Yuri Knorozov | |
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Юрий Кнорозов | |
![]() Knorozov with his Siamese cat Asya in the 1980s | |
Born | Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov 19 November 1922[1][2] |
Died | 31 March 1999[2] Saint Petersburg, Russia | (aged 76)
Citizenship |
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Known for | Decipherment of Maya script |
Academic background | |
Education | Moscow State University |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Linguist, epigrapher |
Institutions | N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology |
Influenced | Galina Ershova |
Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov (Russian: Ю́рий Валенти́нович Кноро́зов; 19 November 1922 – 31 March 1999) was a Soviet and Russian linguist,[3] epigrapher, and ethnographer. He became the founder of the Soviet school of Mayan studies, and his identification of the existence of syllabic signs proved an essential step forward in the eventual decipherment of the Mayan script, the writing system used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica.[4]