by Gary Vey Imagine, if you will, that a team of archaeologists
in the year 6000 AD are excavating an "ancient" landfill from
the 20th Century. In 4000 years most of the paper and even
plastic has degraded, but a few aluminum cans remain
recognizable, their painted labels long gone. By chance, a scrap
of paper is found, crumpled and preserved in aluminum foil. It
is meticulously cleaned and subjected to the most sophisticated
scans which reveal the following text: 2 rolls TP 2 cans
spaghettios 1 bag of fritos 1 box of cheerios 1 gal. milk Would
scientists be able to translate this text and place it in its
correct context as a casual, unimportant grocery list? Maybe.
Maybe not. There is an excellent chance that "English" will have
been replaced by some other dialect and even a greater chance
that the function and need for a grocery list will be hard to
understand. Such is the dilemma in our attempts to understand
the Phaistos Disk. The disk is made from a 6 inch plate or disk-
shaped piece of clay. It has been