"For it is misleading to imply that Ventris’s radio announcement in July 1952 was somehow the end of the Linear B story. In rather more interesting ways, it was the beginning."

What Was Greek to Them?

Mary Beard

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

by Margalit Fox

Ecco, 363 pp., $27.99

"But it is a pity that Fox has nothing to say on the bitter and very public controversies that followed the decipherment, which became, at the time, even bigger news than the code-breaking itself. For it is misleading to imply that Ventris’s radio announcement in July 1952 was somehow the end of the Linear B story. In rather more interesting ways, it was the beginning."