Editing Michael Ventris

{{Short description|British architect who deciphered Linear B}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Michael Ventris
| honorific_suffix   = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]]
| image              = Michael Ventris (1922–1956).jpg
| birth_name         = Michael George Francis Ventris
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1922|7|12|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Wheathampstead]], Hertfordshire, England
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1956|9|6|1922|7|12|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Hatfield, Hertfordshire|Hatfield]], Hertfordshire, England
| education          = [[Architectural Association School of Architecture]]
| occupation         = [[Architect]]
| known_for          = [[Decipherment]] of [[Linear B]]
| spouse             = Lois "Betty" Ventris (née Knox-Niven, 1920–87)
| children           = 2
| relatives          = [[Francis Ventris]] (grandfather)
| awards             = {{ubl|Honorary doctorate, [[University of Uppsala]] (1954)|[[Kenyon Medal]] (1959)}}
<!---
|fields              = [[Architecture]], [[Archaeology]], [[Linguistics]], [[Philology]], [[Classics]]
|influences          = [[Arthur Evans]], [[Alice Kober]], [[John Chadwick]], [[Emmett Bennett]]
|influenced          = Historiography of Aegean civilization
--->}}
'''Michael George Francis Ventris''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|ɛ|n|t|r|ɪ|s}}; 12 July 1922 &ndash; 6 September 1956) was an English architect, [[classics|classicist]] and [[philology|philologist]] who deciphered [[Linear B]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cracking-the-code-the-decipherment-of-linear-b-60-years-on|title=Cracking the code: the decipherment of Linear B 60 years on|date=13 October 2012|website=University of Cambridge}}</ref> the ancient [[Mycenaean Greek]] script. A student of languages, Ventris had pursued decipherment as a personal vocation since his adolescence. After creating a new field of study, Ventris died in a [[car crash]] a few weeks before the publication of ''Documents in Mycenaean Greek'', written with [[John Chadwick]].

==Early life and education==
Ventris was born into a traditional army family. His grandfather, [[Francis Ventris]], was a major-general and [[Commander British Forces in Hong Kong|Commander of British Forces in China]]. His father, Edward Francis Vereker Ventris, was a lieutenant-colonel in the Indian Army,<ref>Great Britons: Twentieth-century lives, Harold Oxbury, 1985</ref> who retired early due to ill health. Edward Ventris married Anna Dorothea (Dora) Janasz, who was from a wealthy Jewish and Polish paternal background. Michael Ventris was their only child.

The family moved to Switzerland for eight years, seeking a healthy environment for Colonel Ventris. Young Michael started school in [[Gstaad]], where classes were taught in French and German. He soon mastered the Swiss German dialect.<ref name=chad2>{{harvnb|Chadwick|1990|p=2}}.</ref> A few weeks in Sweden after the Second World War enabled him to become competent in Swedish. His mother often spoke Polish and he was fluent in it by the age of eight.
[[File:Stowe School - geograph.org.uk - 582994.jpg|thumb|left|Stowe School in August 2005]]
In 1931, the Ventris family returned home. From 1931 to 1935 Ventris was sent to Bickley Hall School in Bromley, Kent. His parents divorced in 1935. At this time, he secured a scholarship to [[Stowe School]]. At Stowe he learned some [[Latin]] and [[Ancient Greek|Greek]].<ref name=chad2/> He did not do outstanding work there – by then he was spending most of his spare time learning as much as he could about Linear B, some of his study time being spent under the covers at night with a torch. 

When he was not boarding at school, Ventris lived with his mother, before 1935 in coastal hotels, and then in the avant garde [[Berthold Lubetkin]]'s [[Highpoint I|Highpoint]] modernist apartments in [[Highgate]], north [[County of London|London]]. His mother's acquaintances, who frequented the house, included many sculptors, painters, and writers of the day. The flat was furnished with the works of [[Marcel Breuer]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Desk by Marcel Breuer |url=https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/8587/desk |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=Art Fund |language=en}}</ref> The money for her artistic [[patronage]] came from Polish estates.

