Phaistos Disk and its meaning: a new approach.

Abstract: the symbols on the Phaistos Disk represent the diary of the wanax, the king of Phaistos.They represent important people, high ranking individuals as well as representatives of families and/or castes, whom the king would receive in audience, neatly grouped per day of what is probably a month per side. The making of the Disk was most likely part of a project which failed tocontinue or is the result of a dispute.

The Phaistos Disc is a Disk of fired clay that was found by Luigi Pernier, an Italian archaeologist in 1908 in the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the Greek island of Crete. It probably dates from the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (2000 to 1000 BC). It is about 16 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols in closed sections or partitions.

Its purpose and meaning, even its original geographical place of manufacture, have remained disputed since 1908. It is reputed to be one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology. This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Iraklion, Crete.

Note that the Minoan palaces are not very big in area. They were quite small places. The royal apartment in Phaistos is about 100 m2 large, small by modern standards. The number of people working in the palaces was limited and everyone knew everyone.

Considerations about the Disk

The Disk is, unlike most ceramic artefacts found in Crete, not well made but the stamps are perfect. They were clearly made by a skilled artisan. Hundreds of seals and stamps have been found in Crete. It looks like all able-bodied men in Crete had their own personal seal, very much like most people nowadays have a personal proof of ID. The Disk itself is made in high quality clay,but it is not perfectly round, with the diameter varying from 158 to 165 mm and thickness from 16 to21 mm (L. Pernier). The spiral and the sections are not very regular. This might mean that the stamps were made first, by outsourcing to a professional, but the Disk itself was made by an amateur.

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Not a textMost attempts to solve the meaning of the symbols on the Disk interpret it as a the religious text. They all prove to be unconvincing, so a completely different approach is necessary. In my opinion the Disk does not bear a text.

A clay tablet (left picture) bearing a Linear A text (numbered PH-1)was found in the same room, an arm's length away and in the same layer. In the 1950s, Linear B, a similar (though later) Cretan

way of writing was largely deciphered and found to encode an early form of Greek. Linear B emerged after the conquest of Crete by Mycenaeans from mainland Greece. Although Linear A and B share many symbols, this did not lead to a subsequent decipherment of Linear A. Using the values associatedwith Linear B in Linear A mainly produces unintelligible words. If A uses the same or similar syllabic values as Linear B, then its underlying language appears unrelated to any known language. This has been dubbed the Minoan language, which was probably one of the many non-Proto-Indo-European languages existent around the Mediterranean Sea during the Bronze Age and earlier. Etruscan and Basque are two attested examples of such a non-PIE language. Linear A was used from roughly 2500BC to 1450 BC, after which it was replaced by the deciphered Linear B (Olivier, J. P. (1986). "Cretan Writing in the Second Millennium B.C.". World Archaeology 17 (3): 377–389). It is clear that the Greek speaking Mycenaeans imposed a new language in Crete: Greek. The fact is that Linear A had been used for almost one thousand years when the Phaistos Disk was made. Stating that the Disk contains a sort of alternative way of writing is then highly doubtful: the Minoans knew how to write. Also, one cannot compare the signs on the Disk with Egyptians hieroglyphs. Ancient Egypt was full of hieroglyphs and we know that there were schools and pupils, masters and 'scribes', the professional writers. Not so for the Phaistos Disk: only one piece was discovered and the finding of another one is highly unlikely. That is also the reason why an ideogrammatic interpretation is unlikely. Persons who were supposed to read it would need lessons in the exact meaning of all 45 cryptic signs upon this unique Disk. That would mean quite some effort for a small result. They would also wonder why the much better known Linear A characters were not used. If the idea was to keep a text secret except for one or a few persons, then variations of the Linear A syllabic characters would work much better. The text, which by many scientists is supposed to be a religious hymn, would anyhow be short and memorising it would cost much less effort than the making of the Disk.

It is surprising that so many people still suppose a text and try to decipher the Disk using a Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). Greek, in all its variants has been used, plus Luwian and Hittite attempted, all PIE languages. Others have tried non-PIE languages such as Egyptian, Semitic and Basque, but unconvincingly. Adecipherment of the Linear A tablets would be of a great help if the symbols on the Disk are indeedtext. In a attempt to decipher Linear A several languages have been proposed, PIE as well as non-PIE languages such as Phoenician and Thyrrenian. Contrasting to the uniqueness of the Disk, Linear A tablets were found all over Crete and a variant was even found in Cyprus (by Evans in 1909). The corpus extant in Crete comprises some 1427 specimens. The contrast with the 62 'words' on the Disk is great.

