Phaistos Disc

The Phaistos Disc (Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc, Festos Disc, Greek: Δίσκος της Φαιστού) is a curious archaeological find, most likely dating from about 1700 BC. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology.

Schematic representation (false colour on image).

Discovery

The Phaistos Disc was discovered in the basement of room XL-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.

Archaeological context

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, a few inches south-east of the disk, 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 BC.

Physical description

Side A (Original).

Side B (Original).

The inscription was made by pressing pre-formed hieroglyphic "seals" into the soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiralling towards the disc's center. It was then baked at high temperature.

This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion in Crete, Greece.

Glyphs

There are a total of 241 figures on the disc. Many of the 45 different glyphs 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 disk shows traces of corrections made by the scribe in several places. The 45 symbols have been numbered by A. Evans from 01 to 45, and this numbering has become the conventional reference used by most researchers. Some symbols have been compared with Linear A characters and assigned Linear B values by Fischer, Timm (2005) and others.

01: a walking human figure, occurring 11 times.

02: The most frequent symbol, the "Mohican" head in profile, occurring 19 times.

03: a bald head in profile, with "tatoo" or jewelery on the cheek, occurring twice.

04: "captive", a standing human figure with bound arms, occurring once (A.V)

05: child, occurring once

06: woman, occurring four times

07: "breast", a bell-shaped symbol, occurring 18 times

08: "hand-glove", occurring 5 times

09: "tiara", occurring twice

10: corn ear or arrow, ocurring four times (on side A only)

11: bow, occurring once (A.XIII)

12: dotted circle, "shield", occurring 17 times, compared with Linear B qe

13: "club", occurring six times

14: "yoke", occurring twice

15: pickaxe, occurring once

16: dagger/saw, occurring twice

17: tool for cutting leather", occurring once

18: angle, occurring 12 times, compared with AB 37, Linear B ti

19: Y-shaped branch, occurring 3 times, compared to Linear B sa

20: "drinking vase, made from a shell", occurring twice

21: "floor plan" or "double comb", occurring twice

22: bridle", ocurring five times (on side B only)

23: "pillar", occurring 11 times, compared to AB 05 or AB 06, Linear B to or na

24: "building", occurring six times, compared to Linear B wa

25: boat, occurring seven times

26: horn, occurring six times

27: hide or ingot, occurring 15 times

28: hoof, occurring twice

29: feline head, occurring 11 times

30: ram's head, occurring once

31: bird of prey in flight, occurring five times (on side A only)

32: dove, occurring three times

33: fish, occurring six times

34: fly or bee, occurring three times

35: branch, occurring 11 times, compared to Linear B te

36: bush, occurring four times, compared to Linear B ni (fig tree)

37: plant (thistle), occurring four times

38: flower, occurring four times

39: "crokos"/Ψ-shape, occurring four times

40: occurring six times

41: occurring twice

42: occurring once

43: dotted triangle, occurring once, compared to Linear B ta₂

44: occurring once

45: wave or double strap, occurring six times, compared to Linear B ra₂

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

Strokes

There are a number of glyphs 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.

Inscription text

There are 61 "words", 31 on side A and 30 on side B. The shortest words are two symbols in length, the longest seven symbols. The strokes are transcribed as '\'.

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-\

Direction of printing and Direction of reading

These can be determined by reconstructing the movements of the scribe. It can be shown from various epigraphical facts (overcuts, angular points on the spiral, corrections, etc.), that the text was written, spire by spire, alternating tracing of the spiral and printing of the signs, from the exterior to the center. Moreover, these epigraphical facts (for instance, the fact that most of the corrections were done on the spot by the scribe himself) show that the scribe was "composing" the text as he was printing it. There is therefore no way to dissociate the direction of reading from the direction of printing. All the scholars who have read the text in a counter-clockwise direction have been unable to present a reconstruction of the scribe's movements, coherent both with their hypothesis and with the epigraphical facts.

Attempted decipherment

A great deal of speculation developed around the disc during the 20th century. The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur archeologists. Alas, some of the more fanciful interpretations of its meaning are living classics of pseudoarchaeology. Many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc's glyphs. 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. While many enthusiasts still believe the mystery can be solved, scholarly attempts at decipherment are thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the glyphs turn up somewhere, as it is generally thought that there isn't enough context available for meaningful analysis.

This general opinion is nevertheless disputed by several scholars on the basis of the work of the mathematician Claude Shannon. Shannon's theory of unicity distance implies that, in theory, the text's length is sufficient for reaching only one decipherment that makes sense. However, once this valid solution has been found, it would be necessary to prove it, normally by deciphering another text in the same script. As no second disc has been found, no solution can be verified with absolute certainty.

