9.

B The Accumulative stage: Contribution from the Developed/Middle Neolithic cultures

9.B.a Geographical dilatation and more equilibrate utilization of the sign system

The Accumulative stage of the Danube script gathers 14.9% of the signs in total, 15.0% of the inscriptions,
and 15.2% of the inscribed objects (including data when the distinct culture is not specified). This figure
illustrates that the inscriptions are shorter during this period than in general.
Throughout this time the Danube script evolved. It spread within a period of instability caused by massive
population movements and the frequent overlap of cultural areas (Luca 2006a: 29). There were multiple
Developed and Middle Neolithic cultures and groups that contributed in carrying the Danube script. The
Accumulative stage of the writing system was lead in sign contribution by the Vinča culture, in particular
during its phase B. This primacy was followed by the Banat II in Romania. The Alföld Linear Pottery culture
was the third pillar. Quite far was the contribution from Sitagroi II in Greece and the Karanovo III culture in
Bulgaria. Less significant was the input from the LBK culture in Slovakia and Germany, Anzebegovo–Vršnik
IV culture in F.Y.R.O.M., the Szákalhát culture in Hungary, the Linear Pottery culture with musical note
heads in Hungary and Germany, and the Szatmàr I in Romania and Hungary.
As evidenced by the chronological framework, the Accumulative stage of the script increased the number of
the regions involved in the experiment with literacy. They rose from eight of the Formative stage to 13 on the
17 implicated in total throughout two millennia and half. The new entries - Kosovo, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Germany, and Austria – filled quite entirely the core Balkan-Danube area and
expanded the border of literacy toward Northwest.

Geographical distribution of the signs comparing the Accumulative stage

of the script and the montant global

Country Accumulative stage Totality of the signs

Absolute % Absolute %
value value
Greece 145 17.95% 432 7.97%
Bulgaria 66 8.17% 1331 24.55%
F.Y.R.O.M. 50 6.19% 93 1.72%
Albania 10 1.24% 17 0.31%
Montenegro - - 4 0.07%
Republic of Serbia 206 25.50% 1461 26.95%
Bosnia Herzegovina 11 1.36% 11 0.20%
Romania 164 20.30% 1572 29.00%
Hungary 89 11.01% 285 5.26%
Slovakia 12 1.48% 26 0.48%
Czech Republic 9 1.11% 31 0.57%
Croatia 4 0.49% 10 0.18%
Republic of Moldova - - 11 0.20%
Ukraine - - 65 1.20%
Austria - - 4 0.07%
Germany 21 2.60% 25 0.46%
Kosovo 21 2.60% 43 0.79%

Total 808 5421

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Writing technology not only dilated geographically, but achieved a more equilibrate utilization in the different
regions. If Romania, Republic of Serbia, and Bulgaria concentrated together 80.6% of the total occurrences of
the Danube script, they cumulated only 54.0% throughout its Accumulative stage. The Republic of Serbia
played the pivotal role connected with the affirmation of the carriers of the Vinča culture. It was followed by
Romania. Significant is the absolute and relative contribution from Greece. Hungary follows. Noteworthy is
the relative input to this stage of the script, although low for absolute value, from F.Y.R.O.M., Kosovo,
Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania, and Croatia. From all the above regions,
the input during the Accumulative stage of the script was much higher than in general. Bosnia Herzegovina
clustered 100% of the corpus of its sign in this developmental stage of the Danube script. Germany rates
84.0%. Albania 58.8%. F.Y.R.O.M. 53.8%. Kosovo 48.8%. Slovakia 46.2%. Croatia 40.0%. Finally, in the
Accumulative stage of ars scribendi Greece concentrated 33.6% on its montant global and Hungary 31.2%.
At the opposite, the percentage from Bulgaria is definitely lower on its average.

Fig. 9.28 - Pattern on the geographical distribution of the Danube script throughout its Accumulative stage.

As evidenced in chapter 8, DatDas substantiates Vinča (Republic of Serbia) as key site for the Accumulative
stage of the system of writing. At general level, it was also the most important site for magnitude. After
Vinča, main nodes of the network of the Danube script during its Accumulative stage included (in order of
importance for sign production) Parţa (Romania) from Banat II and that at general level was also a regional

523
site for magnitude, Dispilio (Greece), Mezőkövesd - Mocsolyàs (Hungary) from Alföld I, and Sitagroi
(Greece), from Sitagroi II, that at general level was also a regional site for magnitude.
They were followed by settlements of micro-regional relevance: Tărtăria (Romania) from Vinča A2 and
Vinča B, Lukanovo darvo (Bulgaria), Yannitsa (Greece), Nova Zagora - Hlebozavoda (Bulgaria), from
Karanovo III, that at general level was also a regional site for magnitude, Zorlenţ and Fratelia (Romania) from
Vinča B, Anzabegovo (F.Y.R.O.M.) from Anzabegovo-Vršnik IV, Dimini (Greece), Osinchani (F.Y.R.O.M.).

Fig. 9.29 - The five-range hierarchical network of sites with signs throughout the Accumulative stage of
the Danube script.

524
Less significant were Banjica from Vinča B and Selevac from Vinča A (Republic of Serbia), Ballenstedt
(Germany) from LBK I, Fafos-Mitrovica (Kosovo) from Vinča A/B, Bina (Slovakia) from LBK I, Butmir
(Bosnia and Herzegovina) from Butmir I, Battonya from Battonyaand Kisköre (Hungary), Supska (Republic
of Serbia) from Vinča B, Altimir (Bulgaria), Törökbálint Dulácska (Hungary) from Linear pottery musical
notes, Ciumeşti (Romania) from Szatmàr I, Runik (Kosovo) from Vinča A2, Blaz (Albania) from Blaz III,
Govrlevo and Zet Stole N'd'msej (F.Y.R.O.M.), Ftelia (Greece), Füzesabony-Gubakút (Hungary) from Alföld
I, Samovodene (Bulgaria) from Karanovo III, Močovice (Hungary), Bad Naumheim – Nieder-Mörlen
(Germany) from LBK II, and Paradimi (Greece) from Paradimi II.
Marginal was the production of signs at Kanishka Iva (Croatia), Konézlö (Hungary) from Szakálhát, Zorlenţu
Mare (Romania) from Vinča B, Dunavec (Albania) from Dunavec II, Vedrovice (Czech Republic) from
Linear pottery musical notes, Porodin (F.Y.R.O.M.) from Vinča A1, Tiszaesege Homokbanya from Szatmàr I
and Čoka-Kremenyák (Hungary) from Szakálhát, Izvora (Bulgaria) from Karanovo III, Stuttgart - Bad
Cannstatt (Germany) from LBK II, Pişcolt-Nisipărie (Romania) from Szatmàr I, Aradac from Vinča A,
Belovode from Vinča A1 and Petnica from Vinča B (Republic of Serbia), and Youra (Greece).
Culture and cultural groups that carried the script during its Accumulative stage are analyzed below in a
sequence according to their contribution to this writing system.
The signs from an inscribed seal from northern Greece, have the typical features of a system of writing. In
particular, they are intentional, identifiable, highly stylized and not too complex in form, elementary linear in
shape, similar in size, standardized according to a model and an inventory, and recurrent within the same
inscription. Some of the signs are subjected to a technique which modifies their outlines through the
application of diacritical marks as small strokes, and many of them show letter-like forms. In addition, on the
Yannitsa seal (c. 5250-5000 BCE), the signs are combined into ligatures (the creation of a compound sign
consisting of two or more joined elementary signs) and are arranged in precise linear sequences. In particular,
they have been organized along three registers: a series of horizontal guidelines were traced along the length
of the seal and the signs were written over them. However, the messenger made an error. The first line was
made too high to contain the writing so the rest had to be compressed onto the last line. The linear sequence
of the signs, the occurrence of registers, and the mistake made in organizing the sequences indicate that the
signs were assembled in a functional way in order to carry a specific message, and not simply as an aesthetic
design. The signs are incised on the concave side of the seal, which therefore has been used to impress precise
sequences of signs on curved surfaces. Wrists? Arms? Sticks? What kind of written message has been traced
on the Yannitsa seal?
Unfortunately, we do not know how long the written message was because two holes at the extremities of the
seal indicate that only half of the entire object with text has been found. A sort of data archive could have
been created by threading a number of perforated seals made of two interlocking parts by a leather string, as a
necklace (Merlini 2004a: 112, 2005b, 2005c). According to the discoverer, Panikos Chrysostomou, the text
should be read from the top to the bottom and from the right to the left (Chrysostomou 2002: 489-498).
The complexity of the text, the difficulties of carving it on a hard-stone surface, and the possibility to wear the
seal as a bracelet or as a necklace do not suggest a functional use within an administrative-accounting
framework. It is more reasonable to assume that the seal was used as an amulet-archive or as a pintadera of
magic-religious formulas, indicative of sacral associations. The messenger was carved on a very hard stone,
which required great effort to carefully incise the complex text. The finished result may have given the
impression of an imperishable message. The enduring of the text should have had also a functional ratio. The
inscription must have had a precise and important meaning for many believers for a long period of time,
considering its almost everlasting repeatability on skin, clothes or other personal objects. The liturgical
utilization is confirmed by the context of the discovery: the inscribed seal was found, among a number of
discarded shards, on the floor of a house. Therefore, it had been cast off when it had lost its significance and
powers, despite will and hope of the messenger. We do not know which kind of magic-religious message was
so vital as to justify such a high investment in time and expertise. We can assume a mythical story or a prey.
In any case, we can recognize on the Yannitsa seal a system of writing of incredible complexity and
effectiveness (Merlini 2003).
A small-sized ceramic potshard from northern Sporades, Greece, bears signs that resemble the classical Greek
letters Alpha, Epsilon, and Delta, which are furthermore aligned in a row (Sampson 1998; ibidem 2002). It
was recovered in the Cave of Cyclope on the desert islet of Youra and was dated 5000-4500 BCE (Sampson
personal communication 2004).
While the engravings demonstrate that the shape of these signs vastly predates the letters of the classical
Greek alphabet, the evidence of continuity in sign silhouette does not mean that the Greek alphabet directly
originated from the Danube script. Moreover, the discovery of the script does not challenge the commonly

525
accepted theory that the Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician one, which is about three millennia
younger than the signs found on the potshard from the Cave of Cyclope. 1 However, some symbols do seem to
have remained in use (or in the visual collective memory) for millennia (Merlini 2004a: 125; ibidem 2005b;
ibidem 2005c).

Fig. 9.30 - A concave seal recovered at Yannitsa (northern Greece) Fig. 9.31 – Letter-like signs on a small
made of black stone, c. 5250-5000 BCE. ceramic potshard c. 5000–4500 BCE
(After Bulgarelli D. Prehistory Knowledge Project). from the Cave of Cyclope on the
desert islet of Youra (Northern
Sporades, Greece).
(After Bulgarelli D. Prehistory
Knowledge Project).

9.B.b The pivotal role of the Vinča culture

The Accumulative stage of the writing system was lead in sign contribution by the Vinča culture (Lazarovici
Gh. 1977; ibidem 1977b; ibidem 1977c; ibidem 1979; ibidem 1979a; Luca 2006a: 29 ff.). The Vinča
experiment with literacy passed through the Blooming stage of the script until the Stamina stage. The Vinča
culture concentrates 38.2% of the signs employed in the Accumulative stage of the Danube script (including
data when the distinct culture is not specified). A peak is exhibited to have occurred during the phase B,
although a significant role was also played by the phase A. The Vinča C was the leading culture during the
Blooming stage. The Vinča D played a key role in the Stamina stage. To summarize, the Vinča culture (DCP
6-17 = 5500-4400 CAL. BCE) clustered 20.7% of the montant global of the Danube script signs.
The Vinča culture was certainly the most developed, the most lasting, and territorially, the largest in
Southeastern Europe. It was the only Southeastern European Neolithic culture that continued to exist into the
first era of metal (Garašanin 1979: 174-175; ibidem 1998a: 65, 67; Čovič 1973; Jovanović 1982: 84; Tasić N.
1998: 93). The Early Neolithic Starčevo-Criş (Körös) cultural complex, from the Central region of the
Danube civilization, can be traced through the middle of the sixth millennium BCE. Around 5400-5300 BCE
economic, social, and cultural innovations occurred, resulting in the cultural configuration of the Vinča
complex. This innovation is most clearly reflected in the archaeological data through the emergence of new
trends in ceramics dominated by highly polished black or gray burnished pottery. This aesthetic change was
allowed by a new technology in pottery-making that involved firing ceramics in a controlled reducing
atmosphere (producing black-topped pottery). This process generated a darker color and a variety of nuances
(Hodges 1989; Gimbutas 1991: 62; Garašanin 1998a: 65; Luca 2006a: 31).

1
Before dismissing the origin of Greek letters from Phoenician letters, one has to give proof that there are flaws in this
derivation process. All Greek letters can be readily explained as having originated from the Phoenician prototype, with
the exception of the so-called “additional” Greek letters for writing psi, phi and khi (Harald Haarmann, personal
communication; see Haarmann 1995: 136-38).

