EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR A LEFT-TO-RIGHT READING DIRECTION OF THE PHAISTOS DISK

Abstract

This paper provides conclusive experimental evidence that the Phaistos Disk was printed in a left-to-right or center-to-periphery direction. The paper gives a thorough analysis of six different aspects of the Phaistos Disk: (1) overstamped signs, (2) crowded signs, (3) bent dividing lines, (4) direction of strokes, (5) direction of faces, and (6) sequence matches among the Phaistos Disk, Arkalochori Axe, and Cretan Hieroglyphic inscriptions. The techniques used in the analysis are observations and two novel experiments. The first experiment uses clay and different stamps. This experiment demonstrates that if stamp A is pushed deep into the clay and afterwards stamp B is pushed shallower into the clay, then it creates the false impression of stamp A overstamping stamp B. The second experiment asked subjects to copy a sequence of signs that had strokes bellow them like the downward strokes bellow some of the Phaistos Disk signs. The given sequence of signs contained both downward and upward strokes. The subjects, who were all used to reading and writing in a left-to-right direction, tended to change the upward strokes to downward strokes. Hence downward strokes seem associated with left-to-right writing, while upward strokes are associated with right-to-left writing. This experiment demonstrates that the Phaistos Disk scribe also wrote left-to-right because the Phaistos Disk contains only downward strokes. The paper also reviews the history of the controversy about the reading direction of the Phaistos Disk. With the conclusive proof that the Phaistos Disk needs to be read left-to-right, that is, from the center to the periphery, all previous attempts to read the inscription from the periphery to the center can be discarded.