PHAISTOS DISK

Phaistos Disk

Phaistos Disk

Introduction

The Phaistos disk was discovered in 1908 in southern Crete, and apparently dates from about 1700 B.C. It is a two-sided, circular clay tablet, imprinted on both sides, with symbols in a spiral pattern. These symbols were impressed using a set of stamps, rather than being hand-engraved. This suggests a facility for large-scale production of printed material; however, no other samples of the script have ever been found, so the material available for decipherment is very limited. The disk contains a total of 242 distinct symbols, broken into 61 groups. Many of the symbols are pictures of clearly recognizable objects; however attempting to interpret these literally does not lead to any obvious decipherment of the disk. Speculation has thus arisen that the pictograms are somehow being used phonetically, perhaps in a manner similar to Egyption hieroglyphics. Another speculation is that the disk is an artifact having some ceremonial religious function, and does not represent a sample of a developed writing system. This would account for the lack of other exemplars. On the other hand, the use of stamps and implied mass-production capability suggests that other examples may yet be discovered (Aartun, 1992).

The Phaistos Disc is a curious archaeological find, likely dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology. 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 Cretan hieroglyphs. This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Herakleion in Crete, Greece.

There are a total of 241 tokens on the disc, comprising 45 unique signs. Many of these 45 signs represent easily identifiable every-day things. In addition to these, there is a small diagonal line that occurs underneath the final sign in a group a total of 18 times. The disc shows traces of corrections made by the scribe in several places. 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 (Balistier, 2000).

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.

The Phoenician alphabet seamlessly continues the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention called Phoenician from the mid 11th ...