526
The socioeconomic changes were also caused by a series of factors. Increases in the population occurred.
There was a general rise in the number of settlements. A use of multi-level vertical structures was not only
connected to a growth in residents, but also to an advanced intensive agriculture that reused the same plots of
soil. Attitudes regarding space became associated with ideas of permanent occupation. The consequence of
these changes was the sharing of the landscape between multi-level tells (such as Vinča and Parţa) and large
flat sites that, though in use over long periods of time, expanded horizontally with each successive generation
of buildings (like Selevac and Opovo) (Tringham and Krstić 1990: 587;2 Bailey 2000: 161). No less important
was the emergence of metallurgy in sites significant for the Danube script that were situated very close to the
copper areas. One such site includes Belovode, which partially developed metallurgy in the wider zone of the
Morava basin even before this time-frame (Šljivar D., Kuzmanović-Cvetković J., Jacanović D. 2006;
Lazarovici C.-M. 2006).3 Another major change was a widespread and intense utilization of literacy.
Given the broad territorial spread and an extended period of existence, the Vinča cultural complex had four
main phases A, B, C, D (Vl. Milojčić 1965; Luca 2006a: 31). These phases are articulated into several stages:
A1, which is older then as stated by Vl. Milojčić, A2, A3 (A3a, A3b), perhaps A4, B1, B1/B2, B2, B2/C1,
C1, C2, D1, and D2 (Lazarovici Gh. 1977a; ibidem 1981). Schier registers: A1, A2, B1a, B1b, B2, C1, C2,
D1, and D2 (Schier 1995). The main criteria for differentiating the four segments are based upon variations in
the ceramic styles.
The key Vinča settlement for the development of the Danube script is the eponymous site, where the Vinča
sequence is also best documented. 4 Located 14 km east of Belgrade, the Vinča mound was excavated by
Miloje Vasić between 1908 and 1934, yielding 10 meters of stratified Vinča deposits overlying the Starčevo
levels. However, the archaeologist in charge for all his life described the site as a centre of Aegean
civilization during the second millennium BCE. He also considered it to be a potential Ionian colony and
believed that it had been continuously occupied from the beginning of the Aegean Middle Bronze Age until
the period of Roman conquest. No other site as rich or as well stratified has yet been discovered, and despite
the antiquity of the excavation in terms of modem field methodology, this site has remained the backbone for
the typology of Vinča assemblages (Gimbutas 1991: 62). In the other Vinča settlements, the cultural strata
vary between 2-5 m.
According to this framework, it is significant to record the sign distribution of the Danube script in sync with
the main phases of the Vinča cultural complex. It becomes evident that Makkay’s statement that the Vinča
culture applied pottery signs at the end of period A, or at the latest until the very end of B2 phase, (Makkay
1969: 12) is not verified.
2
Tringham suggested that this horizontal continuity of some settlements was equivalent to the successive vertical
rebuilding of the others according to the tell technique.
3
The system of writing appears to have played some role not in the large-scale mining, smelting of copper ores or
casting of the molten metal, but in the circulation and storage of the copper. Viz. § 9.C.b “The Vinča C as the culture of
the greatest sign production”.
4
Here it is the chronological horizon that I have utilized for the sequence at Vinča mound in relation to the development
of the Danube script:
o 10.3 – 9 meters: Vinča A1, Accumulative stage of the script (Vinča A after Milojčić; Starčevo after Garašanin;
Neoliticul dezvoltat after Lazarovici Gh.).
o 9 - 8.6 meters: Vinča A2, Accumulative stage of the script (Vinča A after Milojčić; Vinča - Turdaş I after
Garašanin).
o 8.6 - 8 meters: Vinča A3, Accumulative stage of the script (Vinča A after Milojčić; Vinča - Turdaş I after
Garašanin).
o 8 - 6.4 meters: Vinča B, Accumulative stage of the script; 8 - 7 meters: Vinča B1 (Vinča - Turdaş IIa after
Garašanin); 7 - 6.4 meters: Vinča B2 (Vinča - Turdaş IIb after Garašanin), (depth ca. 7 m. Vinča B1 after
Milojčić).
o 6.4 –6 meters: Vinča C1, Blooming stage of the script (Vinča B2 after Milojčić; Gradac phase after Garašanin;
Vinča B2-C, Turdaş I after Lazarovici Gh.).
o 6 – 5 meters: Vinča C2, Blooming stage of the script (Vinča B2-C depth above 5 m. after Milojčić; Vinča -
Pločnik I after Garašanin; Turdaş II, Foeni, Rast I, Gradešnica I, Brenica after Lazarovici, Luca and Draşovean).
o 5 – 4 meters: Vinča C3, Blooming stage of the script (Vinča C after Milojčić; Vinča - Pločnik I after Garašanin;
Turdaş, Foeni, Sălcuţa, Krivodol, Rast II, Gradešnica II after Lazarovici).
o 4 – 3 meters: Vinča D1, Stamina stage of the script (Vinča D after Milojčić; Vinča - Pločnik IIa after
Garašanin).
o 3 – 2 meters: Vinča D2, Stamina stage of the script (Vinča D after Milojčić; Vinča - Pločnik IIb after Garašanin;
Vinča D3 after Todorova).
o After 2 meters one finds Bodrogkeresztúr, the Stamina stage of the script, and Baden – Kostolac (= Coţofeni I)
Eclipse stage of the script.
527
Chronological distribution of the signs in the Vinča culture
Phase Absolute value %

Vinča A 96 8.54%
Vinča A/B 30 2.67%
Vinča B 183 16.28%
Vinča C 735 65.39%
Vinča D 80 7.12%

Total 1,124

The Vinča complex occupied the Central Balkans northward as far as Banat, westward to Northeast Bosnia,
and eastward to Western Bulgaria and Southwestern Romania (Gimbutas 1991: 62, 64). It also spread in the
oriental area of the former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Kosovo, Northeastern Bosnia, Vojvodine, part of Montenegro
and Croatia), Southeastern Hungary, Northwestern Bulgaria, and part of Romania (Banat, Southern
Transylvania, Western Oltenia and Crişana). This distribution covers the territory of the Early Neolithic
Starčevo-Criş (Körös) cultural complex, except for the peripheral areas where other local variants formed.
The older age of some regional southeastern groups (such as Karanovo II), or other groups, compared to the
Vinča, evidences that this culture spread from southwest toward the northwest (Garašanin 1998a: 66).
Reaching the Danube in search of new arable land, and pressed by a population boom, the communities of
newcomers partly displaced the groups of the late Starčevo-Criş (Körös) cultural complex (III-IV). The Vinča
style of life spread toward the north and east causing the neolithization of some new cultural areas. The late
Starčevo-Criş (Körös) population was partially assimilated, adopting the new economic and cultural
achievements (Luca 2006a: 29).
According to the first pole of this model of conflict and/or coexistence, the state of antagonism between the
two cultures is attested by the appearance of the first boundary ditches around both the Starčevo-Criş and
Vinča settlements (see for example, in Romania, Gornea - Căuniţa de Sus and Liubcova-Orniţa) (Luca 2006a:
30). The hostility caused the gradual decline of the Starčevo-Criş (Körös) complex, which slowly disappeared
in defined territories of Central and Northern Serbia, Vojvodina (Lazarovici Gh. 1995), Eastern Romania in
regions such as Banat, Oltenia, Transylvania, Southern Crişana (Lazarovici Gh. 1977; ibidem 1979; ibidem
1994) and in the southern area of the Alföld Plain (Lazarovici Gh. 1983/1984; ibidem 1990).
According to the second pole of this model of conflict and/or coexistence, a long-lived cohabitation between
the Starčevo-Criş (Körös) and the Vinča communities established a new cultural synthesis, the Starčevo-Criş
(Körös) IV (Lazarovici Gh. 1983/1984; ibidem 1987-1988a; ibidem 1990; ibidem 1992; ibidem 1993). It
inspired the emergence new culture and cultural groups such as the Banat culture in the north of Eastern and
Western Banat (Lazarovici Gh. 1983/1984; ibidem 1990; 1 ibidem 991: 32-33; Luca 2006a: 32) and the
Linienbandkeramik in Hungary. This coexistence also contributed to the extension of the process of
neolithization, along with the cultural practices of the late Starčevo-Criş (Körös) population in the west and
with the Polichromy culture in central and eastern Romania (Lazarovici Gh., Nica 1991; Lazarovici Gh.
1994). However, even if the Vinča cultural complex adopted some elements from the earlier Starčevo-Criş
(Körös), it was a new independent phenomenon. Future comparative research on the script inventories and
inscriptions utilized by Starčevo-Criş (Körös) and Vinča communities will provide data on the quota of
Starčevo-Criş (Körös) signs, arrangement of the inscriptions and organization of the reading space transmitted
to the Vinča culture as well as data on the original experiment with literacy carried by the earliest Vinča
communities. This will provide new significant information on the state of conflict or coexistence between the
two populations.
The Vinča cultural complex had an extensive number of sites, mostly settlements. Over 680 are listed from
excavations and surface collections. A total of nearly 650 sites are placed on the map in a monograph on the
Vinča culture edited by John Chapman (1981). Small settlements held up to 200 persons, the medium ones up
to 500, while the largest ones had from 1,000 to 2,500 inhabitants (Gimbutas 1991: 64).

528
9.B.b.1 Early literacy from the Vinča A carriers

Stratigraphy, pottery typology and radiocarbon data place the Vinča A phase in DCP 6-8 = 5500-5200 CAL
BCE.5 The Vinča A emergence arrived after the Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IIIA phase. Therefore, for a period the
two cultures ran in parallel. In synthesis, “the Vinča culture formed during the last centuries of the 6th
millennium BCE” and following the first establishment “continued for a thousand years demonstrating
convincingly that the development of material culture, arts, and religion was integral and uninterrupted”
(Gimbutas 1991: 64).6 Concerning the development of the Danube script, the Vinča A culture belongs to its
Accumulative stage.
At the beginning of the A1 stage there was a relatively unitary evolution of the Vinča culture (Luca 2006a:
31). Common elements to the Vinča A stage are obvious at Anzabegovo II-III, Dunavec I-II, Cakran, Kolsh II
(Korkuti 1995: 33-59), Veluška – Porodin III-IV (Grbić 1960; Garašanin M., Sanev, Kitanovski 1971), and in
the polychromy culture that spread in the Danube region (Lazarovici Gh. 1993; Lazarovici Gh., Nica 1991).
This initial homogeneity slowly fragmented into various regional aspects as a result of contacts with other
cultures with different roots. New groups were created, including the Banat culture in Banat, the Rast culture
in Oltenia, and the Turdaş culture in Transylvania (Luca 2006a: 32). Garašanin listed the Danubian, or
classical variant (formerly called “Serbian”), as stretching over the core territory of Serbia and Vojvodine
with a limit around the confluence of South and West Morava, Oltenia, Transylvania, Eastern Bosnia,
Southern Morava and Kosovo, each very close to the other, and finally the Banat. Enlarging the geographical
scale, Garašanin registered several groups as genetically and culturally linked to the Vinča culture. Some of
these one repeatedly encounters while analyzing the Danube script: Karanovo II-IV in Thrace,7 Paradimi on
the Northern Aegean shore, probably a part of the Cretan Neolithic, the Larissa group in Thessaly,
Bolintineanu in Muntenia, Dudeşti in Muntenia and Oltenia, Vădastra in Oltenia, Szákalhát in the Hungarian
Tisza basin, Usoe, Podgorica, Hotnica, and Kurilo in Western Bulgaria (Garašanin 1979: 163; 1998a: 71).
The Vinča A phase gathered 11.9% of the signs employed by the Danube script throughout its Accumulative
stage (including data when the distinct culture is not specified). The hub was the Serbian territory; however, a
significant role was also played by Romania. The early presence of the F.Y.R.O.M. area is remarkable. To
sum up, the largest concentrations of significant artifacts inscribed with inscriptions of the Danube script were
in the fertile regions of the Middle Danube and Morava basins.
The Vinča mound played the pivotal role, amassing 45.8% of the inscribed Vinča A objects including a
vessel, a mignon altar, a human figurine, and two Vinča A1 potshards. The Vinča A2 is marked by a
miniature altar; the Vinča A3 by a potshard; the Vinča A3 by a mignon altar; the Vinča A3 by a human
figurine, and finally, the Vinča A3 by a lid.
In the Vinča A phase, the Danube script also settled in the nowadays Republic of Serbia at Aradac
(potshards), Selevac (human figurines), and Belovode, a stratified settlement that was a landmark in the
spread of metallurgy (Vinča A1 fragments of pottery). In Romania a crucial role in the development of the
script is likely to have been played by the three tablets from Tărtăria. In Kosovo script signs have been found
at Runik (Illirion) (Vinča A2 potshards). In F.Y.R.O.M., significant is a Vinča A1 seal discovered at Porodin
because, if some scholars synchronize the Vinča A assemblage phase with the Vršnik IV–Anzebegovo IV
level (Garašanin 1971: 143; 1973; 1978; 1979; 1980), then the Gh. Lazarovici’s system matches the Vinča A

5
5400-5200 CAL. BCE according to Schier 1996: 150; Gläser 1996: 177; Mantu 2000: 78, Lazarovici Gh, Lazarovici
C.-M. 2003; Lazarovici C.-M., Lazarovici Gh. 2006.
6
Several archaeologists have coped with the outline of the chronological frame of the Vinča culture, establishing its
development and relationship with the evolution of the surrounding areas (Menghin 1931; Holste 1939; Lazarovici M.
2006). Milojčić proposed the four fold schema: Vinča A: 5315 – 5090 BCE; Vinča B: 5235 – 4955 BCE; Vinča C: 5200
– 4915 BCE; Vinča D: 4950 – 4705 BCE and 4160 – 3885 BCE (Hungary) (Milojčić 1943; 1949: 70-81; Chapman
1981: 10; Bankoff and Ehrich 1987: 382). Garašanin worked on this topic for nearly half a century (1951; 1958; 1979,
1990; 1993). In 1998 Garašanin recalled the Vinča beginning (layers from 9.3 to 8 meters at Vinča) by C14 analyses to
about 5270-5000 BCE. However, noticing as Glässer that the C14 dates for the following phase partially coincide with
this dating (Glässer 1996: 176-177), he fixed the Vinča start-up into the last centuries of the sixth millennium (Garašanin
1998a: 69). Dimitrijević 1974. Lazarovici Gh. 1970; 1973; 1977; 1981; 1991. Chapman 1981 dated the Vinča cultural
complex from 5000-3800 BCE. According to Gimbutas, “Radiocarbon dates place the Vinča culture, on the basis of
dendrochronological calibration, between 5400-5300 and 4300-4100 BCE” (Gimbutas 1991: 65). Jovanović 1993; 1994.
Stevanović, Jovanović 1996. Schier 1995. Whittle 2006 settled the Vinča cultural complex from 5500-4100 BCE.
Lazarovici M. 2006.
7
Under the name of Kalojanovec (Todorova, Vajsov 1993: 145-146, figs. 125-126; 138-140, figs. 121a; 137, fig. 119;
111-113, fig. 99; 124-127, figs. 109-112).
529
finds in F.Y.R.O.M. with the Anzebegovo–Vršnik II-III phase (Lazarovici Gh. personal communication
2007).

