Phaistos Disc decipherment claims

• George Hempl (1911) (interpretation as Ionic Greek, syllabic writing)
• side A first; reading inwards; side A begins {{lang|grc| {{math|Ἀποσῦλ’ ἂρ}} }}...

Hempls readings of side A: A-po-su-la-r

ke-si-po e-pe-t e-e-se a-po-le-is-tu te-pe-ta-po. (Lo, Xipho the

prophetess dedicates spoils from a spoiler of the prophetess.) Te-u-s,

a-po-ku-ra. (Zeus guard us.) Vi-ka-na a-po-ri-pi-na la-ri-si-ta

a-po-ko-me-nu so-to. (In silence put aside the most dainty portions of

the still unroasted animal.) A-te-ne-Mi-me-ra pu-l. (Athene Minerva,

be gracious.) A-po-vi-k. (Silence!) A-po-te-te-na-ni-si tu-me. (The

victims have been put to death.) A-po-vi-k. (Silence!)

• F.M. Stawell (1911){{sfnp|Stawell|1911}} (interpretation as Homeric Greek, syllabic writing);
• side B first; reading inward: side A begins {{lang|grc| {{math|ἄνασσα κῶθί ῥα·}} }} ...
• Not Ionic; B30 is non-sigmatic {{lang|grc| {{math|ἄνασσ' ἰά λῦται}} }}; B6 is {{lang|grc| {{math|τᾶ, Μαρὰ, δᾶ–}} }}, with four long alphas.
• Steven R. Fischer (1988){{sfnp|Fischer|1988}} (interpretation as a Greek dialect, syllabic writing);
• side A first; reading inwards; 02-12 reads E-qe 'hear ye'.[See book Glyph Breaker (1997) for full account]{{full citation needed |date=November 2022}}
• D. Ohlenroth (1996){{sfnp|Ohlenroth|1986}} (interpretation as a Greek dialect, alphabetic writing);
• side A first; reading outwards; numerous homophonic signs
• B. Schwarz (1959){{sfnp|Schwarz|1959}} (interpretation as Mycenean Greek, syllabic writing)
• side A first; reading inwards.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}
• comparison with Linear B as starting point.
• A. Martin (2000){{sfnp|Martin|2000}} (interpretation as a Greek-Minoan bilingual text, alphabetic writing)
• reading outwards;
• reads only side A as Greek and says side B is Minoan
• K. & K. Massey (1998){{cite report |last1=Massey |first1=Kevin |last2=Massey |first2=Keith |year=1998 |title=The Phaistos Disk cracked? |url=http://www.keithmassey.com/files/ThePhaistosDisk-Massey.pdf |access-date=2009-07-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713142119/http://www.keithmassey.com/files/ThePhaistosDisk-Massey.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-13}} (partial decipherment - interpretation as a Greek dialect, syllabic writing)
• reading outwards
• suggest, based on comparisons with Linear B, and a suggestion by linguist Miguel Carrasquer Vidal,{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} that the words marked by slashes are numbers spelled out, so the disk would be a form of receipt for goods, designed to be easily destroyed
• M.G. Corsini (2008, 2010) (interpretation as proto-Ionic language, syllabic writing); side A first; reading outwards; (Italian) 1348 a.C. Apoteosi di Radamanto.{{cite web |author=Corsini, Marco G. |year=2008 |title=L'Apoteosi di Radamanto: ad un secolo dalla scoperta del Disco di Festo |language=it |trans-title=The Apotheosis of Radamanthus: One century after the discovery of the Phaistos Disc |website=Corsinistoria |url=http://digilander.libero.it/corsinistoria/centdiscofesto.htm |access-date=14 November 2022}}{{cite web |author=Corsini, Marco G. |year=2010 |title=La decifrazione della scrittura pittografica di Festòs |trans-title=The decypherment of the pictographic writing on the Phaistos Disk |website=Corsinistoria |url=http://digilander.libero.it/corsinistoria/genesi%20della%20decifrazione.htm}} — genesis of his Phaistos Disk decypherment with an abstract in English.

• G. Owens & J. Coleman (2014) (based on Cretan hieroglyphics, Minoan Linear A and Mycenaean Linear B); possibly prayer to a Minoan goddess.{{cite web |last1=Owens |first1=Gareth |last2=Coleman |first2=John |title=Readable? To 'read' the Phaistos Disk? |date=2008–2018 |website=ΤΕΙ {{math|Κρήτης}} |url=https://www.teicrete.gr/daidalika/documents/phaistos_disk/signary_July2017b.pdf |url-status=dead |access-date=29 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229220444/https://www.teicrete.gr/daidalika/documents/phaistos_disk/signary_July2017b.pdf |archive-date=29 December 2018}}{{cite web |title=Ancient disk's mysterious Code finally cracked? |date=28 October 2014 |website=HuffPost |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/28/ancient-cd-rom-phaistos-disk-code_n_6055178.html}}

