Key Features of the Danube Script Based on the Databank DatDas

Marco Merlini (Italy)

Abstract

This paper provides documentary and statistical evidence concerning the inventory, fabric, pattern of features, and organizational principles of the Danube script established according to the results of the DatDas databank (Databank for the Danube script). DatDas documents 818 objects, 953 inscriptions (some artifacts have more than one inscription), and 4,408 actual signs. As main a feature, DatDas records not only general and archaeological data concerning objects bearing signs (the site, information on the discovery, museum documentation data, relative and absolute dating, formal and techno-morphological information on the object, and so on), but above all, distinct semiotic information on the inscribed artifacts, the inscriptions, and the signs.