The Mystery of the Phaistos Disc
Around the 17th century BC, a 6.5-inch diameter disc with hieroglyphs engraved on both sides was found in Crete, with a total of 241 imprints from the outside representing 45 different symbols, including people, animals and plants, dating back to around 2000.
However, since no such artifacts have been found in the same period of ancient history, some archaeologists have no reasonable explanation for reference analysis, and the origin, meaning and use of the Phaistos disc are still a mystery to this day
Discovery of the Phaistos Disc
It was discovered in 1908 on the greek island of Crete at the site of the Palace of Festo and is now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Greece. The era belongs to the period of the New Palace. Hieroglyphs of this period continued to exist as sacred writings for religious documents, and the symbols on the disc were embossed with movable type impressions when the mud plate was still wet, which is the earliest movable type printed document known to date. Although some scholars have recently believed that it contains some kind of ancient astronomical calendar, no scholar has been able to interpret the meaning of these text patterns.
Phaistos Disc Phaistos Disc, also known as Phaestus Disc, Phaistor Disc, Fistos Disc, is a clay disc in the 17th century BC, is a 6.5-inch diameter terracotta disc, both sides of the disc are engraved with hieroglyphs, a total of 241, arranged from the outside to the inside spiral. There are obvious gaps in the text. Judging from the engraving method of the text pattern, the disc is engraved when it is still muddy. It is pressed with two separate molds. There are 241 symbols on the plate that represent people, animals, body organs, and various objects. There are also some ship motifs, the most common symbol being the head of a man wearing a headdress, resembling the Philistines on Egyptian paintings in Ramsem. It is believed to have originated in southwestern Asia Minor, bordering the mediterranean ancient country of Lysia. The head with a feathered headdress appears on the surface of the plate very similar to the attire of the Philistines.
The Fastos Disc Seal was accused of forgery
The 45 mysterious symbols on the front and back of the Phaistos disc are regarded as poems, scriptures, magic inscriptions, movements, and even the oldest punctuation marks of mankind from 4,000 years ago, but since the artifact was unearthed a hundred years ago, no one has been able to interpret the meaning of the symbols on the disk.
1, the British Times reported on the 12th that one of the most well-known mysteries in the archaeological community, the "Phaistos Disk" of the ancient Greek Minoan civilization, was kicked by an American scholar a few days ago. Dr. Eisenberg, an American expert who specializes in falsifying antiquities, said the symbols meant nothing at all because the Festos disc was a big scam. Eisenberg claims that the Phaistos disc, engraved with unintelligible symbols, is not an antiquity dating back about 1,700 years before the AD, but a forgery created by the Italian archaeologist Peniere himself and successfully deceived many scholars.
2. In 1908, Penier "discovered" the Phaistos Disk at the Minoan Palace of Phaistos in Crete, Greece. Eisenberg pointed out that Peñel was eager to find antiquities that would brighten the eyes of his colleagues, and that they were more powerful than the most important site of the Minoan Dynasty discovered by the British archaeologist Evans, the Palace of Knossos. Eisenberg believes that Penier came up with a solution of his own creation of an "antiquity" engraved with uninterpretable hieroglyphs. If that were the case, Penier clearly did what he wanted. Evans was ecstatic and published an analytical article on Penier's findings.
3) Over the past hundred years, countless scholars have attempted to decipher the symbols on the Phaistos disk, which archaeologists believe are related to ancient civilizations from Greece to Egypt. Eisenberg, who conducted antiquities for the U.S. Treasury Department and the Getty Art Gallery, also said the forgers' loopholes lay in the use of laterite to create a round cake with too clean edges and that the disc should not have been burned so perfectly. Eisenberg said that the Minoan clay tablets would not be deliberately burned, but would only be accidentally burned, and Peniere may not know this.
4. In addition, both sides of the Phaistos disc have some long strips of symbols composed of 4 or 5 small dots, which some scholars have called "the oldest example of using natural punctuation marks"; But Eisenberg argues that this is just another trick that Penier wants to mislead scholars, a trick commonly used by forgers. Greek authorities have refused to allow Eisenberg to inspect the Phaistos disc outside the display box, citing the artifact as too fragile to be carried. A basic scientific dating test, the light and heat test, can prove whether Eisenberg's claim is true, but the Greek authorities have refused to let the disc be tested.
The meaning of the Phaistos disc
The Minoans were the first people in Europe to use the written word. In the early 2000s BC, palace clerks had registered their inventory products using hieroglyphs. Minoan hieroglyphs are available in two fonts: a pictorial body, engraved on a prismatic seal on three or four sides, with very short sentences; The other is a line body, that is, a sketch of a picture body, engraved on clay tablets, mud sticks, mud balls or clay plates, with slightly longer sentences. They only serve as labels for sealing mud or classifying archives, and survive because they were burned by the palace fire; The real literature may have been written on parchment, papyrus or palm leaves, packed in wooden boxes, long gone. Hieroglyphic inscriptions are mainly found in the archives of the Three Great Palaces, in very small numbers. Of the 331 hieroglyphic inscriptions that have been found, the number of clay tablets is very rare. Due to the small number of pictographic clay tablets, the limited number of words, and the difficulty of deciphering, it has not been successfully interpreted so far. The hieroglyphic inscription with the largest number of words in existence is the famous "Phaistos Disc".