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Riddle Of The Labyrinth: The Deciphering Of Linear B And The Discovery Of A Lost Civilisation (2014)

by Margalit Fox(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1847659705 (ISBN13: 9781847659705)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Not Avail

review 1: One of the more enjoyable non-fiction books I have read in some time. The puzzle these people solved - deciphering an unknown script in an unknown language - seems impossibly hard, but through perseverance, hard work, and ingenuity, they did it. The inclusion of portions of their personal correspondence helps to bring their personalities to life, giving the reader a better understanding of the type of mind it takes to crack such a difficult problem.
review 2: A fine product by a very skilled linguist, one who works as writer of obituaries for the New York Times. This is far better than "The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the secrets of the world’s greatest palimpsest" by Reviel Netz and Willaim Noel. It is far deeper into the decoding of languages than is "The S... moretory of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, and Pictograms" by Andrew Robinson. Tackling another extremely complex language is "Breaking the Maya Code" by Michael D. Coe, however I consider Fox the superior author in demystifying and clarifying the process and the people. She did an outstanding job.The book won the biennial nonfiction Saroyan Prize in 2014.This is the story of Alice Kober who followed Arthur Evans and preceded Michael Ventris - each in his/her own way - in taking major steps to the solving of Linear B, the language used by the Minoan civilization ca. 1,400 BC. The story moves from the discovery in 1900 to the final solution by Ventris in 1952.Fox takes this extremely mysterious, curious, "hidden" language and by stages and with remarkable clarity and dexterity takes the reader through each phase of this evolving story in stages which keep the reader moving along through this step by step stages of advancement with clear explanations. less

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