The One, Who Found a Way Out of the Labyrinth: How an American Researcher Alice E. Kober Discovered an Ancient History to Us

The purpose of the article is to determine the leading role of the American researcher Alice Elizabeth Kober in deciphering Cretan Linear B using the combinatorial method of linguistic analysis. The research methodology is based on the use of source studies, archival studies, biographical and comparative historical research methods. The scientific novelty. Thanks to the opening of access to the archive of A. Kober at the University of Texas at Austin, for the first time an opportunity was obtained to learn about her personality, ideas, the purpose of her research, to investigate the enormous work she performed in the process of scientific research, as well as to determine her leading role in deciphering the Linear B. Conclusions. Until the beginning of 21 century the authors of the publications considered Michael George Francis Ventris to be the author of the successful decipherment of linear B. However, after the opening of access to the archives of A. Kober, it became clear that without her research the decipherment of linear B would have been impossible. With the help of a personally created card library of more than 180,000 index cards, A. Kober discovered that the language of linear B is inflected, correctly identified many determinatives and created a prototype of the «grid» – a table of stable combinations of words, in which she displayed the endings of the masculine and feminine genders and other grammatical word endings. Further work of scientists allowed to complete the decipherment and to determine that the language of Linear B is pre-Greek. Thanks to the efforts of A. Kober and other scientists, humanity learned a lot about ancient times, but this is a story not only about Bronze Age civilization of Crete, which became the cradle of the brilliant civilization of ancient Greece, but also of the entire modern European culture. It is also the history of Europe, to which we, Ukrainians, belong territorially, historically, linguistically and mentally. And we should know this story. References: 1. Colmenares, E. E. & Morvay, J. M. (2019). Affective (An)Archive as Method. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 10(2–3), 310–329. Retrieved from URL: https://is.gd/o3P6VL [in English]. https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.36812. Dürig, R. (2021). Deciphering the Silence : A Literary Journey to Alice E. Kober. (Doktor’s thesis). University of Plymouth. Retrieved from https://is.gd/koPRya [in English].3. Dürig, R. (2020). Journey to Alice – Exploring the blanks of Alice Kober’s life within creative writing. Retrieved from https://is.gd/xn3YvX [in English].4. Fox, M. (2013, May 10). Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No More. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/sunday-review/alice-e-kober-43-lost-to-history-no-more.html [in English].5. Fox, M. (2013). The Riddle of the Labyrinth : The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code. New York : ECCO. Retrieved from https://is.gd/1KkyXt [in English].6. Galanakis, I., Christophilopoulou, A. & Grime, J. (Eds.) (2017). Codebreakers and groundbreakers. Fitzwilliam Museum : Cambridge. Retrieved from https://is.gd/q4VvY2 [in English].7. Homer. (2013). Iliada [The Iliad] (p. 111). Kharkiv : Folio. Retrieved from https://is.gd/2jy6M8 [in Ukrainian].8. Kober, A. E. (1946). Inflection in Linear Class B : 1-Declension. American Journal of Archaeology, 50:2, 270 [in English]. https://doi.org/10.2307/4990549. Kober, A. E. (1948). The Minoan Scripts : Fact and Theory. American Journal of Archaeology, 52:1, 82–103. Retrieved from https://is.gd/hWRymy [in English]. https://doi.org/10.2307/50055410. Papakitsos, E. C. & Kenanidis, I. K. (2016). Cretan Hieroglyphics : The Ornamental and Ritual Version of the Cretan Protolinear Script. Anistoriton Journal, 15 (2), 1–12. Retrieved from https://is.gd/7IKD7G [in English].11. Pierini, R. & Palaima, T. (2020). MASt@CHS – Summer Seminar 2020 (Friday, June 26) : Summaries of Presentations and Discussion by Elizabeth Barber, Thomas Palaima, Rachele Pierini, and Brent Vine. Retrieved from https://is.gd/YiLvGp [in English].12. Robinson, А. & Eiseman, S. (2002). The Man who Deciphered Linear B : The Story of Michael Ventris. London : Thames & Hudson. 168 p. [in English].13. Ventris, M. & Chadwick, J. (1973). Documents in Mycenaean Greek. 2nd ed. Cambridge. Retrieved from https://is.gd/YiLvGp [in English].14. Zielinski, S. & Winthrop­Young, G. (2015). AnArcheology for AnArchives : Why Do We Need – Especially for the Arts – A Complementary Concept to the Archive? Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2(1), 116–125. Retrieved from https://is.gd/iChGiJ [in English]. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i1.27144