The limited corpus of symbols on the Disk means that any claim of deciphrement can never by compelling because it cannot be refuted.

The short inscription on the Arkalochori Axe could have had the same intention as on the Disk.

A second argument lies in the stamps themselves. All seals in Crete represented people and it is conceivable that no-one would like to give of lend out his personal seal. The seal represented theiridentity and identity theft is not a modern invention. This is similar to customs today: one does not lend out his passport or ID-card, except to authorities. So the stamps on the Disk are representations of people as they were envisioned by their community.

Apart from that certainty are all other considerations speculative.

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E.g. the man represented on the Disk by the 'cat' could be the same man (or a man with a similar ranking) who had this seal that I found in the Iraklion museum.

The man was probably a member of the local high society. Maybe his real name was Alexis but hewas known by his surname 'the pussy', while everybody knew that his family emblem represented a panther. High ranking families often chose symbols with a high ranking connotation such as a toppredator, in this case a panther.

This example also makes clear that the techniques of the making both seals above are very different. The discovered seals and seal imprints vary greatly in subject, shape and style. They reflect the various personalities of the artisans who made them. However, the symbols on the Disk are all in the same style and were consequently made by one person. Their sole purpose was to be used onto the disk, not to become a personal item.

The symbols on the Disk must be read like the hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs could be lined up in many directions: left to right, right to left and top to bottom in combination of one of the previous. Finding the direction, however, is easy: always from head to tail. Upon the Disk it implies that the reading follows the spiral inwards. The hierachy, as found on the Disk, is another argument: important persons come first.

Mass production?

Many scientists believe that the use of stamps point to a mass production but evidence for this has not been found and is not a necessity. Crete was simply a 'seal-using' civilisation. More likely the Disk was made for some person who would be very high ranking, possibly the king himself. This byitself could explain the high quality of the stamps. Maybe the maker intended to make more such Disks, but the experiment was stopped after the first one.

Dating the Disk

The management of the Iraklion museum, where the Disk is exposed, refuses to hand over the Disk for it to be dated. However, the Disk has been indirectly dated to around 1500 BC. Jeppesen (1963), and J. Best (2004) suggested a date of 1325 ± 25 BC based on their dating of tablet PH 1, the one found nearby which could be dated scientifically. The latter date corresponds more or less with the destruction of the palace around 1450 BC, a piece of information not without importance.

Not a text

If one supposes that the Disk contains text, then the text cannot be syllabic. Too many 'words' begin with the same cluster of two symbols: the plumed head and the shield. It is striking that several authors simply ignored the sectioning of the spiral in order to obtain a minimum of convincing text. Proper word divisions were often ommitted in antiquity. The very presence of the sections implies that they are important and therefore cannot be ignored. The 'slash' wich occurs on several places, always at the end of a section, has also its importance. It could be an indication of result of the little conclave such as “decisions were made” or ”with good results” or their opposites.

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A world of sealsVisitors to theIraklion museumare stunned by theunparallelednumber of seals,stamps or cachetsor their imprintsthat were found inCrete - hundreds ifnot thousands.

It looks as if every adult in ancient Crete, between 2000and 1000 BC hadhis own seal. These seals represent almost everything that can be represented, including abstract motifs. On the picture on can clearly see all sorts of animals, including in the middlethe head of what is probably a leopard or lioness. Cretan seals come in categories, such as humans carvings, animals, plants and flowers and abstract engravings but probably not all the seals represent individuals. Some may represent social ranking, families, occupations and castes.Historians have long known that Crete was a very stratified, highly hierarchical society. Rank, clan, family or caste was everything and above that all stood aristocracy and royalty.

(Borja Legarra Herrero, “Mortuary Behavior and Social Trajectories in Pre- and Protopalatial Crete”, 1976)

Ranking

Aristocrats wore long hair as a sign ofdistinction. That manner was no differentfrom the famous Spartiates who proudlywore long hair. He who could wear longhair gave the signal that he was relievedof field work, that he was not a farmer.Field work required short hair, or else theperson would have been too hot in thewarm Mediterranean sun. On this partlyoriginal wall painting (“The jumping overthe bull”) on the right, one can clearly seethat the young man had long hair. He wasno farmer. Farmers are generallydisregarded by history. Nobody mentionsthem, except when they rebel against their harsh living conditions.

