Galina Dzeniskevich (1933-2002)//ru.wikipedia.org
Monument to the Soviet ethnographer, linguist and the decipherer of the Maya script Yuri Knorozov was innagurated on March 11 in Merida, Mexico, TASS reports. The monument was opened in the frames of FILEY-2018 International Book Fair. The first monument to the outstanding scientists was opened in Cancun in 2012.
The Mexican sculptor Reynaldo Bolio Suarez, known under the nickname Pacelli worked on the monument for six months. The monument is located at the entrance to the Convention center Siglo XXI near Great Museum of the Maya world. Due to the fact the Knorozov adored cats and even made his cat Asya a coauthor of his scientific works, the monument depicts the scientist holding in his arms a cat. The total height of the monument with full growth figure is about three meters.
As we reported earlier, Knorozov managed to decipher Mayan icon-based hieroglyphic signs without leaving USSR. It was a scientific sensation.
Knorozov was seriously keen on shamanism since the first year of the historical department of National University of Kharkiv. Having fled the territories occupied by the Germans, he entered the department of ethnography of Lomonosov Moscow State University. This escape deprived him of a chance to compete his post-graduate degree and restricted to travel abroad. Having graduated from the university he moved to Leningrad and started to work in the Kunstkamera Museum as a researcher.
His first publication about the deciphering results came out in 1952, when the linguist was 30 years old. Knorozov defended his thesis about the Mayan code getting the degree of the doctor of historical sciences in 3 years.
Knorozov proved that the Maya hieroglyphics could be read aloud. Each of them corresponds to a syllable instead of an object as other linguists had supposed before. One of the first hookings was Cacao word: the Mayan fresco depicted a Mayan Indian holding a cup of cacao. Fortunately, this drawing had an inscription underneath.
Knorozov managed to visit the countries he had been studying for all of his life – Mexico and Guatemala, only in 1990. The Mexicans awarded him with the Order of the Aztec Eagle – the highest reward a foreigner could get.
Russkiy Mir
