Linguist Doctor Gareth Owens said he is now able to “read” 99 percent of the disc but warned, “reading something, however, does not mean understanding it”.
He added: “After 10 years of research, I believe over 50% of the Phaistos Disk has been deciphered, a percentage I had set as a ‘target’.
“In other words, I had told myself that I would present my work when I could offer a trial interpretation of more than half the words on the disk. And that is a new element of the research.
“The Phaistos Disk is written in the Minoan script which records the Minoan language.
“It is the best example of ‘Cretan hieroglyphics’, always within quotation marks, because it is not the same writing system as ancient Egypt.
“I want people to listen to them. Minoan is not a dead language. Knossos, Phaistos, Crete are Minoan words, like so many others still used today.”
The disk is made up of 242 icons with 42 distinct signs.
They represent everything from bows and arrows to slaves, with others still posing a mystery.
Some icons are accompanied by oblique strokes, with their importance remaining unknown
Video and a reading of the disk here
About the research of Gareth Owens
Other researchers have claimed to have deciphered the Phaistos disk since it was discovered in 1908, with some approaches attempting to establish a connection with other known scripts. A Wikipedia entry lists some of these here
