Marco Merlini (Italy)
Inscriptions and messages of the Balkan-Danube script
a semiotic approach
Daniela Bulgarelli is the author of the paintings appearing on the study. Images and text are "Copyright© 2002 The Global Prehistory Consortium at EURO INNOVANET - www.prehistory.it. All rights reserved World Wide. May not be reproduced without permission".
(part1) (part2) (part3) (part4) (part 5 and Essential Bibliographic References)

4. Messages which were transferred by means of this script.
4.a.  What messages are conveyed by the inscriptions of the Balkan-Danube script? They were mainly made up of one or two signs, and were able to evoke the name of the divinity or  some of its attributes, recall the name of the worshipper, contain a magic formula or a divination, offer a dedication, pronounce a blessing, promise or wish, or draw up a contract.

We can perhaps make a double distinction here: we can distinguish between simple inscriptions (expressed by a single sign and/or elementary outline) often produced on cult objects used in domestic ceremonies, and complex inscriptions (characterised by many different signs and/or by an elaborate geometrical sign) found on finely wrought tablets, plaques, and anthropomorphic figures; thus written formulas which had no need to be read to be effective and others which required a certain "literacy". Anyone could understand simple magical notations, to be jotted down during household rites and used when concentrated individual effort was sufficient for success (i.e. a good catch of fish, a flawless piece of pottery). In the most elementary cases, it was enough to copy a sign from a model which had been handed down from generation to generation in order to benefit from the superhuman powers it incarnated. A certain lack of skill in using the sacred signs may in part explain the great amount of clumsily traced inscriptions. More important situations (child-birth, health, wedding and death) were likely to require more complex and formal rites and needed the presence of a religious authority. In this case, a female or male shaman or a high-priest or priestess carried out the ceremonies, including magic writings or invocations with one of the many names/attributes of the divinity, perhaps painting it with the sacred colour of ochre or inserting ashes or barley-seeds in it. The faithful may have been asked just to  touch or copy the signs made by these officiants.

4.b. Only in the (rare) inscriptions consisting of many different signs can we hypothesise  a narrative content, such as the recounting of myths, situations or events, states of mind. Many authors deny that proto-European writing has these functions. The powerful Hittite poem "God forsook them" reminds us, however, that  only a few words are necessary to evoke the scarcity of food, the disappearance of the divinity and the ritual actions desperately accomplished to regain the god's benevolence.

(part1) (part2) (part3) (part4) (part 5)

Essential Bibliographic References
Badiny, Ferenc J. The Sumerian Wonder, Buenos Aires, 1973.
Gimbutas M., The Language of the Goddess, San Francisco, 1989
Gimbutas M., The Civilization of the Goddess, San Francisco, 1991.
Gimbutas M, The Living Goddess , University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1999
Haarmann H., Early Civilization and Literacy in Europe. An Inquiry into Cultural Continuity in the Mediterranean World , Berlin, New York, 1995.
Haarmann, H., The development of sign conceptions in the evolution of human cultures, in Posner et al., "A Handbook on the Sign-Theoretic Foundations of Nature and Culture", Berlin, 1997
Haarmann, H., On the Nature of Old European Civilization and its Script, in "Studia Indogermanica Lodziensia" vol II, Lód¥, 1998
MAKKAY J., The Late Neolithic Tordo¥ Group of Signs, in Alba Regia, Annales Musei Stephani Regis, X, 1969
Makkay, J., "A chalcolithic stamp seal from Karanovo, Bulgaria," in Kadmos 10, 1971
Makkay, J., A tartariai leletek, Budapest, 1990
Marler J. (ed.), From the Realm of the Ancestors: An Anthology in Honour of Marija Gimbutas, Manchester (Conn.), 1997
Marler J., L'eredità di Marija Gimbutas: una ricerca archeomitologica sulle radici della civiltà europea, in Bocchi e Ceruti "Le radici prime dell'Europa", Milano, 2001
Marshack A., The roots of civilization: the cognitive beginnings of man's first art, symbol and notation, New York 1972, 1992
Merlini M. "La scrittura della Dea", in Inoltre settembre, 2002
Merlini M., Was Writing Born in Europe? Searching for a Sacred Script, Rome (in preparation)
Parpola A., Deciphering the Indus script, Cambridge, 1994
Ruttkay E., Ein Lengyel-Löffel mit Ideogramm aus Wetzleinsdorf, Niederösterreich, Festschrift für V. Podborský, SPFFBU M2, 1997
Winn M.M., Pre-writing in Southeastern Europe: The Sign System of the Vin¥a Culture ca 4000 BC, Calgary, 1981
Winn, Shan MM "A Neolithic Sign System in Southeastern Europe", in M. Le Cron Foster, L. J.Botscharow The Life of Symbols Westview Press, Boulder San Francisco  1990
Zenotti D.G., "The position of the Tartaria tablets within the Southeast European Copper Age", American Journal of Archaeology, 87 (2) (1983), 209-213.