Re: what makes a con-script a Con-Script?

On Saturday, September 25, 2004, at 04:33 , Philippe Caquant wrote:

>  --- Rodlox R <rodlox@...> skrev:
>
>> if you had five or fewer tablet (each the size of
>> your palm), which had
>> symbols etched in them...how would you know that it
>> was a written
>> language?...as opposed to random slashes in the
>> rock...or something else?
>>
>> just wondering.
>>
> Probably by noticing that some symbols come back at
> different places, especially if they are not very
> simple ones (like a single stroke), and perhaps even
> come back in a similar "context" ?
Nope - it does not confirm that you have writing. Symbols are certainly
repeated on the Phaistos Disk and certain groupings have been noted, i.e.
some symbols do come back in a similar context. But as more than one
person has plausibly shown, the disk might be a board for a game, and not
writing at all.
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n Saturday, September 25, 2004, at 02:20 , Muke Tever wrote:
[snip]
> You probably wouldn't know... (unless, of course, the symbols were the
> same
> as or similar to symbols you already know).
>
> Without context, you have the same issue as you have with the Phaistos
> Disc:
Exactly! For a listing of many of the various interpretations and supposed
decipherments of the disk, see:
http://users.otenet.gr/~svoronan/phaistos.htm

[snip]
> ...you may be able to assume it's meaningful, but that's not the same as
> its
> being language.  Common examples of "tablets with symbols" that don't
> necessarily include language are, for example, maps, some board games,
> art,
Yep. These are more have been suggested for the infamous Phaistos Disk
(which might even be a modern forgery  :)

Ray
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"They are evidently confusing science with technology."
UMBERTO ECO				September, 2004

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