Deciphering the Phaistos Disk and other Cretan Hieroglyphic Inscriptions
Epigraphic and Linguistic Analysis of a Minoan Enigma
Andreas Fuls
Hamburg: tredition 2019 MATHEMATICA EPIGRAPHICA 1 Andreas Fuls (Editor)
Fuls, Andreas: Deciphering the Phaistos Disk and other Cretan Hieroglyphic Inscriptions - Epigraphic and Linguistic Analysis of a Minoan Enigma. Hamburg: tredition (Mathematica Epigraphica, No. 1) 2019.
Verlag: tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, D-22359 Hamburg ISBN 978-3-7482-5919-0 (Paperback) ISBN 978-3-7482-5972-5 (Hardcover) Andreas Fuls, Germany. Contents
PREFACE ...... IX ABBREVIATIONS ...... XII
INTRODUCTION ...... 1
1 METHODS OF DECIPHERMENT ...... 5 § 1 Writing systems ...... 5 § 2 Classifying undeciphered writing systems ...... 8 § 3 Introduction to successful decipherments ...... 22 § 4 Unsuccessful decipherments of the Phaistos disk ...... 36 § 5 Methods of text segmentation ...... 38 § 6 Summary ...... 50
2 EPIGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE PHAISTOS DISK ...... 53 § 1 The Phaistos disk ...... 53 § 2 The sign list of the Phaistos disk ...... 54 § 3 Sign positions ...... 59 § 4 Paradigmatic analysis ...... 65 § 5 Structural analysis ...... 75 § 6 Word length ...... 82 § 7 Type of language ...... 82 § 8 Epigraphic results ...... 85
3 DECIPHERMENT OF THE PHAISTOS DISK ...... 87 § 1 Introduction ...... 87 § 2 The Luwian Hypothesis ...... 87 § 3 Comparison of signs on the Phaistos disk with Luwian hieroglyphs ...... 89 § 4 Decipherment by means of phonetic complements and sign comparison ...... 94 § 5 Decipherment of signs by means of contextual analysis ...... 109 § 6 Identified syllables, logograms and determinatives ...... 115 § 7 Summary ...... 116
v 4 TRANSLATING THE PHAISTOS DISK ...... 119 § 1 Side A ...... 120 § 2 Side B ...... 124 § 3 Undeciphered signs...... 128 § 4 Specific features of the Phaistos disk writing system ...... 130
5 VERIFICATION OF THE DECIPHERMENT ...... 133 § 1 Verification by context ...... 133 § 2 The Arkalochori axe ...... 135 § 3 The Malia stone block ...... 138 § 4 Cretan Hieroglyphic writing ...... 143 § 5 The language on the Phaistos disk and the Luwian language ...... 149 § 6 New readings of Luwian hieroglyphs ...... 151 § 7 Assessing the reliability of the decipherment ...... 153 § 8 Criteria for a successful decipherment ...... 158 § 9 Summary ...... 163
6 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE PHAISTOS DISK ...... 165 § 1 The Aegean Bronze Age ...... 165 § 2 Cretan and Anatolian writing systems during the Bronze Age ...... 172 § 3 Dating the Phaistos disk ...... 181 § 4 The Origin of the Phaistos disk ...... 181 § 5 Summary ...... 188
APPENDICES ...... 193 I SIGN LIST ...... 194 II NORMALISED WEIGHED SIGN POSITION HISTOGRAMS OF THE PHAISTOS DISK ..... 198 III MULTIVARIATE SEGMENTATION TREES OF THE PHAISTOS DISK ...... 200 IV WORD LIST ...... 221
REFERENCES ...... 224 INDEX ...... 239
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