Bulgaria's Burgas Showcases for the first time 7,000-year-old... 'Pre-Alphabetic Writing'

Archaeology in Bulgaria ^ | June 12, 2016 | Ivan Dikov

[SunkenCiv]

A nearly 7,000-year-old ceramic prism with what might be pre-alphabetic writing has been unveiled to the public for the first time by the Regional Museum of History in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Burgas.

The prism-shaped prehistoric artifact featuring the supposedly pre-alphabetic signs on its four sides was discovered during the excavations of an Early Chalcolithic settlement mound near Burgas back in 2008, and has never been shown to the public before.

The artifact (and the Burgas Chalcolithic Mound where it was found) dates back to the Early Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age) – 4,900 / 4,850-4,600 / 4,550 BC, the Burgas Regional Museum of History has announced.

“The archaeologists believe that 7,000 years ago when the ancient people made the clay artifact, they put their own signs on its four sides. They encrusted the engravings they had made with white paste," the Museum explains.

The newly unveiled Chalcolithic ceramic prism is described as “an extraordinary item from the most ancient history of the people who inhabited the lands of today’s Burgas".

This, however, is not the first such ceramic prism with “pre-alphabetic signs" to have been discovered in the Chalolithic settlement mound in Burgas but the third one. The other two similar artifacts have already been made public in previous years.

The Burgas Museum points out that the three prism with what seems to be pre-alphabetic writing are comparable to other well-known discoveries of artifacts with prehistoric signs such as the votive tablets found near the town of Gradeshnitsa, Vratsa District, in Northwest Bulgaria, the so called Gradeshnitsa Tablets (discovered in 1969), and those from the so called Karanovo Culture, from Karanovo, Sliven District, in Eastern Bulgaria...

[SunkenCiv]

full title, "Bulgaria's Burgas Showcases for the first time 7,000-year-old Ceramic Prism with 'Pre-Alphabetic Writing'".

The signs on the Early Chalcolithic ceramic prism which has been made public by the Burgas Museum of History could be a form of pre-alphabetic writing. Photo: Burgas Regional Museum of History

[SunkenCiv]

[LadyDoc]

There are now investigations into this civilization... sometimes called “old Europe”.

Re write the history books.

[SteveH]

I can read that!

It reads: “Al Gore (D)/Joe Lieberman (D)/2000 CE”

:-)

[dr_lew]

And I thought hieroglyphs were old!

I guess they are "alphabetic", although I must confess I never thought about it.

[ApplegateRanch]

Plow marks!

.Astrological symbols!

Plow marks!

.Pre-alphabetic writing!

Plow marks!

.Ritual object!

Ritual object!

(Shake hands, and exit, stage left)

[SunkenCiv]

Here's an old favorite reprise:

In her Plato Prehistorian: 10,000 to 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology, Mary Settegast reproduces a table which shows four runic character sets; a is Upper Paleolithic (found among the cave paintings), b is Indus Valley script, c is Greek (western branch), and d is the Scandinavian runic alphabet.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SteveH]

where is the hooked X?

:-)

[OldNewYork]

Very interesting.

[Tax-chick]

The Egyptian hieroglyphic script is “logo-phonetic.” Some signs represent words, other represent sounds, and others grammatical elements such as pluralization or case.

[a fool in paradise]

“Ceramic Prism” doesn’t let much light get through, does it?

[reed13k]

which is actually very similar to the ideograms of chinese characters in that the ideation is typically in the leading part of the character while the sound is indicated by the following part of the character.

So for example the kanji for oil leads with the three marks associated with the idea of water, and the later half is the character yu which is close to how the word for oil sounds.

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

The Hooked X wasn’t from the Templars, it was a symbol that the services of a prostitute were available. That’s why they’re found pretty much everywhere there’s ever been a town of any kind.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks — the cave texts are standalone symbols, and the fact that they’re a match for later writing systems suggests some kind of long-term development. Unless a long, long text is found, there’s no way to figure it out, and even with that, given the extreme antiquity, probably not even then. It looks like a primer of some sort — here’s the symbol for “bull” or the first letter of “bull”, and here’s the picture of the bull itself...

[SunkenCiv]

Sure, but it was only for use at night.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, exactly. Some cuneiform scripts also have this type of structure, while others are syllabic.

[ApplegateRanch]

it was a symbol that the services of a prostitute were available.

"Hooker" derives from the Hooked X? I thought the term came from General Hooker. *<];-)

[ApplegateRanch]

Here's a readable version of the table.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks! My little old scan from, hmm, I guess the 1990s was pretty ill, I’ll steal this one from now on! ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Heh... the red light district of DC during the Civil War was known as “Hooker’s Division”, but apparently the euphemism is older than that, and he had the misfortune of rising to prominence with a suggestive surname. Same thing happened in World War One to Fokker.