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Reproduction of the "Phaistos Disk"

Emile Gilliéron 

Period:
Late Minoan I
Date:
ca. 1600-1450 B.C.
Culture:
Minoan
Medium:
painted plaster; cast
Dimensions:
Diam.: 6 11/16 in. (17 cm)
Credit Line:
Dodge Fund, 1911
Accession Number:
11.37.7
  • Description

    Found July, 1908 at Phaistos, Crete.

    Both sides of the clay disk are impressed with hieroglyphic signs arranged in a spiral from the periphery to the center. Since its discovery the meaning of the object and its text have been widely debated and remains a mystery. It has even been suggested recently that the original is a forgery made by one of the Gillierons. This reproduction was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum from E. Gillieron, pere in 1910.

    The original is in the Herakleion Archaeological Museum, Crete.

  • References

    Richter, Gisela M.A. 1911. "Cretan Reproductions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 6(5): pp. 111-12, fig 4.

    Evans, A.J. 1921. Palace of Minos at Knossos. Vol. I. London: Macmillan and Co., 650-68, fig. 482.

    Richter, G.M.A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Gilliss Press, 17.

    Evans, A.J. 1909. Scripta Minoa: The Written Documents of Minoan Crete. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 22-8, fig. 11a, pls. XII-XIII.

130018753

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