Sure enough. And I'm certainly never going to criticize someone for treating it as a script until it is proven otherwise - including for the purposes of Unicode. But one has to admit that one excellent piece of evidence that a script is a script is the existence of multiple texts, and that in this case that excellent piece of evidence happens to be missing. Not to say that there isn't evidence other evidence that it is an example of a lost script (the fact that the characters seem to have been imprinted with some sort of stamp, for instance, which is suggestive that there are in fact multiple texts in the script, and the rest are lost). Another possible explanation of the disk is that it is a "dancing-men" cipher of some sort (though why a cipher would be imprinted on such a permanent medium is beyond me). I do not think there is anything controversial in expressing this modicum of doubt. Anyway, I'm glad that there are folks like Mr. Everson and Mr. Jenkins willing to put in the time in to keep up activity on encoding historical scripts. Patrick Rourke [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Thanks, but if you go back and read my original message, you'll find the >following sentences that continue from the point quoted by Mr. Everson: > >> Other than the Phaistos Disk "script," which may not >> be a script at all (it seems odd that there would be a >> script in as heavily studied a location as the Aegean >> with only one example; it probably is a script, but I >> would say that the jury is still out). The sample we have pf Phaistos is, at least, well-designed, clear, and easily analyzable. Meaning, at least it's not a rumour. Michael Everson ** Everson Gunn Teoranta ** http://www.egt.ie 15 Port Chaeimhghein Íochtarach; Baile Átha Cliath 2; Éire/Ireland Mob +353 86 807 9169 ** Fax +353 1 478 2597 ** Vox +353 1 478 2597 27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn; Baile an Bhóthair; Co. Átha Cliath; Éire
