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Some Remarks on the Archeological Placing of the Phaistos DiscDuring the excavation of the Old-Cretan palace in Phaistos the Italian excavators uncovered in 1908 a remarkable clay disc, which has since been the subject of much scientific discussion (Pl. IV-V). The circular disc bears on both sides a spiral inscription, and numberless attempts have been made to decipher these texts, which each consist of about 30 words. But as the phonetic values to be given to the signs are still only a matter of guesswork the possibilities appear endless.The hieroglyphs of the disc resemble to some degree the local Cretan hieroglyphic script and the syllabic scripts A and B derived from it, and there is therefore a logical idea behind the attempt by Benjamin Schwartz, on a basis of the frequency of occurrence of each individual sign both on the disc and in the now deciphered Linear B script, to establish the phonetic value of the hieroglyphs 1). But the result of this statistical experiment, an attempt to translate the Phaistos Disc, produces no obviously coherent meaning, and would at best only appear to succeed in proving that the language of the disc cannot by Mycenean.After this negative result no other inviting linguistic channels present themselves 2), and it would appear best to concentrate on such questions as give a possibility of a result independent of guesswork. Among these are that of the disc's provenance and date, and general cultural historical context.If the literature concerning the Phaistos Disc be viewed as a whole it may be said that only a small minority of writers believe in a Cretan origin, and that the majority are of the opinion that the disc was imported into Crete and probably fashioned in Southwestern Asia Minor. Concerning the date there appears to be unanimity. In the absence of other criteria the circumstances of discovery are taken as decisive, and the disc attributed to MM III b, i. e. to the latter half of the 17th Century BC. Comparative material of a stylistic nature is not available, as the disc is unique, and only a very small number of details may be related to features of well-defined cultures. But it is necessary to emphasize forthwith that the circumstances of discovery are unfortunately not nearly so unequivocal that a discussion of the dating can be said to be superfluous.The Phaistos Disc was discovered in a narrow storeroom in a complex of dwelling-houses lying immediately north of the palace, and belonging to the earliest palace, which was destroyed in the period around 1700 BC (Pl. 1). But, as the following account of the excavation reports shows, the circumstances of discovery do not give the impression of any clear stratigraphy.In Pl. 1A the completely excavated row of houses can be seen; but when the disc was found only a corner of the western edge had been excavated, consisting of 8 small rectangular rooms, each with a breadth of about 80-115 cms. (Pl. IC). The first seven, which are about 130-150 cms. long, lie in a row, while the eighth, in which the Phaistos Disc lay, forms an independent wing at rightangles. The walls of the small rooms -probably storerooms, as they are too narrow for dwellings- are built on bedrock and survive to an average height of about a half metre. Rooms 1-7, and the southern two-thirds of room 8, were cleared during the campaigns of 1900 and 1903 (Pl. IB), and the clay disc was first discovered when the clearing of room 8 was completed in 1908. The room was thus unfortunately excavated in two stages. Luigi Pernier, who submitted the original excavation report, gives the following information concerning the details of the discovery of the disc ("Ausonia" III, 1908 p. 261):"A find of exceptional importance was made in the evening of the 3rd of July 1908. In the small rectangular room extending from the South wall of the cavities 6, 7 to the projecting rock, near the NW angle and ab. 55 cms. above the rocky surface of the bottom, among dark earth mixed up with ashes, charcoal and fragments of pottery, was found a disc of terracotta with pictographic signs on both faces. Few centimetres farther to the SE, in the same room, in practically the same height, lay a fragment of a clay tablet carrying characters of the Minoan linear script. The disc rested on a slanting surface (suolo di costa), not in a vertical position, but somewhat sloping northwards, showing on the upper side the face stamped in the centre with a rosette. Although the earth layer, upon which the disc was situated, was found to fill out irregular cavities in the bottom surface and between the stones projecting from the West wall, it did not seem to constitute a real floor-level, for the earth was not stamped compactly and contained, in the level of the disc as well as below it, pottery of the same sort and from the same period.Anyway it seems evident, considering the position in which it was found, that the disc was not in situ, but found presumably where it had fallen down from an upper storey, probably together with the tablet.It is worth while recalling the peculiar circumstance that one of our trial trenches in 1900 led to the discovery of room 8, leaving unexcavated only the small section in which were hidden the epigraphical documents. For this reason, mainly, it can be explained why it has not been possible to reconstruct any complete piece of pottery from the sherds found together with the