The Vinča culture

The Lady

The Vinča culture is also called the Turdaș-Vinča culture or simply the Turdaș culture. Whatever name you give it its hard to write it on an American English keyboard because of the silly č and ș. Part of me wants to name my first son Çḩṙîṧẗöῥḫἐṟ so that he works on his handwriting and it is better than mine. The other part of me thinks that this would be unduly cruel.

Anyway, the Vinča culture existed in Southeastern Europe from around 5500 BC - 4500 BC, specifically in modern Kosovo, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece. The origins of the Vinča culture are debated. Some think that they migrated to the Balkans from Anatolia while others think they developed naturally out of the rich Starčevo–Kőrös–Criş culture and were local to the area. Either way they were a Neolithic culture that farmed, made pottery, raised livestock and supplemented it all with hunting and gathering. The Vinča are best known because of the Vinča symbols we discussed earlier.  But when they weren't making pre or proto-language they were carving fantastic figurines.

The Vinča produced a number of fascinating sculptures, including the Lady of the Vinča. This idol, that dates to around 5000 BC was found near Belgrade in 1929. It shows a sophisticated craftsmanship. If you remember the Starčevo–Kőrös–Criş culture was a rich religious culture that was fascinated with fish gods. It produced troves of fish-men statues associated with a river religion. The Vinča seems to have continued in this religious vein, but switched from river deities to a fertility cult.

When they weren't practicing religion the Vinča were busy developing the first copper tools of Europe. The Vinča site at Pločnik in Serbia unearthed the earliest copper tools in Europe when people were setting up the railroad in the 1920's. Pločnik was inhabited from around 5500 - 4700 BC until the settlement was burned to the ground. But, before the fire took the settlement the people used fire to forge some great prehistoric weaponry.

History's Mysteries: The Vinča symbols

The known Vinča symbols 

The Vinča culture thrived in much of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans in modern day Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece from around 5500-4500 BC. We touched on the Vinča in the Neolithic Part 1 podcast and mentioned the intriguing Vinča symbols found on pottery and artifacts all over the Vinča world. There is a lot of craziness associated with these symbols out there on the web. One of the craziest linked the Vinča symbols to pre-chauvinistic society, fibonacci numbers and the importance 25/55/25/55, the end of the world, how Jesus Christ was a serpent and how we all must become one with the swastika, a symbol of how everything is a black hole - a remarkable theory of everything. Reading it made my eyes bleed and yet, I couldn't look away. I'm serious a vein burst and caused my eyes to become bloodshot. Maybe that is somehow connected to the eternality of bird Goddesses and my newfound ability to rise above the lies being fed to us by historians and politicians. I'm not kidding. I'm suddenly enlightened.

Personal revelations (or devolving into temporary madness) aside, the Vinča symbols are fascinating bits of history. There has been some debate over what exactly there are. Some think they are actual symbols for a written language. Some think they are proto-writing (symbols used to convey a message that are not codified in any way). Others state they are neither of these things, but merely artistic renditions on ancient pottery. Most of these people however don't disagree that the symbols are often found on things that have some connection to religious life. We'll discuss three of the more spectacular discoveries of things with the Vinča symbols on them, 1) the Tărtăria tablets, 2) the Gradeshnitsa tablets and 3) the Dispilio tablet.

The Tărtăria tablets were found in Tărtăria, Romania in 1961. The tablets date to around 5300 BC and were found with a host of stone and clay figurines, a bracelet and the burnt remains of an adult male. The tablets were originally made of unbaked clay. When they were discovered they had to be baked in order to preserve them for future generations of bloggers to comment on for the twelve or so readers he thinks he has. As you can see from the picture, two of the tablets are rectangular, while one is a circle.  The bottom rectangle has some horned animal and some other pictograph symbols on it. The other two have mostly abstract symbols on them. It's the abstract symbols that make some believe this has to be written language, or proto-writing. There isn't much debate though over the importance of the burnt man whose grave had the tablets. He was important. Other Vinča graves don't have such nice grave goods, ergo, the man was important. Some have speculated he was a shaman and these tablets, along with the idols and bracelet had some sort of religious significance. However, as I look at them now and study them, the explanation is simple. The top rectangular tablet is a recipe for dog soup. On the far left is an indecipherable symbol, but the second from the left is a chalice. Next to it is saffron. Next to it, is a symbol of a dog. Next to it is the instructions to put it all in the pot to boil over medium heat. I say medium heat because if you compare it to the cooking symbol on the circular tablet you see the circular cooking has three heat lines coming out of, indicating that it's recipe should be cooked on high heat. Mystery solved.


