The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris

Download The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500770778
Total Pages : 195 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris written by Andrew Robinson and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Highly readable . . . a fitting tribute to the quiet outsider who taught the professionals their business and increased our knowledge of the human past.”—Archaeology Odyssey More than a century ago, in 1900, one of the great archaeological finds of all time was made in Crete. Arthur Evans discovered what he believed was the palace of King Minos, with its notorious labyrinth, home of the Minotaur. As a result, Evans became obsessed with one of the epic intellectual stories of the modern era: the search for the meaning of Linear B, the mysterious script found on clay tablets in the ruined palace. Evans died without achieving his objective, and it was left to the enigmatic Michael Ventris to crack the code in 1952. This is the first book to tell not just the story of Linear B but also that of the young man who deciphered it. Based on hundreds of unpublished letters, interviews with survivors, and other primary sources, Andrew Robinson’s riveting account takes the reader through the life of this intriguing and contradictory man. Stage by stage, we see how Ventris finally achieved the breakthrough that revealed Linear B as the earliest comprehensible European writing system.

The Decipherment of Linear B

Download The Decipherment of Linear B PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110771723X
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (77 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Decipherment of Linear B by : John Chadwick

Download or read book The Decipherment of Linear B written by John Chadwick and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990-09-13 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The languages of the ancient world and the mysterious scripts, long undeciphered, in which they were encoded have represented one of the most intriguing problems of classical archaeology in modern times. This celebrated account of the decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris was written by his close collaborator in the momentous discovery. In revealing the secrets of Linear B it offers a valuable survey of late Minoan and Myceanean archaeology, uncovering fascinating details of the religion and economic history of an ancient civilisation.

The Riddle of the Labyrinth

Download The Riddle of the Labyrinth PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062228889
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (622 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Riddle of the Labyrinth by : Margalit Fox

Download or read book The Riddle of the Labyrinth written by Margalit Fox and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The discovery and deciphering of Europe’s earliest known written language is recounted with “almost nail-biting suspense” in this prize-winning account (Booklist, starred review). In 1900, famed archaeologist Arthur Evans uncovered the ruins of Knossos, a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece’s Classical Age. The massive discovery included a cache of ancient tablets, Europe’s earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain an enigma. Award–winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox follows this intellectual mystery from the Bronze Age Aegean to a legendary archeological dig at the turn of the twentieth century, and on to the brilliant decipherers who finally cracked the code in the 1950s. These include Michael Ventris, the amateur linguist who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of his findings; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code. Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing

Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore

Download Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521590181
Total Pages : 608 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore by : Rabindranath Tagore

Download or read book Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore written by Rabindranath Tagore and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-06-26 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A selection of some 350 letters spanning Nobel prize-winning writer Rabindranath Tagore's entire life - the first to be available to English readers.

The Last Man who Knew Everything

Download The Last Man who Knew Everything PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781805110248
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Last Man who Knew Everything by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book The Last Man who Knew Everything written by Andrew Robinson and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction

Download Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199567786
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction written by Andrew Robinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-27 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Starting with the origins of writing five thousand years ago, with cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, Andrew Robinson explains how these early forms of writing developed into hundreds of scripts including the Roman alphabet and the Chinese characters. He reveals how the modern writing system we take for granted - including airport signage and electronic text messaging - resemble ancient scripts much more closely than we think." --Book Jacket.

Sudden Genius?

Download Sudden Genius? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199569959
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sudden Genius? by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book Sudden Genius? written by Andrew Robinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-09-16 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genius and breakthroughs appear to involve something magical. Andrew Robinson looks at what science does, and does not, know about exceptional creativity, and applied it to the stories of ten breakthroughs in the arts and sciences, including Curie's discovery of radium and Mozart's composing of The Marriage of Figaro.

Lost Languages

Download Lost Languages PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780500288160
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (881 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lost Languages by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book Lost Languages written by Andrew Robinson and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Undeciphered scripts have long tantalized the public, whether it's the possibility of hearing the voices of ancient peoples or the puzzle solver's taste for the challenges posed by breaking codes. Here, Andrew Robinson investigates the most famous examples, beginning with the stories of three great decipherments: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Maya glyphs, and the Minoan Linear B clay tablets. He then covers the important scripts that have yet to be cracked, such as the Etruscan alphabet and Rongorongo from Easter Island.

