Yuri Knorozov and his cat Asya, 1971 – Knorozov was a Soviet linguist known for his pivotal role in deciphering the Maya language without him ever having been to Central America

42 comments

  1. Knorozov was unable to leave the Soviet Union as his family spent some time in German occupation during WW2.

    As a result, he was unable to visit Central America and specifically Mexico and Guatemala while working on his research, completing his deciphering work from his small Leningrad office. It was not until the early 1990s when the USSR resumed diplomatic relations with Guatemala, and later, the fall of the Soviet Union that he was able to finally visit the region and being rewarded and recognised for his research by the Mexican and Guatemalan governments.

  12. You know how people end up looking like their pets? That siamese cat is going to end up looking like grumpy-cat…

  17. He didn’t actually decipher it, he just stared at it for a few hours and eventually it surrendered.

  31. He was a soldier in the Soviet army that took Berlin. Wandering through the ruins of a destroyed museum library, he chanced upon the copy of the Dresdener Codex, one of the four Mayan books that survived the Spanish book burning. In one version of the story he took it with him.

    At the time, Maya studies were dominated by American experts who claimed the Mayans just drew pretty pictures. They were experts on Central American iconography but not very good at linguistics. As an Eqypt expert, and in isolation, he was able to do a lot better.

    He cracked the pronunciation by comparing the symbols to a single surviving Spanish document from the 16th century which others considered nonsense and comparisons to modern Mayan.

    Anyway the story of cracking Mayan is incredibly romantic and heroic. They are now re-establishing their high culture after the Jesuits almost completely erased it from history.

    I recommend this (for pay) movie

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rd6VWLbv9w

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