The Gradeshnitsa tablet was found in the Vratsa Province of Bulgaria in 1969 and date to around the time of the Tărtăria tablets, but are probably a few hundred years newer. Unlike the Tărtăria tablets, which have markings on only one side, the Gradeshnitsta tablet has the symbols on both sides of the clay tablets. Unlike the Tărtăria tablets which clearly indicate cooking recipes and butchery techniques the Gradeshnitsa tablet is much more difficult to decipher. But, in 2006, a Bulgarian-American decided he had deciphered the code. This led to more crazy and in 2012 when I read about it, my eyes bled again. I might need to see an apothecary about this phenomena. It's possible that I could take the bloody tears to the alchemist and we could cook up some gold... What is going on? Is the Vinča script making me crazy or pushing me to a whole new plane of existence? Focus. In short, the Bulgarian-American who decided he had decoded the tablet was debunked. I will say this about them though, one side certainly looks a lot like writing. While it may not be formalized and thus should be categorized as proto-writing, the combination of the Tărtăria tablets and this one give a whole lot of anecdotal evidence to this being proto-writing.

Lastly, the Dispilio tablet was discovered in Greece in 1993. It is roughly contemporaneous to the  Tărtăria tablets and the Gradeshnitsa tablet having been carbon dated to 5260 BC. We're not sure of the exact day it was made, but if we actually are right on the year that's pretty damn impressive. What makes the Dispilio tablet different than the  Tărtăria tablets or the Gradeshnitsa tablet is that the Dispilio tablet is wooden and not clay. The wooden tablet had long been preserved in the mud around the Greek village of Dispilio so when it was unearthed it suffered serious damage. It's currently undergoing surgery to preserve it. The markings on this tablet are hard to make out, but many of the known Vinča symbols are on it, so we know that it came from that culture. The site has produced a number of interesting finds, including the oldest known flute in Europe. But all of this pales to the intrigue that another Vinča tablet provides. Coupled with the aforementioned tablets the arguement for proto-writing among this Neolithic people just keeps getting stronger. The idea that this is somehow related to a foolish theory of everything hypothesis that makes people's eyes bleed gets weaker with every discovery. Thankfully, pupils everywhere can relax in peace, for now...

Dimitar's Prehistoric Bulgaria

Prehistoric Bulgaria was a fascinating place. Long before the most sensual man alive according to himself via a the dirty tackle, Dimitar Berbatov was born there was the Bacho Kiro Cave, Stara Zagora and the Varna Culture. Dimitar however is pointing us in the right direction.

The Bacho Kiro Cave is an ancient cave formed by the Andaka and Dryanovska Rivers. The cave became inhabited by the prehistoric peoples of Bulgaria in the Paleolithic period. Well, that might actually be a misnomer. The cave was actually the habitat of the Cave Bears that roamed the earth during the late Paleolithic. Had Dimitar Berbatov, the scorer of erotic goals been born 30,000 years ago he could've very well ended up as a snack for this Prehistoric Bulgarian Bear. The vast majority of the early remains in Bulgaria, aren't constructions by early modern humans known as Cro-Magnon man, rather their gnawed on skeletal remains. It's rather grizzly stuff... ah ha, that was a terrible pun!