Earth-Shattering Events: Earthquakes, Nations, and Civilization

Download Earth-Shattering Events: Earthquakes, Nations, and Civilization PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 050077370X
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Earth-Shattering Events: Earthquakes, Nations, and Civilization by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book Earth-Shattering Events: Earthquakes, Nations, and Civilization written by Andrew Robinson and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A truly welcome and refreshing study that puts earthquake impact on history into a proper perspective." --Amos Nur, Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, Stanford University, California, and author of Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God Since antiquity, on every continent, human beings in search of attractive landscapes and economic prosperity have made a Faustian bargain with the risk of devastation by an earthquake. Today, around half of the world’s largest cities – as many as sixty – lie in areas of major seismic activity. Many, such as Lisbon, Naples, San Francisco, Teheran, and Tokyo, have been severely damaged or destroyed by earthquakes in the past. But throughout history, starting with ancient Jericho, Rome, and Sparta, cities have proved to be extraordinarily resilient: only one, Port Royal in the Caribbean, was abandoned after an earthquake. Earth-Shattering Events seeks to understand exactly how humans and earthquakes have interacted, not only in the short term but also in the long perspective of history. In some cases, physical devastation has been followed by decline. But in others, the political and economic reverberations of earthquake disasters have presented opportunities for renewal. After its wholesale destruction in 1906, San Francisco went on to flourish, eventually giving birth to the high-tech industrial area on the San Andreas fault known as Silicon Valley. An earthquake in Caracas in 1812 triggered the creation of new nations in the liberation of South America from Spanish rule. Another in Tangshan in 1976 catalysed the transformation of China into the world’s second largest economy. The growth of the scientific study of earthquakes is woven into this far-reaching history. It began with a series of earthquakes in England in 1750. Today, seismologists can monitor the vibration of the planet second by second and the movement of tectonic plates millimeter by millimeter. Yet, even in the 21st century, great earthquakes are still essentially "acts of God," striking with much less warning than volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, and even tornadoes and tsunamis.

India: A Short History (A Short History)

Download India: A Short History (A Short History) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500771952
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis India: A Short History (A Short History) by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book India: A Short History (A Short History) written by Andrew Robinson and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India’s unfolding story, from the ancient Hindu dynasties to the coming of Islam, from the Mughal Empire to the present day India has always been a land of great contradictions. To Alexander the Great, the country was a place of clever naked philosophers and massive armies mounted on elephants – which eventually forced his army to retreat. To ancient Rome, it was a source of luxuries, mainly spices and textiles, paid for in gold—hence the enormous numbers of Roman gold coins excavated in India. At the height of the Mughal empire in 1700, India boasted 24 percent of the world economy—a share virtually equal to Europe’s 25 percent. But then its economy declined. Colonial India was known for its extremes of wealth and poverty, epitomized by the Taj Mahal and famines, maharajas and untouchables, and also for its spirituality: many-armed Hindu gods and Buddhist philosophy, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. India: A Short History places as much emphasis on individuals, ideas and cultures as on the rise and fall of kingdoms, political parties and economies. Anyone curious about a great civilization, and its future, will find this an ideal introduction, at times controversial, written by an author who has been strongly engaged with India for more than three decades.

The Mycenaean World

Download The Mycenaean World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521290371
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (93 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Mycenaean World by : John Chadwick

Download or read book The Mycenaean World written by John Chadwick and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1976-03-25 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Chadwick summarizes the results of research into Mycenaean Greece.

Cracking the Egyptian Code

Download Cracking the Egyptian Code PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199942900
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cracking the Egyptian Code by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book Cracking the Egyptian Code written by Andrew Robinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1799 Napoleon's army uncovered an ancient stele in the Nile delta. Its inscription, recorded in three distinct scripts--ancient Greek, Coptic, and hieroglyphic--would provide scholars with the first clues to unlocking the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs, a language lost for nearly two millennia. More than twenty years later a remarkably gifted Frenchman named Jean-Francois Champollion successfully deciphered the hieroglyphs on the stele, now commonly known as the Rosetta Stone, sparking a revolution in our knowledge of ancient Egypt. Cracking the Egyptian Code is the first biography in English of Champollion, widely regarded as the founder of Egyptology. Andrew Robinson meticulously reconstructs how Champollion cracked the code of the hieroglyphic script, describing how Champollion started with Egyptian obelisks in Rome and papyri in European collections, sailed the Nile for a year, studied the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (a name he first coined), and carefully compared the three scripts on the Rosetta Stone to penetrate the mystery of the hieroglyphic text. Robinson also brings to life the rivalry between Champollion and the English scientist Thomas Young, who claimed credit for launching the decipherment, which Champollion hotly denied. There is much more to Champollion's life than the Rosetta Stone and Robinson gives equal weight to the many roles he played in his tragically brief life, from a teenage professor in Revolutionary France to a supporter of Napoleon (whom he met), an exile, and a curator at the Louvre. Extensively illustrated in color and black-and-white pictures, Cracking the Egyptian Code will appeal to a wide readership interested in Egypt, decipherment and code-breaking, and Napoleon and the French Revolution.

