Michael George Francis Ventris, OBE (; 12 July 1922 – 6 September 1956) was an English linguist and architect who, along with John Chadwick and Alice Kober, deciphered Linear B, a previously unknown ancient script discovered at Knossos by Arthur Evans. A prodigy in languages, Ventris had pursued the decipherment as a vocation since his adolescence. After creating a new field of study, Ventris died in an automobile accident a few weeks before the publication of his definitive work, Documents in Mycenaean Greek.