Friends Study Morning - Codebreakers and Groundbreakers with the Antiquities Department

The Codebreakers and Groundbreakers (24 Oct 2017 – 4 Feb 2018) exhibition will bring together, for the first time, the remarkable intellectual achievements and parallel narratives of two groups of ‘codebreakers’ working at the same time, but independently: those involved in breaking the WWII codes and those who deciphered the Linear B script – Europe’s earliest comprehensible writing system. 

 

Through unique archival documents held at the University of Cambridge, the exhibition will explore and celebrate the genius of WWII codebreakers such as Frank Lucas, Frank Adcock and Alan Turing; also of Michael Ventris and John Chadwick (himself a Bletchley codebreaker) who deciphered Linear B.  It will also encourage visitors to explore ‘codebreaking’ in all its forms.

 

This Friends Study Morning will focus on the different yet interlinked themes in the exhibition, such as the world of Bronze Age Greece and the decipherment of the Linear B script; the role of classicists at Bletchley Park during WWII; Alan Turing and his role in breaking the Enigma codes and finally the importance of codebreaking and intelligence after WWII, leading to the evolution of modern cryptography.