The Phaistos Disk as a Bidirectional Civic Modulation Tool: A Structural Interpretation of Bronze Age Symbolic Governance

The Phaistos Disk, a 3,500-year-old artifact discovered in the palace complex of Phaistos on the island of Crete, has eluded definitive interpretation for over a century. This paper presents a structural-functional reinterpretation of the disk as a non-linguistic civic modulation tool: a symbolic device used to encode and resolve trade disputes, civic imbalances, and social restitution in a multi-ethnic, low-literacy Bronze Age trade hub. Through ergonomic, geographic, and socio-symbolic analysis, the disk is understood not as a mystical or linguistic artifact, but as a concrete civic interface designed to maintain societal trust and operational continuity.