--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham " wrote:
>>> Could list members direct me to any published source on the
>>> script dated to 6th millennium BCE and found in the Balkans?
>>
>> Such a find would be remarkable indeed! 3000 years earlier than
>> the earliest known writing anywhere. What did you actually mean?
>
> I have an unreliable recollection of Gimbutas giving credence to
> an 'Old European Script'. Another possibility is some of the
> markings on the Bronocice pot (discussed around
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/9280 ), which is
> dated to the 6th millenium _BP_. I expect some crank will have a
> translation on the Internet.
My guess is that Vishal refers to Tartaria tablets and other
pottery belonging to VinCa-TurdaS culture. Many people (including
late Marija Gimbutas) represent a kind of writing or script. Some
guys tried to establish similarities between this script and other
ones (e.g. Djemet-Nasr); while not discardable "ab initio", this
hypothesis remains still unproven, and the identification of the
script as "old Sumerian" debatable. The clay tablets found at
Tãrtãria de MureS (Alba district, Romania) were dated around
5300-5000 B.C. and there is no reason to believe they belonged to
PIE people. The discovery was made in late sixties and is world-
wide famous.
On the net, the most extensive discussion of these tablets is to
be found at:
http://www.iatp.md/dava/Dava6/Merlini__6_/merlini__6_.html
(the site is by no means a reference, but at least they made room
on it for an article with decent bibliography).
Out of references from the article, one could look also for other
papers by M. Sinclair F. Hood: "The Tartaria Tablets" (Inscribed
tablets found in Romania, article from Scientific American, May 1968
Vol 218, n. 5), also in "Antiquity":
The Tartaria tablets, 41:99-113
The Tartaria tablets: comment by D. Whipp, 47:147-8
The Tartaria tablets: reply by Hood, 47:148-9
also 41:102-106, 266-267, 42:32-35
Our Bulgarian friends would probably like to add something about
Karanovo in relationship with Tãrtãria. :-)
Regards,
Marius Iacomi