The Vinča
The origin of the Runic Alphabet is still unknown and mysterious...
with ties to the North Etruscan Alphabet and old Latin. It is believed that writing developed independently in places and civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt around 3100 BC. But there’s more to that, much more. The mysterious script of the Neolithic Turdaș-Vinča culture dates back to 5,500 and 3,500 BC which spread over Southeastern Europe from Transylvania to what is today Serbia.
But where did it come from? Could Paleolithic Art be somekind of Proto-language? We know from several Paleolithic Cave Paintings that some type writing attempt was indeed existent. The symbols on the Vinča tablets from 5,300 BC are a mystery, but they clearly show symbols that could be identified as some type of script. Yet, they would be older than Sumerian, Egyptian and Indus Valley scripts. Some of the Vinča symbols look indeed like Runic, too, but I am hesitant to say that they are related to each other.
The Danubian Civilization does belong to a time and culture older than Indo-European languages. A time between the Mesolithic, the Neolithic and into the Chalcolithic period. We will, for the first time ever, craft Jewelry with ancient symbols of the so called Old European script from the Vinča-Turdaș culture. This culture has shown the earliest examples of workings with copper tools, beautiful jewelry and figurines some scholars connect this to a Mother Goddess. The Tărtăria tablets found in Transylvania are archaeological artifacts that have been uncovered and have revealed some of the mysterious symbols. This culture dates back to the 5,500 BC to 3,500 BC in Central and Southeastern Europe, an Area that would be today known as the Balkans. The Danube has had an important role in Central Europe, we can learn from the Early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture that it was a fertile place to establish Agriculture and production of many crops. It is believed that these symbols could have been some type of an archaic writing system. But the true meaning of these symbols still remains a mystery. The Neolithic Revolution and the change of lifestyles and cultures, from hunting and gathering to Agriculture, also marked a change in jewelry, shifting from shells, bones, stones and clay to earrings, necklaces and rings made out of silver and gold in the late and final Neolithic.
What if the earliest Neolithic civilizations draw inspiration from the Mesolithic, and Upper Paleolithic Art and symbolism from ancient hunter gatherers…? Europe’s cultures are a complex symbiosis of western hunter gatherers, steppe pastoralists and neolithic farmers. Around the world, writing was perceived as sacred, powerful and divine, see the Egyptian God Thoth, Armenian God Tir or the Mesopotamian God Al-Kutbay. Writing came from Archetypes of wisdom and knowledge. It’s not just letters, but they were given to us for knowledge. The Vinča symbols could be also related to the Linear A and Linear B scripts, two writing scripts from the area of ancient Greece that are still undeciphered. We don’t have the answer but there are plenty of debates and researchers out there. The Old European Script might have been more used for religious, spiritual and ritual practice, as suggested by Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas. I’d like to invite you to read this link for further detail and research.
