The Phaistos Disc is one of the greatest archaeological enigmas ever discovered. It was found in 1908 in the ruins of the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the southern coast of Crete. The room it was discovered in has been described as a "temple depository," a basement cell that had been deliberately covered over with a layer of white plaster. Nearby was another tablet written in Linear A, one of the two known written languages of the Minoan culture. There was little else in the room except for a few burned animal bones amid a thick layer of black earth and ash material.

Archaeologists have dated the Phaistos Disc from 1800 to about 1550 BC based on its archaeological context, although predictably, given its unique qualities, a few experts have called it a forgery or fake. It is a clay disc, about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter and slightly more than a centimeter thick, with symbols inscribed on both sides in a spiraling pattern. No one knows if it should be read from the inside out, or the outside in. But the most interesting thing about the characters is that they were created with stamps, making the Phaistos Disc the world's oldest known "printed" document.

The hieroglyphic characters on the Disc are unique. There are a total of 242 distinct symbols, separated into 61 groups, which suggests an arrangement of words of phrases. Other spiraling inscriptions have been found around the Aegean sea, and a few isolated cases of similar glyphs have been identified, but they are singular appearances in widely scattered texts.

One question that comes immediately to mind, then, is why haven't we found other examples? No one would create a large group of stamps just to print a single document. And again, since the technique was so advanced for its time, why was it printed on clay? Where are the stamps that created it?

The answers to those questions may rest with solving the problem of where it came from in the first place, Most clay tablets found in Minoan ruins were either written in Linear A or B. The characters on the Phaistos Disc do not remotely resemble either type of writing. Nor do they resemble any other scripts found in the region, with the exception of a few characters scattered about in various texts. Many are clearly recognizable objects, such as fish and birds, an ox yoke, an axe, etc. But that has proven to be of no help to would-be translators. Nor are any of the "words" repeated.

Despite numerous attempts, the Phaistos Disc has defied translation, although numerous attempts have been made to decipher it. Proposed solutions include attempts to understand it as a game board, an astronomical chart, a prayer, a legend, and other, sometimes bizarre, readings. This is due partly to the unique character of the symbols, and partly because no other examples have been found. Perhaps someday an archaeologist will discover a "Rosetta Stone" containing the symbols on the disc with a parallel translation in a language which has already been deciphered. But that still does not answer the question of who took the time to create the stamps, and why. Perhaps the symbols represent a type of sacred writing used only for very special purposes. Perhaps it was brought to Minos as a gift for the king. Even the Minoans might not have known where it came from, or even what it meant.

Perhaps one day another document will come to light. It might not even be too much to hope for that someone will discover one or more of the stamps used to create the Phaistos Disc. But until, or unless that happens, the riddle of the Phaistos Disc must remain just a riddle.

Learn more about this author, Mary Gindling.
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