Re: boustrophedon

On Friday, July 12, 2002, at 10:11 , Matthew Butt wrote:

> disc of phaistos that one . . .
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Adrian Morgan
> Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 6:54 AM
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: Re: boustrophedon
>
>
> Abrigon Gusiq wrote:
>
>> boustrophedon, some say it means ox
>> turning or like meaning. Since it is
>> much like how a farmer plows his field.
Ancient Greek:  boustrophe:dón (adverb) = turning like oxen in
plowing/ploughing

from _boûs_ "ox" and _strophé:_ [noun] "turning"

> Of course - but it's not half as interesting as writing how Australian
> farmers plow their paddocks (our word for fields). Round and round in a
> spiral from the outside inward...
Yep - and as Matthew says, that's probably how the Phaistos disk is
written, tho
some claim it goes round  & round in a spiral from the inside outwards.
The
majority opinion AFAIK however holds that it is from outside inwards just
like an Aussie farmer     :)
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On Friday, July 12, 2002, at 01:54 , Abrigon Gusiq wrote:

> Seen some writing done in that way, a circular fashion. I forget if it
> was Linear B or .. Yes it is quite interesting.. Would be good for bowls
> and like?
No, certainly not Linear B, otherwise we'd be able to read it.

In fact the script is an isolate.  It comes from the same period as the
still
undeciphered Linear A, but it ain't Linear A either.  No other example of
the
Phaistos script has been found AFAIK.

Nor is it _written_, it's printed!  The guy who made it had wood-cut fonts
and
stamped them onto the clay disk.  As well as the printed symbols it has a
spiral
guide line going round and round from outside to the center (or t'other
way round),
as well as 'vertical' lines separating each word.  There are 242
characters stamped
on the disk; there are 45 different characters and there is little doubt
that we
have here a syllabary, just as (probably) Linear A was and certainly
Linear B was.

But what it means is still a mystery.  It's uniqueness and a certain
repetitiveness
in the words has led many to suppose that it is a chant used in some
religious
rite.

It has, of course, attracted the attention of many cranky 'translators'.
I recall
reading one by a guy who was convinced that the language was some early
form of
Lithuanian and read it with supreme confidence as a chant lamenting the
destruction
of Atlantis.

Ray.

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