The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris
by Andrew Robinson
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Description
This is the first book to tell not just the story of Linear B but also that of the young man who deciphered it. Based on hundreds of unpublished letters, interviews with survivors and other primary sources, Andrew Robinson’s account takes the reader through the life of this intriguing and contradictory man. Stage by stage, we see how he finally achieved the breakthrough that revealed Linear B as the earliest comprehensible European writing system, more than half a millennium older than the show more Greek of Homer. [publisher] show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I have this book in the Kindle edition which makes looking at Ventris's grids for Linear B very frustrating. Not withstanding that this is a fine introduction to the life and achievement of Michael Ventris. I wish I had read it before our trip to Crete in 2013. It would have made looking at the tablets in the museums doubly interesting.
Robinson makes it quite clear that this is not a biography of Ventris. It does however whet one's appetite for a more in-depth book of his life.
The further reading sections are useful divided as they are into four topical sections.
Robinson makes it quite clear that this is not a biography of Ventris. It does however whet one's appetite for a more in-depth book of his life.
The further reading sections are useful divided as they are into four topical sections.
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Author Information
26+ Works 2,970 Members
Andrew Robinson is the author of some 25 books on the arts and sciences, including India: A Short History and Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts. He writes for The Lancet, Nature and Science.
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2012
- People/Characters
- Michael Ventris
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Anthropology, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 487.1 — Language Classical Greek and related Hellenic languages Preclassical and postclassical Greek Preclassical Greek; Mycenaean Greek, Linear B
- LCC
- P1038 .V46 .R63 — Language and Literature Philology. Linguistics Extinct ancient or medieval languages
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 218
- Popularity
- 149,186
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.84)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 2
