After a century of studying and attempted code cracking, scientists may have finally decoded the "Phaistos disk," a clay disk discovered in 1908 on the island of Crete, according to Discovery News.
The disk, which is about 6 inches in diameter, is plausibly from as far back as 1700 B.C. The indecipherable (until now) symbols carved on both sides of the disk are meant to be read from the outside spiraling into the center, according to Discovery News.
Erasmus coordinator at the Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Crete, Gareth Owens, spoke at the TEI of Western Macedonia on Oct. 20. He said the ancient disk is more like "the first Minoan CD-ROM" dedicated to a "mother," according to Archeology News Network.
"The most stable word and value is 'mother', and in particular the mother goddess of the Minoan era," Owens said, according to Archeology News Network. Owens said that there are a series of symbols found on three parts of the disk that "I-QE-KU-RJA." Owens has deduced that "I-QE" means "great lady of importance" and "AKKA" on another part of the disk means "pregnant mother. One side of the disk tells about a pregnant woman while "side B" refers to a woman giving birth, according to Owens.
"Phaistos disk" depicts 241 symbolic words made by combining 45 unique symbols. Owens dedicated six years of his life deciphering the code with a colleague at Oxford University and now 90 percent of the disk's message can be read.
