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I have a layperson's interest in archaeology and ancient civilizations. Being spiritually awake helps you pick up rocks that are suddenly revealed... in this time of revealing.
Until now, I have not heard of the Dispilio Tablet - anyone else here heard of it? Archaeologists did make an announcement about it, back in 2004, and then.... the silence is significant.
It is a fragment of a wooden tablet, carved with interesting inscriptions, found in Northern Greece by George Xourmouziadis in 1993, during a dig at a Late Neolithic site, called Dispilio. The location is the southern shore of Lake Orestiada, near the town of Kastoria, and the site is Nissi (island). The lake is approximately 28 square kilometres, and the altitude is 630 metres above sea level. The area is near the border with Albania (Macedonian area). The actual Neolithic site itself was only discovered in 1932, when the lake's level fell. It is referred to as a Neolithic Lake Settlement. It is thought that the community belonged to exchange networks, which allowed them to meet their needs with barter.
The wood of the tablet has been carbon-dated to 5260 BC, or roughly 7300 BP.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/searchall/Dispilio Tablet
In a book by Gregory Zorzos, it is referred to as the most ancient linear tablet.
The wooden tablet has incised linear symbols, which are assumed to be an early form of written speech.
Although the find was made in 1993, the discovery was only announced publicly in February, 2004. There were issues because of conservation of the tablet, since when it was removed from the mud and water where it had lain for 7,000 plus years, it immediately started to deteriorate, and it needed to be stabilised. That is the reason given for the unavailability of the tablet, other than access by those in the University department where it is kept. There is also the fact that there is no known interpretation of the markings, so the import of the communication written on the tablet is lost on modern day scientists and archaeologists.
I make note that now, in January 2020, we are still not hearing about this find.
This find should be important to all and sundry, because it impacts the long-held ideas about the origins of writing and articulate speech, depicted with letters instead of ideograms, within the borders of the ancient Greek world.
The tablet is 2,000 years older than the written findings from the Sumerians era, and 4,000 years older than the Cretan-Mycenaean linear types of writing.
Commenters noted that carbon dating (C14) only dates the piece of wood, barring contamination, but not necessarily the date the inscriptions were made.
Picture credit: mlahanas The tablet is also known as the Dispilio Scripture or Dispilio Disk. The inscribed markings are called charagmata.
Although the meaning of the inscriptions is not known, the original discoverer, George Xourmouziadis, traced them per this graphic, to make them more easily discernable.
If this find could be made more popularly known, it could spur on people's interest in learning about their true European heritage.
Until now, I have not heard of the Dispilio Tablet - anyone else here heard of it? Archaeologists did make an announcement about it, back in 2004, and then.... the silence is significant.
It is a fragment of a wooden tablet, carved with interesting inscriptions, found in Northern Greece by George Xourmouziadis in 1993, during a dig at a Late Neolithic site, called Dispilio. The location is the southern shore of Lake Orestiada, near the town of Kastoria, and the site is Nissi (island). The lake is approximately 28 square kilometres, and the altitude is 630 metres above sea level. The area is near the border with Albania (Macedonian area). The actual Neolithic site itself was only discovered in 1932, when the lake's level fell. It is referred to as a Neolithic Lake Settlement. It is thought that the community belonged to exchange networks, which allowed them to meet their needs with barter.
The wood of the tablet has been carbon-dated to 5260 BC, or roughly 7300 BP.
"The houses of the settlement, circular and rectangular, were built of timber, reed and clay upon timber post-framed platforms."
The worlds oldest writing?
The Dispilio Tablet, the first writing? Dispilio Neolithic Lake Settlement The prehistoric settlement of Dispilio is situated on the southern shore of Kastoria lake, Orestiada, at the site Nissi (i…
mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com
https://www.ancient-origins.net/searchall/Dispilio Tablet
In a book by Gregory Zorzos, it is referred to as the most ancient linear tablet.
The wooden tablet has incised linear symbols, which are assumed to be an early form of written speech.
Although the find was made in 1993, the discovery was only announced publicly in February, 2004. There were issues because of conservation of the tablet, since when it was removed from the mud and water where it had lain for 7,000 plus years, it immediately started to deteriorate, and it needed to be stabilised. That is the reason given for the unavailability of the tablet, other than access by those in the University department where it is kept. There is also the fact that there is no known interpretation of the markings, so the import of the communication written on the tablet is lost on modern day scientists and archaeologists.
I make note that now, in January 2020, we are still not hearing about this find.
This find should be important to all and sundry, because it impacts the long-held ideas about the origins of writing and articulate speech, depicted with letters instead of ideograms, within the borders of the ancient Greek world.
"According to ..... the markings suggested that the current theory proposing that the ancient Greeks received their alphabet from the ancient civilizations of the Middle East [Babylonians, Sumerians, Phoenicians, etc] fails to close the historic gap of some 4,000 years... while ancient eastern civilizations would use ideograms to express themselves, the ancient Greeks were using syllables in a similar manner like we use today."
Prehistorc tablet calls into question history of writing
Back in 1993, in a Neolithic lakeshore settlement that occupied an artificial island near the modern village of Dispilio on Lake Kastoria i...
archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com
The tablet is 2,000 years older than the written findings from the Sumerians era, and 4,000 years older than the Cretan-Mycenaean linear types of writing.
"The full academic publication of the tablet apparently awaits the completion of the work of conservation" (Author: Stella Tsolakidou, Source: Greek Reporter, July 16, 2012)
Commenters noted that carbon dating (C14) only dates the piece of wood, barring contamination, but not necessarily the date the inscriptions were made.
Picture credit: mlahanas The tablet is also known as the Dispilio Scripture or Dispilio Disk. The inscribed markings are called charagmata.
Although the meaning of the inscriptions is not known, the original discoverer, George Xourmouziadis, traced them per this graphic, to make them more easily discernable.
If this find could be made more popularly known, it could spur on people's interest in learning about their true European heritage.
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