The person shown here above on the left has also probably has long hair. On Arthur Evans' disputed reconstruction in the palace of Cnossos (1922), the man holds a string of hair in his right hand. On the original fresco, no hair in his hand is visible. One thing is notable on the reconstruction, however, that the man faces the king's quarters. So what is he doing? He is clearly an aristocrat. The rich headwear tells us that. So why would an aristocrat do such a gesture? When do we hold our hand on that place: our heart? When we want to show full respect for somebody or when we swear something. This gesture is one of deep respect and is directed to thewanax, as the Minoan king was called. Such paintings would be ordered by the wanax or his entourage and the idea was to telling other, visiting, aristocrats that they had to pay respect to the wanax too. In a sense the wall paintings on the walls of the Minoan palaces are similar in purpose to those onto the walls of our medieval churches: they are educational. Such frescos tell us that thewanax regularly received people.

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The importance of the respectful 'prince' is his similarity with one of the signs on the Phaistos Disk: the captive. The gesture of the 'prince on the wall' is possibly not finished. It is possible that he ends his ritual of showing respect like the 'captive' does, with a similar meaning: 'I amthe king's servant.' and 'my hands are tied [to the king]'. One would expect hair on hishead, but let us not forget the smallness of the stamps. There was a limit to what theycould depict.

Long hair is a sign of authority. One sign has it clearly, the 'plumed head'.

This is without a doubt a man. His long hair is represented as a plume, which is probably the best way to indicate that he is a man with authority and not a woman. We must take in account that the stamps are tiny and that the details are limited in size and number. This man comes always first in all partitions where he appears and is therefore very high ranking. He is probably the basileus, theking's lieutenant, the number two in the realm. He is often accompanied by who is probably the technical manager of the palace, represented by the 'shield'. I suggest that it does notrepresent a shield but a set of tasks, the figure is a symbolic seven. I named him koreteres, a word interpreted as 'governor'. The titles basileus, koreteres and hepeteswere found on the Linear B tablets.

When the basileus is accompanied by the koreteres then they form a cluster which precedes all other symbols. It is clear that they have to work together. I suggest that the basileus stands for authority and that the koreteres is the organizer, the caretaker.

In section A23, one of the longest, we see the basileus with the koreteres in company with other actors. I suggest: the chef, the

maître d'hotel, the pigeon fancier, the building manager, and finally the sous-chef. It looks like they were discussing a feast.

Farmers

Farmers had a very different hairdressing. This is the scene on ona beautiful steatiterhyton called 'harvestervase' with reliefdepiction of a procession of men carrying harvesting and winnowingimplements. These men are farmers because theyhave no long hair. Instead they have a sort of bandaround the head. Some of the men are singing. The man in front,(see arrow) has long hair and a scale-like dress, sohe must be a priest or a chief.

If one wanted to depict a farmer, then a head witha sweatband-hat would be characteristic: to the right a farmer's head inclay. We can see that they probably wore a flat hat with a sweatband.

There are no farmers on the Disk, wich means that every sign depicts aperson with a higher social rank, an esteemed occupation or a member ofthe local high society.

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Interpretations of signs

Early archaeologists sometimes interpreted the signs poorly.

To the left is the Dracunculus Vulgaris, in English: Dragon Arum. The plant is indigenous in Crete. I think that it corresponds much better with the sign here below than 'bow'.

The Dragon Arum is pollinated by flies and to attract flies it spreads a smell reminiscent of rotting meat. Cretans would immediately recognize the symbol. In the palace, most people would know who this smelly person was. On section A13 it is represented for one single time together with a pleasant smelling crocus or 'lily', probably a saffron crocus. Section A13 sort of represent the blinker and the stinker! The blinker is higher in rank than the stinker, something we all would agree with.

The crocus is represented four times. This may mean that in thepalace a man was responsible for perfuming the buildings.Indeed, in the Iraklion museum many artefacts are shown whichare presented as incense burners. To the right we see the threeother occurrences of the crocus. In two partitions it isaccompanied by the 'tunny', a sign which also recalls a fishysmell. Coincidence? Probably.

