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

In the tradition of Simon Winchester and Dava Sobel, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code tells one of the most intriguing stories in the history of language, masterfully blending history, linguistics, and cryptology with an elegantly wrought narrative. When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece's Classical Age, he discovered 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 a mystery. Award-winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox's riveting real-life intellectual detective story travels from the Bronze Age Aegean--the era of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Helen--to the turn of the 20th century and the work of charismatic English archeologist Arthur Evans, to the colorful personal stories of the decipherers. These include Michael Ventris, the brilliant amateur who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of the deipherment; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.

Product details

• Authors: Margalit Fox
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Content: Book
• Product form: Paperback / Softback
• Publication date: 15.04.2014
• Subject: Non-fiction book; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies
• EAN: 9780062228864
• ISBN: 978-0-06-222886-4
• Pages: 384
• Dimensions (packing): 13.7 x 20.5 x 2.5 cm
• Subjects: Innovation, Gift, World, Classics, Adventure, Explorer, american, Women, Travel, art, BUFF, Creative, History, Europe, Feminism, Feminist, Language, Codes, Exploration, Linguistics, English, TEACHER, 20th Century, Science, Maybe, Ancient Greece, Historical, Anthropology, Writing, Archeology, Creative Writing, Nonfiction, 21st Century, Greek, Greece, world history, God, Crete, Lover, Writer, European, Myth, Cultural, History of Art, History of Science, Mythology, civilizations, Ancient World, Arthur Evans, Math, cryptography, antiquity, Ancient History, Linear B, General and world history, Book Club, bronze age, Geographical discovery and exploration, Language learning: writing skills, Gender studies: women and girls, Classical Studies, Creative writing and creative writing guides, Biography: science, technology and medicine, Classical style, Women Authors, BCE period – Protohistory, Historical and comparative linguistics, Ancient, academic, comparative, Microhistory, HISTORY: WORLD, HISTORY: Civilization, HISTORY: Expeditions & Discoveries, HISTORY: Women, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Writing / General, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Linguistics / General, SCIENCE: History, HISTORY: Ancient / Greece, HISTORY: Europe / Greece (see also Ancient / Greece), ART: History / Ancient & Classical, Greek mythology, Language and Linguistics, Greek Gods, women in history, Ancient Greek, Greek History, Language arts, Alice Kober, NPR, ancient civilizations, female author, science books, science gifts, greek myths, history gifts, history teacher gifts, history lovers gifts, science book, science books for adults, science gifts for adults, gifts for history buffs, Historical nonfiction, favorites, history buff, e books, Biography Memoir, history teacher, adult nonfiction, unread, non fic, nonfic, ancient languages, history nonfiction, nf history, Decipherment, history of greece, ancient greece history, ancient greekancient civilizations, riddle of the labyrinth, michael ventris, Margalit Fox, ancient greekancient history books, ancient gre