This ancient script has remained unsolved for over a century

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In 1908, an archaeologist in Crete discovered a small clay disk bearing unknown symbols. Now known as the Phaistos disk, it remains a modern enigma.

The Phaistos disk from circa 1700 B.C. The signs were not engraved using a stylus but rather pressed onto the wet clay using molds or seals in a kind of ancient typesetting.Scala, FlorenceByFrancisco del RíoPublished September 26, 2024

One of the great enigmas of modern archaeology has created an ongoing debate among scholars who argue about the function and meaning of an ancient clay disk the size of a hand.

On July 3, 1908, Italian archaeologist Federico Halbherr, his student Luigi Pernier, and a team were excavating the site of a Minoan palace at Phaistos, in southern Crete, when they came across an underground deposit among the ruins. Inside the deposit, Pernier could make out charred bones and ashes and among them, half-buried, a golden brown clay disk. Pernier retrieved the disk and, holding it in his palm, saw that it was covered on both sides with a series of small images, which had been pressed into the clay in a spiral formation. Today, more than a hundred years later, the meaning of the signs on this discovery, now called the Phaistos disk, is still unknown. There have been many ingenious attempts to decipher the spiraling inscription, not least because of the wealth of new information it could reveal about the ancient Minoan civilization. So far, however, its message has proved elusive.

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Multiple theories

The disk, which is now kept in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, continues to fuel the imaginations of academics and amateurs alike. The interpretations put forward are almost as numerous as those who have puzzled over its meaning. The dimensions of the disk—6.5 inches in diameter and 1.5 inches thick—make it easy to hold. Some theorize it is a portable astronomical chart used to calculate eclipses or a type of lunisolar calendar.

The 1908 excavations at Phaistos, where the mysterious disk came to light, were carried out by an Italian team led by Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier.Scala, Florence

In the absence of hard evidence as to its real purpose, theories of all sorts abound. Some suggest it is an ancient game along the lines of snakes and ladders, while others believe it is the text of a religious hymn. Some theories are considered outlandish by most scholars: The disk is a relic from Atlantis, a map of the Minotaur’s labyrinth, or even an interstellar navigation chart used by an extraterrestrial.

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The Minoans were a wealthy Bronze Age society of seafaring traders known for their palaces, great cities, and art. And because of where the disk was found, it has been dated to between 1800 and 1600 B.C.

This 15th-century B.C. detail is from a limestone Minoan sarcophagus found in 1903 at the Hagia Triada archaeological site in Crete. Each side of the sarcophagus was painted with elaborate designs, suggesting it was produced for a high-ranking figure.Album

Following an otherwise unfruitful archaeological campaign for Pernier in Crete, being able to present an object with an indecipherable text certainly made waves. However, the excellent state of the disk’s preservation led some people, including antiquities dealer Jerome M. Eisenberg, to claim that Pernier had forged the disk himself. But the archaeological evidence points toward the disk being authentic. Firstly, it was found alongside another tablet, one written in undoubtedly authentic Linear A script (typical of the Cretan Minoan civilization). Secondly, there are corrections on the Phaistos disk made by the scribe that could not be explained if it were a forgery. There are multiple areas where signs were erased and impressed with new ones.

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Signs and symbols

The Phaistos disk bears an inscription consisting of 45 different figurative signs repeated in an organized sequence of 241 or 242 characters (one of which is unrecognizable) and arranged in the form of a spiral.

The other side of the clay Phaistos disk from circa 1700 B.C.Scala, Florence

The signs show clearly identifiable images: humans, animals, plants, tools, and other objects. The images almost all relate to everyday life and some reflect the historical context of the time. For example, several symbols depict a warrior with features reminiscent of the Sea Peoples as depicted in ancient Egyptian iconography. There is a feathered head, an arrow, a helmet, and a round shield. There are also images that look like depictions of ancient Sumerian figures: the tattooed head of a slave and a woman with bare breasts. Other signs depict animals and plants from the agricultural world: a dove, a cat, a goat, a bee and a hive, a daisy, a vine, and an olive tree. They are grouped into 61 boxes depicting two to five images in each. There are 30 of these boxes on one side of the disk and 31 on the reverse. It’s thought that the writing follows a clockwise direction and progresses in a spiral starting at the edge of the disk and moving into the center.

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Researchers believe that the 45 different signs that appear on the disk belong to an Aegean-style syllabic writing system and that the groups of two to five images contained in each box convey words. The signs bear a slight resemblance to so-called Cretan hieroglyphs and the Linear A writing system that grew out of them. But the text on the Phaistos disk shows an evolution away from both. Given that the Phaistos disk inscription is short, it may be that the complete writing system included more signs than the 45 used on the disk, perhaps some 55 or 60 different signs. This assumes, of course, that the inscription is written in an unknown language. It is still not entirely certain what language Cretans spoke during the Bronze Age.

Cretan scripts

A clay tablet from the 18th to 15th centuries B.C. with Linear A inscriptions was found at Hagia Triada.

Scala, Florence

Inscriptions from the Minoan period found in Crete correspond to various forms of Aegean syllabary. The oldest is a figurative Cretan script, sometimes called Cretan hieroglyphs because of the resemblance to Egyptian hieroglyphs. (In reality, the script may not have anything to do with Egypt and likely has a local origin.) It is unclear whether the script on the Phaistos disk derives from this Cretan script in the same way that the Linear A writing system probably does. Neither Cretan hieroglyphs nor Linear A have been deciphered yet. Linear A disappeared with the collapse of the Minoan civilization, but it left two offshoots: the Cypriot syllabary and Linear B, both of which have been deciphered. Linear B is the oldest known dialect of Greek.

In terms of clues to the content: If it is assumed that each box does contain one word, it is clear that on both faces of the disk, the inscription ends with a series of similar words.

Many phrases on side A begin with the same signs and several on side B end in similar ones. This suggests there were repeated phrases on one side and rhyming phrases on the other. Some researchers have therefore put forward the theory that the disk contains a poem, a hymn, or a religious or magical formula.

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Original Cretan scripts

It has not been possible to determine whether Cretan scripts are derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs, from Hittite cuneiform, or whether they developed indigenously.

Deciphering the disk

In recent years there have been tentative attempts to decipher the text. The philologist and archaeologist Gareth Owens suggested in 2014 that the language used on the disk was Indo-European and related to the Minoan language of Linear A, also undeciphered. Owens believes that the disk is dedicated to a divine mother and identifies certain words such as iqa (great lady) and akka (pregnant woman). In 2008 Gia Kvashilava, a researcher in historical linguistics, theorized that the text is Proto-Georgian (forerunner to the modern language of Georgia in the Caucasus). According to Kvashilava, the inscription is dedicated to Nana, the goddess of fertility from the ancient region of Colchis, at the eastern end of the Black Sea. Neither of these explanations have been accepted with finality, especially since Linear A is currently undeciphered.

While there is no lack of interest in deciphering the Phaistos disk, until something analogous to the Rosetta Stone is found, the meaning of the disk’s spiraling inscription will remain a mystery.

In 1935this labrys, or double ax, was found in the Arkalochori cave in Crete. It is forged in bronze and dates to the second millennium B.C. In the center of the piece appear 15 signs showing similarities with those on the Phaistos disk, such as the feathered head of a warrior.Alamy/ACI