On the left we see a curious and rather large object. It is called a libation object. A libation is a ritual offer to a god by pouring a liquid onto the soil. The idea is to give the message that one does not want all of it (e.g. wine) but that one has thoughts for the god who is the responsible producer. On a scene on a hand-carved whelk here below, which served as a object for libation, one person pours a liquid into some bowl or a secondary libation object, held by a second person.

Note the resemblance with the 'sling'.

The whelk resembles the alleged 'dolium':

Remember: these objects represent people. I guess that not everybody was authorized to perform ritual libations. The most likely persons to be allowed to do a libation are priests. We see that ranking in the partitions too.

Double-Leg Jar is preceded by the basileus and koreteres. In the other four partitions, (e.g. B21) both the basileus and the koreteres are absent so Double-Leg Jar comes as number one. He is a high-priest.Many signs remain unexplained. However, having looked around carefully in Crete, I think that

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some can be interpret much better.

The mysterious 'helmet' is not a helmet but a potter's kiln. A picture at the Iraklion museum shows archaeologists' reconstruction of a typical Cretan kiln. The kiln is shown one side 'open' for illustrative purposes. Note that the potters are represented with long hair.

A potter was an esteemed occupation. The best potters could make work of a stunning modernity.

But he had no real authority. However, in A6 he comes before the koreteres. In B8 he is number two.In B24 he is apparently accompanied by what looks like a second rank potter. Note that the 'wave' is of a uncertain rank. I think that the 'wave' is the man responsible for fresh water and therefore was normally higher in rank than the head potter. Is B24 telling us that the water-man was caught between two potters? Still, the 'leather man' (e.g. A6), maybe the man responsible for the meat, in another word the kitchen chef, ranks higher than the 'water-man'.

The number four in rank is the 'cat'. I called him hepetes. Hepetes means follower (ref.: Iraklion

Museum). Objects such as in the picture to theright shows the remarkable capacity the Cretanartists had for making naturalistic objects. Theobject could never have such a realistic aspectwithout a real life model. One has to believe thatlions or panthers still roamed Crete as well asEuropean mainland hills in Minoantimes.

On the Disk mister hepetes is always among the first and in absence of the basileus, the koreteres and Double-Leg Jar, he is number one. So, or he is an aristocrat, or he is a holder of a 'pantherhead' libation object (as in the picture), and thus a priest or an aristocrat with religious privileges. Note the similarity with seal nr. 690.

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And what about this double pot? Can this be the mysterious 'manacle'?

Is it the royal waiter, the maître d'hotel?

Twoother high ranking persons are the woman and the tiara. She could be a priestess because many statues show that priestesses were a part of daily life. Note the similarity of the skirts. The tiara could also

represent a sort of priest.

Months?

The Disk has two faces. Face A has 31 sections, face B 30. The indications 'A' and 'B' were arbitrary, in reality we do not know which face came first. The number of sections are too close to our classic number of days in a month to be a coincidence. Dr. Jack Dempsey demonstrated that the Minoans had an elaborate calendar, a conjecture which has not (yet?) been accepted by the international scientific community. We do not know how a Minoan year was organized into months and what the length of these months was. In Rome, the calendar attributed to Romulus, founder of the city (753 BC), had 10 months with 30 and 31 days. The remaining winter days between the lastmonth and New Year (Mars 1st) had no name. This calendar is probably older than Romulus and likely dates from the Bronze Age. The calendar of Numa Pompilius (713 BC) had 12 months with 29 days and 31 days and some intercalary days at the end of the year. Most ancient Bronze Age calendars had months of 29 and 30 days. We don't know what length a Minoan month had, it can be anything between 29 and 31 days and a small intercalary month at the end of the year. This implies that my conjecture that each side of the Disk represent a calendar month is plausible. The author of the Disk could have temporarily written down the visiting people onto (unfired?) Linear A tablets. After two months a seal maker knew which stamps he had to make. The information was eventually transferred to the final product, the Disk, which was destined for the king … or was it hiswife?

Conclusion

The Disk could be a royal diary. Its maker recorded who had an audience with the wanax on what day. The audience is done in group and not one by one. The stamps represent high ranking peoplewho lived in the palace. The higher the rank the closer to the right of the partition. So comes that we discover ranking in the palace. It must have been the intention to continue this way of archiving audiences for a longer time. I believe that either circumstances shut down the program or that the whole thing was one of these many redundant statistics as so often made on a (government) top level which are only produced to prove one's point.

The engravings on the Arkalochori Axe have the same meaning as those on the Phaistos Disk. Theaxe was put in a cave as an offering to a god. An offering from persons whose seals were engraved on the axe.

