Phaistos disc. A look from the 21st century.

Tatiana Andreeva (1)

1 VSU - Departement of History State University of Voronezh

The Phaistos disk was made in the time following the expedition to the country of Punt, organized by Queen Hatshepsut. That is, in the Middle Kingdom, which coincides with the conclusions of other researchers of the artifact. The country of manufacture was most likely Egypt, which can be assumed, given the similarity of the disk signs and Egyptian hieroglyphs, as well as the presence of an outstanding sculptural and ceramic tradition in the country of the pharaohs. The manufacturing technology was the same for the disk, as for other clay products of the time, and there is no reason to consider the issue of seals (stamps) as a special form of processing this unique subject. Purpose of the disk: with caution, we assume that it was an object that serves to receive predictions. The signs most likely represent pictographic records, so the question of the language of the disc does not arise. For the same reason, it does not seem significant to consider the problem of the direction in which characters are read: in logograms, the order of the icons may not matter.

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Archaeology and Prehistory; Art and art history; Classical studies

Tatiana Andreeva. Phaistos disc. A look from the 21st century.. 2020. ⟨hprints-02532398⟩