Minoan Linear A

Download Minoan Linear A PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520332075
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Minoan Linear A by : David W. Packard

Download or read book Minoan Linear A written by David W. Packard and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Code Book: The Secrets Behind Codebreaking

Download The Code Book: The Secrets Behind Codebreaking PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Delacorte Press
ISBN 13 : 0375890122
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (758 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Code Book: The Secrets Behind Codebreaking by : Simon Singh

Download or read book The Code Book: The Secrets Behind Codebreaking written by Simon Singh and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2002-05-14 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "As gripping as a good thriller." --The Washington Post Unpack the science of secrecy and discover the methods behind cryptography--the encoding and decoding of information--in this clear and easy-to-understand young adult adaptation of the national bestseller that's perfect for this age of WikiLeaks, the Sony hack, and other events that reveal the extent to which our technology is never quite as secure as we want to believe. Coders and codebreakers alike will be fascinated by history's most mesmerizing stories of intrigue and cunning--from Julius Caesar and his Caeser cipher to the Allies' use of the Enigma machine to decode German messages during World War II. Accessible, compelling, and timely, The Code Book is sure to make readers see the past--and the future--in a whole new way. "Singh's power of explaining complex ideas is as dazzling as ever." --The Guardian

Linear A & The Decipherment of Minoan Language

Download Linear A & The Decipherment of Minoan Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781735187402
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (874 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Linear A & The Decipherment of Minoan Language by : Lee Buchwalder

Download or read book Linear A & The Decipherment of Minoan Language written by Lee Buchwalder and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The language of the Minoan people has remained an enigma for more than a century since their ancient civilization was discovered. The script that records it, known as Linear A, has long been thought to use the same sounds and symbols as its successor-Linear B. After Linear B was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, and was found to represent an archaic form of Greek, the language of the earlier Linear A script continued to defy all those attempting to read it. A recent insight regarding synonym-parallels in ancient Minoan texts has now illuminated their meaning for the first time. This book guides the reader through the Linear A decipherment process and provides English translations for many of the most important Minoan artifacts. So enter the labyrinth as Europe's first great civilization is finally given voice after three and a half thousand years, and discover how its people have actually been speaking to us all along.

Einstein on the Run

Download Einstein on the Run PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300234767
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Einstein on the Run by : Andrew Robinson

Download or read book Einstein on the Run written by Andrew Robinson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first account of the role Britain played in Einstein's life--first by inspiring his teenage passion for physics, then by providing refuge from the Nazis In autumn 1933, Albert Einstein found himself living alone in an isolated holiday hut in rural England. There, he toiled peacefully at mathematics while occasionally stepping out for walks or to play his violin. But how had Einstein come to abandon his Berlin home and go '"on the run"? In this lively account, Andrew Robinson tells the story of the world's greatest scientist and Britain for the first time, showing why Britain was the perfect refuge for Einstein from rumored assassination by Nazi agents. Young Einstein's passion for British physics, epitomized by Newton, had sparked his scientific development around 1900. British astronomers had confirmed his general theory of relativity, making him internationally famous in 1919. Welcomed by the British people, who helped him campaign against Nazi anti-Semitism, he even intended to become a British citizen. So why did Einstein then leave Britain, never to return to Europe?

Athena Sings

Download Athena Sings PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
ISBN 13 : 9780802085801
Total Pages : 124 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (858 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Athena Sings by : M. Owen Lee

Download or read book Athena Sings written by M. Owen Lee and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Wagner's knowledge of and passion for Greek drama was so profound that for Friedrich Nietzsche, Wagner was Aeschylus come alive again. Surprisingly little has been written about the pervasive influence of classical Greece on the quintessentially German master. In this elegant and masterfully argued book, renowned opera critic Father Owen Lee describes for the contemporary reader what it might have been like to witness a dramatic performance of Aeschylus in the theatre of Dionysus in Athens in the fifth century B.C. – something that Wagner himself undertook to do on several occasions, imagining a performance of The Oresteia in his mind, reading it aloud to his friends, providing his own commentary, and relating the Greek classic drama to his own romantic view. Father Lee also uses Wagner's writings on Greece and entries from his wife's diaries to cast new light on Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, Parsifal, and especially the mighty Ring cycle, where Wagner made extensive use of Greek elements to give structural unity and dramatic credibility to his Nordic and Germanic myths. No opera fan, argues Father Lee, can really understand Wagner saving Brünhilde without knowing the Athena who, in Greek drama, first brought justice to Athens. Written with a clarity and depth of knowledge that have characterized all Father Lee's books on the classics of Greece and Rome and made his six other volumes of opera bestsellers, Athena Sings traces the profound influence – an influence few music lovers are aware of – that Greek theatre and culture had on the most German of composers and his revolutionary musical dramas.