Linguists
Michael Ventris
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English architect and self-taught philologist who deciphered the Linear B script in 1952, demonstrating that it recorded an early form of Greek, now called Mycenaean Greek, centuries older than any previously known Greek text. He announced his preliminary decipherment on BBC radio on 1 July 1952, then collaborated with classicist John Chadwick to confirm and publish it in a series of joint papers between 1953 and 1956, overturning the assumption that Mycenaean-era Crete and mainland Greece spoke a non-Greek language.
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RoleArchitect and Philologist, Decipherer of Linear B 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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Deciphered Linear B in 1952, demonstrating it recorded Mycenaean Greek.
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