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DISCOVERY The Phaistos Disc was discovered in the basement of room 8 in building 101 of the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos , near Hagia Triada , on the south coast of Crete . Italian Archaeologist Luigi Pernier recovered this remarkably intact "dish", about 15 cm in diameter and uniformly just over 1 cm thick, on July 3 1908 . Luigi Pernier discovered the disc during his Excavation of the first Minoan palace. It was found in the main cell of an underground "temple depository". These basement cells, only accessible from above, were neatly covered with a layer of fine Plaster . Their context was poor in precious artifacts but rich in black earth and ashes, mixed with burnt Bovine bones. In the northern part of the main cell, in the same black layer, a few inches south-east of the disc and about twenty inches above the floor, Linear A Tablet PH-1 was also found. The site apparently collapsed as a result of an Earthquake , possibly linked with the explosive eruption of the Santorini volcano that affected large parts of the Mediterranean region ''ca.'' 1628 BCE . DATING Yves Duhoux (1977) dates the disc to between 1850 BCE and 1600 BCE on the basis of L. Pernier's report, which says that the Disc was in a Middle Minoan undisturbed context. Jeppesen (1963) dates it to after 1400 on the basis of a wrong translation of Pernier's report. Doubting the viability of Pernier's report, Louis Godart (1990) resigns himself to admitting that archaeologically, the disc may be dated to anywhere in Middle or Late Minoan times. J. Best (in Achterberg et al. 2004) suggests a date in the first half of the 14th century based on his dating of tablet PH 1. SIMILAR OBJECTS No object directly comparable to the Phaistos Disc has been found. There is, however, a small number of comparable symbols known from other Cretan inscriptions, known summarily as is more distantly related. Finally, there is a seal fragment (HM 992), dated to the 18th century, bearing the "double comb" sign (21). No inscription made with the same set of stamps has been found. Other artifacts bearing spiral-shaped inscriptions are known both from Crete and the Aegaean in general, and even from Etruria . A spiralling Linear A inscription is found on the golden ring of Mavro Spelio near Knossos (KN Zf 13). The Iron Age Discus Of Magliano bears a spiralling inscription in Etruscan . A very peculiar find was made in 1992 in a basement in Vladikavkaz , North Ossetia : A fragment of an apparent copy of, or draft for the Phaistos disc, with the symbols incised with a stylus rather than imprinted. It is uncertain whether this artifact is genuinely ancient, a good faith modern copy of the Phaistos disc, or a bad faith attempt at forgery. The house in the basement of which the fragment was found was built in 1880. Allegedly, the object was recognized as a fake and returned to its private owner. THE INSCRIPTION yielding a frequency distribution of :19-18-17-15-12-11-11-11-11-7-6-6-6-6-6-6-5-5-5-4-4-4-4-4-4-3-3-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 The nine '' Hapax es'' are 04 (A5), 05 (B3), 11 (A13), 15 (B8), 17 (A24), 30 (B27), 42 (B9), 43 (B4), 44 (A7). Of the eight twice-occurring symbols, four (03, 21, 28, 41) occur on side A only, three (09, 16, 20) on side B only, and only one (14) on both sides. Strokes There are a number of signs marked with an oblique stroke, the strokes are not imprinted but carved by hand and are attached to the first or last sign of a "word", depending on the direction of reading chosen. Their meaning is a matter of discussion. One hypothesis, supported by Evans, Duhoux, Ohlenroth and others, is that they were used to subdivide the text into paragraphs, but alternative meanings have been offered by other scholars. Direction Evans argued that the disc had been written, and should be read, from the center out; because it would have been easiest to place the inscription first and then size the disc to fit the text. There is general agreement that he was wrong, and Evans himself changed his mind: the inscription was made, and should be read, from the outside in toward the centre. The centres of the spirals are not in the centre of the disc, and some of the symbols near the centre are crowded as though the maker was cramped for space. One pair of symbols are set top-to-bottom, so it is hard to tell what order they should be in. Except in the cramped section, when there are overstrikes, the inner symbol overlies