Geographical distribution of the Vinča A signs

Country Absolute value %

F.Y.R.O.M. 3 3.23%
Serbia 62 72.04%
Romania 23 24.73%
Kosovo 8
Total 96

The geographical spread of the Danube script during the Vinča A phase was almost confirmed during the
Vinča B phase, although with a slightly less pivotal role played in Serbia, an increasing influence in Romania
and the entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina. The subsequent Vinča C culture revolutionized this model with a
crucial role played by the southern territories. From future statistics, when DatDas will reach the critical mass
of data, it is expected a high presence of the script in southern Vinča territory and a quite distinct ars
scribendi carried by the Vinča C communities comparing to that one employed by the Vinča A and B
communities.
During the Vinča A stage signs of the Danube script are incised mainly over fragments of pottery, human
figurines and plates-tablets. Together these three kinds of artifacts amass nearly 73% of the total occurrences.
Potshards, which follow the leading forms of fine ware category introduced during the Early Vinča period,
concentrate one on four of the total frequencies. Typical Vinča A assemblages also consists of biconical
vessels, carinated (keel style) vases, black-topped wares, fiat dishes, zoomorphic and ornithomorphic vases,
and high-footed vases. The finest pieces are black-burnished with a mirror-like finish inside and out.

Object type distribution of the Vinča A signs

Object type Absolute value %

Altar mignon 12 12.50%

Figurine: Human 23 23.96%
Plate-tablet 23 23.96%
Seal 3 3.13%
Potshard 24 25.00%
Vessel 9 9.37%
Other 2 2.08%
Total 96

Potshards are followed by plates-tablets and human figurines. Nearly one inscribed artifact on four is an
anthropomorphic representation. Their quota on the inscribed figurines that belong to the Accumulative stage
of the script is not very high, 14.2%. About 60.9% of the figurines have a female gender. Males are 17.4%.
The other figurines have asexual features. Female figurines are from Selevac. Male figurines are from the
Vinča mound. The female figurines bear signs always on front, as well as the male figurines. The human
representations without a distinct gender are inscribed restrictedly on the face.

530
 Fig. 9.32 – A linear inscription on a Vinča Fig. 9.33 – An inscribed Vinča A3 mignon altar from the
A mignon altar from the Vinča tell. eponymous site (Republic of Serbia).
(Graphic elaboration by Merlini, after (Graphic elaboration by Merlini, after Stanković 1986, Pl. VI,
Stanković 1986: Pl. IX, 3). 8).

At a distance one finds the input from miniature altars-offering tablets and vessels. A Vinča A3 mignon altar
from Vinča is bearing one of the first evidences of the . It was discovered at a depth of 9 meters
(Stanković 1986, Pl. VI, 8). A Vinča A high-pedestal vessel from the eponymous settlement (Winn 1981:
299, fig. 129) has been already investigated as example of the possibility given by DatDas to record
separately the different inscriptions occurring on an object.8
The contributions from seals and lids are residual. Among the remarkable Vinča A1 inscribed objects there is
the already presented clay stamp seal belonging to the Porodin-Velušina I group in F.Y.R.O.M.. This object
has been dated to the late 6th millennium cal BCE (Thissen 2000b: 203ff). Gimbutas quoted a date of 6150
BCE (Gimbutas 1982: 251). The Porodin-Velušina I group had Mediterranean features, according to Benac
(1989: 17), and Brukner (1968: 90-91; 1974: 39). It was one of the earliest communities to develop fortified
tell settlements such as Porodin, Veluška Tumba, and Grgur Tumba (Sanev 1988; Lazarovici C.-M.,
Lazarovici Gh. 2006: 60).
The inscribed seal was recovered at Porodin-Trn-Golema tumba (Western F.Y.R.O.M.) (Grbić M. et al 1960;
Valastro et al. 1977: 322; Makkay 1984: 61, object 266; Gimbutas 1990: 239, fig. 11.20; Merlini 2004a). It is
marked by a V with a bi-line within it, another bi-line on one side, and nine parallel lines on the other side.
Considering the bi-line as representing “the power of two”, interpreting the V as a vulva, and ascertaining the
seal to the Starčevo-Criş culture (5800-5500 BCE according to her chronological frame), Gimbutas was
tempted to read from right to left that “two” undergoes the alchemy of the vulva to become “many”
(Gimbutas 1990: 238, fig. 11.20). Personally, I am inclined to an interpretation of a ritual formula aimed at
strengthen the hoped for success of the following expected events: “The female and the male powers, conjoin
in the vulva (the composed by a V and an II), after the insemination (the parallel line on the right) produce
a new life in nine months (the nine horizontal lines on the left)”.
A potshard discovered at the multilayered site of Runik (Kosovo, on the Southern slopes of Mokra Gora and
Suva Mountain) illustrates a significant example of how sometimes the linear principle of the Danube script
inscriptions is so contingent that it is obvious even on fragments of pottery recovered from the extreme
southern-edge of the core Vinča culture. The presented example is a Vinča A29 shard from the rim/body area
of a pot (Todorovič 1969: 78, pl. XI, fig. 1; Winn: 1981: 367, fig. 1; Masson 1984: 100). Ten signs (the last
one on the right is unidentifiable because it is broken) occur in a horizontal sequence on the exterior side of
the potshard. It is very possible that on other areas of the pot there were more signs. Linear arrangement of the
text, outline of the signs, standardized shape, as well as presence of modifying diacritical markers, (such as
the horizontal stroke varying a X) are among the indicators in contrast with Makkay’s claim that these marks
are nothing more than simple remains of a decoration (Makkay 1990: 75).

8
See § 6.C.b.1 “Multi-inscribed artifacts”.
9
Unfortunately, precise stratigraphic data from the excavations carried by J. Glišić from 1966 to 1968, and in 1984, have
not been published yet. Therefore, Todorović employed the internal periodization proposed by Garašanin (Garašanin
1979: 104, 135, 136).
531
 Fig. 9.34 – An inscribed Vinča A1 seal from Porodin Fig. 9.35 – A long inscription in string was incised
(Republic of Macedonia). on a Vinča A2 pot from Runik (Kosovo).
(After Merlini 2004a: 211, fig. 7.2). (Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Todorović
1969: 78, T. XI, fig. 1).

9.B.b.2 Tărtăria: Sacred signs on tablets deposited in a burial aimed to consecrate a novel ancestor

In the early Vinča culture, literacy developed as an important component of social reproduction strategies
supporting the ancestral ideology of the kinship-based Neolithic societies. This role is evidenced by the
deposition of three inscribed tablets as the only entire artifacts among a pile of fragmentary objects in the
ritual grave that consecrated an elderly and ill person as a revered ancestor at Tărtăria-Groapa Luncii
(Transylvania, Romania).

Fig. 9.36 – The group of the Tărtăria artefacts in a
showcase of the Muzeul Naţional de Istorie a
Transilvaniei Cluj-Napoca.
(Photo Merlini 2003).
Fig. 9.37 – Diagram of data obtained from the
human bones belonging to the ritual pit and the
animal bones from the pit house.
(Laboratory of the Department “Scienze della
Terra” of La Sapienza University of Rome).

532
Fig. 9.38 - The revision of the stratigraphy at Tărtăria with the location of the ritual pit. Profile of the trench
G made by N. Vlassa and the different levels of excavation.

Fig. 9.39 – Absolute Chronology of Early Vinča.

533
Concerning the issue of the Danube script in the early Vinča, the C14 analysis of the human remains that
accompanied the Tărtăria tablets in the ritual grave provide solid results. The Laboratory of the Department
“Scienze della Terra” of La Sapienza University of Rome fixed these remains to 5370-5140 CAL. BCE
(Merlini 2004a: 289; Merlini on line; Merlini 2006a; Merlini, Lazarovici Gh. 2008; Lazarovici Gh., Merlini
2008).
If one compares the cronostratigraphic sequence of Transylvania and Banat sites with the C14 age of the
human bones discovered by Vlassa, one can place Tărtăria complex into the early Vinča period (Lazarovici
Gh., Merlini 2005). This complex belongs to the Vinča A2 or the Vinča A3 stages (contemporary with the
Starčevo-Criş IVA horizon as documented by Cârcea, Banat culture I (Mantu 1998a; 1998b; 2000; 2002).
Concerning pottery typology, one can synchronize the Vinča A2 in Serbia, Romania and F.Y.R.O.M. with the
Karanovo II in Bulgaria (Lazarovici Gh. 1998: 3).
In literature, the bones found in the “ritual pit” are usually supposed to belong to an adult man considered a
priest, a shaman, or a high dignitary based on the associated artifacts and the cremation ritual designed for a
person different in some way from the norm. Nevertheless, according to the anthropometric analysis of the
bones, this very special person was a female of Mediterranean type, very old for the standards of that time
(50-55 years), very ill and in pain (due to a degenerative-arthritis process causing malformation from an early
age). She limped on her right leg and had a severely curved posture since her youth. Crossing the analysis of
the human remains with the ritual pit and its cultic context, one has to talk about the Tărtăria priestess,
shaman-woman or dignitary-woman. I prefer to refer to her as “Milady Tărtăria”, indicating her as a “terrific
and revered holy woman” with a pivotal role in an inclusive community capable of only moderate formations
of leadership and policy (Merlini 2004a: 289; 2006a; Lazarovici Gh. and Merlini 2005: 208-209; Merlini and
Lazarovici Gh. 2008).

Fig. 9.40 – The tablets were accompanied by Fig. 9.41 – The localization of the cultic pit and the pit
human remains which are still preserved in Cluj, house.
in the basement of the Muzeul Naţional de Istorie a
Transilvaniei Cluj-Napoca.
(Photo Merlini 2003).

With reference to the intricate interactions between the terrific and revered holy woman, her abode in a pit
house (pit house n. 2), the ritual grave, and the pile of cultic tools and inscribed tablets recovered with her
bones, new information has made it possible to completely revise the circumstances of the discovery and to
establish the precise location of the sacralized deposition. The stratigraphy of the trench where the pit was
unearthed has been established and it has been documented that the ritual grave and pit house were not only
contemporaneous but also belonged to the same archaeological complex under the same roof and were
functionally connected.
Milady Tărtăria lived in the pit house and kept the sacral paraphernalia inside the “ritual pit,” a sort of box
with magic tools, which was located under the same roof and possibly provided magical protection for the
abode. The liturgical associations functionally connect the inscribed tablets and the ritual paraphernalia, and
relate both to a dwelling with a special function. The context indicates a passionate magic-religious life with
elaborate symbolism and intense ceremonialism developed by a small early farming community with very
limited social hierarchy.