==Young adult==
Ventris's father died in 1938 and his mother, Dora, became administrator of the estate. With the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Dora lost her private income, and in 1940 her father died. Ventris lost his mother to clinical [[depression (mood)|depression]] and an overdose of [[barbiturate]]s. He never spoke of her, assuming instead an ebullient and energetic manner in whatever he decided to do, a trait which won him numerous friends.

A friend of the family, Russian sculptor [[Naum Gabo]], took Ventris under his wing. Ventris later said that Gabo was the most family he had ever had. It may have been at Gabo's house that he began the study of [[Russian language|Russian]].  

He decided on architecture as a career, and enrolled in the [[Architectural Association School of Architecture]]. There he met his wife-to-be Lois Knox-Niven, known as Betty, daughter of pilot [[Lois Butler]] and stepdaughter of [[Alan Samuel Butler]], chairman of the [[De Havilland Aircraft Company]]. A fellow architecture student, her social background was similar to Ventris's: her family was well-to-do, she had travelled in Europe, and she was interested in architecture. She was also popular and very beautiful.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Administrator |date=2013-09-05 |title=The Life of Michael Ventris |url=https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/ORDER/seminars/projects/mycep/decipherment/ventris |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=www.classics.cam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Halifax II 35 Sqn RAF in flight c1942.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|Halifax in flight, 1942]]
Ventris did not complete his architecture studies, being conscripted in 1942. He chose the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF). His preference was for navigator rather than pilot, and he completed the extensive training in the UK and Canada, to qualify early in 1944 and be commissioned.<ref name="unithistories.com">{{cite web | title=Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) (RAF(VR)) Officers 1939–1945 | url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RAFVR_officers_V01.html | access-date=11 April 2012}}</ref> While training, he studied Russian intensively for several weeks, the purpose of which is not clear. He took part in the bombing of Germany, as aircrew on the [[Handley Page Halifax]] with [[No. 76 Squadron RAF]], initially at [[Breighton|RAF Breighton]] and then at [[RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor]], both in [[East Yorkshire]].<ref name="unithistories.com"/><ref>{{harvnb|Robinson|2002|pp=45–7}}</ref> After the conclusion of the war, he served out the rest of his term on the ground in Germany, for which he was chosen because of his knowledge of Russian. His duties are unclear. His friends assumed he was on intelligence duties, interpreting his denials as part of a legal gag. No evidence of such assignments has emerged in the decades since. There is also no evidence that he was ever part of any code-breaking unit, as was Chadwick, even though the public has readily believed this explanation of his genius and success with Linear B.<ref>{{harvnb|Palaima|2000|p=1}}.</ref>

==Architect and palaeographer==
[[File:Blue Plaque for Michael Ventris - geograph.org.uk - 884994.jpg|thumb|right|Ventris's home, 1952–1956, which he and his wife, Lois, also an architect, designed]]
After the war he worked briefly in Sweden, learning enough Swedish to communicate with scholars.<ref name=chad2/> Then he came home to complete his architectural education with honours in 1948<ref>{{cite book | first=Harold | last=Oxbury | title=Great Britons: twentieth-century lives | location=Oxford; New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1985 | page=338}}</ref> and settled down with Lois working as an architect. He designed schools for the Ministry of Education. He and his wife personally designed their family home, 19 North End, [[Hampstead]].<ref name=chad3>{{harvnb|Chadwick|1990|p=3}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Designs for the architects' house and garden, 19 North End, Hampstead, London: site plan and floor plans |url=https://www.ribapix.com/Designs-for-the-architects-house-and-garden-19-North-End-Hampstead-London-site-plan-and-floor-plans_RIBA97140 |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=RIBApix |language=en}}</ref> Ventris and his wife had two children: a son, Nikki (1942–1984), and a daughter, Tessa (born 1946).<ref>{{citation | author=ohk | title=The Ventris Papers | year=2006 | publisher=School of Advanced Studies, University of London | url=http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/330/1/Ventris_11%2006_erepository%20(2).pdf}}</ref>

Ventris continued with his efforts on Linear B, discovering in 1952 that it was an archaic form of Greek.

