The oldest Greek writing was cracked by an architect and self-taught linguist.

1450 BC · 1952 · apart: 3402 years

In 1952 Michael Ventris showed that the Linear B tablets of Crete and Greece were in Greek, centuries older than the Greek alphabet.

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The event

• Palace of Knossosc. 1900 BC · Knossos. The first palace at Knossos was built on Crete as the heart of Minoan civilisation, Europe's first advanced culture. Its maze of halls, frescoes and plumbing later inspired the Greek myth of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur.

15th century BC · 20th century

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