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A proposed start to decipherment This site aims to make a succinct offering of my own reading of the writing on the Phaistos Disk. Most of the work took place in the Summer of 1992 when I had the opportunity to see both the disk in Heraklion Museum and the archeological remains of the palace at Phaistos. The work of decipherment continues but this attempt is intended to stimulate debate about the possibilities of the language represented. After trying to see Indo European patterns I found that what I knew of Semitic seemed to fit far better. I call the language Keftian after the Egyptian name for the island of Crete - Keftiu. I assume it to be a form of ancient Semitic which, after the dispersal of the Keftian peoples to Palestine developed into Philistine. There are many obstacles to proving a decipherment when there are only two known inscriptions using the writing system (the disk itself and the axehead from Arkalachori which is also to be seen in Heraklion Museum). I have heard rumours of an inscription from Malia but have not discovered any more. Perhaps one of my readers can furnish me with further information. Click here for the Table of Hieroglyphs, and here for an illustrated view of the two sides of the disk. I am always interested in comments from scholars and laymen (into which latter category I fall). I may be reached on the following email address I feel satisfied with the work on the first side but the second side is still causing difficulties - there appears to be something about a wheel ( the wheel of fortune, or the Zodiac, perhaps ? or a reference to the disk itself ?). Stanislaw Hansel, 24th Aug,1999 38 West Parade,
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