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The Riddle of the Labyrinth
- The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the tradition of Simon Winchester and Dava Sobel, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code tells one of the most intriguing stories in the history of language, masterfully blending history, linguistics, and cryptology with an elegantly wrought narrative. When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece's Classical Age, he discovered 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 a mystery.
Award-winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox's riveting real-life intellectual detective story travels from the Bronze Age Aegean-the era of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Helen-to the turn of the 20th century and the work of charismatic English archeologist Arthur Evans, to the colorful personal stories of the decipherers. These include Michael Ventris, the brilliant amateur who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of the decipherment; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.
Critic reviews
"Fox is a talented storyteller, and she creates an atmosphere of almost nail-biting suspense. . . . This one deserves shelf space along such classics of the genre as Simon Singh's The Code Book." (Booklist Starred Review)
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In the summer of 1883, Moses Wilhelm Shapira - archaeological treasure hunter and denizen of Jerusalem's bustling marketplace - arrived unannounced in London claiming to have discovered the world's oldest Bible scroll. When news of the discovery leaked to the excited English press, Shapira became a household name. But before the British Museum could acquire them, Shapira's nemesis, French archaeologist Charles Clermont-Ganneau, denounced his find as a fraud.
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Fascinating!
- By Deborah on 07-27-17
By: Chanan Tigay
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A Mind at Play
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
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I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
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The Discoverers
- A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
- By: Daniel J. Boorstin
- Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove
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Why didn't the Chinese discover America? Why were people so slow to learn the earth goes around the sun? How and why did we begin to think of "species" of plants and animals? How, when, and why did people begin digging in the earth to learn about the past? How did the study of economics begin? These are but a few of the fascinating questions answered by Dr. Boorstin, Librarian of Congress Emeritus.
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One of my Top 10 Fav. Books!
- By shannonnn on 05-09-05
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Kingdom of Characters
- The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
- By: Jing Tsu
- Narrated by: Jing Tsu
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
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After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.
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Missed important information
- By Ms. on 04-01-22
By: Jing Tsu
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The Writing of the Gods
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The Rosetta Stone is one of the most famous objects in the world, attracting millions of visitors to the British museum every year, and yet most people don’t really know what it is. Discovered in a pile of rubble in 1799, this slab of stone proved to be the key to unlocking a lost language that baffled scholars for centuries.
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Hieroglyphs For The People
- By Spike on 01-15-22
By: Edward Dolnick
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Memory Craft
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Groundbreaking anthropologist and memory champion Lynne Kelly reveals how we can use ancient and traditional mnemonic methods to enhance and expand our memory.
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Best
- By Phil F. on 01-31-22
By: Lynne Kelly
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A Most Elegant Equation
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Bertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry". This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's identity, or God's equation, it includes just five numbers but represents an astonishing revelation of hidden connections.
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Good treatment of the subject
- By Kindle Customer on 04-09-18
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Erich von Däniken again shows his flair for revealing truths that his contemporaries have missed. After closely analyzing hundreds of ancient and apparently unrelated texts, he is now ready to proclaim that human history is nothing like the world religions claim---and he has the proof! In History Is Wrong, von Däniken takes a closer look at the fascinating Voynich manuscript, which has defied all attempts at decription since its discovery, and makes some intriguing revelations about the equally incredible book of Enoch.
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Voynich Manuscript to nowhere
- By Mario on 01-05-12
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Babel No More
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We all learn at least one language as children. But what does it take to learn six languages...or seventy? In Babel No More, Michael Erard, "a monolingual with benefits," sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like Italian cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages; Emil Krebs, a pugnacious German diplomat, who spoke sixty-eight languages; and Lomb Kat, a Hungarian who taught herself Russian by reading Russian romance novels.
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Heavy on anecdote, light on science
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The Fourth Part of the World
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- By: Toby Lester
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Brimming with enthralling details and personalities, Toby Lester's The Fourth Part of the World spotlights Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map and recounts the epic tale of the mariners and scholars who facilitated this watershed of Western history.
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I enjoyed it
- By Todd on 07-19-10
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Printer's Error
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Since the Gutenberg Bible first went on sale in 1455, printing has been viewed as one of the highest achievements of human innovation. But the march of progress hasn't been smooth; downright bizarre is more like it. Printer's Error chronicles some of the strangest and most humorous episodes in the history of Western printing. Take, for example, the Gutenberg Bible. While the book is regarded as the first printed work in the Western world, Gutenberg's name doesn't appear anywhere on it.
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Porn for Ye Old Bibliophiles
- By George M. Liveakos on 03-24-17
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The World's Greatest Book
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- By: Lawrence H. Schiffman Ph.D., Jerry Pattengale Ph.D.
- Narrated by: George W. Sarris
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From the earliest oral traditions to ink on parchment and ultimately the printing press, this is the story behind the best-selling book of all time. Original texts were captured and passed down from generation to generation by elders and leaders, many inked by hand in extreme conditions. Christians and Jews canonized the Christian, Catholic, and Hebrew Bibles over a period of thousands of years. Devoted people dedicated their lives throughout time to put this unique book into the hands of people worldwide.
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Couple of errors.
