Who Was Michael Ventris And What Did He Decipher?

—died Sept. 6, 1956, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire), English architect and cryptographer who in 1952 deciphered the Minoan Linear B script and showed it to be Greek in its oldest known form, dating from about 1400 to 1200 bc, roughly the period of the events narrated in the Homeric epics.

What did Michael Ventris do?

Michael George Francis Ventris, OBE (/ˈvɛntrɪs/; 12 July 1922 – 6 September 1956) was an English architect, classicist and philologist who deciphered Linear B, the ancient Mycenaean Greek script .

How old was Michael Ventris when he deciphered linear?

This book tells the story of Ventris, and his surprising success in decoding the mysterious Linear B. He possessed a unique mind, one which had an uncanny ability with language. By the age of 21 , he spoke all the major European languages, plus Latin and Greek, new and ancient.

Who deciphered the Linear B?

Known as Linear B, this script was deciphered in 1952 by the British architect Michael Ventris and the British classicist and linguist John Chadwick . At present more than 100 very short Linear B inscriptions painted on vases have been found in Crete and in continental Greece (e.g.,...

What great contribution did Michael Ventris make to our knowledge of the Mycenaean Greeks?

MICHAEL VENTRIS (1922 – 1956)

Michael Ventris died at the age of thirty-four on 6th September 1956 in a road accident. His discovery in 1952 that the Linear B texts of Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae were written in an early form of Greek ranks as one of the most brilliant achievements of scholarship.

What did Michael Ventris do after cracking Linear B?

Ventris examined three Cretan names, including Knossos. In the syllabic form of Linear B it became “ ko-no-so “. ... In a lecture after he had cracked Linear B, and before his death, Ventris did however give substantial credit to Kober for her contribution – but this acknowledgement went largely unnoticed.

What was Ventris’s real profession?

All stories of code breaking exert a fascination, but Ventris’s achievement has a particular mystique, in part because he was outside the academy: he was an architect by profession rather than a classical scholar, and had been fascinated by Linear B since a chance encounter with Evans as a schoolboy.

Who deciphered Linear A?

Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It was discovered by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans . It was succeeded by Linear B, which was used by the Mycenaeans to write an early form of Greek. No texts in Linear A have been deciphered.

Why is Linear B important?

The Linear B texts are extremely important for Greek linguistics . They represent the oldest known Greek dialect, elements of which survived in Homer’s language as a result of a long oral tradition of epic poetry. Linear B was deciphered as Greek in 1952 by Michael Ventris.

What happened to the Minoans?

Evidence suggests that the Minoans disappeared so suddenly because of the massive volcanic eruption in the Santorini Islands . ... We know now that the Santorini eruption and the collapse of the volcanic cone into the sea caused tsunamis which devastated the coasts of Crete and other Minoan coastal towns.

What did Linear B reveal?

The Linear B Tablets revealed

He was rewarded almost immediately by the discovery of slabs of baked clay, some rectangular, some leaf-shaped, bearing two types of inscription of hitherto unknown form . The earlier, Linear A, represented the language of the Minoans, who had built the great palace at Knossos.

Do we understand Linear B?

Who uncovered a Mycenaean palace at Pylos?

Pylos was excavated recently by Carl Blegen . The excavations revealed a large palace. This was given the name the Palace of Nestor because of its similarity in location to the palace of the King Nestor named in the stories of Homer. The palace is characteristic of Mycenaean palace construction.

What may have caused the end of the Mycenaean civilization?

New study finds: Ancient Mycenaean civilization might have collapsed due to uprising or invasion . For many years, the prevailing theory on how the Mycenaean civilisation collapsed was that devastating earthquakes led to the destruction of its palaces in the Peloponnese, southern Greece around 1,200 BC.

How did the Mycenaean civilization develop?

The Mycenaeans were originally a war-like people that had emerged out of earlier settlement from interaction with the Minoans, a Greek-speaking group from Crete. Ultimately, the Mycenaean Greeks would conquer the Minoans and become culturally dominant.

What was the most important factor that created changes in the Minoan civilization?

What was the most important factor that created changes in the Minoan civilization? They were a seagoing power influenced by ideas outside Greece . After the Mycenaeans defeated the Minoans, they adopted elements of the Minoan culture.

What contribution did Alice Kober make?

International Women’s Day: celebrating Alice Kober

Kober, the American classicist who was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the eventual decipherment of the prehistoric Greek Linear B script (first discovered at Knossos on Crete in 1900, and representing a then-unknown language).

What is a Linear B tablet?

Linear B is the name for the late Minoan script which was first found on clay tablets and sealings in the second palace at Knossos on Crete. These early tablets survived because they were baked in the fire which burned down the palace. ... The majority of extant examples of Linear B writing come from the mainland.

What is the name of the pre Greek civilization centered on the island of Crete?

Minoan civilization , Bronze Age civilization of Crete that flourished from about 3000 bce to about 1100 bce. Its name derives from Minos, either a dynastic title or the name of a particular ruler of Crete who has a place in Greek legend.

Who coined the term Minoan?

The name “Minoan” derives from the mythical King Minos and was coined by Evans , who identified the site at Knossos with the labyrinth of the Minotaur. The Minoan civilization has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, and historian Will Durant called the Minoans “the first link in the European chain”.