==Decipherment==
At the beginning of the 20th century, [[archaeology|archaeologist]] [[Arthur Evans]] began excavating an ancient site at [[Knossos]], on the island of [[Crete]]. In doing so he uncovered a great many clay tablets inscribed with two unknown scripts, [[Linear A]] and [[Linear B]]. Evans attempted to decipher both in the following decades, with little success.

In 1936, Evans hosted an exhibition on Cretan archaeology at [[Burlington House]] in London, home of the [[Royal Academy]]. It was the jubilee anniversary (50 years) of the [[British School at Athens|British School of Archaeology in Athens]], owners and managers of the Knossos site. Evans had given them the site with his Villa Ariadne house some years previously. Boys from Stowe School were in attendance at one lecture and tour conducted by the 85-year-old Evans himself. Ventris, aged 14 at the time, was present and remembered Evans walking with a stick, probably the cane named Prodger which Evans carried all his life to assist him with his short-sightedness and night blindness. Evans held up tablets of the unknown scripts for the audience to see. During the interview period following the lecture, Ventris spoke up to confirm that Linear B was as yet undeciphered, and he determined to decipher it.

In 1940, the 18-year-old Ventris had an article "Introducing the Minoan Language" published in the ''[[American Journal of Archaeology]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Robinson|2002|pp=32–3}}</ref> Ventris's initial theory was that [[Etruscan language|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 basis, Ventris constructed a series of [[Grid (page layout)|grids]] associating the symbols on the tablets with [[consonant]]s and [[vowel]]s. While ''which'' consonants and vowels these were remained mysterious, Ventris learned enough about the structure of the underlying language to begin experimenting.

Shortly before World War II, American archaeologist [[Carl Blegen]] discovered a further 600 or so tablets of Linear B in the Mycenaean palace of [[Pylos]] on the Greek mainland. Photographs of these tablets by archaeologist [[Alison Frantz]] facilitated Ventris's later decipherment of the Linear B script.<ref name="McCredie">{{cite journal |last=McCredie |first=James R. |date=June 2000 |title=Biographical Memoirs: Alison Frantz |url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/Frantz.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=144 |issue=2 |pages=213–217 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102094950/http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/Frantz.pdf |archive-date=2 November 2013 |access-date=15 October 2013}}</ref>

In 1948 [[John Myres|Sir John Myres]] invited a group of academics to help him transcribe Linear B material. Amongst them were Dr. Kober and Ventris. Although they did not collaborate further, Kober's work was essential in providing the foundational understanding from which Ventris built his theories on Linear B.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chadwick |first=John |title=The Decipherment of Linear B (2nd ed.). |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1967}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Fox |first=Margalit |date=2013-05-11 |title=Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No More |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/sunday-review/alice-e-kober-43-lost-to-history-no-more.html |access-date=2022-09-24 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Comparing the Linear B tablets discovered on the Greek mainland, and noting that certain symbol groups appeared only in the Cretan texts, Ventris made the inspired guess that those were place names on the island. This proved to be correct. Armed with the symbols he could decipher from this, Ventris soon unlocked much of the text and determined that the underlying language of Linear B, a [[Syllabary|syllabic script]], was in fact Greek. On 1 July 1952, Ventris announced his preliminary findings on a BBC radio talk which was heard by [[John Chadwick]], a classicist at the University of Cambridge who had been involved in code breaking at [[Bletchley Park]] during the Second World War. The two men began to collaborate on further research into deciphering Linear B. In 1953 further Linear B tablets were discovered at ancient Mycenae and ancient Pylos on the Greek mainland, with one of the tablets ([[PY Ta 641]]) showing a pictographic tripod cauldron next to Linear B symbols which were translated by Ventris and Chadwick as "ti-ri-po-de", tripod being a Greek word. This led to wider international collaboration with other classical scholars and between 1953 and 1956 Ventris and Chadwick published joint papers.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Ventris, Michael George Francis (1922–1956), classical scholar and architect |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36640 |access-date=2022-09-24 |year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36640|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |last1=Robinson |first1=Andrew }}</ref> This overturned Evans's 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 [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenean Greece]].

