Cretan Phaistos Disc Deciphered?

[rogue06]

Has the mysterious Phaistos Disc, discovered on Crete in 1908, finally been deciphered?

The nearly 6" diameter disc has been tentatively dated as from between 1850B.C. and 1600B.C. as actual testing on the object has yet to be done, leading a few to suspect it might be a forgery^[1]. In any case, it is generally accepted as authentic on several grounds, and now Gareth Owens, a noted linguist and archaeologist, has claimed to have deciphered the symbols contained in a spiral on both sides of the clay disc.

He isn't the first. IIRC, last year or maybe the one prior, there was a claim that the disc represents a calendar which combined both Lunar and Solar Time.

For his part, Owens has said that "without a doubt" it is actually a religious text and the key to unlocking the "text" is the Minoan goddess of love, Astarte.

Basically, according to Owens, the disc is a religious text about a 'pregnant goddess' who takes shape in the face of Astarte.

Personally, I'd like to see his paper on his conclusions.

Source: Archaeologist Solves Mystery of the Phaistos Disc in Greece

Phaistos-Disc-Credit-cc-by-sa-4.0-c-messier-1392x1037.jpg

The mystery of the Phaistos Disc has been “solved by 99 percent” says Gareth Owens, a linguist, archaeologist, and coordinator of the program Erasmus of Crete Technological Institute.

Owens has devoted thirty years in trying to solve the puzzle. The Minoan goddess of love, Astarte, who is linked to the Eastern goddess Ashtart, is the key figure that unlocks the mystery of the Phaistos Disc, Owens argues.

The Phaistos Disc is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (second millennium B.C.).

Phaistos Disc: one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries

The disk is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols.

The language imprinted on the face of the mysterious disk has never been fully decoded, and its symbols are part of no known alphabet either ancient or modern.

Some symbols, however, do bear resemblance to those found in Linear A and Linear B, which were the ancient languages of the Minoans. Linear A has not yet been decoded.

Others are similar to hieroglyphs found in ancient Anatolian sites.

Although the vast majority of scholars believe that the Phaistos Disc is authentic, a few archaeologists are unconvinced by its authenticity.

Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology.

This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion.

Is the goddess of love the key to decoding the disk?

He, along with his team, are using evidence and strategies from linguistics and history to decode the mysterious disc.

Owens says: “We are reading the Phaistos disc with the vocal values of Linear B and with the help of comparative linguistics, i.e. comparing with other relative languages from the Indo-European language family. Reading something, however, does not mean understanding.”

According to his data, the disc is a religious text to a “pregnant goddess” that takes shape in the face of Astarte, the goddess of love.

“There is no doubt that we are talking about a religious text,” Owens reveals. “This is clear from a comparison made with other religious words from other inscriptions from the holy mountains of Crete. We have words that are exactly the same.”

The scholar adds that he suspects that “the Phaistos Disc is a hymn before Astarte, the goddess of love. Words such as those mentioned on the disc have been found on Minoan offerings.”

“As with today’s offerings, people pray when they are troubled, because of health problems or personal reasons,” he says. “Man doesn’t change, after all.”

The archaeologist says he believes that one side of the Phaistos Disc is actually dedicated to a pregnant mother goddess while the other is dedicated to the Minoan goddess Astarte.

On the importance of the figure, Owens noted that Minoan Astarte was the goddess of love, war, and the mountains and that her origin lies in the east. The goddess’s roots are “from ancient Mesopotamia, located in today’s Turkey; Astarte went to Cyprus and became Venus,” he explained.


Source

© Copyright Original Source

1. including by Jerome M. Eisenberg, a leading New York antiquities dealer and founding editor of Minerva, an archaeological journal, who passed away a little over a week ago.

[rogue06]

Has the mysterious Phaistos Disc, discovered on Crete in 1908, finally been deciphered?

The nearly 6" diameter disc has been tentatively dated as from between 1850B.C. and 1600B.C. as actual testing on the object has yet to be done, leading a few to suspect it might be a forgery^[1]. In any case, it is generally accepted as authentic on several grounds, and now Gareth Owens, a noted linguist and archaeologist, has claimed to have deciphered the symbols contained in a spiral on both sides of the clay disc.

He isn't the first. IIRC, last year or maybe the one prior, there was a claim that the disc represents a calendar which combined both Lunar and Solar Time.

For his part, Owens has said that "without a doubt" it is actually a religious text and the key to unlocking the "text" is the Minoan goddess of love, Astarte.

Basically, according to Owens, the disc is a religious text about a 'pregnant goddess' who takes shape in the face of Astarte.

Personally, I'd like to see his paper on his conclusions.

Source: Archaeologist Solves Mystery of the Phaistos Disc in Greece

Phaistos-Disc-Credit-cc-by-sa-4.0-c-messier-1392x1037.jpg

The mystery of the Phaistos Disc has been “solved by 99 percent” says Gareth Owens, a linguist, archaeologist, and coordinator of the program Erasmus of Crete Technological Institute.

Owens has devoted thirty years in trying to solve the puzzle. The Minoan goddess of love, Astarte, who is linked to the Eastern goddess Ashtart, is the key figure that unlocks the mystery of the Phaistos Disc, Owens argues.

The Phaistos Disc is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (second millennium B.C.).

Phaistos Disc: one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries

The disk is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols.

The language imprinted on the face of the mysterious disk has never been fully decoded, and its symbols are part of no known alphabet either ancient or modern.

Some symbols, however, do bear resemblance to those found in Linear A and Linear B, which were the ancient languages of the Minoans. Linear A has not yet been decoded.

Others are similar to hieroglyphs found in ancient Anatolian sites.

Although the vast majority of scholars believe that the Phaistos Disc is authentic, a few archaeologists are unconvinced by its authenticity.

Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology.

This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion.

Is the goddess of love the key to decoding the disk?

He, along with his team, are using evidence and strategies from linguistics and history to decode the mysterious disc.

Owens says: “We are reading the Phaistos disc with the vocal values of Linear B and with the help of comparative linguistics, i.e. comparing with other relative languages from the Indo-European language family. Reading something, however, does not mean understanding.”

According to his data, the disc is a religious text to a “pregnant goddess” that takes shape in the face of Astarte, the goddess of love.

“There is no doubt that we are talking about a religious text,” Owens reveals. “This is clear from a comparison made with other religious words from other inscriptions from the holy mountains of Crete. We have words that are exactly the same.”

The scholar adds that he suspects that “the Phaistos Disc is a hymn before Astarte, the goddess of love. Words such as those mentioned on the disc have been found on Minoan offerings.”

“As with today’s offerings, people pray when they are troubled, because of health problems or personal reasons,” he says. “Man doesn’t change, after all.”

The archaeologist says he believes that one side of the Phaistos Disc is actually dedicated to a pregnant mother goddess while the other is dedicated to the Minoan goddess Astarte.

On the importance of the figure, Owens noted that Minoan Astarte was the goddess of love, war, and the mountains and that her origin lies in the east. The goddess’s roots are “from ancient Mesopotamia, located in today’s Turkey; Astarte went to Cyprus and became Venus,” he explained.


Source

© Copyright Original Source

1. including by Jerome M. Eisenberg, a leading New York antiquities dealer and founding editor of Minerva, an archaeological journal, who passed away a little over a week ago.

Apparently this "July 21, 2022" story is over a year old.