Michael Goormachtigh, 05/07/2015michael.goormachtigh@gmail.com

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№ Sign

PhaistosDisc Sign

(Godart and UCS name)

rankingPossible Meaning. The clusters are not exclusive.

Count Remarks

01

PEDESTRIAN middleMost likely a herald or town crier. Cluster with club.

11

02 PLUMED

HEADhighest Basileus. Cluster with shield. 19

the mostfrequentsymbol,always

word-initial

03 TATTOOED

HEADmiddle

Unknown. The tattoo could be a golden earring. Medical doctor? Cluster with rosette (pharmacist).

2on side A

only

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№ Sign

PhaistosDisc Sign

(Godart and UCS name)

rankingPossible Meaning. The clusters are not exclusive.

Count Remarks

04 CAPTIVE middle aristocrat 1

05 CHILD low Possibly the child of the wanax. 1

06 WOMAN high The queen or high-priestress 4

07 HELMET low Head potter. The sign is the representation of a kiln.

18

08 GAUNTLET low Unknown. 5

09 TIARA high Unknown 2on side B

only

10 ARROW middle Soldier, bowman. 4on side A

only

11 BOW lowPossibly responsible for dirt and defecation removal

1

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№ Sign

PhaistosDisc Sign

(Godart and UCS name)

rankingPossible Meaning. The clusters are not exclusive.

Count Remarks

12 SHIELD highHigh when cluster with the basileus (tattooed head). Possibly a governor (koreteres).

17

12 times inthe group

02-12

13 CLUB middleSoldier? Never together with the bowman. Cluster with 'pedestrian'.

6

14 MANACLES middle Unknown. 2on bothsides

15 MATTOCK lowPalace's carpenter? Fire wood responsible?

1

16 SAW middle Furniture man? 2on side B

only

17 LID low Leather cutter? Cobbler?. 1

18 BOOMERANG middle-low Building maintenance. Architect. 12

19 CARPENTRY

PLANElow

Stone supplier? Mason? The sign resembles a backpack, as seen sidewards, on which stones were transported.

3on side A

only

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№ Sign

PhaistosDisc Sign

(Godart and UCS name)

rankingPossible Meaning. The clusters are not exclusive.

Count Remarks

20 DOLIUM lowRhyton in the form of a whelk. An assistant priest?

on side Bonly

21 COMB low Royal storage responsible 2on side A

only

22 SLING high Two legged Rhyton. High priest. 5on side B

only

23 COLUMN middle Hammer. Head stone cutters 11

24 BEEHIVE middleGranary responsible? The longer middle platform could prevent the climbing up of rodents.

6

25 SHIP low Fishermen representative? 7

26 HORN low unknown? 6

27 HIDE middle Possibly a (royal) butcher. The chef. 15

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№ Sign

PhaistosDisc Sign

(Godart and UCS name)

rankingPossible Meaning. The clusters are not exclusive.

Count Remarks

28 BULLS LEG low unknown 2on side A

only

29 CAT highAristocrat. Possibly the hepetes (follower), army officer.

11

30 RAM low Royal herd responsible? 1

31 EAGLE low Head hunter? 5on side A

only

32 DOVE low Pigeon or poultry breeder? 3

33 TUNNY low Unknown 6

34 BEE low Unknown 3

35 PLANE TREE low Unknown. 11

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№ Sign

PhaistosDisc Sign

(Godart and UCS name)

rankingPossible Meaning. The clusters are not exclusive.

Count Remarks

36 VINE low Unknown. 4on side B

only

37 PAPYRUS lowArtichoke? Rope material? Flax?Unknown.

4

38 ROSETTE lowUnknown. Pharmacist? Cluster with'tattooed head'.

4

39 LILY lowCrocus, Saffron. Spices. Perfume man?

4

40 OX BACK low unknown 6

41 FLUTE low Musician? 2on side A

only

42 GRATER lowMetal ? Craftsmen? Potters? Raw hide?

1

43 STRAINER lowPlaster maker. Often seen in company of the architect, the stone cutter and the stone transporter

1

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№ Sign

PhaistosDisc Sign

(Godart and UCS name)

rankingPossible Meaning. The clusters are not exclusive.

Count Remarks

44 SMALL AXE low Unknown 1

45 WAVY BAND middle Fresh water responsible? 6

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