534
In the Tărtăria dwelling, a substantial area might have been devoted to magic-religious rituals while the rest
might have been associated with daily life, albeit a daily life that was connected full time and with every
action to the spiritual path of the initiate. Milady Tărtăria’s home might not have had a permanent cultic area
as in the above Early Neolithic examples, or a corner consecrated to liturgies. Archaeological evidence
permits us to postulate the existence of special abodes belonging to old holy ladies, often related to the
numerology of the number 7. Such a hypothesis is sustained by two religious discoveries from Poduri,
Ghelăeşti and Isaiia (in Moldavia, Romania) both containing 42 pieces (Lazarovici Gh. and Merlini 2005;
Merlini and Lazarovici Gh. 2008). Based on such finds, one can assume the existence of a numerology based
especially on the mystic interpretation of the number 7 (as well as the 13) as a sign of divinity, whereas the 6
represented normality as later occurred in Mesopotamia (Ursulescu 2004).
A crucial point for an interpretation of the function of the tablets and the meaning of the signs is that the
discoverer, Nicolae Vlassa, and most scholars, consider the pit to be a cultic sacrificial hollow filled with a
votive hoard, a dedication deposit, or a pile of offerings. In fact, it was a cultic pit during the life of Milady
Tărtăria. However, after her death it became a ritual grave. Her bones underwent a through defleshing process
that could have required a period of between some months to 6/7 years. After the removal of the flesh from
the bones, ritual tools and the skeletal remains of Milady Tărtăria might have been returned to where she had
spent her life. It is possible that during this time lag the house was abandoned. We can relate the lowest filled
levels of the pit to this period (Lazarovici Gh. and Merlini 2004; Merlini and Lazarovici Gh. 2008).
The occurrence of a grave blessed by a spiritual wealth and not of a votive deposit means that pit and pile of
objects—including the tablets bearing script signs—should be interpreted primarily through the category of
socially significant death liturgies reflecting the social standing of the deceased and not in a straightforward
manner in terms of giving direction to an other-worldly power for supernatural returns (votive deposition). At
Tărtăria, the human body and its associated artifacts constituted a form of devotion and a means to facilitate
communication with spiritual powers only though distinctive death liturgies and burial in a sacralized space.
The shape and extent of the ritual grave indicate that the custom was not the deposition of a buried person,
but of the disarticulated skeletal remains after the defleshing process. The Tărtăria pit could be evidence of a
secondary and partial burial. In the Developed/Middle Neolithic of Southeastern Europe, secondary and
partial interment was a present, but was not a typical practice. Postmortem processing would have been a
demanding and disagreeable task in both an emotional and physical sense. At Tărtăria, it reflected conscious
decisions made by the members of the family/community about appropriate social behavior and the
expression of relationships with the deceased. The secondary burial of Milady Tărtăria expressed the high
social status and persona of the revered deceased.
Possibly a double funeral rite was performed while accommodating in the pit a selection of the bones, the core
part of her liturgical objects after a ritual fragmentation, and the inscribed tablets kept as the only complete
items. If one follows Krum Băčvarov’s suggestions about Bulgarian Neolithic secondary burials as the
conclusion of a two-stage process of post-mortem body treatment, the Transylvanian reburial could have been
based on some kind of public rite of devotion or initiation (Băčvarov 2003). This vision is reinforced by the
identity of the deceased as a magic-religious adept. A window on the highly emphatic and complex
ceremonies can be opened by a bone belonging to an animal that shows scorching traces and was mixed with
the human bones (Lazarovici Gh., Miu 2004). Animal and human bones might have been placed together
during the inhumation process, possibly in relation to rituals concerning the worship of a person who
possessed some special and/or secret knowledge.
At Tărtăria, the secondary treatment and partial inhumation of skeletal remains involved a single individual,
documenting a situation completely different from other well known collective secondary burials such as at
Prodromos (western Thessaly, Greece) or Alepotrypa Cave (in the Mani peninsula of the Peloponnese). At the
site of Prodromos, there is some evidence for secondary burial in the Pre-Sesklo culture, because eleven
skulls and a few other bones were found in three successive strata underneath a dwelling floor. At Alepotrypa
Cave, one of the richest and best preserved Neolithic sites in Greece, which was occupied by early farmers
from ca. 5000 to 3200 BC, the so-called Ossuary II, constituted a secondary deposit containing the
disarticulated remains of at least 20 individuals, including adults and sub-adults in significantly high
percentages of skull and limb bones when compared to the expected distribution of elements (Papathanasiou,
Larsen, Norr 2000; Papathanasiou 2001: 3).
Archaeological evidence and literary references point to some features comparable with Tărtăria evidence
from the secondary deposit of the bones belonging to a single individual that was discovered on the shore,
Paralia, of the Franchthi Cave (Argolid, Greece). Here a Middle Neolithic burial presented a 39-40 year old
woman whose scattered skeleton was put into a pit through a probably secondary burial. The grave goods
found with her (a well-worn and mended pot, a group of bone tools and obsidian blades) may have been her

535
personal possessions and may indicate that she had some "special" status in the community as a craftsperson.
Although the secondary remains were not unequivocally deliberate depositions (Cullen 1999: 168-169), they
may indicate a ritualized selection of skeletal and artifactual elements.
The inclusion of the dead within particular burial spaces and the location of tombs are significant indicators
concerning corporate group membership and identity. In the case of Milady Tărtăria, the context of a dwelling
previously occupied by her as a magic-religious adept suggests that the package of the skeletal remains in the
pit-box with her liturgical tools was possibly associated with socialization of the dead and ancestor worship
constituting an exchange between the living and the neo-ancestor aimed at consecrating or at least
symbolizing the continued significance of a distinctive ancestral blessed place. Milady Tărtăria’s burial may
have been a means of connecting descendants with her and enlisting her good will toward the living.
The deposition of the spiritual treasure in a house apparently reinforced the principle of a concentration of
finds and ritual in the domestic domain, even if one remembers the above-mentioned particularities of Milady
Tărtăria’s dwelling.
At Tărtăria the two principles of fragmentation (bodily dismemberment, deliberate breakage of emblematic
objects, and sharing of fragments from both kinds among people) and accumulation (selecting, grouping and
interring together emblematic parts of both body and artifacts) worked together thereby reinforcing distinctive
social relations and identity (possibly on a household, ancestral lineage or community level). Relationships
expressed by means of fragmentation and socialization processes among descendants, on one hand, and
collection and storing of core fragments in a consecrated place, on the other hand, might have involved both
the skeletal material and the magic tools of the revered and terrific holy lady.
Future inventory and analysis of skeletal elements will confirm deliberate patterning both in the bones
selected for storage in burial and with regard to the portions of the body from which they were taken. The
skull and many small bones are missing, in particular those from the palms, feet, and pelvis—although some
pelvic fragments remain. The absence of fragile bones might be the result of natural process of defleshment
and disarticulation (Lazarovici Gh. and Meşter 1995; Lazarovici Gh. 2000). We cannot know if the skull
received special attention. Fragments of the other bones might have been removed during the process of
secondary burial and utilized to connect the most recent ancestor, Milady Tărtăria, with her living kinsfolk
and/or might have been passed on to connect a third party.10 The selected portions of the body were
considered sufficient to represent and sanctify the presence of the deceased within the grave and the
community.
Concerning the cultic paraphernalia, their social life of had two phases: before and after the death of Milady
Tărtăria. With regards to the first phase, one can observe that most of the artifacts belong to different cults
related to fertility and fecundity and their sovereign mysteries (the female divinity and her hypostasis: Mother
Earth, Fertile Mother, Giver and Taker of life, Holy Darkness of the Womb, Protector of Pregnancy, Defender
of Life, Mistress of Animals and Plants, etc.). As extremely sacred objects, they may have been surrounded
by taboos and employed in an elaborate cycle of rituals involving stages in cultivation, ritual initiation, and
death. These formalized ceremonies were probably accompanied by song, dance, and music. Every figurine of
the ritual pit has a distinct shape and is wearing an elaborate mask that possesses, impersonates, and expresses
its resident power during ceremonial rituals: a mythological being, an animal spirit, the spirit of the dead, a
human or totem ancestor, as well as a deity and another being possibly believed to possess power over the
living.
The singularity of these figurines poses intriguing questions. One can note at a glimpse that two statuettes
show a phallus-like shape, but why have they been modeled in such a particular form?
Two figurines exhibits a hole positioned on the far lower area of the mask or under it, upon the chin,
resembling an opening mouth. It was always made before firing. In a third case, the craftsman started to drill a
hole on the far lower area of the mask, but then changed his/her mind and the cavity is only a hint. What is the
reason for the presence of speaking or singing figurines in a ritual grave?
Among the pile of the objects there is a fragment of an “idol-shaped pendant” in form of an “anchor” as the
term has been conventionally used although any connection with a figurine-shape and with sailing or fishing
is highly unlikely. The inventory number is P414. It was published in Fig. 6.5 in Vlassa 1963; Maxim 1991:
177, Kat. 97. Unfortunately, unlike the above mentioned examples, the “anchor” found at Tărtăria has the
perforation running parallel and not orthogonally to the arms. The perforation was made drilling only from
one part, as witnessed by the fact that a hole is larger and more rounded that the other. Therefore, it is a very
unproductive suspended object for the weaving process. And in fact there are not traces of use as a tool. In

10
For example, in the Neolithic Britain selective collection were created by removing skeletal elements during the
process of secondary burial. They included most frequently the skull and major leg bones (Baxter 1999).
536
search of another explanation for its use, Lazarovici Gh. and Merlini discovered that the puncture shuttles not
perfectly parallel to the arms by eccentrically for 5 degrees. The perforation wad made by a drill and a hole is
larger than the other. However which kind of pendant is an anchor-like shape? Lazarovici Gh. and Merlini
suppose that they were horns of consecration of a goat.

Fig. 9.42 – A minute phallus-type figurine. Fig. 9.43 – A large figurine of phallus type.
(Photo Merlini 2005). (Photo Merlini 2005).

Fig. 9.44 – A large hole as opening mouth on the Fig. 9.45 – A fragment of a pendant in form of horns
massive phallus type figurine. of consecration of a goat.
(Photo Merlini 2005). (Photo Merlini 2005).

537
The masks of three statuettes are asymmetrical towards the left. In one case, the mask was deformed under a
deliberate torsion from its right to left as though a knock disturbed the clay when it was still soft. The twisting
pushed the nose into the centre, de-squared the oblong fissure for the eyes from the same horizontal line (its
left eye is higher then the right), but did not distorted in the same measure the outline of the mask.
Was the deformed shape of nose and eyes due to the intention of representing a particular mythical
personage? In the ethnographic record, several masks occur which, employed in ceremonial rituals, depict
mythological beings, the spirits of dead ancestors as well as other beings believed to possess supernatural
power. Alternatively, was the deformation the result of a practice that we nowadays consider typical of
malevolent actions made during “black magic” rituals (see Draşovean 1997b on similar practices)? A third
more consistent hypothesis contemplates that the disfigured mask worn by the statuette, as well as its
fragmentation, marked the passing away of a person who has been buried with her pile of ritual tools which
became a spiritual treasure. It is not for a case that the statuettes are asymmetrical and deformed on the left
side as Milady Tărtăria was. In this case, the “singing figurines” actually fix the last breath.
After the death of Milady Tărtăria, her liturgical tools were intentionally broken possibly during a ceremony.
These objects might not have been necessarily killed ritually, but broken accidentally or by misuse. However,
one has to observe that the presence of magic-religious tools and exotic, not functional, precious items (as a
bracelet made of Spondylus shell) would mark a very unusual pattern for a discard collection. Secondly, the
figurines made of clay have been divided carefully and deliberately into two parts, retaining the entire upper
part (head included) for burial in the pit. Therefore, they have been submitted to an intentional, methodical
and selective breaking process. Closed eyes and the absence of a mouth are peculiar of some of them and are
both traits that are reminiscent of the dead. In a process that transforms matter into being, it is possible that
some figurines were not magic-religious paraphernalia of Milady Tărtăria, being manufactured at the time of
her death or throughout the defleshing processing and then used in a ritual to represent the newly deceased.
Once her spirit was freed or during the secondary reburial process, these figurines could have been broken
and sacrificed connecting the living to the power of the neo-ancestor and by doing so asserting a political
claim of continuity as being still part of the community.

Fig. 9.46 – Deliberately broken feminine and Fig. 9.47 – The mask has been deformed under a
deformed figurine of prismatic shape. deliberate torsion from its right to left as to a knock.
(Photo Merlini 2005). (Photo Merlini 2005).

538
Therefore, the deposition of the ritual objects inside the pit as incomplete items was not to discard them as
rubbish because of their broken state, but fitted a distinct liturgy of fragmentation/accumulation. At the first
stage, the ritual enacted through the fracturing of the emblematic objects into pieces might be connected to: a)
the rupture of the relations between their owner and life sphere or divine entities; or b) an enchainment
procedure based on the sharing of blessing fragments among kinsfolk, acquaintances and associates in order
to establish a magic “fill rouge” between the newly dead and the (kin and spiritual) descendants based on a
mutual commitment; or c) the spread of some consecrated fragments throughout settlement and fields to
guarantee fertility (Chapman 2000; 2001). If some fragments of the intentionally broken objects may have
been circulated among the living in order to enchain the ancestor and people as well as to solidify the group,
the core part of every sacral tool was not dispersed, but collected in a spiritual treasure associated with the
inscribed tablets and buried in the ritual pit during a devotional or initiation ceremony, or simply kept apart.
In conclusion, at Tărtăria the act of fracturing and accumulation can be compared to a coin with two sides,
and yet it is always the same object. In the same light, the creation of a novel ancestor made it necessary for
individual fragments of skeleton and objects to be shared among descendants and that the deposited parts of
the whole were so distinctive that the whole was obviously represented, making up a spiritual treasure. There
is no evidence of further processing or handling of the remains after the funerary rite was finished and the pit
was filled with them. The pit grave was never reopened. From a photo shot in 1961 by the archaeologist in
charge, one can see the dark, thick and undisturbed layer 0.5 m above the mouth of the pit but at least 1 m.
under the Coţofeni level (Vlassa 1963: fig. 3, 4). Part of the pit (ca. 1/3, 1/4) was destroyed during
excavations by K. Horedt and N. Vlassa. Because of this damage, some pieces and bones might be absent.
The complex ritual process of fracturing and accumulation is based on the acts of selecting and handling the
elements to spread among people and places and the elements to gather in the burial site. The metabolization
of the deceased from a recognizable body to single bones, their handling and cleaning and the selection of
portions of the remains imbued with specific meaning were possibly important steps in establishing social
memory and transforming Milady Tărtăria into a novel ancestor because served to re-establish contact
between the living and the dead.
The operations to select and handle the core fragments and then to break and accumulate them were on play in
pairs, because artifacts and bones were blessed and blessing tokens were deposited in a funerary complex in
connection with death rituals. They were not simply “items of faith” deposited in an act directed to
communicate with or concerning supernatural powers in hope of a return (magic protection, success, health,
the flourishing of crops, animals or family).
This context indicates that Milady Tărtăria had a double stage as her packed paraphernalia and osseous
synecdoche had. In life, she was a cult leader and perhaps a full-time specialist. After death, she became a
revered and terrific ancestor represented through a culturally significant, yet tangible form. Her representation
was compact, motionless and stable in the burial; it was disarticulated, in motion and nomadic among the
hands of individuals or scattered in the village or fields.
Under this scenario, if some of the ritual artifacts were broken, intentionally or unintentionally, and buried as
incomplete items, the three inscribed tablets are the only objects left entire and interred as complete items.
This interaction between fragments, parts as whole and complete items is a key issue for future exploration. It
is obvious that the inscriptions might have been surrounded by taboos that inhibited the fragmentation of the
tablets. They bear sacred and magic signs that were recognized as carriers of apotropaic powers by the
believers independently from the capability to read them. Even without handling their real significance, they
interpreted the engraved signs as “deposits” of superhuman powers put in play through magical liturgies.
Dealing with the Transylvanian inscriptions without knowledge of their semantic meaning is also our
situation.
To summarize, at Tărtăria the script functioned as a powerful mnemonic device strictly connected with cult
and the social memory of a novel forebear, linking generations and possibly communities. The burial locus
was the hub from which Milady Tărtăria continued to participate in the social actions of the living, affecting
descendants through memory, expected social behavior, and supporting them with supernatural powers. Her
secondary and partial burial created a sacred wealth in the pit that received Milady Tărtăria’s identity through
the incorporation of fractions from physical remains and liturgical tools. Her burial linked individual and
collective identities and anchored her ancestry to a specific locality. The pit itself may have represented the
womb for the regeneration of the body of the novel ancestor or even her transfigurated body itself. At the
same time, small portions of her skeletal remains and powerful tools reunited members of the family,
devotees, and other individuals by circulating and being in their possession.

