Michael Ventris

Michael George Francis Ventris, OBE was an English linguist and architect who, along with John Chadwick and Alice Kober, deciphered Linear B, a previously unknown ancient script discovered at Knossos by Arthur Evans. A prodigy in languages, Ventris had pursued the decipherment as an avocation since his teen-age years. After creating a new field of study, Ventris died in an automobile accident a few weeks before publication of his first definitive work, Documents in Mycenaean Greek.