==Death and legacy==
Ventris was awarded an [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] in 1955 for "services to [[Mycenaean language|Mycenaean]] [[paleography]]."<ref name="chad3" />

On 6 September 1956, the 34-year-old Ventris, who lived in [[Hampstead]], drove to his in-laws' home late at night to retrieve his wallet.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fox |first=Margalit |title=Riddle of the Labyrinth}}</ref> On the way home, he died instantly in a collision in [[Hatfield, Hertfordshire]], after striking a parked [[lorry]] parked in a [[Rest area|lay-by]] on the side of the road.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chadwick |first=John |title=The decipherment of Linear B |pages=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Andrew |title=The man who deciphered Linear B |pages=150–152}}</ref> The coroner's verdict was accidental death.<ref>{{harvnb|Robinson|2002|p=151}}</ref> In 1959 Ventris was [[Posthumous award|posthumously]] awarded the British Academy's [[Kenyon Medal]].

Initially there was some academic scepticism about the decipherment, continuing into the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://sunypress.edu/Books/L/Linear-B-Decipherment-Controversy-Re-Examined-The|title=Linear B Decipherment Controversy Re-Examined, The|accessdate=9 May 2023|via=sunypress.edu}}</ref> Today the Mycenaean Greek attribution is universally accepted by academics.

An [[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] commemorates Ventris at his home in North End, Hampstead<ref name="EngHet">{{cite web| url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/michael-ventris/|title= VENTRIS, MICHAEL (1922–1956)|publisher=English Heritage| access-date=2021-05-25}}</ref> and a street in [[Heraklion]], the capital of the [[List of islands of Greece|Greek island]] of [[Crete]], was named in his honor.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-11-23|title=Ο ιδιοφυής νεαρός Μάικλ Βέντρις…|url=https://amarysia.gr/arthra-sxolia-main/%ce%bf-%ce%b9%ce%b4%ce%b9%ce%bf%cf%86%cf%85%ce%ae%cf%82-%ce%bd%ce%b5%ce%b1%cf%81%cf%8c%cf%82-%ce%bc%ce%ac%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%bb-%ce%b2%ce%ad%ce%bd%cf%84%cf%81%ce%b9%cf%82|access-date=2021-07-27|website=Εφημερίδα ΑΜΑΡΥΣΙΑ|language=el}}</ref>

The [[Ventris (crater)|Ventris crater]] on the far side of the Moon was named in his honour by the [[International Astronomical Union|IAU]] in 1970.<ref>[https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6349 Ventris], Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)</ref>