539
9.B.b.3 An esoteric astral knowledge from Tărtăria?

The problem of the signs from the tablets and what is meant by them is a very complex subject. Tărtăria
markings are believed by a growing number of scholars to be a very early form of writing and not just
symbols but the interpretation of them is far from being elucidated. According to same, they bear pictographic
signs (Luca 2006a: 39). If some researchers are daring to give a definite meaning to those signs, the tablets are
some sort of Rorschach test where people project into the inkblots the fantasies they already have in their
mind. In any case the new archaeological data I am presenting in this work compel us to develop some
semiotic considerations about the genetic code of the emblematic signs of Tărtăria (Merlini 2001; 2002a;
2002b; 2004a; 2005).
If some circumstances in the appearance of the signs and their organization on the tablets seem to support the
presumption of Mesopotamia-Southeastern Europe interaction, the close or probable typological connections
between Tărtăria signs (and the Turdaş group of signs) and the early pre-cuneiform Mesopotamian script, in
the ‘proto-literate’ period of Sumer (Falkenstein 1965; Gelb 1967: 488; Grumach 1969: 258; Edzard 1969:
220; Hrouda 1971: 103) has to be deconstructed (Merlini 2006b). First, Tărtăria signs show resemblances not
only to the Pre-dynastic Mesopotamian writing, but also to other ancient scripts. Second, in Mesopotamia
only some larger rectangular tablets are relatively flat and there are very few small circular tablets to compare
with the Transylvanian one. Third, the string-holes on two of the Tărtăria tablets have no parallels among the
early tablets of Mesopotamia. Fourth, numerals are rendered in a completely different manner on the Uruk
and the Tărtăria tablets (in the case of Uruk, the whole shape of the numeral is sunk in the clay with a round-
ended stylus, while at Tărtăria the equivalent signs are incised in outline or “brushed”). Fifth, the alignment of
the signs does not correspond to the early Sumerian canon. It is also significant to note that the tablets from
Uruk III and Jemdet Nasr do not represent a primitive stage of writing, because they display signs which are
not only ideographic but also contain a phonetic element. In this occurrence, signs stand for words and not for
objects, animals or structures which they literally represent, and signs with recognized sound values are
combined together to make words (Diringer 1962: 21).
The Tărtăria tablets evidence that the Danube script was mainly a sacred system of writing employed in
liturgies and in expressing magic-religious beliefs. It was not primarily used for commercial transactions or
for recording administrative documents, but for communicating with the super-human forces. In fact
inscriptions have been often found on objects – such as tablets as well as clay female figurines, votive
offerings (sometimes ex-votes), libation vases, miniature vessels, spindle whorls, seals, temple models, and
loom weights – all connected with a religious context. In particular it is under verification the working
hypothesis that the tablets and their signs could be associated in some direct or indirect way with magic,
malefic liturgies.
The Tărtăria tablets attest also that the Neo-Eneolithic communities of the Danube basin were just at the first
stages of the development of a script of literacy. It is a very archaic system of writing and possibly not
capable of encoding extended speech or long narratives because phonetic elements are not or are too limitedly
rendered in writing. It consists probably of a mix of logograms, ideograms, pictograms and only some
phonetic elements occasionally and marginally marked. The connection with the conceptual sphere is much
stronger than the connection with the phonetic sphere. Other ancient writings of this type are the Elamite
script, Indus script, the hieroglyphs of the Phaistos disc, the Chinese writing on oracular bones, and the
Olmecs glyphs.
If 7,300 years ago the Danube script was in statu nascenti and a considerable part of it was a key element of
the religious-mythical system, consequently its signs had often the same outlines of sacred symbols, in
particular the geometrical and abstract ones, from which they had derived. This every so frequently originates
confusion into the researchers employed to crack Danube script code, but witnesses at the some time that
numbers of signs of this system of writing have their origin from the sacred language of symbols.
The religion was a system of symbols and texts by which human beings communicated with their culturally
defined universe characterized by super-human powers as well as human powers. Common models of ritual
action, embedding symbols and texts (Victor Turner even considers the rituals as aggregations of symbols
1975: 59), realized the extra-human and inter-human communication, mediating also between the individual's
conflicting needs for self-expression and self-containment. For ritual action I mean not only formal rituals
performed by consecrated professionals, but also many acts of everyday household life which were imbued by
religious-mythical significance and incorporated utilitarian and symbolic functions (Viz. Nikolova on-line
who researched three case studies in depth: spinning and spindle-whorls, ornamented pottery and burials in
the villages).

540
The Tărtăria tablets point out the mainly cultic, initiation-ritual nature of the Danube script. Indeed many
meanings might be esoteric and revealed only on the occasion of specific initiations (Lazarovici Gh., Merlini
2004). The question of the non-visibility of some texts is indicative of magical associations and sacral
meaning of the Danube script connected with initiation processes. It is not for accident that texts were
sometimes on a non-visible portion of the ritual tools. For example the magic-religious inscriptions positioned
along four rows on the Gradešnica platter were visible only when it was moved, stored, or transported, but not
when in use. During the rituals, they faced the ground possibly for the giving and the taking of earth-forces.
Was the non-visibility not only a supplementary symbolic meaning but also an integral part of the symbolic
message and a necessary condition for setting symbols and inscription into motion? (Merlini 2005). Also the
cultic, discoid medallion recently found at Turdaş and belonging to the early phase of the Turdaş culture had
been used with its inscription facing the ground. In this case the inscribed artifact was located in the middle
stratum of a pit among the ashes of a deep steep dwelling, maybe a granary or a shaman’s habitation, and
accompanying six vessels containing cereals (Luca 1993; Merlini 2004a).
Concerning the Tărtăria tablet, it is noteworthy to consider the possibility of overlapping the two tablets both
bearing a round puncture and divided into cells. Indeed the hole on the rectangular tablet fits perfectly the
hole on the circular one and the former tablet perfectly covers the upper register of the latter with their cells in
perfect alignment.
This could mean not only that the rectangular and circular tablets have been worn one over the other as
pendant of necklaces, but also that in part overt (seen) signs and in part esoteric (covered, hidden) signs occur
on the resulting compound. The covering of the signs on the upper register of the circular tablet may have
created a relationship between overt (seen) and esoteric (hidden) signs. The fact that the two punctured tablets
could have been utilized as superimposed exoteric and esoteric amulets is indicative of the magical
associations of the script (see Makkay 1968: 286; Hood 1967: 111; Reiner 1960: 148 ff.). Was the sacred
assemblage particularly in use during initiation ceremonies? (Merlini online; ibidem 2004a; Lazarovici Gh.
and Merlini 2005). If this was the case, it does not facilitate any attempts to decipher the incised signs since
one is dealing with texts that challenge the un-expressible, which not only reveal but also conceal and
sidetrack, and finally which indicate something to mean something else.

Fig. 9.48 - A Neolithic figurine from the National Fig. 9.49 - Two tablets have been wear as pendant
Museum of Athens gives an idea of Milady Tărtăria. one over the other.
(Photo Merlini 2005). (Photo Merlini 2003).

In early stage of the Vinča culture sacred signs were employed at Mostonga (Vojvodina, Northern Republic of
Serbia) possibly to represent constellations on the valve of a Spondylus gaederopus L. in order to escort a
deceased person through the beginning stage of the afterlife journey. The likeness of some of them with some
the famous signs from the discoid and the holed rectangular plates from Tărtăria poses question about the
nature of the inscriptions deposited with Milady Tărtăria. The possibility of inscriptions dealing with the “sky
affair” is enhanced by the presence of the Moon phases on the discoid plate.
The Spondylus from Mostonga is a very rare example of an inscribed artifact made not of clay or stone. The
precious item belongs to the Vinča A1 culture according to the discoverer, Sergei Karmanski. It was

541
positioned on the pelvis of a deceased person buried in contracted position. Karmanski stated that the
ornament bears six pictograms engraved in a semicircle with the double perforation technique. From left to
right he believed to have identified two big fishes, a big hooked fish, a constellation, a dwelling that sits on
stilts embedded into a swamp, and a small boat with oars and one or more oarsmen (Karmanski 1977; Siklósi
2004). The most recognizable signs are the asterism and the boat.
According to Séfériades, the star formation might depict the Ursa Minor and the latest star to the right might
index Alpha Ursa Minor, the Polar Star. The absence of the fourth star might be explained by its feeble
magnitude (Séfériades 2003: 366). However, the constellation echoed by Karmanski is more identifiable, for
shape and orientation, as the Ursa Major. This group of stars never dips below the horizon and can be seen at
any season, being one of the few circumpolar constellations. Another sign (indexed e) on the Spondylus from
Mostonga resembles a constellation, possibly Auriga. In this case, are star formations also the depiction of the
other signs? Is the last sign a Sky boat?
The Spondylus from Mostonga may be a map of a portion of the starry sky and narrate a mythogram. In this
instance, the problem is to understand whether the provided celestial saga involves the Spondylus as
protagonist, or if the shell is simply a blackboard bearing a written story that has nothing to do with it.
In the first case, the a spiny oyster might present itself to people who have never seen the sea as the most
seductive creation of wide and deep supernatural waters within or beyond the celestial world (due to the
occurrence of one or more constellations) loaded with their magic strength. Food for Gods, the
Hallucinogenic Spondylus gave to mortals out-of-body experiences helping them to achieve a more lofty
plain of existence. It was revered and played a significant role in ritual activity (Glowacki 2005). In the
Danube civilization, the circulation of magical Spondylus shells was very fashionable and strengthened social
structures, tightened relationships between communities, gave respect and prestige to those capable to exhibit
the most remarkable pieces.

Fig. 9.50 - The spondylus from a Mostonga IV
burial and its signs (Vojvodine, Repubic of Serbia).
(After Karmanski 1977).
Fig. 9.51 - Correspondences between some possible
representations of constellations on the Spondylus
from Mostonga and some of the signs incised on the
plates from Tărtăria. Both the inscribed artifacts
have been deposited in “special” burials.

Copying with the second option, Séfériades assumes that Ursa and the boat—with the prow resembling a
swan (in assonance with postglacial petroglyphs from Northern Europe and Siberia) —evoke the passage to
the World of the Dead (the boat of Caronte in Greek mythology or the funeral boat in the Bay of the Dead,
Finistere, in Breton folklore) (Helias 1981). Séfériades asserts that the mythogram from Mostonga might be

542
related with the travel by boat, which is typical of Indo- and Celtic corpus. In this case, it would antedate the
“Death of Arthur” or “The Legend of Lohengrin” (Séfériades 2003: 366). Indeed, “each of the two key
animals of the Arthurian myth (She-Bear and Goose/Swan) represents, in its own way, the cyclical nature of
Arthurian kingship” (Walter 2002).
In burial procedures, writing technology was connected at least with the elaboration of sophisticated magic-
religious beliefs and rituals associated with the deliberate interment of artifacts and other materials associated
with the dead person. During the Developed/Middle Neolithic, the Danube script became a key component of
social reproduction strategies based on the Neolithic ideology of ancestry within kinship-based societies. At
Tărtăria sacred signs where incised on plaques deposited in a secondary burial aimed to sanctify a novel
forebear. In the previous developing stage of the Vinča culture sacred signs were employed at Mostonga
possibly to represent constellations on a Spondylus gaederopus L. in order to escort a deceased person
through the beginning stage of the afterlife journey. The likeness between the possible asterisms in the
Spondylus engravings and some of the signs from the holed plates from Tărtăria poses questions about the
nature of the inscriptions deposited with Milady Tărtăria and the role of the script in burials of “special”
persons.

9.B.b.4 Vinča B: the crucial culture of the Accumulative stage of the script

The A/B is the less significant Vinča phase for the Accumulative stage of the Danube script, rating 3.7% on
the montant global of Developed/Middle Neolithic signs.
The inscribed objects listed in the database are concentrated in the Republic of Serbia at Vinča mound
(56.7%) and Kosovo at Fafos - Mitrovica (43.3%). The signs belong to the rim/upper body areas of mignon
vessels and spindle-whorls.
A remarkable and well-studied inscribed artifact from Vinča A/B culture is a spindle-whorl from the flat
settlement of Fafos - Mitrovica (Kosovo, near Kosovska Mitrovica),11 which is inscribed on both the faces
(Winn 1981: 178; 320, fig. 1; Makkay 1990, 19/2; Gimbutas 1991: 313, fig. 8.10; Gimbutas 1999: 49, fig.
45a, 45b; Merlini 2004a, fig. XIX; and Griffen 2006: 13, 19). However, colleagues have yet to note that,
under careful inspection, one may identify identical extended and complex inscriptions on the two faces.
These have been represented slightly differently on the published drawings due to an incorrect rendering and
minor distinctions in potter’s execution of a number of signs.

