The Sumerians were probably not the first people to invent the earliest form of writing, which is believed to have appeared around 3500 BCE.
The Tartăria tablets, found in western Romania and dated to around 5300 BC, suggest by radiocarbon dating that it was in Eastern Europe that the first writing appeared. Some experts have called them Old European Script or Danubian Script.
The tablets are associated with the Neolithic Turdas-Vinca culture (ca. 4500-3700 BC), found in several provinces of Romania, southern Serbia, southeastern Hungary, northwestern Bulgaria and other countries.
In 1961, archaeologist Nicolae Vlassa discovered what may be direct evidence of the earliest forms of writing in the world. During an archaeological excavation at a Neolithic site in Romania, Vlassa's team discovered three diminutive clay tablets containing illegible engravings, now known as the Tartary Tablets.
The meaning of the engravings on the tablets is interpreted in various ways. Some believe the engravings are a primitive form of writing, while others believe they are pictographs, random scribbles, religious symbols, or symbols of ownership.
Each tablet is about 2 ½ inches in diameter. Two are rectangular and one is circular. The circular tablet and the rectangular tablet have drilled holes. The clay tablets were not fired and were discovered with 26 clay and stone figurines, a shell bracelet, and damaged human bones.
Some believe that the tablets were actually found in a sacrificial tomb. The tablets are engraved on one side only, and the inscriptions resemble a horned animal, a shadowy figure, a plant motif, a branch or tree, and many other, mostly abstract symbols.
The so-called Danubian script is a script that appeared about 2,000 years earlier than any other known script. It appeared in southeastern Europe around 7,300 BC. The script first appeared in the central Balkans, but quickly spread to southern Hungary, Transylvania, the Danube Valley, Macedonia and northern Greece.
The Danubian script flourished until about 5500 BC, when it apparently underwent a social upheaval. The script is now illegible, but it certainly arouses great interest among scholars of historic languages.
Tartarian Tablets older than Sumerian ones
Nicolae Vlasa made a colossal discovery in 1961. In Tartaria, in an historic tomb, he found 2 tablets with inscriptions dated 4500-200 BC. Tartaria is located in the district of Alba, Saliste. In the same place, human skeletons were found.
The inscriptions on the tablets are 1,000 years older than those discovered in Jemer-Nasr, Kis and Uruk in the summer, and are dated by specialists to around 3300 BC.
The culture that created the tablets was called Turdas-Vinca (4500-3700 BC). The tablets are dated to C14 and the inscriptions on them have been officially confirmed to be the oldest form of writing known to man, predating the Sumerian.
Scientists who claim that written symbols are writing base their assessment on three conclusions that are not universally accepted.
First, similar marks on other artifacts of the Danubian civilization suggest that there was an inventory of precise, standard shapes that scribes used.
Secondly, the characters of this Proto-European script, compared to other archaic scripts, show a high degree of standardization and have a rectilinear shape.
Third, the information conveyed by each sign was specific and had an unambiguous meaning. Third, the inscriptions were arranged in rows – horizontally, vertically or circularly.
Others believe the pictograms are a combination of random scribbles. Their meaning (if any) is unknown. If they form a script, it is also unknown what writing system they represent.
Some archaeologists who believe they are fragments of writing say they are fragments of a system called Old European writing.
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