Posted on 06/18/2009 5:16:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
My favorite undeciphered script is the one found on the Phaistos disk, the flat circle of clay about six inches across found in the Heraklion Museum on Crete. The disk itself was discovered in 1908 and it has been deciphered every few years ever since. Unfortunately, no two people agree on what it says, as I mentioned before. Since so many other people are interested in this topic, I thought I'd include a few of the decipherments, just to show how different they can be. The first one comes from German... In this version, it's a very involved calendar and the symbols are ideograms or, to use the more common expression, pictograms. I should point out right off the bat, I like this idea just because all the real linguists agree that this is wrong. That's because there are about 45 different symbols, many of which repeat. This fact convinces most experts it's a syllabary, in which each symbol represents the sound of a syllable, like pa or su or ri. Being excessively contrary, I quite enjoy decipherments that fly in the face of what everyone "knows." ...."Decipherment of the Phaistos Disk" by Dr. Barry Fell... Andis Kaulins'
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Unprecedented mathematical knowledge found in (Minoan) Bronze Age wall paintings.
www.nature.com/news | 28 February 2006 | Philip Ball
Posted on 03/02/2006 5:01:38 AM PST by S0122017
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1588411/posts
Phaistos Disc declared as fake by scholar
The Times of London | July 12, 2008 | Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
Posted on 07/30/2008 10:56:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2054126/posts
Decoding antiquity: Eight scripts that still can’t be read
New Scientist | 27 May 2009 | Andrew Robinson
Posted on 05/29/2009 9:14:19 PM PDT by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2261043/posts
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To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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“Remember to drink your Ovaltine”
It says “For a good time, call Helen Thomas”
;’) Why do they call it Ovaltine? The glass is round. The jar is round. They should call it Roundtine.
I’m not gonna do it.
Cylindrotine actually.
Would it help to know the original name is Ovamaltine?
It’s got the proteins of an egg (ova) and yummy malt sugar...
Sounds like maybe a variant of Linear B? But I didn’t get the Massey’s part about the numbers, that made no sense.
Obamaltine! Milk and chocolate.
The Phaistos Disk was made using “moveable type”, basically, the disk was mass-produced after a fashion, using carved dies or stamps, which were impressed into the clay when wet. The clay was then fired. I find the Barry Fell translation compelling (FWIW). Anyway, Linear B was a syllabary used to write Greek; it was derived or adapted from Linear A, which was apparently used to write some other tongue (something other than Greek; I find Barry Fell’s translation of Linear A to be compelling, FWIW).
The argument that the Phaistos Disk is a fake stems from a few different things: as an artifact, it appears to be unique; the use of dies to make it suggests nothing much, but can be interpreted as evidence of fakery; it was baked in an oven, rather than the fire which burned the Palaces to the ground during some unrecorded war; the script has never been found anywhere else, although versions of most of the characters have been identified in Linear A, Linear B, the Cypriote syllabary, and various undeciphered (mostly short) inscriptions in Anatolia.
The dies used to make the inscription have never been found, but if they were, it would mitigate in favor of authenticity, obviously. If authentic, it’s reasonable to guess that a number of similar disks were manufactured (otherwise, why dies?) and it seems as though they’d have shown up in other sites, particularly in Crete.
Why shouldn’t they have come up with the idea of moveable type, or some kind of stamp? Is it impossible there was more than one kind of Linear B?
"Deciphered"
::eye roll::
At any rate, I love this thing! It attracts all manner of kooks.
I will be sure to read the article tomorrow. Thanks for your post!
Linear B is a system of writing, and it was exclusively used to record the Greek language (as well as numbers, as in inventories and stuff). The Phaistos writing isn’t Linear B. As you bring up, it’s a little strange that no one else seems to have used anything like moveable type in that era, other than the Phaistos Disk. Inscriptions on the Linear A and Linear B tablets were made with handheld stylus on clay, and the tablets may have been reused (this is known to have happened with the older cuneiform tablets, as well as much later palimpsests in medieval Europe).
Another thing that’s kinda odd is, the Hattusas archive in Anatolia contains references to the Mycenaean Greeks (that’s now, finally, accepted except by some elderly diehards, and most of them are in England), but AFAIK, not a single example of either Linear A or Linear B has been found there. Similarly, AFAIK, no cuneiform tablets were found at Pylos or on Crete, and part of the Hattusas archive consists of court copies of correspondence sent to various places, including Mycenaean regimes.
:’)
LOL... I am a bad woman!
Ooooh?
Tell me more...
};^P>
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