Becky B's Reviews > The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code

A biography of the three people who worked the most on decoding Linear B, an ancient writing found on tablets unearthed at Crete that pre-dated Greek in an unknown language. First there was the archaeologist, Arthur Evans who found the tablets in what he dubbed Midas' palace on Crete. Then there was the classical linguist professor, Alice Kober, who worked on it during her free time and came very close to cracking it before illness took her, and finally, the architect Michael Ventris, who also worked on it during his free time and finally broke the code.

This was a fascinating look at how hard it is to decode an unknown script for an unknown language and how the people who did manage to crack it open went about doing so. If you like codes and puzzles or linguistics, this should be right up your alley.

Notes on content: Maybe one or two minor swears in quotes (I really don't remember any clearly). No sexual content. Ventris died under mysterious circumstances in a car accident that is only superficially described.