Fig. 9.52 – The face A of the inscribed Vinča A/B Fig. 9.53 – The face B of the inscribed Vinča A/B
spindle-whorl from Fafos - Mitrovica (Kosovo) spindle-whorl from Fafos - Mitrovica (Kosovo)
(Graphic elaboration by Merlini, after Gimbutas (Graphic elaboration by Merlini, after Gimbutas 1999:
1999: 49, fig. 45a). 49, fig. 45b).

The culture that employed the Danube script the most during the Accumulative stage was the Vinča B, the
main culture of the Developed Neolithic of Southeastern Europe (DCP 9-10 = 5200-5000 CAL. BCE). It
records 22.6% of the frequencies within this period (including data when the distinct culture is not specified).

11
It is dated 5000-4500 BCE according to Gimbutas (1999: 49).
543
Inscribed Vinča B artifacts have been recovered in a distinct area, mainly from Serbia (69.4%), but also from
Romania (28.4%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2.2%). This geographical distribution almost confirms what
happened during the previous Vinča A phase, but it was revolutionized by the subsequent Vinča C culture.
To introduce the Danube script as developed by the Vinča B culture, I present two unpublished inscribed
artifacts from Tărtăria. These objects were rediscovered by Lazarovici Gh. and the author in the basement of
the Muzeul Naţional de Istorie a Transilvaniei Cluj-Napoca (Romania). The first is a potshard recovered in
1961 by Vlassa at 1.20 meters in trench G, H6. It is characterized by signs, among which, are three X marks,
associated with an ornament. The second is the bottom of a vase for storing grain. A + and a - are very deeply
incised. It was unearthed at a depth of 0.60-0.80 meters.

Fig. 9.54 – A Vinča B unpublished inscribed potshard Fig. 9.55 – A Vinča B unpublished bottom of a
from Tărtăria (Transylvania, Romania). vase for storing grain from Tărtăria (Romania).
(Photo Merlini 2007). (Photo Merlini 2007).

Vinča mound was the reference site for the system of writing throughout the Vinča B culture, concentrating
55.7% of sign production. It was followed very far from Zorlenţ (12.0%), Fratelia (10.9%), Banjica (7.7%),
Supska (4.9%), Tărtăria (2.7%), Zorlenţu Mare (2.2%), and Petnica (1.1%).
Among the 183 occurrences of signs in the Vinča B culture, mignon altars-offering tables, human figurines
and miniature vessels are the most frequent inscribed objects. These three kinds of artifacts gather more than
83% of the totality of the signs. Much less is the contribution from unusual artifacts, potshards, vessels and
zoomorphic statuettes. DatDas has recorded no signs on Vinča B altars, spindle-whorls, plates-tablets, or
amulets. Compared to the Vinča A phase, the role of mignon altars-offering tables and miniature vessels has
notably increased. Always crucial, and slightly rising in number during this period, is the employment of
human figurines. Plates-tablets and seals disappear. In general, there was a shift from vessels to an articulated
range of objects and from the regular size to a miniature one.
In 90% of the instances the Vinča B miniature altars-offering tables are inscribed with signs of the Danube
script on the walls. However, they are inscribed also on the upper surface (6.7%) and on the legs (3.3%).
About 53.3% of them are recovered in the Romanian Banat, mainly at Fratelia and Zorlenţ. About 46.7%
come from Vinča, in the Republic of Serbia. Therefore, all the evidence of Vinča B miniature altars-offering
tables is concentrated in three settlements.
Among the Vinča B figurines, there is not a female prevalence but only 28.9%. A foremost amount is
represented as unknown gender (36.5%), and asexual (34.6%). The anthropomorphic figurines are inscribed
in the 36.5% of the instances on the legs. Here there is more space and often the statuette has to be turned 90
grades to reveal the message. With much less of a contribution, there are signs exhibited upon other portions
of the body: the chest records 17.3%; face 15.4%, abdomen-belly 7.7%, and both forehead and front 5.8%.
The inscribed Vinča B figurines show 80.4% recovered in Serbia, and 19.6% in Romania. From Supska, I

544
have already presented an inscribed figurine with evident “A”,” I”, “M”, “H”, “Y” motifs positioned on a
large triangle incised on the chest (Starović 2004).12
All the Vinča B miniature vessels belong to the eponymous settlement. They are incised on the rim/body area.
A Vinča B mignon vessel (Letica 1967: tab. V, 1; Winn 1981: 299, fig. 128; Gimbutas 1982: 86, fig. 40) has
been already investigated as example of the possibility given by DatDas to record separately the different
inscriptions occurring on an artifact.13 Also, all the recovered Vinča B potshards are incised on the rim/body
area. Petnica, at front of Small Cave, yielded a significant inscribed prosopomorphic lid (Starović 2004: 35).14
The typological distribution of the signs is a strong indicator that the Vinča B culture utilized the Danube
script as a sacred script. It was connected to liturgies, in which, cultic objects belonging to a wide typological
range also have a miniature size. This evidence opens a significant window on the features of the rituals. Of
course, the script was not the only sacral communicative code. From the Vinča B at Zorlenţu Mare, I have
already utilized a divine couple to interpret the emblematic symbol double “V” motif on the neck15 and the
punctured incisions on a zoomorphic statuette to contrast non-script marks connected with magic-religious
ceremonies and liturgical script signs16.

Object type distribution of the Vinča B signs

Object type Absolute value %

Altar (mignon) 60 32.79%

Figurine: Animal 2 1.09%
Figurine: Human 52 28.42%
Potshard 10 5.46%
Vessel 2 1.09%
Vessel (mignon) 41 22.40%
Other 16 8.75%
Total 183 100%

Characterized by the appearance of a number of cultural groups and local variants, a process of
regionalization occurred in the core area of the Danube civilization during the phases Vinča B1 and B1/B2.
Such regionalization is observable in the articulation of the script throughout its Blooming stage. This trend
was also accompanied by the emergence of new canons in art and ceramics such as pentangle-mask figurines
at Vinča –Belo Brdo to replace the triangle-masked ones.

9.B.c Textual material from the Banat II culture and Parţa

The primacy of the Vinča B culture was followed by the Banat II in Romania (9.8%): DCP 8-11 = 5300-5000
CAL BCE. For the communities of the high plains region, within the actual territory of Banat, the Banat II
was a period of cultural development (IIA, IIB, IIC) (Lazarovici C.-M., Lazarovici Gh. 2006). The
radiocarbon data are placed in the interval of ca. 5300-4950 CAL. BCE (Mantu C.-M. 2000: 79), consistent
with those established by R. Gläser for the Vinča B culture (5200-4850 CAL. BCE) (Gläser 1996: 86). At
Parţa the radiocarbon data of Banat II show an evolution between 4610 ±160 and 4120 ± 80 BCE. Level 6
belongs to Banat culture IIB. The radiocarbon data for the houses in the vicinity of sanctuary II exhibit that
part of the complex of houses, L17/40-L43 (also destroyed in 6 level), date to between 5200–5000 CAL BCE
(Lazarovici Gh., Merlini, Lazarovici C.-M. 2006). In conclusion, if the earliest finds from Parţa are from the

12
For semiotic analysis and image of the inscribed artifact, § 5.F.b.6 “When Danube script and Danube symbolism
arrange signs in linear sequence, they are represented by dissimilar ratios”. See also § 3.D “Through Transylvanian
serendipity”.
13
See § 6.C.b.1 “Multi-inscribed artifacts”.
14
For semiotic analysis and image, see § 5.E.b.6 “Script signs and decorations may be represented together on the same
object”.
15
See § 5.E.b.1 “Writing and decoration can both be utilized to transmit packages of information and meaning”.
16
See § 5.D.a.1 “The dynamic, emotional graphic result of cultic actions”.
545
Early Neolithic (5600 CAL. BCE), the spectacular religious architecture and an imposing fortification system
(four ditches and four palisades plus fences and “hedgehogs” barriers) date between 5400–4800 CAL BCE.
The Banat IIB-IIC phases are earlier, as those belonging to the Vinča C phase, and correspond to the Vinča
B1/B2 or B2 phases at the Vinča - Belo Brdo site (Mantu 2000; Lazarovici Gh. et alii 2001; Schier –
Draşovean 2004; Lazarovici Gh. 2005). The Banat II culture contributed to the birth of the Tisza culture
(Luca 2006a: 32).
All the Banat II inscribed objects listed in the database of the inscriptions of the Danube script belong to the
Parţa settlement. The signs are most represented in relation to the category of unusual objects, among which
include a bead, a sphere, a cone, a loom, a lid, and a giant bull statue. They are followed by potshards from
rim/upper body (72.2%) and base/bottom (27.8%). More than one inscribed artifact on five is a vessel. This
typology bear signs on the whole range of possibilities: rim/upper body (68.8%), side near base (18.7%), and
base/bottom (12.5%). Vessels are followed, with a lesser contribution, by human figurines, which have
asexual traits and are mainly inscribed on front, but also on hips. On figurines, there are also interesting
symbols such as schematic (dancing?) anthropomorphs on the centre of their throat.17
Marginal is the input to the sign production from tablets and plates-tablets.

Object type distribution of the Banat II signs

Object type Absolute value %

Figurine: Animal 4 5.06%

Figurine: Human 10 12.66%
Plate-tablet 4 5.06%
Potshard 18 22.78%
Vessel 16 20.25%
Other 27 34.18%
Total 79

A fragmented tablet from Parţa belongs to the Banat IIC phase (Germann Manuscript: 123). (It is the Tablet
n. 5 in Agotha’s collection, inv. n. A 124). According to a vertical format, one can distinguish in a column on
the left a (DS 106.0), and a ( DS 016.0); in the other column on the right, a (DS 112.0), and a (DS
008.1 ) are observable. From the published drawing of a miniature cone (Resch 1991: 189, fig. 4/8) it is
possible to detect two inscriptions. The first puts in a rhomboid compartment a and a Λ aligned in a
vertical sequence. The second illustrates, also inside a metope framework, a and a .

Fig. 9.56 – An inscribed Banat IIC tablet discovered Fig. 9.57 – An inscribed Banat II mignon cone from
at Parţa (Banat, Romania). Parţa (Banat, Romania).
(Graph. elab. by Merlini after Germann Manuscript). (After Resch 1991: 189, fig. 4/8).

17
See § 5.F.b.1 “Inventory of the Danube script signs vs. a repertoire of symbols”.
546
The sign (DS 002.17; the sign is listed neither by Winn in 1981 and 2004, nor by Haarmann in 1995, nor
by Lazarovici in 2004 and 2006) appears, among the other instances, on the Banat II bottom of a vase
discovered at Parţa (Lazarovici Gh., Draşovean, Maxim vol. 2, 2001: fig. 9.2). The circular inscription is
delivering information concerning the four directions. A six-sign inscription is running in circle on a Banat II
loom weight discovered at Parţa (Lazarovici Gh., Draşovean, Maxim vol. 2, 2001: fig. 28.14). In the text,
remarkable is the sign positioned in evidence in opposition to the .

Fig. 9.58 - The sign at Parţa
(Romania) on a Banat II bottom.
(Graphic elaboration by Merlini,
after Lazarovici Gh., Draşovean,
Maxim vol. 2, 2001: fig. 9.2).
Fig. 9.59 - A long inscription occurs on a Banat II loom weight from
Parţa (Romania).
(Graphic elaboration by Merlini, after Lazarovici Gh., Draşovean,
Maxim vol. 2, 2001: fig. 28.14).

9.B.d Inscribed figurines from the Alföld Linear Pottery culture

The Alföld Linear Pottery culture (DCP 8 = 5300-5200 CAL BCE), settled in the Great Hungarian Plain,
records 6.3% of the total frequencies belonging to the Accumulative stage of the Danube script. It is named
after the linear motifs that cover often the surface of pots. In literature, this culture of the Developed and
Middle Neolithic is known by a variety of names and acronyms: Alföld Linear Pottery Culture (ALP, or
ALPC) in English, and Alföldi Vonaldíszes Kerámia (AVK) in Hungarian. All these terms attempt to
differentiate this variant of the Linear Pottery culture from the Central and Northern European
Linienbandkeramik (LBK) and Stichbandkeramik (SBK), which were much less involved in the experiment
with literacy.
In Eastern and Northern Hungary, the Alföld Linear Pottery culture emerged during the middle of the sixth
millennium BCE (Parkinson 1999), or in the second half of the sixth millennium BCE (Makkay 1982b;
Bailey 2002: 168). According to Hertelendi, it appeared around 5330 BCE to the north of the Körös culture,
flourishing until about 4940 BCE (Hertelendi, Kalicz, Raczky, Horváth, Veres, Svingor, Futó, Bartosiewitz,
1995).
The Alföld Linear Pottery culture was established by local Neolithic communities. According to a point of
view supported by the Körös Regional Archaeological Project of the Florida State University, it developed in
situ, directly out of its Early Neolithic predecessors, the Körös (Kalicz and Makkay 1977; Makkay 1982).
This process was carried out through a non-traumatic transformation and transitional phenomena such as the
short-ranged Méhtelek and Szatmár groups (Kozłowski, Nowak 2006), which might have transmitted skills in
literacy. The Alföld Linear Pottery culture started building more permanent dwellings than the semi-sedentary
pit-huts of the Körös and Szatmár communities, introducing ceramic changes with incised, linear decorations
(typically zigzag within bands) on open-shaped vessels usually covered with white paint.
However, on the northern periphery of the Alföld no traces of the Körös culture have been discovered.
Concerning the developing path, Kosse noted that Alföld Linear Pottery sites occupied a much wider range of
environments than sites of the preceding Körös Culture, penetrating into forested zones previously
unoccupied during the Early Neolithic. Correlated with this new trend in the spreading settlements he
recorded a shift towards the more intensive exploitation of locally available cultivars and domesticated
animals. In addition to the Early Neolithic plant varieties, einkorn and emmer wheat, two-row hulled barley
and millet, bread wheat, and lentils began to be cultivated. In reference to domesticated animals, cattle
replaced sheep as the most important species, whereas pigs turned from almost negligible to equally, or more
significant, than sheep (Kosse 1979: 150-151).

