pic from another article (click)
If you can read the writing on either side of the Phaistos Disc, you have the mind of either a brilliant scholar or a clever hoaxster. (Photos by Judith Lange)
Posted on 07/30/2008 10:56:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Jerome Eisenberg, a specialist in faked ancient art, is claiming that the disc and its indecipherable text is not a relic dating from 1,700BC, but a forgery that has duped scholars since Luigi Pernier, an Italian archaeologist, "discovered" it in 1908 in the Minoan palace of Phaistos on Crete.
Pernier was desperate to impress his colleagues with a find of his own, according to Dr Eisenberg, and needed to unearth something that could outdo the discoveries made by Sir Arthur Evans, the renowned English archaeologist, and Federico Halbherr, a fellow Italian...
Dr Eisenberg, who has conducted appraisals for the US Treasury Department and the J. Paul Getty Museum, highlighted the forger's error in creating a terracotta "pancake" with a cleanly cut edge. Nor, he added, should it have been fired so perfectly. "Minoan clay tablets were not fired purposefully, only accidentally," he said. "Pernier may not have realised this."
Each side of the disc bears a bar composed of four or five dots which one scholar described as "the oldest example of the use of natural punctuation".
Dr Eisenberg believes that it was added to lead scholars astray -- "another oddity to puzzle them, and a common trick among forgers". The Greek authorities have refused to give Dr Eisenberg permission to examine the disc outside its display case, arguing that it is too delicate to be moved.
His misgivings could be laid to rest by a thermoluminescence test -- a standard scientific dating test -- but the authorities had refused, he said. In Rome, this test cast doubt recently on the provenance of another iconic archeological object.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
pic from another article (click)
If you can read the writing on either side of the Phaistos Disc, you have the mind of either a brilliant scholar or a clever hoaxster. (Photos by Judith Lange)
As an amusement, the author reproduces a letter to _The Economist_ magazine regarding its article on the Phaistos Disk. The letter calls it a century old fraud (the disk, not the magazine) that could be exposed as such using thermoluminescence. [p 298].(turns out to be from the Jan 14th 1999 issue)
Lost Languages:
The Enigma Of The World's
Undeciphered Scripts
by Andrew Robinson
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To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
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Wanted, pseudo-antique bunnies.
It’s real, it has to be. The date on it says “1700 B.C.”
:’) It’s a unique document; the characters on the disk are generally accepted to have been stamped into the clay using dies (the earliest known moveable type), and it is likely to have been an import (or a fake) due to the fact that is unique. The characters on the disk appear to be from Anatolia.
The omens that you seek are explained in this tablet, every one. The omens that are sent forth for man's destiny, every one. Whatever you may ask, great or small, if you are worried, is given (an answer), every one. Seek an omen by offering a sacrifice to the birds, that the Gods may be well disposed. Ask anything you wish, on this tablet is explained everything. You may ask anything by sacrificing an offering to the birds, that the Gods may from Heaven send forth an omen; everything is (answered) above the earth, deceiving never, everything. And so men may ask for protection, everyone. Should they (the Gods) be angered by something, or by the sacrifice, ill omens are released, all of them, signifying death or disaster; which appear upon asking, all of them.(reverse side follows)
Let a substitute sacrifice be exposed, designated as an offering to take the place of the man. If birds are attracted then, it is a lucky sign. Should the birds remain hidden, it stands for death, and the man will die. Should they approach to peck at the sacrifice, it is a lucky sign. If they continue to feed and crowd in, it is lucky and moreover a sign of great favor (or, that the sacrifice is favored), and the man may go and pour a libation for his success. The kid satisfied and was pleasing to the high gods. To the priest, for averting death and danger, a recompense is to be paid, and a measure for bird-seed for good fortune. The measure scattered for the birds is to be wheat which has been coarsely milled, and is to be scattered abroad by the man's own hands, or he may die. Perform all these things as the tablet instructs."
Well, geeze. The real ones say “Minus MDCC.”
;-)
Naw, these guys were from Minos. Cretins. You know, like Democrats?
Bloomin’ lyres, just ask one.
What if...the Phaistos Disc is an ancient board-game or an oracle...and the symbols do not represent letters or words, but a prize to be won or a future event?
Cretins are much nicer people than Democrats. Just watch the Raki.
Interesting, I posted 12 before I read 8. Oracle. I’m with Barry!
The real one is in my basement.
Archaeo-pajamahadeen will decide if it is authentic or “fake but accurate.”
interesting. thanks
As I understand it Linear A is thought to be in the Minoan Language, thought to be from Anatolia, possibly Hittite in origin, and Linear B is thought to be in an ancestor of Mycenean Greek? Am I correct, and is the inscription certainly in a version of Linear A?
every nutjob wants “access” to prove a theory.
Next he will say the disk leads to the lost treasure of Pericles...
Interesting!
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