Can we read Minoan?

The Minoan language known as “ Linear A ” may finally be deciphered with the help of the internet, which can be used to uncover previously-hidden links to the much-better understood Linear B language, which developed later in the prehistoric period.

What was the largest palace built by the Minoans?

The Palace of Knossos is located just south of modern-day Heraklion near the north coast of Crete. Built by a civilization that we call the Minoans, it covers about 150,000 square feet (14,000 square meters), the size of more than two football fields, and was surrounded by a town in antiquity.

What does the artwork of the Minoan period suggest about their culture?

The art of the Minoan civilization of Bronze Age Crete (2000-1500 BCE) displays a love of animal, sea, and plant life , which was used to decorate frescoes and pottery and also inspired forms in jewellery, stone vessels, and sculpture.

Where was the mask of Agamemnon found?

The “Mask of Agamemnon” is one of the most famous gold artifacts from the Greek Bronze Age. Found at Mycenae in 1876 by the distinguished archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, it was one of several gold funeral masks found laid over the faces of the dead buried in the shaft graves of a royal cemetery.

Was the Iliad written in Linear B?

The Mycenaean civilization flourished in Greece and the surrounding islands in the Aegean Sea around 1400 b.c., during the era Homer depicted in his epics the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Mycenaean language was written in a script known as Linear B.

Is Troy present day Turkey?

The site of Troy, in the northwest corner of modern-day Turkey , was first settled in the Early Bronze Age, from around 3000 BC. Over the four thousand years of its existence, countless generations have lived at Troy.

What were the Minoan known for?

The Minoans have an important place in world history, as building the first civilization to appear on European soil. ... The Minoans were famous for the magnificent palaces they built , above all at Knossos. There was, if fact, never a people who called themselves the “Minoans”.

What was Pylos known for?

It hosts one of the most important Mycenaean palaces in Greece, known as the great “Palace of Nestor ” described in the Homeric poems. This palace remains today the best preserved palace in Greece and one of the most important of all Mycenaean civilization.

Who was the prince of Pylos?

In Greek mythology, Pylaon (Ancient Greek: Πυλάων) was a prince of Pylos and son of King Neleus by Chloris, daughter of King Amphion of Orchomenus. He was the brother to Pero, Taurus, Asterius, Evagoras, Deimachus, Eurybius, Epilaus, Phrasius, Eurymenes, Alastor, Nestor and Periclymenus.

What religion did the Minoans believe in?

The religion of the ancient Minoans of Crete largely revolved around the Mother Goddess , their chief deity, who was typically associated with snakes.

How did Knossos get destroyed?

Despite speculation that Knossos was destroyed by the volcanic eruption on Santorini, it is generally accepted that the cause was human violence following an invasion of Crete by Greeks from the Argolid , most probably Mycenaean.

What is Pylos in the Odyssey?

On to Pylos

Pylos is Telemachus’ first testing ground on his larger rite of passage , which refers to ceremonies or events that signify or bring about the transition from one phase of life to another. Pylos is ruled by Nestor, a respected veteran of the Trojan War, who fought alongside Odysseus.

What is the importance of Knossos?

The Palace of Knossos was the most important of the palaces on Crete , and the seat of the first king among equals of the island, Minos, whose name has been given to the whole of the 3rd and 2nd c. BC Minoan civilization. The Palace, like the others in Crete, was built soon after 2000 BC and destroyed in about 1700 BC.

When did Linear B stop being used?

After the collapse of the Mycenaean political order in c. 1200 BCE, the use of the Linear B script gradually diminished until it was fully abandoned around 1100 BCE .

What did the Linear B tablets found in Crete reveal about the relationship between the Minoans and the Mycenaeans?

What did the Linear B tablets found in the palace of Knossos reveal about the relationship between the Minoans and the Mycenaean Greeks? These tablets revealed that the Mycenaeans had come to dominate the Minoans well before the final destruction of Knossos in 1370 B.C.E.

What caused the collapse of Minoan civilization?

The event traditionally associated with the fall of the Minoans was the eruption of a nearby volcanic island, Mount Thera (modern-day Santorini). ... More destructive was a massive tsunami that resulted from the eruption and devastated the Minoan settlements on the northern coast of Crete.

Is Crete in the Mediterranean?

Crete is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean and the largest of the islands forming part of modern Greece.

What was the first true civilization among the Greek people?

The first Greek civilization was known as Mycenaean Greece , which lasted roughly from 1600 to 1100 B.C.E. during a time period known as the Bronze...

Who ruled the mycenaeans Egyptians?

The Perseid dynasty ruled Mycenae for at least three generations and ended with the rule of Eurytheus, whom legends claim commissioned Hercules to perform the 12 labors. When Eurytheus died in battle, Atreus became king of Mycenae. Mycenae is perhaps best known in mythology as the city of Agamemnon, the son of Atreus.

Where was the Mycenaean culture centered?

Which war did the mycenaeans fight against Troy?

The story of the Trojan War —the Bronze Age conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece–straddles the history and mythology of ancient Greece and inspired the greatest writers of antiquity, from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles to Virgil.