DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0695
THE PHAESTOS DISK
649
ground and white decoration and forms of vessels in some cases identical
with those of the Temple Repositories.1 There were also found fragments
of a typical class of vessel with a ' bridge-spout ' and three handles (Fig. 481),
further degenerations of which occur in L. M. I deposits.2 This evidence
would brine down the date of the Disk to an advanced stao;e of M. M. III.3
In default of the strongest evidence to the contrary, the inference would Non-
be almost obligatory that the clay Disk, found thus on a Cretan site and in character
purely Minoan associations, was itself an indigenous product. But there are ot Dlsk-
serious objections of a negative character to this conclusion as well as positive
indications pointing to a geographical area outside Crete.
The Disk itself, of which Face A is reproduced in Fig. 482, presents on Hiero-
either side a spiraliform inscription in hieroglyphic characters, each of which f^mped
is separately impressed by means of a punch, a remarkable and novel feature by novel
... . . i • • 1 method.
in connexion with early script. It might, a prion, have been supposed 4 that
1 Compare especially the pitcher with typi-
cal M.M. Ill b spiraliform ornament. Ausonia
iii, p. 261, P'ig. 3, and the fragments, p. 263,
Fig. 6.
- This type of vessel was found at Gournia
with pure L. M. I decoration (Boyd Hawes,
Gournia, PI. VIII, 21, 22). A L. M. I vase,
showing a still further degeneration, was
found in a private house at Hagia Triada.
3 For an account of the discovery of the
Disk, and a detailed description, see Dr. F.
Pernier, Ausonia, 1909, p. 255 seqq. Re-
searches of my own on the subject have
appeared in Scripta Minoa, i, p. 22 seqq., and
Part III, 'The Phaestos Disk,' p. 273 seqq.
An acute study of the Disk was published con-
temporaneously by Dr. A. Delia Seta (1/Disco
di Phaestos : Rendiconti della r. Accad. dei
Fincei, 1909, Seduta di Maggio), whose views
as to the order of the inscriptions I have felt
bound to adopt. Almost simultaneously ap-
peared Der Diskus von Phaestos una1 die Philister
von Kreta by Prof. Eduard Meyer (Sitzungsbe ■
richte d. k. Akad., Berlin, 1909, p. T022 seqq.),
who lays stress on the 'Philistine' element.
Monsieur A. J. Reinach's article,' Fe Disque de
Phaestos et les Peuples de la Mer ' {Rev. Arch.,
1910, pp. 1-65), is mainly an ethnographic
investigation on the same lines as the pre-
ceding. In 1911 Dr. A. Cuny published a
careful study of the Disk in the Rev. des
Etudes anciennes (p. 296 seqq., and cf. too
ib.j 1912, pp. 95, 96). Prof. A. Sundwall
{Der Ursprung der krelischen Schrift (Acta
Academiae Aboensis, 1920) labours to derive
the signs on the Disk from Egyptian hiero-
glyphs. Prof. R. A. S. Macalister, Proc. R. I.
Acad., xxx (1913), Sect. C, p. 342 seqq., without
attempting to transliterate the document, has
compared its arrangement with that of a con-
tract tablet with a list of witnesses ; Mr. F. YY.
Read {Quarterly Statement Pal. Exc. Fimd,
Jan., 1921, p. 29 seqq.) regards it as'the oldest
music in the world'.
4 This was at first my own view, but the tech-
nical arguments advanced by Dr. Delia Seta,
loc. cit., have convinced me that the alternative
view held from the first by Dr. Pernier was
correct and that the inscriptions run inwards.
