Created in the 17th century B.C., the Disk of Phaistos was maked out of clay and its diameter is 15 cm. It is full of different symbols and no one knows what exactly it says, it is the one and only Disk of Phaistos!
The Discovery
On a sunny hot day of July in Heraklion of 1908 Luigi Pernier (1874 – 1937), archaeologist, having drilled in the basement rooms of the Minoan palace of Phaistos, finds intact a thin disk of baked clay, with a diameter of only 15 cm.
He takes the disk carefully in his arms, blows on it in order to leave the ashes that have fallen on it, and notices that on both sides there is a series of incomprehensible designs written in a snail-like shape, from the inside out. Or from the outside in? In any case, he realizes that the finding is important. And it was!
The Disk
Luigi Pernier has just discovered the Disk of Phaistos, which sees the light of sun after approximately 3.700 years.
The most famous example of Minoan hieroglyphic writing is the only record of its kind.
It dates to the beginning of the neo-palace years and is kept intact.
Symbols have been imprinted on both sides in a row, following a spiral arrangement, starting from the periphery and ending in the center.
There are 45 symbols that are repeated and grouped to form words, which are separated by vertical engraved lines.
They were stamped when the clay was still fresh and for this reason, the disk is considered the oldest known sample of typography.