the outer symbol. Jean Faucounau has proposed a reconstruction of the scribe's movements, which would also require an inward direction; Yves Duhoux says that any outward reading may be discarded. Despite this consensus, there are still a few such attempted decipherments (e.g. Massey 2003). In addition to the question of the directionality of the text on the disc itself, different viewpoints are held as to how the Phaistos Disc characters should be displayed when transcribed into text. The disc itself probably has right-to-left directionality (like Arabic), if reading proceeds from the outside th the centre; this means that the reading direction is into the faces of the people and animals, as it is in Egyptian and Luwian. Phaistos Disc characters are shown with left-to-right directionality in this article; which is also the typical practice for edited Egyptian and Luwian text. Inscription text There are 61 "words", 31 on side A and 30 on side B (numbered A1 to A31 and B1 to B30, outside to inside), here read outside-to-inside (putting the "plumed head" signs word-initially and the strokes word-finally). The shortest words are two symbols in length, the longest seven symbols. The strokes are here transcribed as diagonal strokes (/). The transcription begins at the vertical line of five dots, circling the rim of the disc once, clockwise (13 words on A, 12 words on B) before spiralling towards the center (18 more words on each side). There is one word-final effaced sign at A8, which Godart notes as resembling sign 3 or 20; or less probably 8 or 44. Evans considered side A as the front side, but technical arguments have since been forwarded favouring side B as the front side. The signs in the transcription below appear in left-to-right orientation, and the reader may read into the faces of the human and animal figures (as one does in Egyptian and Luwian hieroglyphics: In numerical transcription:There is no Unicode encoding for the symbols, but the ConScript Unicode Registry has assigned a block of the Unicode Private Use Area to be used for the script. Two fonts include support for this area; Code2000 and Everson Mono Phaistos . Side A: :02-12-13-01-18/ 24-40-12 29-45-07/ 29-29-34 02-12-04-40-33 27-45-07-12 27-44-08 02-12-06-18-? 31-26-35 02-12-41-19-35 01-41-40-07 02-12-32-23-38/ 39-11 :02-27-25-10-23-18 28-01/ 02-12-31-26/ 02-12-27-27-35-37-21 33-23 02-12-31-26/ 02-27-25-10-23-18 28-01/ 02-12-31-26/ 02-12-27-14-32-18-27 06-18-17-19 31-26-12 02-12-13-01 23-19-35/ 10-03-38 02-12-27-27-35-37-21 13-01 10-03-38 Side B: :02-12-22-40-07 27-45-07-35 02-37-23-05/ 22-25-27 33-24-20-12 16-23-18-43/ 13-01-39-33 15-07-13-01-18 22-37-42-25 07-24-40-35 02-26-36-40 27-25-38-01 :29-24-24-20-35 16-14-18 29-33-01 06-35-32-39-33 02-09-27-01 29-36-07-08/ 29-08-13 29-45-07/ 22-29-36-07-08/ 27-34-23-25 07-18-35 07-45-07/ 07-23-18-24 22-29-36-07-08/ 09-30-39-18-07 02-06-35-23-07 29-34-23-25 45-07/ The "plumed head" (02) only ever occurs word-initially, in 13 instances followed by the "shield" (12, which in some instances also occurs word-finally). Six words occur twice each: The three-word sequence 02-27-25-10-23-18 28-01/ 02-12-31-26/ occurs twice (A14-16, A20-22). 02-12-31-26/ recurs for a third time (A19). Four more words occur twice each, 02-12-27-27-35-37-21 (A17, A29), 10-03-38 (A28, A31), 22-29-36-07-08/ (B21, B26) and 29-45-07/ (A3, B20). DECIPHERMENT ATTEMPTS A great deal of speculation developed around the disc during the 20th Century . The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur archeologists. Many attempts have been made to Decipher the code behind the disc's signs. Historically, almost anything has been proposed, including prayers, a narrative or an adventure story, a " Psalterion ", a call to arms, a Board Game , and a geometric Theorem . Some of the more fanciful interpretations of its meaning are classic examples of Pseudoarchaeology . Most linguistic interpretations assume a Syllabary , based on the proportion of 45 symbols in a text of 241 tokens typical for that type of script; some assume a syllabary with interspersed ideographic symbols, a property of every known syllabary of the Ancient Near East (Linear B as well as cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing). There are, however, also alphabetic and purely ideographical interpretations. While enthusiasts still believe the mystery can be solved, scholarly attempts at decipherment are thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the signs turn up somewhere, as it is