disc."From the last remark it may be concluded that the potsherds found during the trial excavation in 1900 had been discarded or lost when in 1908 interest in them was aroused. It seems as though Pernier wished to keep open the possibility that at least a part of the objects found belonged to the original contents of the room. But opposed to this theory is his own observation that potsherds were found throughout the fill from the level of the disc and evenly down to the bedrock. It would be more reasonable to think of a gradual silting up, in association with the heaping up of refuse around the house ruins after their destruction, which appears to have been contemporary with the catastrophe which destroyed the first palace. The levels around the houses have proved to contain a number of potsherds from the whole of the Middle Minoan period, and it seems likely that in the period MM III they reached the top of the partially demolished walls and thereafter began to slide down and fill the "storerooms". Such a theory would also best explain the sloping surface (suolo di costa) on which the disc was found, cf. fig. 1.Pernier's information appears also to indicate that the MM III potsherds, on which the dating is based, lay in the disc's stratum and below, but not above. This fact alone seems to open the possibility that the disc did not belong to the level upon which it was found, but had been deposited upon it at a later date. Suspicion is strengthened when the following quotation from Pernier's report is read. It comes from immediately before the remarks already quoted concerning the finding-place of the disc. In a short survey of the objects discovered in the area in question Pernier describes under section 1 the ceramic material from the early Middle Minoan period, then proceeds to survey the objects from MM III, and inserts here as an introduction a paragraph which clearly is meant to convince the reader that, apart from a few "infiltrazioni" he is here describing a clear archeological horizon:"Finally in some of the rooms (in alcuni vani), in different levels, have been found some fragments of cups painted in Mycenean style and of pithoi with plastic decoration like those belonging to the late palace of Phaistos, but since these were mixed both with earlier sherds (Middle-Minoan) and with later fragments (Hellenistic), we are led to believe that in these places elements have intruded from the upper layers, of which in actual fact no other remains from the Late Minoan Period can be traced, except the abovementioned sherds."It would have been interesting to know in which of the rooms, and at precisely which height, the intrusive elements occurred, and in particular whether the phrase "alcuni vani" also includes room 8!To my enquiry whether the files of the Phaistos expedition might possibly contain further information about the circumstances of discovery, the present leader of the excavations, Professor Doro Levi, replied: "I am afraid that Pernier's excavation diary gives no more detailed report of the finding of the Phaistos disc than the accounts already published" (letter of 29. 3. 63), while no reply is yet forthcoming from Pernier's associate, Professor Luisa Banti.In the final excavation publication "Il Palazzo Minoico di Festos" I-II 1935-1951 reference is made to the preliminary report in "Ausonia", but it appears as though in the course of continued excavation in the area Pernier has somewhat changed his views. Vol. I p. 375 ends as follows:"Summing up the observations made of the ruins on the terrace northeast of the palace, it is evident that there were 4 edifices, connected with each other and dependent on the palace itself, though actually separated from it. Founded on an Early Minoan level they were probably erected as early as the beginning of the Middle Minoan period, and they were certainly used during MM II and III. The edifice in which the disc was found was abandoned after a catastrophe, the same, I think, which destroyed the palace in the last phase of MM. In the three other edifices, however (and especially the propylaea), the mixing up of Late Minoan I with earlier material seems to make it certain that, while the second palace was re-erected on a basis of the ruins of the first, the three buildings -and most clearly the propylaea-were still in use with slight modifications and additions. There arose then, on the ruins, during LM III some modest constructions (alcune modeste costruzioni), on which ultimately were built the houses of the Hellenic city."We seek in vain for documentation of the "modeste costruzioni" mentioned, and their modesty appears to be deduced from the fact that no material remains of them could be found at all, their existence being postulated on the basis of the discovery of Late Minoan potsherds. Pernier's phrasing in fact amounts to a re-evaluation of the "infiltrazioni" formerly so briefly dismissed, and this gives cause to inquire once more whether the level in which the Phaistos Disc was found is so certainly and unequivocally to be dated to MM III as is normally assumed. From the foregoing considerations it appears to me that categorical conclusions should be avoided, and that it should be assumed that the time of the deposition of the Phaistos Disc in the level in which it was found can lie anywhere at all between the end of MM III and the end of LM III, i. e. from about 1600 to about 1100 BC. This, of course, does not preclude