J. Faucounau (1975){{full citation needed|date=November 2022|reason=cited 1975≠ref 2000 / 2001}} considers the script as the original invention of a Cycladic and maritime Aegean people, the proto-Ionians, who had picked up the idea of a syllabic acrophonic script from Egypt at the time of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. He interprets the text as "proto-Ionic" Greek in syllabic writing.{{cite journal |last=Faucounau |first=Jean |orig-date=March 2000 |edition=rev. 5th |date=27 May 2001 |title=The Phaistos Disk: A statistical decipherment |journal=Anistoriton |volume=4 |access-date=15 June 2013 |url=http://www.anistor.gr/english/enback/v002 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172313/http://www.anistor.gr/english/enback/v002 |url-status=dead }}

Reading side A first, inwards, he deciphers a (funerary) hymn to one Arion, child of Argos, destroyer of Iasos. The language is a Greek dialect, written with considerable phonological ambiguities, comparable to the writing of Mycenean Greek in {{nobr|Linear B,}} hand-crafted by Faucounau to suit his reading, among other things postulating change of digamma to y and loss of labiovelars, but retention of Indo-European -sy- (in the genitive singular -osyo, Homeric -oio).

Faucounau has gathered evidence, which he asserts shows the existence of proto-Ionians as early as the Early Bronze Age and of a proto-Ionic language with the required characteristics during the Late Bronze Age. He has presented this evidence in several papers and summarized it in two books.{{sfnp|Faucounau|1999}}{{sfnp|Faucounau|2001b}}

The text begins

:ka-s (a)r-ko-syo / pa-yi-s / a-ri-o / a-a-mo / ka-s læ-yi-to / te-ri-o-s / te-tmæ-næ

:kas Argoio payis Arion ahamos. kas læi(s)ton dærios tetmænai

:"Arion, the son of Argos, is without equal. He has distributed the spoil of battle."

Faucounau's solution was critically reviewed by Duhoux (2000),{{full citation needed|date=November 2022}} who in particular was sceptical about the consonantal sign s (D12) in the otherwise syllabic script, which appears word-finally in the sentence particle kas, but not in nominatives like ahamos. Most syllabaries would either omit s in both places, or use a syllable beginning with s in both places.

Achterberg et al. (2004) interpreted the text as Anatolian hieroglyphic, reading inwards, side A first. The research group proposes a 14th century date, based on a dating of tablet {{nowrap|PH 1}}, the associated Linear A tablet.

The group reads the oblique stylus-drawn strokes at the end of some words as a 46th glyph, and identify it with the Luwian personal name determinative symbol 'r(a/i)', but assign it the value '-ti'. Phaistos glyph 01 is compared to the logogram 'SARU', a walking man or walking legs in Luwian. 02 is compared to word-initial 'a₂', a head with a crown in Luwian. The "bow" 11 is identified as the logogram 'sol suus', the winged sun known from Luwian royal seals. Sign 12 (SHIELD) is compared to the near identical Luwian logogram 'TURPI' "bread" and assigned the value 'tu'. Phaistos glyph 39 is read as the "thunderbolt", logogram of the god Tarhunt, in Luwian a W-shaped hieroglyph.

With these and other hypotheses, they arrive at a proposed translation of the text. It would be a Luwian document of land ownership, addressed to one na-sa-tu ("Nestor"; Dative na-sa-ti) of hi-ya-wa (Ahhiyawa). Toponyms read are pa-ya-tu (Phaistos), ra-su-ta (Lasithi), mi-SARU (Mesara), ku-na-sa (Knossos), sa₃-har-wa (Scheria), ri-ti-na (Rhytion). Another personal name read is i-du-ma-na ("Idomeneus"), governor of Mesara. The text begins

:a-tu mi₁-SARU sa+ti / pa-ya-tu / u ^Nna-sa₂-ti / u u-ri / a-tu hi-ya-wa

:atu Misari sati Payatu. u Nasati, u uri atu Hiyawa.

:"In Mesara is Phaistos. To Nestor, to the great [man] in Ahhiyawa."

• Vladimir Georgiev (1976) (interpretation as Hittite language, syllabic writing);{{sfnp|Georgiev|1976}}
• side A first; reading outwards;

• Albert Cuny (1914) (interpretation as an ancient Egyptian document, syllabic-ideographic writing);{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

• K. Aartun (1992) (interpretation as a Semitic language, syllabic writing);{{sfnp|Aartun|1992}}
• side A first; reading outwards;
• C.H. Gordon;{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}
• J.G.P. Best.

• F.G. Gordon (1931) (interpretation as ideographic writing, translated into "Basque"{{cite book |author=Gordon, F.G. |year=1931 |title=Through Basque to Minoan: Transliterations and translations of the Minoan tablets |place=London, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press}} Reading side B first.
• Paolo Ballotta (1974){{full citation needed|date=November 2022}} (interpretation as ideographic writing);
• H. Haarmann (1990){{full citation needed|date=November 2022}} (interpretation as ideographic writing);

Winfried Achterberg, Jan Best, Kees Enzler, Lia Rietveld, and Fred Woudhuizen (2004): The Phaistos Disc: A Luwian letter to Nestor. Volume 13 of the Publications of the Henry Frankfort Foundation.

