A Fake Ancient Disc?

Now that we’ve disposed of the bogus “pre-Columbian” crystal skulls, we can consider a potential new hoax: the Phaistos Disc, whose purportedly ancient text has long resisted scientists’ efforts to decipher it. My colleague Bina Venkataraman explains the newest twist on its inscrutability:

The hundred-year-old mystery of a famous ancient artifact, according to one art history scholar, might be summed up with a single word: hubris.

Until now, most scholars believed that Luigi Pernier, an Italian archaeologist, excavated the Phaistos Disc in Crete in 1908. Dr. Eisenberg asserts that Mr. Pernier created the disc himself, because he was jealous of the accomplishments of archaeologists like Federico Halbherr, who discovered the “earliest legal code found in Europe” in Crete in 1884, and Arthur Evans, who excavated the palace at Knossos, also in Crete.

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Well that was one of my favorite finds. I even went to where it was found to see the general area. I always held the opinion that it was a treasured piece of work by a child or grandchild that was preserved and no language was involved. It was just a child pressing cutouts into a mold to make a interesting design.

reply to post by Hanslune


I wonder if there is any way to date the disc. Even if it is a hoax, it would be quite valuable at an auction.

Sure

Thermoluminescent dating, however the disc is fairly small, about 15 cm and I don't know how thick it is. I don't recall the sample size needed to do this type of test.

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