CRETE, Greece—Jerome Eisenberg, an American specialist in faked ancient art, is claiming that the Phaistos Disc is a false artifact, the Times of London reports. The disc, generally regarded as dating back to 1700 B.C., has long stumped archaeologists attempting to decipher its pictographic text, but Eisenberg is now arguing that the text has never been understood because it is made-up.

Eisenberg claims that the disc was not discovered by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier, as previously believed, but rather was created by Pernier, who wanted to outdo his contemporaries. Eisenberg, who has conducted appraisals for the U.S. Treasury Department and the J. Paul Getty Museum, says that the edge of the disc is too cleanly cut and the firing too perfect. "Minoan clay tablets were not fired purposefully, only accidentally," he said. "Pernier may not have realized this."

The controversy could be resolved by a thermoluminescence test, the same kind recently run on the Capitoline Wolf, but Greek authorities have refused to let Eisenberg examine the disc outside of its display case.