Michael Ventris

Michael Ventris
Michael Ventris
Born 12 July 1922(1922-07-12)
Died 6 September 1956(1956-09-06) (aged 34)
Residence Hampstead
Nationality British
Fields Archaeology
Alma mater Architectural Association School of Architecture
Known for Decipherment of Linear B

Michael George Francis Ventris, OBE (12 July 1922 – 6 September 1956) was an English architect and classical scholar who, along with John Chadwick, was responsible for the decipherment of Linear B.

Ventris was educated in Switzerland and at Stowe School. (Stowe is an 18th century country house; by contrast, his Polish mother, Dorothea (Dora) Ventris (born Anna Dorota Janasz), lived in Berthold Lubetkin's Highpoint modernist apartments in Highgate.) He could speak six European languages and read Latin and classical Greek. He enrolled at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1940 and graduated in 1948, after interrupting his training to serve as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. Ventris was awarded an OBE in 1955 for "services to Mycenaean paleography." A few years after deciphering Linear B in 1951-1953, Ventris, who lived in Hampstead, died in a car crash, aged 34.

Contents

Linear B

At the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began excavating Knossos, an ancient city on the island of Crete. In doing so he uncovered a great many clay tablets inscribed with an unknown script. Some were older and were named Linear A. The bulk were of more recent vintage, and were dubbed Linear B. Evans spent the next several decades trying to decipher both, to no avail.

Part of the difficulty stemmed from Evans himself — he had strong opinions about the nature of Cretan civilization and was convinced that Linear B was a language he called "Minoan". A powerful political force in the academic world, he succeeded in cutting off any investigation into the possibility that the language on the tablets was Greek, despite some hints that this was the case.

Ventris' initial theory was that Etruscan and Linear B were related and that this might provide a key to decipherment. Although this proved incorrect, it was a link he continued to explore until the early 1950s.

Shortly after Evans died, Alice Kober noted that certain words in Linear B inscriptions had changing word endings — perhaps declensions in the manner of Latin or Greek. Using this clue, Ventris constructed a series of grids associating the symbols on the tablets with consonants and vowels. While which consonants and vowels they were remained mysterious, Ventris learned enough about the structure of the underlying language to begin guessing.

Some Linear B tablets had been discovered on the Greek mainland, and there was reason to believe that some of the chains of symbols he had encountered on the Cretan tablets were names. Noting that certain names appeared only in the Cretan texts, he made the inspired guess that those names applied to cities on the island. This proved to be correct. Armed with the symbols he could decipher from this, Ventris soon unlocked much text and determined that the underlying language of Linear B was in fact Greek. This overturned Evans' theories of Minoan history by establishing that Cretan civilization, at least in the later periods associated with the Linear B tablets, had been part of Mycenean Greece.

See also

Publications

Further reading

References

  • Chadwick, John (1990) [1958]. The Decipherment of Linear B (2nd edition ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39830-4. 
  • Robinson, Andrew (2002). The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris. Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN 0-500-51077-6. 
  • Tetlow, Simon; Harris, Ben; Roques, David; Meredith, A.G., (preface by John Chadwick), Michael Ventris Remembered, Buckingham : Stowe School, 1984

External links


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Michael Ventris — Michael George Francis Ventris (* 12. Juli 1922; † 6. September 1956) war ein englischer Architekt und Sprachwissenschaftler. Ventris entzifferte 1952 zusammen mit John Chadwick die Linear B, eine in der mykenischen und minoischen Kultur… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Michael Ventris — Michael Ventris, né le 12 juillet 1922, mort le 6 septembre 1956, architecte et philologue britannique, déchiffreur du linéaire B, un système d écriture du grec archaïque employé par la civilisation mycénienne. Biographie Élevé en Suisse, Michael …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Michael Ventris — Michael George Francis Ventris (12 de julio de 1922 – 6 de septiembre de 1956). Arquitecto inglés, nació en Wheathamstead. Gran aficionado a las lenguas clásicas desde niño y especialmente al latín y al griego consiguió en 1952 descifrar el… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Michael Ventris — (1922 1956). Engelsk arkitekt og sprogforsker, der dechiffrerede Linear B skriften, der blandt andet fandtes på Knossos. Da Arthur Evans i begydnelsen af det 20. århundrede begyndte at udgrave Knossos på Kreta fandt han blandt andet en stor… …   Danske encyklopædi

  • Ventris — Michael George Francis Ventris (* 12. Juli 1922; † 6. September 1956) war ein englischer Architekt und Sprachwissenschaftler. Leistungen Ventris hatte 1952 zusammen mit John Chadwick die Linear B, eine in der mykenischen und minoischen Kultur… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ventris — may refer to:* Ventris (crater), a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon * William Ventris Field, 1st Baron Field (1813 1907), English judgePeople with the surname Ventris:* Christopher Ventris (21st century), British tenor * Michael Ventris… …   Wikipedia

  • Ventris (crater) — lunar crater data latitude=4.9 N or S=S longitude=158.0 E or W=E diameter=95 km depth= Unknown colong=203 eponym=Michael VentrisVentris is a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon. It is located between Schliemann crater just to the northwest… …   Wikipedia

  • Ventris — (izg. vèntris), Michael (1922 1956) DEFINICIJA engleski arheolog koji je 1952. dešifrirao natpise iz Knososa (Kreta) i Mikene pisane tzv. linearnim pismom tipa B i time omogućio jasniji uvid u kretsko mikensku kulturu iz 15 12. st. pr. Kr.… …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • Ventris, Michael — ▪ British architect and cryptographer in full  Michael George Francis Ventris   born July 12, 1922, Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, Eng. died Sept. 6, 1956, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire       English architect and cryptographer who in 1952… …   Universalium

  • Michael — /muy keuhl/, n. 1. a militant archangel. Dan. 10:13. 2. Rumanian, Mihai /mee huy /. born 1921, king of Rumania 1927 30, 1940 47 (son of Carol II). 3. (italics) a narrative poem (1800) by Wordsworth. 4. a male given name. * * * I In the Bible and… …   Universalium

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