George Hempl (1911): "[https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-magazine_1911-01_122_728/page/186/mode/2up The Solving of an Ancient Riddle: Ionic Greek before Homer]". Harper's Magazine, volume=122, issue=728, pages=187–198.

{{refbegin|colwidth=25em|small=yes}}

• {{cite book

|last=Aartun |first=Kjell

|year=1992

|title=Der Diskos von Phaistos; Die beschriftete Bronzeaxt; Die Inschrift der Taragona-tafel |language=de

|trans-title=The Phaistos Disc; The Inscribed Bronze Axe; The inscription of the Taragona tablet

|series=Die minoische Schrift : Sprache und Texte [The Minoan Script: Language and texts]

|volume=1

|place=Wiesbaden

|publisher=Harrassowitz

|isbn=3-447-03273-1

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Balistier |first=Thomas

|title=The Phaistos Disc - an account of its unsolved mystery

|publisher=Verlag Thomas Balistier

|year=2000

}} — describes Aarten's and Ohlenroth's decipherments.

• {{cite book

|last=Balodēma-Polygiannakē |first=Ephē

|script-title=el:Ο Δισκος της Φαιστού Μιλάει Ελληνικά |language=el

|title=Ho Diskos tēs Phaistou milaei hellēnika: hē hellēnikē katagōgē tōn Minōitōn

|date=1996

|trans-title=The Phaistos Disk Speaks Greek

|publisher=Georgiadis

|place=Athens

|translator=Antikas, T.

|isbn=9789603160649

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Faucounau |first=Jean

|year=1999

|title=Le déchiffrement du Disque de Phaistos |language=fr

|trans-title=Deciphering the Phaistos Disc

|place=Paris

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Faucounau |first=Jean

|year=2001b

|title=Les Proto-Ioniens : histoire d'un peuple oublié |language=fr

|trans-title=The Proto-Ionians: History of a forgotten people

|place=Paris

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Fischer |first=Steven R.

|year=1988

|title=Evidence for Hellenic Dialect in the Phaistos Disk

|publisher=Herbert Lang

|isbn=3-261-03703-2

}}

• {{cite journal

| last = Georgiev | first = Vladimir

| year = 1976

| title = Le déchiffrement du texte sur le disque de Phaistos |language=fr

| trans-title = The decryption of the text on the Phaistos Disc

| journal = Linguistique Balkanique [Balkan Linguistics]

| volume = 19 | pages = 5–47

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Hausmann |first=Axel

|year=2002

|title=Der Diskus von Phaistos: Ein Dokument aus Atlantis |language=de

|trans-title=The Phaistos Disk: A document from Atlantis

|publisher=BoD GmbH

|isbn=3-8311-4548-2

}}

• {{cite report

|last=Kvashilava |first=Gia

|year=2008

|title=On the Phaistos Disk as a sample of Colchian Goldscript and its related scripts

|url=https://www.academia.edu/2033655

|via=academia.edu

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Martin |first=Adam

|year=2000

|title=Der Diskos von Phaistos – Ein zweisprachiges Dokument geschrieben in einer frühgriechischen Alphabetschrift |language=de

|trans-title=The Phaistos Disc – A bilingual document written in an early Greek alphabet

|publisher=Ludwig Auer Verlag

|isbn=3-9807169-1-0

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Ohlenroth |first=Derk

|year=1996

|title=Das Abaton des lykäischen Zeus und der Hain der Elaia: Zum Diskos von Phaistos und zur frühen griechischen Schriftkultur |language=de

|trans-title=The Abaton of Lycaean Zeus and the Grove of Elaia: On the Phaistos Disc and on early Greek writing

|publisher=M. Niemeyer

|isbn=3-484-80008-9

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Pomerance |first=Leon

|title=The Phaistos Disk: An interpretation of astronomical symbols

|publisher=Paul Astroms forlag

|place=Göteborg

|year=1976

}} {{cite journal

|first=D.H. |last=Kelley

|date=Summer 1979

|title={{grey|[no title cited]}}

|type=book review

|journal=The Journal of Archeoastronomy

|volume=II |number=3

}}

• {{cite magazine

|first=F. Melian |last=Stawell |author-link=Florence Stawell

|year=1911

|title=An interpretation of the Phaistos Disk

|magazine=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs

|volume=19 |issue=97 |pages=23–38

|jstor=858643

}}

• {{cite journal

|first=Benjamin |last=Schwartz

|year=1959

|title=The Phaistos disk

|journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies

|volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=105–112

|doi=10.1086/371517 |s2cid=162272726

}}

{{refend}}

Category:Inscriptions in undeciphered writing systems

Category:Languages of Greece

Category:Minoan archaeology

Category:Pseudolinguistics