About book Riddle Of The Labyrinth: The Deciphering Of Linear B And The Discovery Of A Lost Civilisation (2014)
Amazing book. I had little to no knowledge of the history of Linear B before reading this book, and the story was almost unbelievable. I lost the author from time to time when she went into the intricacies of deciphering an unknown language, but her accounts of the individuals who contributed to solving the mystery really made the book. Fox's love of Kober, the unsung hero, is particularly endearing, and it made slogging through some of the slower sections (some of those graphs I still just don't get) worth the while. With the final decipherment of Linear B by a young, ingenious architect, it was only inevitable that commentators link Michael Ventris to Daedalus, the architect of the mythical Labyrinth of King Minos. Yet, in her book on the history of the decipherment of this enigmatic script, Margalit Fox alters the narrative framework, as well as how the reader views the making and shaping of history. In The Riddle of the Labyrinth, Fox depicts Sir Arthur Evans as an old, ruthless “King Minos” of Archaeology, hoarding thousands of Linear B inscriptions away in his personal Victorian palace; Ventris, on the other hand, plays the young, derring-do “hero Theseus,” who slays the Minotaur monster of decoding the script; at the center of the book, however, is the tragic heroine Alice Kober, the “Ariadne” of this three-act opera, whose “rigor of…mind, the ferocity of her determination, and the unimpeachable rationality of her method” all unlocked the younger Ventris from his own prison and guided him to deciphering the script with intellectual spools of yarn. (Fox 2013: 87) Fox still gives credit to Evans and Ventris for their specific contributions, but they are flawed heroes who have been credited with more than their due for the simple fact of their gender and moneyed status. Like the mythical Ariadne, Kober died too young, and Ventris (and others) left her on an intellectual island, while he sailed on toward the goal of decipherment. Fox, here, acts as Dionysus, appearing dea ex machina and rescuing Kober from her solitude, so as to firmly place her in the annals of academic history.The book is certainly geared toward Undergrads and the general public, but it was still an enjoyable read to refresh my memory on the history of deciphering Linear B writings from ancient Crete. While there are more thorough books on the subject, what makes this worth reading is the narrative structure, with Alice Kober at the center of this tragic true story. Fox uses her experience as an Obituary writer to bring these archaeologists to life, and she tells their story with warmth and heartbreaking honesty. Kober's story deserved to be told, along with many women who have contributed so much to scholarly learning - and Fox tells Kober's story brilliantly!
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A very clear exposition of decipherment of a Cretan script. The Linguistics is well explained.
—blargxitsxjenn
Very interesting solving of a real life riddle.
—Dan
