Phaistos Disc: U+101D0 - U+101FF

The Phaistos Disc was discovered in an archaeological dig in Phaistos, Crete, in 1908. It is a clay disc about 16 cm in diameter and 1 cm thick with 242 signs stamped onto the two sides. The 242 signs consist of 45 different characters separated by lines into a total of 61 groups of two to seven characters. The disc has been dated to the mid-18th century BCE. and is contemporary with Linear A. Indeed, it was found among Linear A tablets.

There is universal agreement that the symbols on the script are an example of writing, but despite the continued interest of classicists, professional and amateur, for nearly ninety years, the writing has not been deciphered, nor have any other examples of this writing been discovered. Some guesses can be made about the writing system of the disc. It was probably a syllabary and likely consisted of about fifty to sixty symbols on the whole. Nor should the Phaistos Disc be taken as the only possible specimen of this script – the fact that somebody went to the trouble to create stamps with which to write it implies that it was used for more than one document. (Indeed, Chadwick goes so far as to call it the world's first typewritten document.)

A Unicode-enabled font based on the formal UCS encoding and a test page containing the entire Phaistos corpus can be found here.

References

References to the Phaistos disc and reproductions of it are remarkably easy to come by. A web search of "Phaistos disc" or "Phaistos disk" is very educational.

• Bennett, Emmett L. 1996. "Aegean Scripts", in The World's Writing Systems , edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. Oxford: University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0
• Chadwick, John. 1987. Linear B and Related Scripts Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Gaur, Albertine. 1984. A History of Writing. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Godart, Louis. 1995. The Phaistos Disc: the enigma of an Aegean script. Tr. Alexandra Doumas. s.l.: Éditions Itanos. ISBN 960-7549-02-3
• Gordon, F. G. 1931. Through Basque to Minoan: transliterations and translations of the Minoan tablets. London: Oxford University Press. (Gordon's work was valiant in its courage and effort, but he couldn't have been more wrong. Shows fonts for the scripts, though.)

Code assignments

E6D0 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN PEDESTRIAN E6D1 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN PLUMED HEAD E6D2 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN TATTOOED HEAD E6D3 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN CAPTIVE E6D4 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN CHILD E6D5 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN WOMAN E6D6 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN HELMET E6D7 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN GAUNTLET E6D8 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN TIARA E6D9 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN ARROW E6DA PHAISTOS DISC SIGN BOW E6DB PHAISTOS DISC SIGN SHIELD E6DC PHAISTOS DISC SIGN CLUB E6DD PHAISTOS DISC SIGN MANACLES E6DE PHAISTOS DISC SIGN MATTOCK E6DF PHAISTOS DISC SIGN SAW E6E0 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN LID E6E1 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN BOOMERANG E6E2 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN CARPENTRY PLANE E6E3 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN DOLIUM E6E4 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN COMB E6E5 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN SLING E6E6 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN COLUMN E6E7 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN BEEHIVE E6E8 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN SHIP E6E9 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN HORN E6EA PHAISTOS DISC SIGN HIDE E6EB PHAISTOS DISC SIGN BULLS LEG E6EC PHAISTOS DISC SIGN CAT E6ED PHAISTOS DISC SIGN RAM E6EE PHAISTOS DISC SIGN EAGLE E6EF PHAISTOS DISC SIGN DOVE E6F0 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN TUNNY E6F1 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN BEE E6F2 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN PLANE TREE E6F3 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN VINE E6F4 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN PAPYRUS E6F5 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN ROSETTE E6F6 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN LILY E6F7 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN OX BACK E6F8 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN FLUTE E6F9 PHAISTOS DISC SIGN GRATER E6FA PHAISTOS DISC SIGN STRAINER E6FB PHAISTOS DISC SIGN SMALL AXE E6FC PHAISTOS DISC SIGN WAVY BAND E6FD PHAISTOS DISC SIGN COMBINING OBLIQUE STROKE E6FE PHAISTOS DISC SIGN SEPARATOR E6FF PHAISTOS DISC SIGN BEGINNING OF TEXT