An international controversy flared over the refusal to date Crete's famous - some say infamous - Phaistos Disk to prove once and for all whether it is a priceless treasure of the ancient world dating to at least 1,700BC, or a clever hoax from the early years of the last century. As my investigations in August/September 2009 revealed, the latest plea to solve the mystery, by carrying out a special scientific test on the disk (pictured), was turned down in Greece on grounds that it is a national treasure and "untouchable".
    Professor Ioannis Liritzis, of the University of the Aegean, Rhodes, applied for a permit for a thermoluminescence test - the only kind that would date the disk exactly - but the Greek Ministry of Culture's conservation directorate refused because the test would involve drilling into what they regard as a unique artefact.
    Prof Liritzis said he understood the reservations for refusing a permit for sampling for a thermoluminescence test "because it might trigger similar doubts about other significant masterpieces of art, and this may not have an end".

    The baked clay disk, measuring only six inches in diameter, kept at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete, has a spiral of strange hieroglyphs on each side which have baffled scholars for a century and have never been satisfactorily deciphered.

    A twist was given to the dispute by the mysterious disappearance of a petition calling for the test which was to be sent to the Ministry of Culture after the 2008 International Conference on the Phaistos Disk in London. In an informal vote among the 40 scholars who attended, a majority favoured the disk's authenticity.

    The disk was discovered by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in July 1908 during excavations at the site of the Palace of Phaistos in Crete. He dated it to about 1,700BC.

    Wealthy New York art collector Dr Jerome Eisenberg, an expert on ancient forgeries, is convinced that Pernier forged the disk because he was jealous of the successes of fellow archaeologists, the Italian Federico Halbherr and the Englishman Sir Arthur Evans, at other excavations in Crete.

    Dr Eisenberg, who himself applied for a thermoluminscence test in 2007 and was turned down, believes Pernier decided to outdo his rivals with a discovery that would astonish the archaeological community - a relic with an untranslatable pictographic text. "He had found nothing at Phaistos that could surpass or even equal the amazing finds at Knossos by Evans, begun in 1900," said Dr Eisenberg.

    Asked about the petition, Dr Eisenberg said: "It mysteriously disappeared following the end of the conference. Perhaps one of the participants in favour of its authenticity absconded with it! I would indeed like to see a good petition find its way to the Greek government, but it would probably have to be launched by a sufficiently important organization to have any effect upon them." 

    Edmund Marriage, one of the delegates at last year's conference, who believes the disk is authentic, said: "Some of us felt that if there was a strong undercurrent that disk was a fake, there was no way the Greeks would want to date it. They have the most to lose on the claims that the disk is a forgery. However, the clear conclusion of the conference,with only three people believing it was a forgery, should have been put to the Greek authorities to encourage themandgive them confidence to go ahead with dating."

    Another British delegate, Bill Considine, said: "The suggestions that it might be a forgery seem at least partly engendered by 100 years of failure to 'read' it.
    "It was pointed out at the conference that, since there is the possibility that the disk might be a forgery, it is unlikely to be tested. If it was, the Heraklion Museum would risk losing one of its prize exhibits. It's a much better attraction as the enigma that it has become. Even an accepted rational explanation of its use would take away some of the mystery."

    Dr Athanasia Kanta, director of the Heraklion Museum, said: "The reply to the Liritzis application was negative because, apart from its uniqueness, the disk is complete and the policy is not to test complete artefacts with destructive methods. However, with the progress of science, I am certain that, before long, there will be non-destructive processes.

    "I have no doubt that the disk is authentic. We must not forget that it was found during excavations by a very eminent scholar. For us a hundred years later to accuse him of fraud without evidence which would stand in a court of law is inconceivable and very unfair. How would you like it if, when you are dead and cannot answer back, somebody comes and says you are a felon or a thief?"

    Signs within the script on the disk were known from other artefacts whose authenticity was not disputed, Dr Kanta added.
  

From archaic Sumerian, Aramaic and Hebraic written records, together with a detailed geological and scientific study of the Near East, Christian and Joy O'Brien, in their remarkable book, The Genius of the Few, published in 1985, identified the Mt Hermon area in Southern Lebanon as the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden.
    It's not often that a book comes your way that can alter the whole way you look at the world and your place in it, but there's no doubt The Genius of the Few, a classic of its kind, falls into this category.

There is archaeological evidence from many other sites in the area of increased precipitation and flooding in about 6,500 BC. It would appear that, at about this time, severe flooding destroyed the dam and reservoir, and severely disabled the storm watercourse.

    "I believe we will all benefit and be brought together in the knowledge that the land of Canaan preceded Mesopotamia and Egypt as the first high culture and civilization, following global catastrophe at the end of the ice age," says Edmund.

 

Mt Hermon is linked to many Biblical stories, including that of Noah, and, according to local legend, Cain and Abel and various "sons of God" lie buried in a cave there.
    Most famously, Matthew, Mark and Luke recount an extraordinary encounter on a high mountain when Jesus was transfigured before three of his disciples, Peter, James and John, who were privileged to witness the glory of Christ.
    It seems more than likely that the transfiguration took place on Mt Hermon. Both Matthew and Mark in their gospel accounts say that Jesus journeyed north from Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee to the city of Caesarea Philippi, at the southern base of Mount Hermon, just before his ascent to a high mountain (Matt 16:13; Mark 8:27).
    "And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus." Mark 9:2-4:

 

When Canadian John Gagnon sent me the first draft of a book he was writing, which added to growing evidence that the Earth was bombarded by debris from a supernova explosion in about 10,400BC, I put him in touch with Edmund Marriage whose Golden Age Project collates evidence for the cataclysm believed to have destroyed an advanced civilisation – the few survivors of which are recalled as gods in myths worldwide.
    John's book, Message from the Ancients: the Great Pyramid and the Hudson Bay pole, aims to prove that the Great Pyramid of Giza encodes the outcome of the catastrophe, and offers a major challenge to established scientific theories.
    "Multiple large meteors impacted the Earth on its northern polar ice cap with such unimaginable force as to cause a geo-repositioning of the continents," says John, of Clayton, Ontario, who believes the Pyramid records how the impact shifted the Earth on its axis.
    "This date of 10,400BC is generally linked to the timeframe of rapid and dramatic climate change which abruptly ended the so-called ice ages. As well as climate change, massive extinction took place. All recent information indicates to the scientific community that a major impact event occurred."
    John claims that structural elements in the Great Pyramid mark the positions of Giza on the African continent before and after it was propelled north in the fearsome collision. This knowledge could only have been handed down by the survivors of the disaster who had calculated the axis shift.
    Describing himself as just "one small guy in a small town", who has balanced his life as a single dad with studying how climate change today could affect his children, John wants to remove complacency that the last major Earth impact was the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
    "We must now consider this is a much more common occurrence then we have been made aware of," he adds. "Should more time not be spent to investigate the massive implications and to develop strategies to protect ourselves? Mankind is no match for Mother Nature. We must err on the safe side."