generally thought that there isn't enough context available for meaningful analysis. Any decipherment without external confirmation, such as successful comparison to other inscriptions, is unlikely to be accepted as conclusive. Origin of the script Cretan or foreign origin? There are a few main theories about the origin of the signs. Until recently, most scholars have argued strongly against the local origin of the artifact. Evans (1909:24f.) wrote that "when one comes to compare the figures in detail with those of the Minoan Hieroglyphic Signary , very great discrepancy is observable... Out of the forty-five separate signs on the Phaistos Disk, no more than ten more or less resemble Cretan hieroglyphic forms... The human figures in their outline and costume are non-Minoan... The representation of the ship also differs from all similar designs that occur either among the hieroglyphic or the linear documents of Crete" Ipsen (1929:15) concluded that the Disc was certainly from somewhere on the Aegean. Because of its differences from Linear A or B, Ipsen found it tempting to assume, like Evans, a non-Cretan origin for the Disc. He observes, however, that since Linear A was a common Aegean script such an assumption will not resolve the problem of multiplicity. The Arkhalohori Axe and other finds have made Cretan origin more popular: female images with pendulous breasts have also been found at Malia and Phaistos. (Godart 1995:125). Duhoux asserts the Cretan ''provenance'' of the disc; in his review of current research, Trauth (1990:154) comes to the conclusion "Crete as source of the Disc can no longer be called into question". Original invention or derivation? Ipsen (1929:11) also speaks against an entirely independent origin of the scripts, arguing that its inventors did not leap from no knowledge of writing to a syllabic script with these elegant signs. He goes on to cite Hieroglyphic Luwian as a "perfect parallel" (Ipsen 1929: 17) of an original script inspired under the direct influence of other scripts (its symbol values inspired by cuneiform, its shapes by Egyptian hieroglyphs) Schwartz (1956:108) asserts a genetic relationship between the Phaistos Disc script and the Cretan linear scripts. Among the known scripts, there are three main candidates for being related to the Disc's script, all of them partly syllabic, partly ideographic: Linear A , Luwian Hieroglyphs and Egyptian Hieroglyphs . More remote possibilities are comparison with the Proto-Canaanite Abjad or the Byblos Syllabary . Linear A Some signs are close enough to Linear A and Linear B that they may have the same phonetic value, like 12 = ''qe'', 43 = ''ta2, or 31 = ''ku''. A recent systematic comparison with Linear A is that of Torsten Timm, character distribution patterns collected by Facchetti3 Timm concludes that the language of the Disc inscription is the same as the language of Linear A. Timm identifies 20 of the 45 characters with Linear signs, assigning Linear B phonetic values to 16. Luwian hieroglyphs Achterberg et al. (2004) present a systematic comparison with Luwian Hieroglyphs , resulting in a full decipherment claim (see below).In particular, they consider the stroke symbol cognate to the Luwian ''r(a/i)'' symbol, but assign it the value ''-ti''. The stroke on A3 is identified as the personal name determinative. 01 is compared to the logogram ''SARU'', a walking man or walking legs in Luwian. 02 is compared to word-initial ''a2'', a head with a crown in Luwian. The "bow" 11 is identified as the logogram ''sol suus'', the Winged Sun known from Luwian royal seals. The "shield" 12 is compared to the near identical Luwian logogram ''TURPI'' "bread" and assigned the value ''tu''. 39 they read as the " Thunderbolt ", ideogram of Tarhunt , in Luwian a W-shaped hieroglyph. List of decipherment claims See Also: Phaistos Disc decipherment claims :The decipherment claims listed are categorized into linguistic decipherments, identifying the language of the inscription, and non-linguistic decipherments. A purely ideographical reading is not linguistic in the strict sense: while it may reveal the meaning of the inscription, it would not allow us to identify the underlying language. Linguistic
Non-linguistic or ideographic
NOTES SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY General
Attempted decipherments This list contains off-line accounts of various decipherments mentioned above
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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