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Recently, Makkay has contended that the Alföld Linear Pottery culture not emerge from the Körös culture,
instead being the basis of the local indigenous Late Mesolithic populations. They adapted the Neolithic
inventions that the Körös culture had adopted and transmitted to the north (Makkay 2003: 497). He suggested
in the past that the Alföld Linear Pottery culture emerged out of the Szatmár II group in Eastern Hungary
(Makkay 1982: 42-43; Parkinson 1999).
The first phase of the Alföld Linear Pottery cultural assemblage is correlated with the Pişcolt Ia group. In
Alföld I, the script is present at Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyàs (86.3%) (Raczky, Kovács, Anders 1997: 19-27) and
Füzesabony-Gubakút (13.7%), settled along both sides of the bank of an ancient watercourse. Mezőkövesd-
Mocsolyàs and Füzesabony-Gubakút are both on the plain of the relatively small Heves County, on the
Northeastern border of the Great Hungarian Plain (Hungary). These Neolithic settlements appeared in the
northern area of the Alföld assemblage in the middle of the 6th Millennia BCE (i.e. at the latest stage of life of
the Körös culture), but in a territory that is 60-80 km far from the northern border of the distribution area of
the Körös culture. If the Körös communities transmitted experiments with ars scribendi to the Developed
Neolithic sites of Heves County, it was exclusively through a cultural legacy.
All the inscribed objects are figurines: 72.5% are anthropomorphic and 27.5% are zoomorphic. They are part
of a striking feature of both sites that is the abundant collection of small anthropomorphic figurines with
triangular heads and schematic features and zoomorphic figurines (Whittle 2003: 57).
Around 86.5% of the human figurines are female; 13.5% are asexual. About 43.2% of the anthropomorphic
statuettes are inscribed with signs of the Danube script on the front (all female); 24.3% on the chest (all
female); 24.3% on the back (mainly female, but also asexual); and 8.2% on the face (all asexual). Often the
signs of writing cohabit the space with linear decorations.18 The inscribed Alföld anthropomorphic figurines
have been recovered mainly at Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyàs, but also at Füzesabony-Gubakút (Raczky, Anders
2003: 160).
All the zoomorphic figurines are from Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyàs. In 72.4% of the cases the signs are on the
abdomen-belly of the depicted animals; in 28.6%, they are on the side. Archaeozoological analysis registers
that 92-96% of the animal bones are remains of domesticated animals (mainly cattle and the sheep).
DatDas has no evidence of incised inscriptions on this new kind of open-shaped vessel that characterize the
Alföld Linear Pottery.
Towards the end of the Developed Neolithic in the Great Hungarian Plain, about 5100 BCE, the previously
homogeneous Alföld Linear Pottery cultural assemblage gave way to more spatially-discrete ceramic
groupings (Bognár-Kutzián 1966; Kalicz and Makkay 1977).

9.B.e Assessing the script in the other Developed and Middle Neolithic cultures

Quite far and geographically expansive is the contribution to the Accumulative stage of the Danube script
from Sitagroi II (4.7%) in Greece and the Karanovo III culture (3.8%) in Bulgaria. Less significant is the
contribution from the LBK culture (3.3% comprised of 2.6% from the LBK I plus 0.7% from the LBK II) in
Slovakia and Germany, Anzebegovo–Vršnik IV19 (2.1%) culture in F.Y.R.O.M., the Szákalhát culture (2.1%)
in Hungary, the Linear Pottery culture with musical note heads (1.9%) in Hungary and Germany, and the
Szatmàr I (1.6%) in Romania and Hungary.
The mound of Sitagroi (eastern Macedonia on the Drama plain), was excavated during the years 1968-1970 as
a joint Anglo-American project whose co-directors were Marija Gimbutas and Colin Renfrew (Renfrew,
Gimbutas, Elster 1986; Elster and Renfrew 2003). Life at Sitagroi spanned between 5200-4500 CAL BCE
(DCP 8-18). At Sitagroi II (DCP 10-11= 5000-4950 CAL. BCE),20 seals, human figurines and spindle-whorls
are the most frequent inscribed objects. The seals are some of the famous inscribed clay cylinders published
by Renfrew (Renfrew 1987-1994; 2003). Anthropomorphism representations are asexual or unknown gender
features. They are inscribed on legs (75%) or chest (25%). Figurines from Sitagroi II have been investigated

18
See for example the analysis of the coexistence of writing signs with a complex, widespread and two-dimensional
system of symbols on a human figurine from Füzesabony-Gubakút (Raczky, Anders 2003: 160, fig. 2.28) in § 5.F.a.7
“Signs of the script and symbols can cohabit on the same object.”
19
Gimbutas' division of Anza IV in an IVa and a IVb levels is not verifiable on stratigraphic grounds. It appears to have
been made for purely typological reasons (Mount-Williams 1976: 117; Thissen 2000: 194).
20
Sitagroi II was dated between 5200-4600 cal BC by Renfrew (Renfrew 2003: xxvii). Some authors synchronize
Sitagroi II and Dikili Tash I are with Karanovo V (Renfrew, Gimbutas, Elster 1986: 225; Perlès 1990). Todorova
synchronizes Sitagroi II with Maliq Ia, Vinča C, Dikili Tash – Slatino, Mariţa I-III, Dimini (classic), Sava I-III,
Hamangia III, Poljanica I-III and Boian-Vidra I-III (Todorova 1990; ibidem 2003: 279 ff.).
548
to contrast the symmetrical gravitation of the decorations and the preferential linear alignment and
asymmetric coordination of the script.21 However, from Sitagroi II have been also presented some figurines
where slate variations on the ornamental pattern are admirable22

Literacy at the level of the Thracian Karanovo III (DCP 8-10 = 5400-5000 CAL. BCE)23 is synchronic with
many elements that exhibit a certain breaking away from older traditions that persisted throughout the sixth
millennium BCE during the stages of Karanovo I and II (Hiller, V. Nikolov 2000; Haarmann 2002b). 24 This
modernization in the cultural milieu is highlighted by new shapes of pottery. The walls of the water-jugs
became thick, massive, straight and perpendicular to the bottom. These tall and large cylindrical cups were
modeled with handles and high cylindrical knobs. Shallow conical dishes appear with a high foot and a
thickened lip that was decorated with oblique incisions (Todorova 2003: 270). However, this reshuffling of
lifestyles and technologies did not occur in a linear direction, as evidenced by the still occurring white-painted
pottery throughout the Karanovo III phase (V. Nikolov on Tell Kazanlăk).
Within this cultural milieu, for the Karanovo III culture, the Danube script is illustrated to have been present
primarily at Nova Zagora-Hlebozavoda (74.2%), but also at Samovodene (19.4%) and Izvora (6.4%). About
74.2% of the occurrences are on cultic disks. Signs of writing and linear decorations on Karanovo III disks
from Nova Zagora-Hlebozavoda have been already contrasted. 25 C. 16.1% of the presence of signs is on the
front of anthropomorphic statuettes from female or unknown gender; and 9.7% on the transition area of the
leg-wall of miniature altars-offering tables.26
The Karanovo III culture apparently had a cultural heritage that included the Vinča, Dudesti, and Hamangia
cultures.

The Linienbandkeramik (LBK) culture (DCP 8-11 = 5350-5000 CAL. BCE) marked the northern and western
edge of the script during its Accumulative stage, and was the Northern and Northwestern component of the
great early Linien civilization.27 The LBK culture was a homogeneous group of agricultural communities that
relied primarily on emmer and lived in longhouses. It is associated to the spread of farming as well as sign
system into Central Europe, because it reached the upper Rhine valley in search of arable land at a very rapid
rate, ca. 4 km/yr. DatDas record production of script signs in LBK I (DCP 7-8 = 5400-5200 CAL. BCE) and
LBK II (DCP 9-10 = 5400-5200 CAL. BCE). The statistical analysis of LBK radiocarbon dates shows 5227
BC as its most probable age (Dolukhanov and Shukurov 2004). LBK I appeared in Transdanubia roughly
simultaneously with the development of the Alföld Linear Pottery in the Eastern Carpathian Basin (Kalicz
1998). Makkay suggests that the LBK developed out of the Bicske Group (Makkay 1982:42-43).
In the LBK I culture the Danube script occurs mainly on amulets. A charm from Bina (Slovakia) has 12 linear
signs arranged in circle (Pavúk 1980; Kalicz 1998: 42, Abb. 6/4). A clay amulet has been recovered at
Ballenstedt (in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). 28 In the Danube civilization, the desire for
ornaments able to give an aura of prestige to the possessor was so irresistible to create a specific production
and market for imitations of high-status objects. People who had neither richness nor power to acquire
commodities in costly and prestige material, or if metal or seashells where locally not available, were satisfied
by copies made of cheap material. The same strategy was acted if artisan skills and complexity of techniques

21
See § 5.E.c.5 “Preferential linear alignment and asymmetric coordination of the script vs. symmetrical gravitation of
the decorations”.
22
See § 5.E.c.7 “In the script, the design is functional; the main purpose of decorations is aesthetic”.
23
According to Thissen, a date in the 54th century cal BCE for the burning of the Karanovo III level must be considered
reliable because the short-duration samples included (lentils and grain) (Thissen 2002).
24
Instead, according to Boardman, Karanovo III is in fact no more than a continuation of Karanovo II. Both cover the
same area, but Karanovo III penetrates further northwards to the Sofia basin. Pottery of Karanovo III retains the basic
characteristics of Karanovo II (Boardman 1982: 115). He makes a chronological and cultural synchronization between
Karanovo III and Anzabegovo-Vršnik IV, considering also that the end of Karanovo III coincided approximately with
the end of the Anzabegovo-Vršnik group.
25
See § 5.E.c.8 “Dots, vertical strokes and horizontal lines in the reading process and in the decorative design”.
26
Compare the symmetric linear decorations made of multiple lozenges and parallel lines inscribed inside squared
metopes that characterize a mignon altar from Samovodene, which has been analyzed in § 5.E.c.5 “Preferential linear
alignment and asymmetric coordination of the script vs. symmetrical gravitation of the decorations”.
27
Linienbandkeramik is the German name for the distinctive linear-banded pottery they produced
28
For an analysis of this piece within the context of the inscribed rounded medallions/amulets, see § 9.C.c.3 “Parallels
between the inscriptions on the Turdaş medallion and Bulgarian stamp seals and disks”. As example of the possibility
given by DatDas to record separately the different inscriptions occurring on an object, see § 6.C.b.1 “Multi-inscribed
artifacts”.
549
were not accessible (such as metal- versus clay-working). In the storerooms of Southeastern Europe
museums, there are plenty of low-grade and serial Neolithic and Copper Age artifacts according to definite
types determined by a “global” fashion, but mainly resulting from local production from valueless materials
handled by not very skilled workers or by an individual for its personal use. If the craft from precious
substances, such as for example metal, required specialists in row material and technology proper tools and
facilities, the reproduction of prestige items by clay or local stone was achievable also as household task or at
least delegated to part-time specialized members of the family/village (Miller 2003, appendix 9.2).
Being long trade imports from marine shores and, thus, prestige goods due to their distant, “exotic” and
“mythical” provenance, ornaments made of Spondylus shells occur in graves of Lengyel culture in central
Europe. However, in archaeological excavations clay artifact imitating prestige items originally crafted from
the foreign oyster are much more frequent. Many authors emphasize that rounded Spondylus jewels were
copied in ceramics and other substituted materials in case that this precious material was not available in
enough quantity or too costly (Vencl 1959: 725, fig 277; Lichardus 1964: 852; Novotný 1958: 12).
During the Early Neolithic, Spondylus shells spread toward the centre and the North of the continent
alongside the success of the Danube-Balkan lifestyle and economy (Protosesklo, Starčevo-Criş (Körös),
Karanovo I). In the Developed/Middle Neolithic, to which the already analyzed inscribed shell from
Mostonga belongs, they arrived to conquer Western Europe. In parallel, the farthest clay ornament having
Spondylus as a model was discovered in western Pomerania (Poland, at Karsko). Here it was positioned over
a dead buried together with stroke-ornamented Lengyel pottery (Czarniak 2007). Another Lengyel clay object
imitating this spiny oyster was recovered at Zarzyca settlement (Lower Silesia, Poland) and interpreted as an
amulet.

Fig. 9.60 – An inscribed LBK I discoid amulet from Ballenstedt Fig. 9.61 – An almost circular pendant
resembling a Spondylus (Germany) from Bina (Slovakia)
(Graphic elaboration by Merlini, after Kaufmann 1969). (After Pavúk 1980).

