The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
The discovery and deciphering of Europe’s earliest known written language is recounted with “almost nail-biting suspense” in this prize-winning account (Booklist, starred review).

In 1900, famed archaeologist Arthur Evans uncovered the ruins of Knossos, a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece’s Classical Age. The massive discovery included a cache of ancient tablets, Europe’s earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain an enigma.

Award–winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox follows this intellectual mystery from the Bronze Age Aegean to a legendary archeological dig at the turn of the twentieth century, and on to the brilliant decipherers who finally cracked the code in the 1950s. These include Michael Ventris, the amateur linguist who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of his findings; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.

Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
1113785037
The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
The discovery and deciphering of Europe’s earliest known written language is recounted with “almost nail-biting suspense” in this prize-winning account (Booklist, starred review).

In 1900, famed archaeologist Arthur Evans uncovered the ruins of Knossos, a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece’s Classical Age. The massive discovery included a cache of ancient tablets, Europe’s earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain an enigma.

Award–winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox follows this intellectual mystery from the Bronze Age Aegean to a legendary archeological dig at the turn of the twentieth century, and on to the brilliant decipherers who finally cracked the code in the 1950s. These include Michael Ventris, the amateur linguist who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of his findings; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.

Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
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The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code

The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code

by Margalit Fox
The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code

The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code

by Margalit Fox

eBook

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Overview

The discovery and deciphering of Europe’s earliest known written language is recounted with “almost nail-biting suspense” in this prize-winning account (Booklist, starred review).

In 1900, famed archaeologist Arthur Evans uncovered the ruins of Knossos, a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece’s Classical Age. The massive discovery included a cache of ancient tablets, Europe’s earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain an enigma.

Award–winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox follows this intellectual mystery from the Bronze Age Aegean to a legendary archeological dig at the turn of the twentieth century, and on to the brilliant decipherers who finally cracked the code in the 1950s. These include Michael Ventris, the amateur linguist who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of his findings; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.

Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062228888
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 03/19/2024
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 385
Sales rank: 42,092
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

About The Author

An award-winning journalist trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox is a senior writer at the New York Times. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in linguistics from Stony Brook University and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia Univer-sity. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, the writer and critic George Robinson.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xiii

Introduction xv

Prologue Buried Treasure 3

Book 1 The Digger

Chapter 1 The Record-Keepers 13

Chapter 2 The Vanished Key 41

Chapter 3 Love Among the Ruins 67

Book 2 The Detective

Chapter 4 American Champollion 85

Chapter 5 A Delightful Problem 113

Chapter 6 Splitting the Baby 129

Chapter 7 The Matrix 151

Chapter 8 "Hurry Up and Decipher the Thing!" 177

Book 3 The Architect

Chapter 9 The Hollow Boy 203

Chapter 10 A Leap of Faith 221

Chapter 11 "I Know It, I Know It" 233

Chapter 12 Solution, Dissolution 247

Epilogue Mr. X and Mr. Y 269

Appendix: The Signs of Linear B 287

References 289

Notes 297

Acknowledgments 347

Picture Credits 351

Index 353

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