phaistos-disc 0.0.2

Python library to aid in the decipherment of the Phaistos Disc

Phaistos Disc

A library of Python utilities to aid in the decipherment of the Phaistos disc

Since 1908[^1], the Phaistos disc has eluded decipherment, despite widespread interest and several recent computer-aided analyses[^2]. The utilities provided in this library aim to assist in the analysis and decipherment of the Phaistos disc by providing a suite of tools and databases, and by documenting progress made by means of computational or analytical advancements.

Datasets are currently limited to various transcriptions of the disc, and will eventually include word lists from known ancient Mediterranean languages.

Some research materials are included in /biblio/

Usage

Basic text formatting

# Print the disc with line+word numbering
from phaistos_disc import format_disc

pd = PhaistosDisc()
print(pd.format_disc())

A1 𐇵 𐇒 𐇙
A2 𐇐 𐇜
A3 𐇤 𐇴 𐇲 𐇪 𐇪 𐇛 𐇑
…

# Print the disc with line separators
print(pd.format_disc(
    letter_separator="-", word_separator="|", prefix=False,
))
𐇵-𐇒-𐇙|𐇐-𐇜|𐇤-𐇴-𐇲-𐇪-𐇪-𐇛-𐇑|𐇵-𐇒-𐇙|…

Transcription

As an example of the potential utility of the tool, I've included Achterberg's transcriptional mapping[^3] of phonetic values to their hieroglyphic forms in , which can be used as shown below:

# Following Achterberg 2021, _The Phaistos Disc: A Luwian Letter to Nestor_
from phaistos_disc import PhaistosDisc

pd = PhaistosDisc(
   side_ordering=SideOrdering.a_b,
   direction=Direction.io,
)
achterberg_transliteration = pd.format_disc(
   sign_map=pd.get_sign_map(data_fp / "phaistos-disc_signs-achterberg.csv"),
   output_type=OutputType.phoneme,
   letter_separator="-",
   word_separator="\n",
   prefix=True,
)

print(achterberg_translisteration)

A1 á-tu-mi1-SARU-s6-ti
A2 pa-ya-tu
A3 u-ná-sa2-ti
A4 u-u-ri
A5 á-tu-hi-ya-wa8
…

By modifying an existing transliteration or adding a new csv file to the directory, you can easily print a phonetic transcription of the entire disc.

Decipherment

The primary focus of this library is to provide a suite of tools that aid in the decipherment of the disc. The general method pursued initially will be to:

• create combinations of symbol-to-phoneme mappings
• generate a transcription
• compare the transcription with known ancient Mediterranean languages

If a particular symbol-phoneme mapping produces a set of words that can be found in another language. Achterberg (2021) and others have done similar work without the use of computational means, relying on the disc's symbols' pictographic resemblance to other known hieroglyphic symbols. But consensus has not been reached as to the correctness of any particular transcription or translation.

Challenges

Disc Side Ordering

The disc is inscribed on both sides. There is no consensus on which side is to be read first, or if both sides may be read independently without relation one to the other.

Writing/Reading Direction

The disc does not provide obvious signs indicating whether to read from the periphery toward the center (right-to-left) or from the center outward toward the periphery (left-to-right).

Sign Values

It is not known whether each symbol represents a letter (alphabetically), a syllable (syllabically), a word (hieroglyphically), or a combination of these as seen in Linear B and elsewhere.

Install

1. Download the library, either by pip installing it

• pip install phaistos-disc, or
  • pip install phaistos-disc[biblio] to include reference works

2. or cloning this repo. phaistos-disc uses uv to structure and manage the project.

• Install uv
• git clone https://github.com/hp4k1h5/phaistos-disc.git
• cd into the project with e.g. cd path/to/phaistos-disc
• Create a virtual environment: uv venv
• Create a venv shell: source .venv/bin/active
• Install dependencies: uv sync

Contributions

Contributions are welcome. Fork the repo, follow the installation instructions above, and submit a pull review with your edits.

Bibliography

[^1]: Evans, Arthur. 1952. Scripta Minoa, the Written Documents of Minoan Crete, with Special Reference to the Archives of Knossos. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

[^2]: Braović, Maja, Damir Krstinić, Maja Štula, and Antonia Ivanda. 2024. “A Systematic Review of Computational Approaches to Deciphering Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot Scripts.” Computational Linguistics 50 (2): 725–79. https://doi.org/10.1162/coli_a_00514.

[^3]: Achterberg, Winfried. 2021. “The Phaistos Disc : A Luwian Letter to Nestor.” The Phaistos Disc : A Luwian Letter to Nestor, January. https://www.academia.edu/66972374/The_Phaistos_disc_a_Luwian_letter_to_Nestor.