[Verginius Rufus]

The American Carl Blegen found the palace archive at Pylos in 1939, full of Linear B tablets. I think it was that new supply of tablets that allowed Michael Ventris to make his breakthrough in 1952. The Linear B collection from Knossos is still the largest cache of Linear B, if I'm not mistaken.

That should be thalassocracy from the Greek thalassa (actually a loanword from the pre-Greek inhabitants of Greece).

[SunkenCiv]

You’re right, Blegen’s find at Pylos — literally on the first day of his dig there — meant there was a large body of published (undeciphered) Linear B texts for the first time, and that is what Ventris used. By the time he had his breakthrough, Evans had been dead for years, so he never had to eat crow about it. And thanks for the etymology!