by Shelly Barclay

Created on: May 14, 2009   Last Updated: October 10, 2009

In 1908, during the excavation of the Minoan Palace of Phaistos in Crete, an archaeologist named Luigi Pernier uncovered one of the most mysterious artifacts in history. An artifact that is clearly written upon in an ancient language and that has, thusfar, been indecipherable. This artifact would come to be known as the Phaistos Disc.

The Palace of Phaistos appears to have been destroyed by an earth quake around the same time as the eruption of Santorini. This is suggested by the amount of and nature of the damage to the structure. The disc was found in one of the basement rooms of the destroyed palace. The basement was literally filled with useless debris and Luigi Pernier found very few artifacts of significance in the room, aside from the mysterious disc. Nothing like the Phaistos Disc has been found either before or since.

The Phaistos Disc is a round, almost plate like object. It is 5.9 inches in diameter and uniformly just over 1cm. thick. On the disc are 241 markings of 45 unique symbols. The markings are made in a spiral on both sides. The disc appears to have 61 words written on it, 31 on side A and 30 on side B. The groups of symbols, which are assumed to be words, are separated by vertical lines. Some scientists believe the spiral of hieroglyphs should be read from the outside in while others believe it should be read from the inside out.

No one has been able to decipher the text on the disc to date and no other artifact has ever been found with these particular markings. Many attempts have been made to read the disc, but all have varied in their result. Due to the repetitious pattern of the words and symbols, some people believe that it is a song or a religious hymn. Others belive it could be a list of names or goods. There are many theories surrounding the text, but none have been proven. It is thought by many that there is simply not enough text available to ever be able to decipher the disc.

It is difficult to be certain where the disc originated from. It was found at the Phaistos Palace in Crete, but it isn't written in any known Cretan text. It is also difficult to gauge how old the disc really is, but it is assumed that the disc was made in the middle to late Minoan Bronze Age. No one is sure why it was made or what it is for.

The disc is made from fired clay. The symbols appear to be stamped on while the clay was still soft. This makes the Phaistos Disc the earliest example of printing in history.

If you would like to see this mysterious artifact it is currently on display at the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion in Crete.

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