Please wait while loading the pictures ONLINE ATELIER CRACKING THE PHAISTOS DISK
back to: THE VOICE OF PHAISTOS
The Phaistos Disk is a 6'' clay disk: with a diameter of 16 centimeters , and it is 2.1 cm thick. The palm-sized disk, displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion (Iraklion), was discovered at Hagia Triada (Phaistos) on the Greek island of Crete, in a 1908 excavation of an important Minoan palace.
The Phaistos disk was originally dated 17th Century B.C. (between 1750 and 1600) because of some tablets of that date found next to it. This is the earliest known example of a printed inscription.
The clay disk has been inscribed on both sides with enigmatic hieroglyphic writing. "Inscribed" means: the mysterious glyphs (122 symbols on side A and 119 on side B) are believed to have been impressed in wet clay using forty-five different wooden or metal punches for a total of 241 signs in groups divided by vertical lines: the hieroglyphic text is arranged in bands, spiraling either to or from the center. Then the disk was fire-hardened.
Some scholars suggest that the Phaistos disk is an isolated work of solitary genius, a religious poem or incantation. Although theories abound, no one has definitively identified the meaning of the pictograms or confirmed its origins. Some believe that the object is of Anatolian origin (Turkey), despite being found on Crete.
Since the text (only 61 words) is so short, decipherment by statistical cryptographic techniques is hard, even impossible. The sequence of pictograms have never been conclusively deciphered. The symbols portray recognizable objects like human figures and body parts, animals, weapons, and plants. Among them are figures of standing or running men, women, and children, heads with feather crowns, fish, birds, insects, vessels, shileds, boughs, ships, tools, parts of animals, and others. Captives and also soldiers are images of a warlike world.
Various languages have been suggested, some of which are rather improbable, such as Basque or Finnish. According to one scholar, the text is a list of soldiers, to other it is a hymn to the "rain lord"; other believes that the king speaks about the construction of the palace at Phaistos.
Recently, Efi POLYGIANNAKIS has published in Greece a book, titled: "the phaistos disk speaks in Greek" (2000, third edition, Georgiadis Publ., Akadimias 84, Athens). The book is also being translated in English by Dr. Th. Antikas and is planned to be published.
In this book Polygiannakis provides convincing evidence that the Phaistos disk inscription was written in the syllabic writing system of an ancient Greek dialect.
Dr. Keith A.J. MASSEY and his twin brother Rev. Kevin Massey-Gillespie (Archaeology on the Net Web Ring) present the story of their break-through decipherment of the Phaistos disk. The scholars discovered the secret they believe provides the key to cracking the Phaistos disk.
© Dr. Keith Massey
Another ancient writing system provides the key to reading the Phaistos Disk. The similarity of one Proto-Byblic character (Semitic-like sign) to a Phaistos symbol is remarkable. It is a linear script which displays many identifiable objects, like weapons, human figures, and body parts. Examples of the yet undeciphered script have recently been found in Turkey, providing evidence of orthographic relationships between Crete and Asia Minor.
SELECTED LINKS (Click and go)
About The Phaistos Disk: Millennium Foundation of Canada
MusicAnd©P.Timmermans
to THE VOICE OF PHAISTOS
MAIN PAGE
All rights reserved © MusicAnd P.Timmermans This page belongs to: http://www.multimania.com/musicand