The custom to imitate Spondylus was so deeply rooted and enduring to have informed the precedent LBK
culture, lasting for centuries. A “commercial and serial” jewel from Ballenstedt (district of Harz, in Saxony-
Anhalt, Germany) is wearing a complex inscription. It is the already mentioned LBK I discoid amulet
conceived to be worn as pendant. It is an imitation in ceramics of the rounded Spondylus jewels (Kaufmann
1969: 269, fig. 15; Kalicz 1998: 42, Abb. 6/7), but without the V section (see Pavúk 1980: 40). In the same
manner of the corresponding artifacts, it has a couple of holes in the upper area in order to be suspended
(unfortunately, only one puncture is preserved) by a hanging a thread or cord (Kaufmann 1969: 264; Kalicz
1998: 30; Kahlke 2004: 65). The amulet from Ballenstedt, which greater part has been maintained in its
original state, is inscribed on both the faces. Kaufmann supposed to have detected anthropomorphic figures
stylized on both sides: a female on the front side and a man on the backside. Therefore, he placed the amulet
within the sphere of fertility cults (Kaufmann 1969: 263 ff.; Pavlü 1966: 712; Kahlke 2004: 65).

550
However, the employed signs have an abstract character. The format of the inscription is circular. On the front
side, the signs are divided in three reading areas by a motif similar to a “screw propeller” which angles are
oriented towards the centre. The artifact has slightly bulging front side and a little concave almost flat
backside, to confirm the occurrence of exoteric and esoteric texts.
A LBK amulet from Mohelnice (Czech Republic) (Tichý 1962; Kalicz 1998: 42, Abb. 6/8) has already given
us indications on how can be difficult distinguishing between signs of the Danube script and schematic and
symbolic, but naturalistic, representations. 29 It has been already investigated an early LBK clay egg-shape
charm with a symbolic double diamond surrounding an evident point that was found at Cìfer-Pàc,
Southwestern Slovakia (Kolník 1978; Vladár 1979: 146, 23, fig. 4).30
In the LBK II, signs are present on face and head of human figurines at Stuttgart - Bad Cannstatt and Bad
Naumheim – Nieder-Mörlen (both in Germany) and on spindle-whorls at Naumheim – Nieder-Mörlen. From
LBK II I have already contrasted script signs and repeated testimonies interpreting the marks on a vessel from
Sondershausen (Germany).31 The narrative capability of decorative patterns is evidenced by the already
investigated tripartite cyclical story incised on a bowl that was deposited in the burial SO/17 at the LBK IIA
cemetery of Sondershausen (in Thuringia, Central Germany) (Kahlke 2004: Pl. 7.1; Merlini 2007a).32

Throughout the Developed and Middle Neolithic, the Anzabegovo-Vršnik group evolved on an
autochthonous basis, spreading gradually into the entire upper Vadar region. The ceramic leitmotiv was the
line of floral (vegetal) ornaments (Zdravkovski 2006: 102- 105). In the Anzabegovo-Vršnik IV phase (DCP
7-9 = 5400-5100 CAL. BCE), the group reached the end of its existence, abandoning some settlements due
to a decreased abundance of natural resources. Anzabegovo-Vršnik IV can match the Vinca B one. This
chronological frame differs from the view of Garašanin, who correlated it with the Vinca A assemblage
(Garašanin 1971: 143; 1973; 1978; 1979; 1980), and from the Greek chronological framework, which inserts
the Anzabegovo-Vršnik IV phase in the Late Neolithic (Zdravkovski 2006b: 106). All the occurrences of the
Danube script in the Anzabegovo-Vršnik IV horizon are from fragments of pottery (87.8%) and miniature
altars-offering tables (22.2%). All the former artifacts are inscribed on the walls. Decorations have been
already contrasted with script signs on an Anzabegovo-Vršnik III/IV torso.33 Variations of ornamental
leitmotivs, which under another framework are signs of the Danube script, have been analyzed on an
Anzabegovo-Vršnik IV miniaturize altar discovered at Vršnik, F.Y.R.O.M. (Gimbutas 1989: 14;
Sdrankovski 2006).34 Evidence of a local system of symbols comes from two already presented Anzabegovo-
Vršnik III and IV figurines discovered in Veles region (F.Y.R.O.M.).35

Some cultures at the northern edge of the Accumulative stage of the Danube script have a different genesis
than the Vinča A, being influenced by Vinča B stages: the Szákalhát and the Linear Pottery culture with
musical note heads.
The Szákalhát (DCP 10-11 = 5200-5000 CAL. BCE) is one of the groups that emerged from the
fragmentation of the previously homogeneous Alföld Linear Pottery cultural assemblage, which ripened
towards the end of the Middle Neolithic, about 5100 BCE (Bognár-Kutzián 1966; Kalicz and Makkay 1977).
It, therefore, continued the assessment of literacy that involved the AVK cultural complex.
The Szákalhát group spread for the most part within Hungarian territory, and partially in the Romanian area
of the Southwestern plains of Crişana, along the lower and middle Tisza and the Körös Rivers. It was
distinguished by pottery ornamented with paint outlined by incised decoration (Sherratt 1997b: 280).
This group persisted to cluster buildings in small groups and continued the occupation by rebuilding
horizontally (Kalicz 1957; Kalicz and Makkay 1977). Sometimes it started the earliest Hungarian multi-
layered tells. In some cases, Szákalhát structures form the lower levels of tell villages (Trogmayer 1957;
Galántha 1985; Bailey 2000: 168). The Szákalhát group merged with the Pişcolt group when it arrived the
final phase (Lazarovici C.-M., Lazarovici Gh. 2006).

29
See § 5.F.a.4 “When script signs and symbols show identical outlines, having the same geometric matrix and deriving
the latter from the former”.
30
See § 5.H.b “A pregnant anthropomorph”.
31
See § 5.D.c.2 “Transformative circular patterns to be followed with finger or mind”.
32
See § 5.E.b.1 “Writing and decoration can both be utilized to transmit packages of information and meaning”.
33
See § 5.E.c.4 “Signs occur isolated and in groups; ornaments preferably co-occur as a whole hiding and
homogenizing single elements”.
34
See § 5.E.c.7 “In the script, the design is functional; the main purpose of decorations is aesthetic”.
35
See § 5.F.b.1 “Inventory of the Danube script signs vs. a repertoire of symbols”.
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In the DatDas evidence of the Danube script the Szákalhát group are confined to potshards recovered at
Battonya (Hungary) (see Szénászky 1978; ibidem 1979), with prevalence of the sign “V.”36 In all the cases,
when data are supplied, the fragments of pottery are from the area near the base. A Szákalhát lid from
Kenézlö (Hungary) has already been utilized to contrast the organization of the script signs to the
symmetrically arranged sequence of linear geometrical motifs that characterizes some decorative patterns.37

The Linear Pottery culture with musical note heads (DCP 10-11 = 5000-4950 CAL. BCE) was the southern
and eastern component of the great early Linear civilization. The early Linear civilization originated at the
Northwestern limit of the Starčevo-Criş (Körös) cultural complex, expressed the first Neolithic pottery for
most of Central and – partially – Western Europe and possibly gave the practice of the script to the regional
aspect of the musical note heads as a legacy. Toward southeast, the Linear pottery culture spread from Poland
and the Sub-Carpathian Ukraine to Moldavia around 5300-5100 BCE. Then it extended east of Dniester and
South Bug in Western Ukraine (Nestor 1951; Ursulescu 1991: 205-206; Marinescu-Bîlcu 1993: 193; Luca
2006a: 33; Luca, Suciu 2008). From Moldavia, it expanded into Transylvania and Wallachia (Ursulescu 1991:
205-206; Marinescu-Bîlcu: 1993: 193; Lazarovici C.-M., Lazarovici Gh. 2006). The western area of this
culture was called “musical note heads” being characterized by pottery decorated with small alveolar motifs
that cut through incised narrow lines, set as a stave (Comşa 1963; Lazarovici Gh. 1983/1984; Kalicz, Makkay
1977).
It is assumed that communities of the Linear Pottery culture with musical note heads evolved simultaneously
with the last stages of Starčevo-Criş (Körös) cultural complex, also the first stages of the Precucuteni culture,
in the period 5300-5000 CAL BCE (Mantu 2000: 77, 101, table 2; Lazarovici C.-M., Lazarovici Gh. 2006).
They were part of a phenomena of synthesis with the Vinča and Dudeşti cultures and played an active role in
the formation of some cultures in the Early Copper Age (Boian Turdaş, Iclod, Precucuteni) (Luca 2006a: 34).
The development of the Linear pottery-musical notes in Austria is considered to have occurred 5280-4750
CAL BCE (Lenneis, Neugebauer-Maresch, Ruttkay 1995: 27). In Hungary, the late period happened between
5300/5200-5000 CAL BCE (Baldia 2005; Lazarovici C.-M., Lazarovici Gh. 2006: 465).
Hungary, Czech Republic, and Germany are the countries with evidence of the Danube script on artifacts
from the Linear Pottery culture with musical note heads. Concerning the typology of the inscribed objects,
83.3% are associated with anthropomorphic figurines and 26.7% are on potshards. About 72.7% of the human
statuettes are female. The pottery fragments all come from the rim/body area.

The case of the Szatmàr group (DCP 6-8 = 5500-5200 CAL BCE) is quite interesting. It was the early
manifestation of Linear Pottery culture from the basin of the Upper Tisza river that formed a unitary
assemblage with the Ciumeşti-Pişcolt group that occupied the Northwestern corner of Romania (Luca 2006a:
32). Szatmàr sites in the northeastern Carpathian Basin are transitional between Körös and AVK, or even
early AVK (e.g., Kalicz 1998). The earliest period of the Szatmàr group, when DatDas records clues of
literacy (DCP 6 = 5500-5400 CAL BCE), has been correlated with the Alföld I by Gh. Lazarovici’s system,
which synchronizes the Szatmàr I (Pişcolt-Ciumeşti I) group with the last phase of the Starčevo-Criş (Körös)
complex, from whose substratum it developed (see Makkay 1996). This taxonomic unity pulled together local
elements from Szatmàr, Ciumeşti, Sacuieni, and Esztar.
The Szatmàr I added features from bi-chromatic painted ceramics, probably transmitted from Vinča A1-A2
communities and from the communities of Southeastern Transylvania (Leţ) and Southwestern Romania,
Banat (Lazarovici Gh., Lazarovici C.-M. 2006). However, the Szatmàr I pottery was decorated with incised,
slightly imbedded lines. Therefore, according to Luca, “We are dealing with a culture born on the northern
outskirts of the great Starčevo-Criş assemblage in its late phases, through the taking-over of the Neolithic
lifestyle by the local Tardenoisian population, with individual features, especially in pottery decoration”
(Luca 2006a: 32-33). The decorations are bi-colors and made of rectilinear or curvilinear signs. In addition to
incised ornaments of the Starčevo type, the Szatmàr I group developed meanders, zigzags and waves. In its
last phase it merged with the Szákalhát and, possibly, also with the Herpály (Lazarovici C.-M., Lazarovici
Gh. 2006).
Inscribed potshards from Szatmàr I pottery come from Pişcolt, in Romania, and from Tiszacsege
Homokbanya, in Hungary. The first inscription is upon the area of the rim/body and aligns, in a horizontal
line, a and a . The second is arranged in a linear sequence: -, , and .

36
See § 7.E.c.2, “The complex variations of the V”.
37
See §5.E.c.5 “Preferential linear alignment and asymmetric coordination of the script vs. symmetrical gravitation of
the decorations”.
552
Residual was the input from Butmir I in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Blaz III in Albania (1.0% each),
Paradimi II in Greece (0.7%), and Dunavec II in Albania (0.6%).
In the Butmir I culture (DCP 8-9 = 5300-5100 CAL. BCE), around the Sarajevo area, signs of the Danube
script have been found on a potshard from rim/body area recovered at the eponymous settlement.
In the Blaz III culture (equated with the Dunavec-Cakran culture), from the last phase of the Middle
Neolithic, signs of the Danube script are incised on the rim/body area of a vessel discovered at the eponymous
settlement.
The tell of Paradimi is the most important and best-known Neolithic settlement in Greek Thrace. It was also
the first to be investigated (Bakalakis, Sakellariou 1981). The deposits date from the Middle Neolithic, the
Late Neolithic, and the Early Bronze Age. Concerning the earliest phase, the Carbon-14 dates for carbonized
organic remains, examined by the Institute of Materials Science at the Demokritos Centre for Nuclear
Research, are considerably higher than the corresponding ones for Dikili-Tash and Sitagroi. They date to near
the beginning of the Neolithic at Karanovo (5560 to 6126 BCE). For the Paradimi II (DCP 9-10 = 5200-5000
CAL. BCE), signs of the Danube script are present on the wall of a miniature altar that was recovered at the
eponymous settlement. DatDas does not have evidence of script sign from Paradimi I (DCP 7-8 = 5400-5200
CAL. BCE).
The Dunavec group established in the Korçe District, Southeastern Albania at the edge of Greece. If Dunavec
I is assigned by DatDas to DCP 10-12 = 5000-4800 CAL. BCE, Dunavec II is attributed to DCP 12-15 =
4800- 4600 CAL. BCE. It shares with the Vinča A culture common elements that are spread throughout a
wide area of Southeastern Europe (Korkuti 1995: 33-59).
Pottery decorated incisions, white incrustation, and fluting, etc. are typical of the Dunavec II phase (Zhaneta
1983 - 1984). In this culture, a vertical inscription occurs on the chest of a human figurine that was recovered
at the eponymous settlement.

In conclusion, the contribution from extra-Vinča cultural groups was articulated and rooted since the earliest
episode of the Developed and Middle Neolithic. These findings challenge the statements of some authors,
who consider that throughout all of Europe, in the time of the Vinča A phase, incised or painted signs can be
identified solely in the Vinča culture, and possibly in one or two sites of Greece. Such authors have further
proposed that only scratched markings can be described with certainty as pottery signs, and not independent
ornamental motifs (Makkay 1969: 12). This evidence of the extra-Vinča cultural groups, of course, is
subordinated by confirmation of the pivotal role played by the Vinča culture.

553