that the disc is itself older than the date of its depositing.After its destruction at the end of MM III the palace was never re-erected as a unity, but several archeological observations show that Phaistos and the surrounding district continued to be thickly populated as long as to LM III. Luisa Banti states in the article on "Festo" in "Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica" II (1960) p. 634: "The very abundant (abbondantissima) pottery from LM III has only been to a small degree published and studied". Cemeteries from this period have been discovered at Kalyvia near Phaistos. And after the destruction of the villa at Haghia Triada about 1400 new buildings were erected above and against the ruins of the villa, testifying to a cultural and material level still worthy of respect throughout LM III (cf. Luisa Banti's article on Haghia Triada in Enc. A.A. II 1087 seq.).Preliminary accounts of new discoveries of Mycenaean houses in Phaistos are given by Doro Levi in "III. London News" No. 6470 (3. 8. 63), p. 162 seq., in which Levi finds cause to emphasize that the Mycenaean period in Crete was not, as has always been claimed and frequently repeated, a period of decline, but on the contrary a rich and flourishing epoch. The current interpretation, in Levi's opinion, is connected with the contempt with which earlier excavators regarded all remains which were later than the Minoan civilization, then newly discovered. Levi emphasizes also the great difficulties, involving refined techniques of excavation, met with by modem excavators in clearly distinguishing between Minoan, Mycenaean and Hellenic strata.A greater uncertainty concerning the date of the Phaistos Disc is to a degree compensated for by a widening of the archeological horizon which can now be surveyed in an attempt to discover the milieu to which the disc belongs. If the disc was not made in Crete it may well have been imported from any area within the Mycenaean sea-trading area, in other words from practically the whole of the Mediterranean world. For Mycenaean pottery is found in many places outside the narrow Aegean area, not only on the Greek islands, in Cyprus, on the Syrian coast and in Egypt, but also far to the west, in Malta and Sicily and in South ltaly 3). It is probable that also the North African coast west of the Egyptian delta, at least as far as Syrte Minor, was reached by Mycenaean trading vessels, and it is tempting to accept the suggestion of H. C. Broholm, that Cyrene in the present-day Cyrenaica was founded as early as Mycenaean times, even though this theory has not yet been confirmed by the discovery of Mycenaean objects on the site 4).Any attempt to identify the homeland of the Phaistos Disc must be based on an analysis of the individual hieroglyphs. It must first be decided what the symbols actually portray (animals, plants, implements, etc.), and thereafter must be sought a closer identification ­zoological, botanical, cultural historical or art historical- which can help to narrow down the area of search 5). But first it will be practical to look at another side of the question, the place of the Phaistos Disc in the history of writing.I am grateful to the director of the Hiraklion Museum in Crete, Dr. Platon, for permission to study the original at close quarters. This enabled me in the first place to judge between the varying views which have been expressed concerning the direction in which the signs should be read. That the signs were impressed in the same order as that in which they should be read can scarcely be doubted, and it can with certainty be stated that the impressions were made in the direction from the circumference of the disc and in towards its centre 6). Certain groups of signs, where one sign overlaps the next, can appear from photographs to suggest the opposite order (fig. 2). But a closer examination shows that in all cases-on both sides of the disc -a sign which appears from photographs to overlap another has in fact been impressed before the second, but to such a depth that its impress could not be distorted or rubbed out to any appreciable degree by the next. The same conclusion is reached by study of signs which touch each other, for here the edges of the sign first impressed are normally slightly distorted 7).This observation agrees with the direction of the individual sign. Those signs which have a front and a back at all point in every case back towards the beginning of the inscription. This applies, for example, to all signs representing human beings, animals and fish, to parts of the body shown in profile and to certain other objects in profile, as for example the ship. An exception is perhaps the axe (sign 11), but the position of an axe is not absolutely fixed in relation to the vertical plane, and the specimen portrayed may well be an axe-adze, with two equally important blades. The other signs which can be roughly identified are all shown en face (all plants and trees for example), or can be turned either way without distinction. It should be noted, however, that the man -apparently literate- who impressed the signs has had no particular scruples with regard to the direction of the signs on the disc, but in many cases has turned them at will, either through mere thoughtlessness or in order to make room for a sign which took up too much room in breadth and had therefore to be stood on edge (for example the ship) 8). That there should be shortage of