==Bibliography==
*Ventris, M. G. F. ''Introducing the Minoan Language'', essay article in ''[[American Journal of Archaeology]] XLIV/4'' October–December 1940.
* {{cite book  | title=The languages of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations: mid-century report | first=Michael | last=Ventris | location=London | publisher=Michael Ventris | year=1950}}
* {{cite book  | title=A preliminary analysis of the language contained in the Mycenaean Archives from Pylos in Messenia | first=Michael | last=Ventris | author-mask=2 | year=1951}}
* {{cite journal  | first1=Ventris | last1=Michael | first2=John | last2=Chadwick | author-mask=2 | year=1953 | jstor=628239 | title=Evidence for Greek Dialect in the Mycenaean Archives | journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies | volume= 73 | pages=84–103| doi=10.2307/628239 | s2cid=163873642 }}
* {{cite book | title=King Nestor's Four-handled Cups: Greek Inventories in the Minoan Script | first=Michael | last=Ventris | author-mask=2 | location=Indianapolis | publisher=Bobbs-Merrill | year=1954}}
* Ventris, Michael ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' Volume LXXVI 1956 p.&nbsp;146 Review of two Russian language works by [[V. I. Georgiev]].
* {{cite book  | last1=Ventris | first1=Michael | last2=Chadwick | first2=John | author-mask=2 | title=Documents in Mycenaean Greek | url=https://archive.org/details/documentsinmycen0000vent | url-access=registration | location=Cambridge | publisher=Second edition (1974). [[Cambridge University Press|Cambridge UP]] | year=1956A | isbn=0-521-08558-6}}
* {{cite book | title=Mycenaean furniture on the Pylos tablets | first=Michael | last=Ventris | author-mask=2 | location=Uppsala | publisher=Eranos förlag | year=1956B}}
* {{cite book  | last1=Ventris | first1=Michael | last2=Sacconi | first2=Anna | author-mask=2 | title=Work notes on Minoan language research and other unedited papers | series=Incunabula Graeca, 90 | location=Roma | publisher=Edizioni dell'Ateneo | year=1988}}

==See also==
* [[Emmett L. Bennett, Jr.|Emmett Bennett]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Chadwick |first=John | author-link=John Chadwick | url=https://archive.org/details/deciphermentofli0000chad_q9j1/page/n5/mode/2up | title=The Decipherment of Linear B | publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]] | year=1990|orig-year=1958 |edition=2nd |isbn=0-521-39830-4}}
* {{cite book |author=Fox, Margalit |author-link=Margalit Fox |year=2013 |title=The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code |publisher=[[Ecco Press|Ecco]] |isbn=978-0062228833}}
* {{cite book |  first=Andrew | last=Robinson | author-link=Andrew Robinson (author) | title=The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris | location=New York | publisher=Thames & Hudson Ltd | year=2002 | isbn=0-500-51077-6}}
* {{cite book |  first=Thomas G | last=Palaima | author-link=Thomas G. Palaima | url=http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/oldsite/publications/pdf/unlocking.pdf | title=Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing: The Parallel Lives of Michael Ventris and Linda Schele and the Decipherment of Mycenaean and Mayan Writing: Catalogue of an Exhibition in Conjunction with the Eleventh International Mycenological Colloquium | year=2000
| location=Austin | publisher= [[University of Texas at Austin]] | isbn=0-9649410-4-X}}

==External links==
* {{cite video | title=Michael Ventris Videos | author=BBC | date=2005 | url=http://www.ovguide.com/michael-ventris-9202a8c04000641f8000000000027913 | publisher=OVGuide | access-date=12 April 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017210653/http://www.ovguide.com/michael-ventris-9202a8c04000641f8000000000027913 | archive-date=17 October 2013 | url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web | title=Michael Ventris Papers | url=http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/Ventris%20Kober%20finding%20aids/Michael%20Ventris%20Papers%20Finding%20Aid.pdf | publisher=Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP), Classics Department, University of Texas at Austin | access-date=13 April 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020123028/http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/Ventris%20Kober%20finding%20aids/Michael%20Ventris%20Papers%20Finding%20Aid.pdf | archive-date=20 October 2012 | url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web | first=Tom | last=Engels | title=Michael Ventris: Decipherer of Linear B | url=http://www.66south.com/Ventris/ | publisher=66South.com | access-date=13 April 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628061936/http://www.66south.com/Ventris/ | archive-date=28 June 2013 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventris, Michael}}
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:1956 deaths]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force officers]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:English people of Polish descent]]
[[Category:English philologists]]
[[Category:Architects from Hertfordshire]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:People educated at Stowe School]]
[[Category:Scholars of Mycenaean Greek]]
[[Category:Hellenic epigraphers]]
[[Category:Road incident deaths in England]]
[[Category:20th-century English architects]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:British expatriates in Switzerland]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Hertfordshire]]
[[Category:Linear B]]