Lydia Baumbach (1924 – 9 February 1991) was a South African classical scholar, known particularly for her work in the field of Mycenaean studies.

[1][2] Lydia Baumbach was born in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 1924, to a German missionary family associated with the Rhenish Mission.

She then studied at the University of Stellenbosch, achieving two M.A.s with distinction, one in Latin and one in Greek; for each of these she was awarded an Abe Bailey Scholarship.

[1] From 1955 to 1957 she attended the University of Cambridge as an Affiliated Student at Newnham College; during this period she studied the Linear B script under the supervision of John Chadwick, which she would continue to focus on in her research throughout her later career.

[3][5][6][7][8] She also published studies focusing in detail on individual Linear B tablets or series of tablets,[9][10] as well as a series of articles on the personal names in the Linear B texts, focusing on what the proportions of Greek or non-Greek names found amongst different groups of people showed about Mycenaean society.