142 



The phaestos Disk: Its Cypriote Origin. 



By A. Rowe, 



Author of "An Ancient Egyptian Coffin in the 



Australian Museum," etc. 



[Read August 15, 1919.] 



Plates XVI. to XXII. 



The Phaestos Disk has been an enigma to archaeologists 

 and philologists ever since it was found in Crete in 1909, for 

 a good many attempts have been made to determine the country 

 of its origin and to unravel the meaning of the pictorial char- 

 acters appearing on it, without success. However, the present 

 writer believes that he has at last discovered the real 

 provenance of the Disk, and this brochure contains the results 

 of his provisional investigations. 



By far the most satisfactory paper that has yet been com- 

 piled on the matter is that which was published by Professor 

 R. A. S. Macalister in the "Proceedings of the Royal Irish 

 Academy," 0-) and I unhesitatingly accept most of this savant's 

 identifications of the objects represented by the signs. Since 

 Professor Macalister's paper was written references to the Disk 

 have appeared in various other publications, but none of them 

 can be said to have thrown much new light upon the problem. 

 For the convenience of those not intimately acquainted 

 with it, it may be mentioned that the Disk was brought to 

 light by Dr. Pernier, of the Italian* Mission, who discovered 

 it in a part of the palace at Phaestos under circumstances 

 which led him to believe that it was made no later than the 

 seventeenth century B.C. It is a disk of refined clay, about 

 | in. in thickness and 6J in., in diameter, and is covered with 

 hieroglyphs on both faces, the words (which are separated by 

 vertical lines) running in a continuous spiral from the edge to 

 the centre. The characters are not inscribed on the Disk, but 

 impressed by means of specially engraved stamps, so that each 

 individual hieroglyph is always exactly similar to others of its 

 kind in detail and appearance. Attention must be drawn to 

 the important fact that the clay used is not Cretan ; this was 



0) Vol. xxx., sec. C, p. 342. A copy of this paper has kindly 

 been sent to me by its author. 



