piquéd his later lifelong interest in the subject area, although exactly how this work came into his possession is sometimes disputed.

Related Topics:
Kharkov - Ukraine - Russian - Red Army - World War II - Berlin - 1945 - Maya codices

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the war, Knorosov enrolled at the Russian Institute of Ethnography in Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) to study ancient languages, specialising in comparative linguistics (he had apparently been previously enrolled at the Moscow State University in 1940 just prior to the war, which interrupted his study plans). At the instigation of a professor there, Knorosov wrote his dissertation on the "de Landa alphabet", a record produced by the 16th Century Spanish Bishop Diego de Landa in which he claimed to have transliterated the Spanish alphabet into corresponding Maya hieroglyphs, based on input from Mayan informants. De Landa, who during his posting to Yucatán had overseen the destruction of all the codices from the Maya civilization he could find, reproduced his alphabet in a work (Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán) intended to justify his actions once he had been placed on trial when recalled to Spain. The original document had disappeared, and this work was unknown until 1862 when an abridged copy was discovered in the archives of the Spanish Royal Academy by the French scholar, Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg.

Related Topics:
Saint Petersburg - Comparative linguistics - Moscow State University - De Landa alphabet - 16th Century - Bishop Diego de Landa - Mayan - Yucatán - Maya civilization - 1862 - Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since de Landa's "alphabet" seemed to be contradictory and unclear (e.g., multiple variations were given for some of the letters, and some of the symbols were not known in the surviving inscriptions), previous attempts to use this as a key for deciphering the Maya writing system had not been successful.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~