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.

Progress of decipherment

During the 1960s, other Mayanists and researchers began to expand upon Knorosov's ideas. Their further field-work and examination of the extant inscriptions began to indicate that actual Mayan history was recorded in the stelae inscriptions, and not just Maya mythology and other abstruse information. The Russian-born but American-resident scholar Tatiana Proskouriakoff was foremost in this work, eventually convincing Thompson and other doubters that actual events were recorded in the script.

Related Topics:
1960s - Stela - Maya mythology - Tatiana Proskouriakoff

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Other early supporters of the phonetic approach championed by Knorosov included Michael D. Coe and David Kelley, and whilst initially they were in a clear minority, more and more supporters came to this view as further evidence and research progressed.

Related Topics:
Michael D. Coe - David Kelley

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Through the rest of the decade and into the next, Proskouriakoff and others continued to develop the theme, and utilising Knorosov's results and other approaches began to piece together some decipherments of the script. A major breakthrough came during a conference at the Mayan site of Palenque in 1973, when using the syllabic approach those present (mostly) deciphered what turned out to be a list of former rulers of that particular Mayan city-state.

Related Topics:
Palenque - 1973

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Subsequent decades saw many further such advances, to the point now where quite a significant portion of the surviving inscriptions can be read. Most Mayanists and accounts of the decipherment history apportion much of the credit to the impetus and insight provided by Knorosov's contributions, to a man who had not as yet set foot outside of his native Russia, but had still been able to make important contributions to the understanding of this distant, ancient civilisation.

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