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Bulgaria's Burgas Showcases for the first time 7,000-year-old... 'Pre-Alphabetic Writing'
Archaeology in Bulgaria ^ | June 12, 2016 | Ivan Dikov

Posted on 06/13/2016 11:25:52 PM PDT by 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...

(Excerpt) Read more at archaeologyinbulgaria.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: bulgaria; burgas; caveart; chalcolithic; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; gradeshnitsatablets; karanovoculture; marysettegast; paleosigns; platoprehistorian
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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

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

1 posted on 06/13/2016 11:25:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

2 posted on 06/13/2016 11:27:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv

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

Re write the history books.


3 posted on 06/13/2016 11:32:41 PM PDT by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people..)
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To: SunkenCiv

I can read that!

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

:-)


4 posted on 06/13/2016 11:36:02 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: SunkenCiv
And I thought hieroglyphs were old!

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

5 posted on 06/13/2016 11:40:25 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: SunkenCiv

Plow marks!

.Astrological symbols!

Plow marks!

.Pre-alphabetic writing!

Plow marks!

.Ritual object!

Ritual object!

(Shake hands, and exit, stage left)


6 posted on 06/13/2016 11:52:26 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!�)
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To: LadyDoc; SteveH; dr_lew; ApplegateRanch

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.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
7 posted on 06/14/2016 12:02:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv

where is the hooked X?

:-)


8 posted on 06/14/2016 12:15:21 AM PDT by SteveH
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To: SunkenCiv

Very interesting.


9 posted on 06/14/2016 1:11:08 AM PDT by OldNewYork (Operation Wetback II, now with computers)
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To: dr_lew

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


10 posted on 06/14/2016 2:33:10 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Air is great!" ~ Kathleen)
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To: SunkenCiv

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


11 posted on 06/14/2016 2:35:33 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Obama is more supportive of Iran's right to defend its territorial borders than he is of the USA's.)
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To: Tax-chick

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.


12 posted on 06/14/2016 7:32:29 AM PDT by reed13k
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To: SteveH

;’)

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.


13 posted on 06/14/2016 3:19:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: OldNewYork

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...


14 posted on 06/14/2016 3:22:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: a fool in paradise

Sure, but it was only for use at night.


15 posted on 06/14/2016 3:22:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: reed13k

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


16 posted on 06/14/2016 4:03:56 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Air is great!" ~ Kathleen)
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To: SunkenCiv
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. *<];-)

17 posted on 06/14/2016 9:38:00 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!�)
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To: SunkenCiv
Here's a readable version of the table.

Upper Paleolithic runic alphabet. photo 1_zpsbvsx7ghb.jpg

18 posted on 06/14/2016 9:48:17 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!�)
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To: ApplegateRanch

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


19 posted on 06/15/2016 4:39:50 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: ApplegateRanch

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.


20 posted on 06/15/2016 4:42:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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