Several cogent arguments for this view are
advanced by Dr. Delia Seta (op. cit., p. 12
seqq.). Such are (a) the abrupt widening of
the outer column at the end of Section XII of
Face A, and the somewhat strangled beginning
of Section XIV. (/?) The fact that on both
faces there are slight superpositions of one
sign by another, showing that in each case
the sign to the right was the first impressed
649
ground and white decoration and forms of vessels in some cases identical
with those of the Temple Repositories.1 There were also found fragments
of a typical class of vessel with a ' bridge-spout ' and three handles (Fig. 481),
further degenerations of which occur in L. M. I deposits.2 This evidence
would brine down the date of the Disk to an advanced stao;e of M. M. III.3
In default of the strongest evidence to the contrary, the inference would Non-
be almost obligatory that the clay Disk, found thus on a Cretan site and in character
purely Minoan associations, was itself an indigenous product. But there are ot Dlsk-
serious objections of a negative character to this conclusion as well as positive
indications pointing to a geographical area outside Crete.
The Disk itself, of which Face A is reproduced in Fig. 482, presents on Hiero-
either side a spiraliform inscription in hieroglyphic characters, each of which f^mped
is separately impressed by means of a punch, a remarkable and novel feature by novel
... . . i • • 1 method.
in connexion with early script. It might, a prion, have been supposed 4 that
1 Compare especially the pitcher with typi-
cal M.M. Ill b spiraliform ornament. Ausonia
iii, p. 261, P'ig. 3, and the fragments, p. 263,
Fig. 6.
- This type of vessel was found at Gournia
with pure L. M. I decoration (Boyd Hawes,
Gournia, PI. VIII, 21, 22). A L. M. I vase,
showing a still further degeneration, was
found in a private house at Hagia Triada.
3 For an account of the discovery of the
Disk, and a detailed description, see Dr. F.
Pernier, Ausonia, 1909, p. 255 seqq. Re-
searches of my own on the subject have
appeared in Scripta Minoa, i, p. 22 seqq., and
Part III, 'The Phaestos Disk,' p. 273 seqq.
An acute study of the Disk was published con-
temporaneously by Dr. A. Delia Seta (1/Disco
di Phaestos : Rendiconti della r. Accad. dei
Fincei, 1909, Seduta di Maggio), whose views
as to the order of the inscriptions I have felt
bound to adopt. Almost simultaneously ap-
peared Der Diskus von Phaestos una1 die Philister
von Kreta by Prof. Eduard Meyer (Sitzungsbe ■
richte d. k. Akad., Berlin, 1909, p. T022 seqq.),
who lays stress on the 'Philistine' element.
Monsieur A. J. Reinach's article,' Fe Disque de
Phaestos et les Peuples de la Mer ' {Rev. Arch.,
1910, pp. 1-65), is mainly an ethnographic
investigation on the same lines as the pre-
ceding. In 1911 Dr. A. Cuny published a
careful study of the Disk in the Rev. des
Etudes anciennes (p. 296 seqq., and cf. too
ib.j 1912, pp. 95, 96). Prof. A. Sundwall
{Der Ursprung der krelischen Schrift (Acta
Academiae Aboensis, 1920) labours to derive
the signs on the Disk from Egyptian hiero-
glyphs. Prof. R. A. S. Macalister, Proc. R. I.
Acad., xxx (1913), Sect. C, p. 342 seqq., without
attempting to transliterate the document, has
compared its arrangement with that of a con-
tract tablet with a list of witnesses ; Mr. F. YY.
Read {Quarterly Statement Pal. Exc. Fimd,
Jan., 1921, p. 29 seqq.) regards it as'the oldest
music in the world'.
4 This was at first my own view, but the tech-
nical arguments advanced by Dr. Delia Seta,
loc. cit., have convinced me that the alternative
view held from the first by Dr. Pernier was
correct and that the inscriptions run inwards.
Several cogent arguments for this view are
advanced by Dr. Delia Seta (op. cit., p. 12
seqq.). Such are (a) the abrupt widening of
the outer column at the end of Section XII of
Face A, and the somewhat strangled beginning
of Section XIV. (/?) The fact that on both
faces there are slight superpositions of one
sign by another, showing that in each case
the sign to the right was the first impressed