The 3,000-year-old engraved disc cannot be deciphered

The Phaistos disc was found by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the ruins of a palace at Phaistos, an archaeological site on the south coast of Crete, Greece, in 1908. The disc is made of fired clay, engraved with Mysterious symbol that has never been decoded. Initially, some scholars believed that the Phaistos disc was a fake, but now, most have accepted the disc as genuine. They believe that this artifact originates from the Minoan civilization and was created more than 3,000 years ago.

The Minoans were a Bronze Age people who lived on the island of Crete and neighboring islands in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Their civilization is famous for its art and architecture, which is said to have inspired the Mycenaean civilization in Greece.

In the 19th century, when excavating their incredible ruins, experts named this civilization Minoan after King Minos in Greek mythology. King Minos kept the Minotaur in a labyrinth under his castle at Knossos, Crete, until the monster was killed by the hero Theseus. However, experts believe that the Minoans lived on the island of Crete around 3100 – 1150 BC, many centuries before the appearance of Minos and Theseus.

The Phaistos disc is about 15 cm in diameter, engraved with symbols in two spirals on both sides. Most experts believe that these symbols are a type of writing. But despite many efforts over the past century, they have still not been able to figure out their meaning.

In total, the disc has 45 symbols that appear 241 times. Some icons clearly depict people, others depict animals, plants, weapons, tools and many other objects. They are grouped into “words” by vertical lines, but there is no information about their pronunciation or function.

Initial explanations suggested that the symbol on the Phaistos disc was a form of ancient Greek writing, describing animal sacrifices that took place in the temple. However, a 2004 interpretation suggested that the symbols constitute a letter about a land dispute written in the Luwian language of the ancient Anatolian peninsula (modern-day Türkiye). Some other experts believe that the disc was written in Hittite, Egyptian, or was a prayer to the goddess, or that the funeral song was written in an unknown language.