The Vinča symbols and claims for Europe’s earliest writing

Record summary

Neolithic signs on Vinča-culture pottery and figurines were popularized by some writers as evidence for an ancient European writing system, sometimes called ‘Old European script.’ The lead matters because the artefacts are genuine and archaeologically important, but the interpretation of their marks as writing is contested. Researchers debate whether they are ownership marks, symbols, decoration, notation or an undeciphered script. The corpus lacks the contextual and repetitive evidence normally required to demonstrate language writing, and claims of a lost pan-European civilization go well beyond the data.