Phaistos Archaeological Site
Bronze Age Minoan palace ruins where a mysterious stamped clay disc, still unread, was unearthed among ashes.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Phaistos Archaeological Site follows young Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier, digging under Federico Halbherr on July 3, 1908, when he found a honey-colored clay disc half buried in charred bones and ash in a cellar room here. You'll hear how its stamped spirals of birds, ships and a walking man, more than forty different signs pressed into wet clay before firing, have no twin anywhere on Bronze Age Crete, and how scholars still can't agree whether it's a prayer, a calendar or a game. The guide also walks the palace itself, rebuilt after earthquakes at least three times, and points out the storeroom where the disc was found.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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