Origin of European Writing and Similarities with South America's Signs
One of the defining features of civilization, alongside the stable use of agriculture, is the invention of writing.
The difference between pictograms, petroglyphs, and writing lies in their purpose: while the first two represent humans, animals, or objects, writing allowed humans to represent ideas and concepts in a lasting form.
Academic history associates the advent of the first official civilization, the Sumerians, with the appearance of writing, approximately 30 centuries before Christ.
However, various discoveries of archaic numbering systems and ancient clay tablets bearing symbols suggest they may predate the Sumerians.
For instance, ancient numbering and notation systems such as the Ishango bone found in Africa, the Blanchard bone, or the marks carved into the eagle bone from Le Placard date back as far as 30 millennia. However, these cannot be considered forms of writing.
The glyphs found on the Vinca and Tartaria tablets, on the other hand, are recognized as the earliest form of writing, predating those of the Sumerians.
In 1908, archaeologist Miloje Vasić unearthed several clay tablets with unknown inscriptions at the site of Vinca, near Belgrade, Serbia. Radiocarbon dating placed the Vinca tablets between 2500 and 2000 BCE.
Later, in 1961, archaeologist Nicolae Vlassa discovered three clay tablets with ancient inscriptions similar to Sumerian writing but more archaic near the village of Tartaria, in Romania. Radiocarbon dating yielded a surprising result: 3500 BCE, making them a millennium older than the tablets found in present-day Iraq, which are attributed to the Sumerian civilization.
The symbols on these clay tablets are generally abstract, featuring crosses, swastikas, or lines, but occasionally they are zoomorphic or anthropomorphic.
Some of these symbols resemble Neolithic designs found in Chinese ideograms, Sumerian cuneiform, and Egyptian hieroglyphs. This similarity might be explained by the fact that these symbols originated in even earlier times, potentially connected to the rise of Nostratic, an ancient proto-language (possibly only spoken) that emerged with the advent of Homo sapiens.
The dominant theory to explain the signs of Vinca and Tartaria, since they have not been deciphered, is that they were used for ritual purposes related to agricultural cycles. According to another theory, the Vinca and Tartaria symbols were used for numbering, i.e., to keep track of specific events such as the phases of the moon or livestock counts.
According to Maria Gimbutas (1921–1994), the creators of the Vinca and Tartaria script were descendants of the Indo-Europeans, who dominated the Balkans starting around 4000 BCE with a society based on the worship of the Mother Goddess.
An analysis of the Tartaria and Vinca tablets reveals that writing emerged in Europe at least a millennium before it appeared in the Middle East. Even more astonishing, this development seems to have occurred without any apparent Asian influence.
There are also the signs of Glozel (France), which have sparked significant controversy in the archaeological community.
The archaeological site, unearthed in 1924 by Emile Fradin, has been identified as dating back to the Neolithic period. The hundreds of clay tablets found at Glozel, which bear signs similar to those on the Tartaria tablets, were dated to a different era, specifically between 300 BCE and 300 CE (the Celtic period).
According to Pierre Carnac, in his book "History Begins in Bimini", ancient clay tablets featuring an archaic, undeciphered alphabet have also been found in Alvao (Portugal), Bunesti (Romania), Petra Frisgiada (Corsica), Puygravel (France), and the Atlas Mountains (Morocco).
Pierre Carnac draws comparisons between these signs (pictograms and petroglyphs) and those found in several archaeological sites in South America, which I have had the opportunity to study in recent years.
In particular, Carnac refers to the resemblance of the Glozel glyphs to the petroglyphs of San Agustin (Colombia) and the pictograms of Pedra Pintada (Roraima, Brazil).
According to Carnac, 43 of the 111 signs found at Glozel are also present at Pedra Pintada.
Carnac also links the signs of the Manuscript 512 to the glyphs of Glozel, which he believes, in turn, derive from those of Tartaria. He asserts that at least 20 signs from the Manuscript 512 are identical to those from Glozel.
Carnac highlights similarities between ancient European writing systems (Tartaria and Vinca), the Glozel tablets, and certain glyphs represented as pictograms or petroglyphs in South America.
Specifically, Carnac theorizes that the glyphs recorded by Portuguese bandeirantes during the 1753 expedition, as described in Manuscript 512—after they reportedly saw them in an enigmatic ruined city in Brazil’s interior—originated from transoceanic voyages made by certain Indo-European peoples around 3000 BCE.
According to him, these peoples might have been megalithic groups initially settled in the Balkans, whose descendants could include the Carians (from present-day southern Turkey) or the Pelasgians.
YURI LEVERATTO
