Yuri Knórozov

Yuri Knórozov was a historian of soviet-known for being one of the fathers of maya epigraphy, thanks to his studies and notes achieved better understand the geroglificos maya.

Your story is quite peculiar, while Knórozov studied history at the university soviet Kharkiv outbreak of the second world war, and was forced to battle in Germany, while he was in Berlin, had access to the library of the city and took two books: ‘Los codices mayas’, of the brothers Villacorta and the collection of Charles Étienne Brasseur entitled ‘Relation of the things of Yucatán’ of fray Diego de Landa.

Thanks to these two books, Knórozov knew details of the mayan culture, and proposed a way to read them, however, due to the strong anti-communism itself of the cold war, and their discoveries were rejected and even maligned.

Before Knórozov it was thought that the maya had not discovered writing, and that its glyphs represented only dates and numbers.
Due to the cold war, Knórozov was not able to visit any maya site during the greater part of his life and used photos for your work.

Visited for the first time the maya lands until 1989. Traveled to Guatemala in the company of dr. Galina Yershova and her husband, the historian William Ovando, but had to leave the country after being threatened with death. Three years later, he visited the south-east of Mexico. In 1995, during the III International Congress of Mayanists, held in Chetumal, received a tribute on the part of the State capitol of Quintana Roo