Uniqueness

The uniqueness of this archaeological object may be invalidated by at least two other apparently related specimens - a votive double axe found by Spyridon Marinatos in the Arkalohori Cave, Crete, and a fragment of a smaller clay disk, found at Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia. But both inscriptions were engraved, not made with stamps. Moreover, the first contains only superficially similar hieroglyphics, and the second, interesting as it might prove, disappeared mysteriously. So far, the Phaistos Disc remains a hapax.

Character encoding

Although there is no official Unicode encoding for the symbols on the disk, 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. The text on the disk is given on the second of these links; you can read that text if you have either of them installed.

List of deciphering attempts

Attempts sorted by date :

• George Hempl, 1911 (interpretation as Ionic Greek, syllabic writing)
  • George Hempl also published an interpretation of Hittite as Doric Greek.
  • A-side first; reading inwards; A-side begins Ἀποσῦλ’ ἂρ...
• Florence Stawell, 1911 (interpretation as Homeric Greek, syllabic writing);
  • Homeric ; note use of long alpha, even after rho.
  • B-side first; reading inward: A-side begins ἄνασσα κῶθί ῥα·....
• Albert Cuny, 1914 (interpretation as ancient Egyptian document, syllabic-ideographic writing);
• Paolo Ballotta, 1974 (interpretation as ideographic writing);
• Jean Faucounau, 1975 (interpretation as Greek dialect, syllabic writing) (reprinted in 1999 and 2001 after gathering substantial evidence [1])
  • Yves Duhoux, L'écriture et le texte du disque de Phaestos in Actes du quatrième Colloque International d'Etudes Crétoises 1976 (accepts the possibility of a Greek dialect and of a syllabic script)
  • Review: Yves Duhoux, How not to decipher the Phaistos Disc, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 104, n° 3, p. 597-600. (criticizes the deciphering attempt, but not the evidence) (PDF 5.9 Mb)
  • Review by P.Faure of the evidence given in the J.Faucounau's book Les Proto-Ioniens in R.E.G. 2002, Vol.15, p.424-425.
• Leon Pomerance, 1976 (interpretation as astronomical document);
• Vladimir Georgiev, 1976 (interpretation as Hittite language, syllabic writing);
• Peter Aleff, 1982 (interpretation as ancient gameboard);
• Steven R. Fischer, 1988 (interpretation as Greek dialect, syllabic writing);
• Ole Hagen, 1988 (interpretation as calendar)
• Harald Haarmann, 1990 (interpretation as ideographic writing);
• Kjell Aartun, 1992 (interpretation as Semitic language, syllabic writing);
  • Thomas Balistier, The Phaistos Disc - an account of its unsolved mystery, Verlag Thomas Balistier, 2000. (Review of K.Aartun's attempt)
• Derk Ohlenroth, 1996 (interpretation as Greek dialect, alphabetic writing);
  • Thomas Balistier, The Phaistos Disc - an account of its unsolved mystery, Verlag Thomas Balistier, 2000. (Review of D.Ohlenroth's attempt)
• Sergei V. Rjabchikov 1998 (interpretation as Slavonic dialect, syllabic writing);
• Friedhelm Will, 2000 (interpretation as document with atlantic origin);
• Keven & Keith Massey, 2003 (interpretation as Greek dialect, syllabic writing);
• Marco Corsini, 2003 (interpretation as Greco-Creto-Egyptian document)
• Torsten Timm, 2005 (reading attempt based upon the hypothesis of a Cretan Script). Based on the Linear A character distribution patterns collected by Facchetti (1999) and on the hypothesis that both scripts are related, Timm concludes that the language of the Disk inscription is the same as the language of Linear A.

References

• Giulio M. Facchetti, Statistical data and morphematic elements in Linear A in: Kadmos, XXXVIII (1999)

Selected bibliography

General

• Thomas Balistier, The Phaistos Disc - an account of its unsolved mystery, Verlag Thomas Balistier, 2000.
• John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B, Cambridge University Press, 1958.
• Yves Duhoux, Le disque de phaestos, Leuven, 1977.
• Louis Godart, The Phaistos Disc - the enigma of an Aegean script, ITANOS Publications, 1995.

Attempted decipherments

This list contains off-line accounts of various decipherments mentioned above

• Jean Faucounau, Le déchiffrement du Disque de Phaistos & Les Proto-Ioniens : histoire d'un peuple oublié, Paris 1999 et 2001
• Hempl, George. "The Solving of an Ancient Riddle: Ionic Greek before Homer". Harper's Monthly Magazine (122, no. 728 (Jan 1911)): 187–198.
• Stawell, F. Melian. "An Interpretation of the Phaistos Disk". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs (Vol. 19, No. 97. (Apr., 1911)): 23–29, 32–38. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help) JSTOR URL
• Torsten Timm, Der Diskos von Phaistos – Fremdeinfluss oder kretisches Erbe?, BoD, 2005.

See also

• Archaeology
• Linear A

General

• Article on a site about strange ancient artifacts
• The symbols
• French site