Macalister — The Inscription on the Phaestos Disc. 347 



Thus, returning to the list of witnesses we have — 



n— /Sh n— nm 



s-/3h-f s-(^f 

 On the other face we have — 



h-crw h— ySh li— ^crS 

 n-ft n~/3h 



This peculiarity might go far to identify the language of the disc, if more 

 were known about the ancient languages of the Aegean basin. 



Notice in passing that, besides the analogy in the two titles of witness 6 

 and his father, there is distinct analogy between the titles of the first two 

 witnesses ; the third and the seventh contain kq-w and kq-? respectively in 

 corresponding places, and there is also similarity in form between the titles 

 of the eighth and ninth witnesses. 



Turning now to the other face, although not one word of the inscription 

 can be deciphered, it will be found that, applying the clue of the proper 

 names, everything fits exactly into its place, assuming the ordinary formula 

 of a contract such as we find it in cuneiform documents. 



The first two words would give us the name and title of the presiding 

 magistrate : " In the presence of (xch) of (j3h-w)," which offers obvious 

 analogy with the title of the second witness ; again we see a doublet with 

 the suffixes w and 5. 



Then comes the name of one of the contracting parties, u^c x-r\^. 



Then come six words or word-groups, quite unintelligible, but not 

 improbably stating what this person vmdertakes to do. 



Then follows what would be the name of the other contracting party 

 " qve of rjya." 



Next come some words which ought to give some such essential detail as 

 the date of the contract. And we find among these words just what we 

 want, a proper name irsa, denoting the officer who was eponymous of 

 the year. 



The last thirteen words we might expect to be a detailed inventory of the 

 transaction, whatever its nature may have been. It is therefore satisfactory 

 to notice that they arrange themselves neatly, just as they stand, in three 

 parallel columns, having obvious mutual relations : thus — 



nvhf 

 X— nvhf 

 ^— nvhf 770xo-h Mdw^li 



s— m{T7 

 w—\nt,-q 



n-ft n-y8h 

 h-sw h— )Qh h-^crS 

 ^h 