room is easily understood, as examination shows that the division of the spiral band by means of cross-lines into sections for each word was carried out before the signs were impressed, clearly in order to avoid the much more serious shortage of space which might arise if signs were merely impressed without previous planning, in succession towards the centre. Incidentally, this fact also shows that the inscription must have been copied from an earlier draft, as otherwise the rough division of the spiral band would have been impossible.This regularity in direction will in some cases be of help in identifying doubtful signs (cf. p. 185), and in addition shows that the script of the Phaistos Disc obeys at least one of the laws which apply to the ancient scripts of the Middle and Near East, that the individual sign can only be read in one direction. If the direction of writing changes, as in the archaic Greek "boustrophedon" inscriptions (alternately left-to-right and right-to-left), then the sign too must be written in the opposite direction.The direction of reading is thus hardly of great importance for the historical placing of an alphabet, or for estimating its relationship to other scripts. That the Phaistos Disc should be read from right to left does not therefore exclude the possibility of its being related to scripts which, like the Egyptian hieroglyphs or the Cretan linear scripts, are normally read from left to right.A separate analysis of the individual signs follows, general considerations being reserved to a final section. See Pls. II-III and VI-VII. Each sign is referred to by a number in brackets. (1) Human head, noticeably dolichocephalic and with long, thin neck. Eye, eyebrow and ear are clearly marked. The remarkable crest on the back of the head recalls a helmet­crest, but there is no sign of the accompanying helmet. The comparison suggested by Evans with the special headdress home by the Philistines on Egyptian battle-scenes of the 12th Century (Pl. II E) must be rejected. This headdress consisted (somewhat like that of the Indians) of a headband or diadem, to which was attached apparently a row of closely sitting vertical feathers or leaves. It appears to me that the crest in (1) cannot be interpreted as a headdress, but must be a special hair-style, as can still in our day be met with among certain primitive tribes 9). Egyptian monuments of the Second Millennium provide no parallels, but M-L. and H. Erlenmeyer have, in the article named in note 9, called attention to two terracotta heads (a. a. fig. 7-8, our Pl. II A) which undoubtedly resemble (1) closely. According to the dealer's information these heads were found on Crete together with a third head which is distinctly Philistine (a. a. fig.6). No conclusions concerning the origin of these specimens can be based on the place of finding. But it is of interest if they in fact were found on the same island, as it would in that case be reasonable to suppose that the people who fashioned the Phaistos Disc began to make themselves internationally known in the Mediterranean area about the same time as the Philistines, in LM III. To this can be added that Herodotus mentions and describes among the peculiarities of the Libyan nomad tribes between Egypt and Syrte Minor their remarkable hair-arrangement. Concerning the Maxyes tribe (presumably identical with the Mashawasha, a Libyan people mentioned in Egyptian victory inscriptions) he says that they let their hair grow on the right side of the head, but shave it off on the left (Her. IV 191). Two of the neighbouring tribes, the Machlyes and the Auseis, let their hair grow long on the front and the back of the head respectively (Her. IV 180). And finally the Makai tribe cut their hair in a crest, "allowing the middle part of the hair to grow, and shaving the hair on either side down to the scalp" (Her. IV 175). Here the word used is "lophos", which is normally employed in Greek of a horse's mane or a helmet crest, and it cannot be denied that this description suits (1) extremely well.Herodotus's description of the Libyan nomads is undoubtedly correct in all details, and it fits surprisingly accurately observations made by ethnographers among the present-day Tuareg (cf. Henri Lhote "Les Touaregs du Hoggar" 1955, p. 106 seq.). Among one of the southern tribes, the Timbuctoo people, the variations in hair-arrangement shown in Pl. II C are recorded 10). Hair styles of this type are occasionally seen on Egyptian monuments, as for example the Nubian on the Theban grave painting shown in Pl. III A. The resemblances between the ancient Libyans and the present-day Tuareg go, however, far over details of appearance, and witness to an unusual persistence in tradition during the 2400 years which have elapsed since Herodotus. There is therefore reason to believe that the situation described by Herodotus had not changed appreciably during the period of about 1000 years, which separates him from the heyday of Cretan culture. The hair-crest in (1) seems to be somewhat stylized; human hair is not normally so stiff unless it is treated in some way, but it is possible that the hair-style deliberately attempts to imitate an actual helmet crest 11).(2) Running man with dolichocephalic skull, cf. (1), bearing a loincloth and possibly, though not certainly, a phallos-sheath. The arms are only sketched, with no detail of the muscles, but the legs on the contrary are more detailed as to muscu