Luigi Pernier

Luigi Pernier (Rome, 23 November 1874 – Rhodes, 18 August 1937) was an Italian archaeologist and academic now best known for his discovery of the Disc of Phaistos.

[1] From 1902 to 1916 he was inspector of 'Museums, Galleries and Excavations of Antiquities' in Florence and carried out research at several central Italian sites; at the same time he joined the Italian Mission to Crete, directing its operations from 1906 to 1909 in place of Halbherr while the latter was detained in Italy.

These duties kept him on the move so much that he died abroad, on Rhodes, where he was leading a course organised by the Società Dante Alighieri.

[2] In summer 2008 Jerome Eisenberg, described by The Times as "a specialist in faked ancient art", accused Pernier of having forged his best known find, the Disc of Phaistos.

A sealing found in 1955 shows the only known parallel to sign 21 (the “comb”) of the Phaistos disc.