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".
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This paper focuses on the characteristics of the script which developed in south-east Europe 7000 years ago, some two thousand years earlier than any other known writing.

Proto-European script originally appeared in the central Balkan area and had an  indigenous development. It quickly spread to the Danube valley, southern Hungary, Macedonia, Romania and northern Greece. It flourished up to about 5500 years ago when a social upheaval took place: according to some, there was an invasion of new populations, whilst others have hypothesised the emergence of a new elite. At that time a specific script appeared and developed in south-east Neolithic and Chalcolithic Europe which was later to be lost.  Whatever the true reason for this loss, proof of the existence of an advanced culture possessing a script had actually emerged and developed during the main Neolithic period and now runs the risk of being cancelled from the collective memory and thus lost to humanity twice over.

A number of artefacts bearing inscriptions had previously been found in Kosovo and been preserved in the museums of Pristina and Prizren. Now many of these have disappeared or completely vanished into the blue. Just before the conflict, a few of these have been moved to the National Museum of Belgrade for an Exhibition called "The Archaeological Heritage of Kosovo and Metohija". But what happened to the others? Flavio Maniscalco, who is responsible of the "Permanent Observatory for the protection of Cultural Heritage and Natural Environment of Crisis Areas" has formulated a hypothesis containing three scenarios, these being;  either that  Serbia ordered its retreating army to transfer the archaeological collections of Kosovo to Belgrade, but fearing that it will be forced to return them now denies the fact; second,  that the finds have been carried off by the Serbian army in order to sell them on the clandestine market;  third, that even the outcry saying "S.O.S. our museums now are empty" is just a lie artfully spread by the Kosovo Albanians for the sake of discrediting their enemies, and that the former are in fact personally responsible for selling off the national archaeological heritage.

Whatever of these hypotheses is the true reason for this despicable theft of artworks, proof of existence of the historical presence of an advanced culture possessing a script having actually sprung up and thrived during the main Neolithic period and now runs the risk of being cancelled from the collective memory and thus be  forever lost to humanity twice over.

But why should the proto-European farmers have started writing things down? Around 10,000-9000 years ago, some tribes of hunters and gatherers from the west coast of the Aegean Sea began to use new techniques imported from southern Anatolia and started to produce animal and human figures, pottery, copper and other metal artefacts. They also built palaces, temples and ships and creating weaving techniques. After an adjustment period with various dramatic vicissitudes lasting for about two millennia,  agriculture began to guarantee prosperity to these peoples. Semi-sedentary and agricultural communities appeared at the beginning of the ninth millennium. Copper-forging techniques appeared around 7500 years ago and, later on, cultural development was encouraged by the growth of commerce and communications. The first water-routes were created by sailing along rivers and seas, as illustrated by some pottery motifs, proving the existence of sailing ships since the eighth millennium. And from a cultural, technical and social point of view, the European development surpassed that of Asia Minor and, later on, Mesopotamia. Now, if there had been no progress in abstract symbolism, geometry, mathematics and some form of ars scriptoria in this dynamic technical and economic scenario, it would have been practically impossible to collect, store and communicate the great amount of information on technology and mental powers as well as on the natural world and  cosmos.

Therefore, the proto-European writing has not only been twice lost to us, but what remains of it is unfathomable and tenaciously resists the efforts of anyone attempting to decipher it. Nothing is known about the existence of such a reference language. Moreover, it is too ancient for us to hope to find something like the multilingual "Rosetta Stone" which would permit us to translate it into a known language.

Though it is now lost and it is unlikely it will ever be possible to decipher it, some of its  elements suggest a kind of script used for blessings and invocations, for dedications, divinations, magical or liturgical formulas (not simple signs). In other words it recorded language-related ideas and statements by means of standard graphic signs. It should not be confused with other communication channels used by the Balkan-Danube populations such as religious symbols, geometric decorations, figurative language, devices for memory support, star and land charts, ritualistic markings, numeric notations or simple marks stating the owner/manufacturer of an artefact. The Balkan-Danube system of communication was composed of several elements: writing was only one of them.

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