The Decipherment of Linear B
For 50 years the strange, mysterious script discovered on baked clay tablets at Knossos in Crete remained undeciphered. Scholars and classicists were baffled. Then, in 1952, MICHAEL VENTRIS , a young architect, cracked Linear B and electrified the archaeological world. Rene Cutforth tells the story of the decipherment, and of its effect on a longstanding dispute between the grand old man of British archaeology, Sir Arthur Evans , and a young Englishman Alan Wace who claimed that Evans's theories about Greece 3,500 years ago were wrong - and who was made to suffer for his heresy.
Sound recordist RON BROWN Film cameraman PETER HALL
Written and produced by ROY DAVIES Executive producer PAUL JOHNSTONE