- By Simandl on 12-13-17
By: Lawrence H. Schiffman Ph.D., and others
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What listeners say about The Riddle of the Labyrinth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sires
- 01-11-14
Discovery and Translation of Linear B Script
I can think of few stories in 20th archaeology more intriguing than the discovery and translation of Linear B, one of two scripts discovered on the island of Crete during Sir Arthur Edwards excavations there. However, the story available to the average reader lacks some facts that make the main characters more human. In fact I had heard the name of one of the characters for the first time on a radio program this summer.
Divided into three sections this book deals with a short biography of Sir Arthur Evans, the discoverer of Knossos, a huge bronze age site on Crete. Evans' interpretation of what he found there, for good or ill, has influenced the popular vision of the culture he unearthed. One of the greatest of his finds there was the script known as Linear B. At the time it was discovered it was not known what language it represented. As the discoverer Evans had the first right to publish his findings, but as the decades passed he did not do so and he died in 1941 without having cracked the code.
There were, however, a number of other people working on translating linear B, ranging from serious scholars to out and out crackpots. The person who finally managed to do so was British architect, Michael Ventris. His story is the third told in the book and it was rather interesting to learn more about Ventris, his background and his tragic death.
Between the story of Evans and of Ventris though falls a sketch of Alice Kober, the scholar I had not heard about before the summer of 2013. An American teacher she made some valuable contributions to the work.
The narration is good, the subject matter is interesting and the author presents it in a clear manner. I could see lots of grist for scholarly infighting, but as a simple narrative it is well worth listening to for the story it tells.
Also there are instructions on how to go to Tantor media and download the PDFs that were published with the book. Don't bother. Audible has them in your library for quick and easy download.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Fay
- 10-20-13
Good points and bad
This is not so much a story about how the mystery of Linear B was solved as it is about how a woman could have solved it, probably years earlier, if the world hadn't been so prejudiced against her. And, as an older woman who remembers those times, I am sure that is true. But I lived that story and really didn't need it rubbed in my face again. I'm glad someone finally gives her the credit she is due, but I would have liked more about what she actually figured out and how as opposed to the litany of how she got @#$@# over.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Gary
- 12-13-14
Deciphering needs a process
The author tells the story in three acts: the discovery of the tablets, the unsung heroine, Alice Kober, striving to crack the code, and the actual code cracker Michael Ventris.
There's so much of human nature tied up in this story. You have the discover of the tablets, Arthur Evans, not wanting to share the tables as a whole and wants to keep them as esoterica for his own attempts at solving them. The story of the obsession and logical approach that Alice employs is inspiring and is tinged always with the fact that we the listener knows she will be dying soon.
This story completely held my interest and my mind did not wander while listening, because I was riveted by the details and the process. As the author kept explaining the task at hand I saw the main story as a metaphor for how we learn in life. There's two kinds of approaches to learning (cracking the code of nature), one is deductive (reason) and the other inductive (empirical). To crack the code it first took faith in a deductive approach and certain assumptions needed to be made. But reason alone was not going to crack the code. That's why so many crackpots kept showing up in this story. Coherent stories explaining nature can be told, but coherence alone is not a sufficient condition to explain nature, but coherence is a necessary condition to explain. The crack-pots and amateurs used coherence but not a consistent solution corresponding to reality. The code cracking needed knowledge beyond the tablets themselves for the ultimate decipherment.
The topic is exciting, well explained and the main character and the process they used were inspiring.
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5 people found this helpful
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- sv1227
- 11-08-18
not for everyone but fascinating.
Narration was well done. The story and glimpse of the people and period of exploration and background on how to decipher unknown scripts in unknown language and description of what the scripts revealed about the Mycenaean culture was was very interesting. made w me want to explore too. Very interesting from a women's studies point of view too.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Katwhisper
- 09-02-15
Highly recommended
Ms. Fox did a wonderful job in bringing the Linear A and B tablets alive! I commend her for also bringing to life the efforts of Alice Kober, an American genius, in deciphering the macenian tablets
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- Charley Yeager
- 03-09-15
Significant content in an interesting story
What did you love best about The Riddle of the Labyrinth?
The riddle of this language was suspenseful
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
I was pleased to see the strength of the conclusion
What about Pam Ward’s performance did you like?
it was fine
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
perhaps, many parts moved slow but the book was not overly long
Any additional comments?
Anyone interested in languages would be fascinated to learn the lingual history of Greek and Minoan peoples revealed here.
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- Kelly M O'Donnell
- 12-31-23
Fascinating
Enjoyable telling of the history of the discovery and deciphering of the Linear B tablets of Crete. The explanations of linguistics and the techniques used by decipherers were clear and very exciting. Highly enjoyable for anyone interested in the unraveling of ancient mysteries or code breaking.
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- Tyler
- 06-12-23
Knossos mystery
Linear B uncovered. It’s a good lesson on how being obsessed with a goal to get it done.
Good story with plenty of background info on Knossos.
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Overall
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- Candy Dan
- 05-22-23
Gives Alice Kober her due
The whole story is fascinating, but my favorite part of the story is Alice Kobers passionate and tireless work towards deciphering linear B. She is an unsung heroine of academia!
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Robert S. Shook
- 05-19-23
Outstanding!
Great narrator and great topic well written engaging and informative on how science works with history
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