Challenging Some Myths About the Tărtăria Tablets Icons of the Danube Script

Marco Merlini (Rome)

Abstract

This article presents the first results of the “Tărtăria Project” promoted by the Prehistory Knowledge Project, carried out by the author in collaboration with Romanian archaeologist Gheorghe Lazarovici.

The discovery in 1961 of three inscribed tablets near the settlement of Tărtăria kindled a wave of controversy regarding both the chronology and the origin of the signs.  The recalibrated dating of this discovery opened the possibility that writing in the Danube basin predated the earliest Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics.  Paradoxally, the Tărtăria discovery cracked the skepticism of some scholars over the spectacular claim that the Danube Civilization used an early form of writing, while reinforcing the doubts of others.  Since their discovery, the Tărtăria tablets have occupied a unique and controversial position in European prehistory because of the dispute about their dating and the assertion that their symbols could express a form of literacy.