The Canaanite Y and the Phaistos Disk

Phaistos Disk, side B

The Phaistos Disk is about 6 inches in diameter and contains 45 different symbols stamped in a spiral formation on both sides. The disk was discovered in 1908 in an early second millennium B.C. Minoan palace at Phaistos on Crete.

Brent Davis, Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Classics and Archaeology at the University of Melbourne, believes that the lack of other finds like this, apart from the Arkalokhori axe, makes attempts to decipher the disk unreliable. He explains, "Decipherment requires a corpus consisting of thousands and thousands of signs—because only with such a large corpus can we ascertain the meanings of words without guesswork."

In February 2014, Gareth Owens presented a summary of his research with collaborator John Coleman, a phonetics specialist at Oxford University. They claimed to have deciphered more than 90% of the signs on the Phaistos Disk. They concluded that the disk presents a prayer dedicated to a goddess.

The Canaanite Y appears 8 times on the disk. The prevalence of the Y suggests a link to the religious tradition of Hathor, the archetype of the Virgin Mary among Abraham's Horite Habiru ancestors. Hathor wore the horns as a crown symbolizing her appointment by divine overshadowing (cf. Gabriel's explanation to Mary in Luke 1).

The Canaanite Y represents the horns of the bull or the long-horned cow. Stone horns, called "Horns of Consecration" by Sir Arthur Evans, have been found at 7 sites on Crete. Below is a photo of the horns at the central court (north-facing door) at Knossos. Image this as a solar cradle aligned with the solar arc and probably the star Sirius.

Stone horns dating to Middle Minoan III c. 1750-1550 B.C.

The bull horn imagery is found at some of the world's oldest temples in Turkey, such as Catal Huyuk, Göbeklitepe, and Hattusa. The west wall of the Yazilikaya shrine at Hattusa is adorned with a relief of great significance (shown below). It shows the divine appointment of a woman by the overshadowing of the Sun and the divine appointment of a ruler as one who wears the horns as a solar cradle.

Related reading: The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; The Luwian: Another Theory; The Sun and the Sacred