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hillo538 t1_ix49x5w wrote

Reply to comment by thatcantb in Yuri Knorozov: The Maverick Scholar Who Cracked The Maya Code by tyrannosauru

I think knorozov had personally saved the majority of the writing left from the Mayans before deciphering it from (according to some) a library fire

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FoolishConsistency17 t1_ix4rfd2 wrote

What? No. He was working off photographs. I don't think he ever saw a glyph in person until after he published his research.

He almost lost his own work in a fire, iirc.

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hillo538 t1_ix4sbzm wrote

I’m talking about the Berlin affair, where research pertaining to the Mayan codices (a good amount under fascist hands at this point) were retained and sent to the ussr by this guy, not that he went to Mexico himself or anything

I remember this anecdote well, because most of the written text in this language had been previously systematically destroyed by European powers

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