Yuri Knorozov (1922-1999) was a historian and ethnographer, a linguist and epigraphist, a translator, the founder of the Soviet school of the Maya language studies.
Among the works of the scientists, we can highlight the following: his article The System of Writing of the Ancient Maya and the translation of The Yucatan Affair (1955), monograph The Writing of the Maya Indians with a dictionary and catalog of symbols (540 items) (1963), Maya Hieroglyphic Codices (translation and study of all survived manuscripts) (1975).
A group of researchers headed by Yuri Knorozov over the course of the 1950s till the 1980s carried out the deciphering of the writing of Easter Island and the Indus Valley writing. In the 1980s, he visited the Kuril Islands several times, trying to solve the Ainu problem and its relationship with the peopling of America by ancestors of the Indians.
Yuri Knorozov was granted the Medal for Labor Valor (1967), the USSR State Prize (1977), the Big Gold Medal of the President of Guatemala (1990), and the Order of the Aztec Eagle, Fourth Class (1994). He was an honorary member of the Madrid Society for Mayan Studies and the National Geographic Society of the USA.
The postage stamp provides a portrait of Yuri Knorozov against the background of Mayan hieroglyphic codices.
| Paper |
Printing method |
Perforation |
Format of the stamp |
Edition |
| Chalk surfaced |
Offset + security system |
Comb 12¼:12 |
42 × 30 mm |
120 thousand stamps |