Communication in Neolithic and Copper Age, from symbols to writing

Very early in their history humans started to communicate by means of symbols and signs in addition to speech and body gesture. Still in the Upper Palaeolithic, our ancestors incised and painted signs in order to express and transmit a concepx, an ownership, a special message, etc. Gradually, this led to the appearance of writing technology.

In Southeastern Europe, throughout the Neolithic and Copper Age period-from c. 6400 to c. 3500-3400 BCE-the so-called ''Danube Civilization'' flourished. The Danube River and its tributaries favored the emergence of an institutional, economic, and social network of developed cultures. They were characterized by extended subsistence farming economy and lifestyle through the improvement of agrarian land and technology, a tendency toward sedentary life in permanent settlements, proto-urbanism with concentrated agglomerates organized by planned layout, solidly built dwellings, and a tendency to distinguish profane (abodes, workshops and tribal/communal dwellings) and sacral (sanctified spaces and temples) architecture. The Danube Civilization was also distinctive for advanced technologies (particularly in weaving, pottery, building and metallurgy), long distance trade, and expansive exchange that even involved status symbols and luxury goods. It exhibited the development of many household activities and skills such as spinning, weaving, leather processing, clothes manufacturing, shoe fabricating, and the manipulation of wood, clay, and stone. It speaks of a specialization of labor and social complexity, even if within the context of a semi-egalitarian social structure. The socio-economic system was associated with a complex ideological system connected to the agricultural creed of fertility and fecundity, elegant and cultured art, refined patterns of magic-religious imagery, an intense spiritual life, sophisticated religious organization and ritual.

The complexity reached in the economic, social, institutional and cultural frames required an IT innovation to record, manipulate and transmit increasing packages of information. An effective system of communication was established (the Danube Communication System) by the means of tallies, marks, emblems, symbols and signs, of which a not language-related writing technology was a crucial component.

Until now, several components of the Danube Communication System have been identified.

1. It was comprised of magic-religious symbolism and divinity insigna. They were incised and painted on many clay vessels. In many cases, this symbolism was connected with fertility rites and cults. A separate class of objects has special W and M-shaped decoration. An example is the large vessel below. It was recovered at the Neolithic village of ''La Marmotta'' (Italy) within a hut interpreted as a ''sanctuary-hut'', an inhabitation provided with a cult room. Clear are the depictions of sun and ear of corn on the vessel; while the representation of a figure in oration is suggested interpreting the two ''zigzag'' motifs as open arms, with wide spread fingers (the fringes located at the extremities) as if in a pleading position. The position of one of the ear of corn below one of the arms suggests the participation to a ritual connected to a cycle of plants and the fertility of the earth. The three elements, the sun, the ear of corn- connected to agriculture and plants- and the figure in oration can therefore represent, as in a meta-language, the plea to a divine power to help and protect the crop.

 

A very popular symbol in the prehistoric art is the spiral, which appear alone or in combination with other signs (sun-like designs, rhombi, lines, etc.). It might represent a code related to the eternal power of the circle of Life, and could be connected to the spiral shape, or the ''sleeves'' of the Universe.

2. Emblematic and schematic ornaments were an important element of the Danube Communication System. The painted polychromic decoration by application of black and red pigments on has been interpreted as conveying the idea of the Great Mother Goddess praying for rain. The vessel was found at Gradeshnitsa and belongs to the Gradeshnitsa culture (4800-4700 BCE).

3. Sky atlases with constellations celestial bodies (sun, moon, and planets) and their motions were a central component of the Danube Communication System. The vessel below belongs to the late phase (B) of the Cucuteni culture, characterized by decoration painted with black color on a cream-yellow or white background. The complex geometric decoration might transmit a meaning: the four circles with a cross in the centre could represent the four phases of the moon, each circle being decorated with a horn. Similarly decorated vessels were found in Romania (Frumuşica, Târgu Ocna, Valea Lupului), in Republic of Moldova and in Ukraine.

A scheme of lunar cycle was deeply incised 6500-6300 years old on a pintadera discovered at Peklyuk (Bulgaria).

 

A mignon ''cosmic globe'' depicting constellations of 7000 years ago was found at Slatino (Bulgaria).

4. There were also calendrical and chronographic annotations as the Solar-lunar calendar incised 6800 years old in checkerboard mode on a miniaturize oven from Slatino (Bulgaria). .

5. Another component of the Danube Communication System was constituted by notations relating to expressing numbers and/or numerology. The nine holes deeply incised on a Middle Neolithic seal discovered at Sesklo (Thessaly, Greece) might be connected with numbers and measures. Large size of this settlement and high quality of the artifacts found there lead to consider it as a center of several villages surrounding it. A sort of central government of the community was taking care, among other things, of the storage of harvest and seeds. It is possible that the owner of the seal was responsible for the accounting and distribution of the foodstuffs.

 

6. Signs on bottoms of vessels might represent personal and family identifiers, ownership marks, producer's insigna, or signs of lineage recognition or community affiliation.

7. Within the Danube Communication System, indications of a scripx are apparent too, although very archaic and able to express concepxs but not language. This IT innovation enabled Neolithic and Copper Age communities to create archives collecting, metabolizing, accumulating, and spreading the knowledge they had acquired. It reinforced group solidarity and communal identity, supported humans to build dwellings, cult places and proto-cities, conveyed inspirational meanings, and helped them to understand and interpret natural environment, human milieu, and divine commitment.

With the most recent archaeological discoveries, it becomes increasingly difficult to uphold the hypothesis that Sumerian pictograms represent the earliest writing. A crescent number of scholars assumes that a writing system developed even earlier, about 7000 years ago, in the frame of the cultural context of Danube civilization, the Danube scripx aimed to transmit ideas and concepxs. The Danube civilization left enigmatic signs impressed on vases, plates, seals, anthropomorphic figurines and weights, which scholarship investigates trying to understand the meaning.

A mythogram of 8000 years ago utilize symbols and signs of writing to illustrate Sun-Moon intercourse. The statuette's quadrilateral base bears an inscripxion composed of signs of an archaic version of the Danube scripx: ''N'', ''X'', ''V'', ''/\'', ''<'', ''>'', parallel horizontal lines and a lozenge.

One of the earliest evidence for existence of writing in Neolithic Southeastern Europe comes from three tablets with signs from Tartaria (Romania). They are considered the icon of the Danube scripx and the Danube civilization. The sacred signs were deposited with skeletal remains to consecrate a deceased – an old and a revered woman - as novel ancestor. Evidence of same and similar signs had been known and investigated since the archaeological excavations carried out in Southeastern Europe throughout late XIX and early XXI century.

 

A medallion or discoid amulet of 6900 years ago is narrating the Earth insemination by the Sky or a human sacrifice. It comes from the settlement of Turdaş-Luncă (Romania). From the stratigraphic point of view, it belongs to the early phase of the Turdaş culture.

 

A shallow vessel bearing signs of a scripx, or constellations and a Moon calendar was recovered at Gradešnica (Bulgaria) and dated 4900 - 4800 BCE.

The signs on the mignon vessel from Gradeshnitsa chronologically can be compared to the signs on a clay stamp-seal from the layer Karanovo VI in South Bulgaria.

 

A mignon vessel from Daia Romana (Romania), 4830-4500 CAL BCE, has long and complex inscripxions incised on the external bottom and the internal rim.