As man became more dominant on the Eurasian land mass and the cave bears died out, prehistoric Bulgaria began to flourish. Stara Zagora, Bulgaria's 6th largest city grew into a prehistoric hotbed of early human burial grounds. The city of Stara Zagora is actually one of Europe's oldest, having been populated for the last 8000 years continuously. The earliest copper mines in all of Europe date to Star Zagora in the 5th millennium BC. It is my belief that Dimitar is pointing back all those many millennia in this picture. That's why his eyes are so rapturing. They are truly breathtaking in this picture... I suddenly have an inexplicable urge for mayonnaise!

Bulgaria would eventually become over run by the Vinča Culture in the Neolithic era. The Vinča Culture would span 5500 BC - 4500 BC and revolutionize the area and drag it into the pottery making farming industry that would, through various evolutions become today's Bulgaria. The Vinča Culture, at its height would cover regions of modern day Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania and Greece. The Vinča Culture arose is Serbia, but it played out in Bulgaria. The early Bulgarians were split between history and progress. Some liked to live in newish devices like houses, either built of wood and earth (See Wattle-and-Daub) or dug into the ground like hobbit holes. Others preferred to stay in the caves of their ancestors. These latter types of folks dedicated their spare time to painting their home caves, such as the Magura Cave, nearby present day Rabisha. Both the house dwelling and cave folk would coallece to form the Vinča, who in turn would provide the world with pure sensuality, in Dimitar. Man I love his widow's peak! It almost makes me pine for dignity in old age....

Take your daily supplements - today have a taste of Neolithic Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Neolithic podcasts are coming! The first episode should come out on Thursday May 10, but may be a day late. I'm going to try really hard though to not let it be late. However, the Neolithic was so large I had to split it into two podcasts. Even still, I had to edit out a bunch of things that I would have liked to have included. So, I'm doing some blogging on the bits that have been edited out. A couple of those edits come from within the territory of modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On the podcasts we talk a bit about Southeastern Europe and the Balkans not having a lengthy Mesolithic because farming came so quickly to the area, the same can be said about Bosnia & Herzegovina. But, the history of this nation began all the way back in the Paleolithic. A site known as the Badanj Cave was painted by Paleolithic man as early as 16,000 BC and is the oldest Paleolithic monument site in the region. Here you can see a picture of one of the engravings found in the cave. It is a picture of a horse being attacked by arrows. To me it looks a bit abstract...

While this is an interesting find, it shows a culture that was fairly isolated. The Neolithic however, paints a different picture of cultures intermingling and becoming fresh and new. One example of this is the Butmir Culture that thrived in the 3rd millennium BC. What made this culture so unique is their characteristic pottery. If you have listened to the podcasts or read most of the blog posts about prehistoric cultures you'll find that al of them are "known by their characteristic pottery". Over the past few weeks I have looked at probably two thousand pieces of pottery in pictures. There are some obvious distinctions based on shape. But, some of the detail that archeologists are able to label as characteristic takes an expertise that I am sorely lacking. I try to rely then on the most accepted theories and present alternatives when the dissenting voice is loud enough. But I now find myself looking at my dishes and saying things like, "this is an IKEA culture dish" or "this is a ProtoIKEA culture dish", or "what is this MesoIKEA dish doing where all of the PaleoWalMart dishes are hanging out". I say these things and then chuckle to myself. I'm really starting to become alarmed.

Distinctive Butmir Pottery. Its
swirls are different than all the other
swirls from this time. That's how we
know it's Butmir!

But, in addition to becoming a bit weird when looking at dinnerware I am becoming increasingly fascinated with the interchange of cultures. That is one of the reasons why the Butmir Culture interests me so much. The Butmir Culture is named after the town of Butmir, which is near Sarajevo. The site was discovered when the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was expanding the agricultural university of Sarajevo in the late 19th century. The site so intrigued scholars all over Europe that they held an archeological festival (which in my mind resembles Comic Con) at Sarajevo in 1894. This archeological get together produced a wide variety of theories about the new discovery of the Butmir Culture. The distinctive pottery was similar enough to later Minoan pottery on the island of Crete that it led some to suggest that the Butmir was a precursor to the famous Minoans of Crete. This theory isn't widely held today. Instead people think that the Butmir Culture was a bit of a cosmopolitan hot spot for their age. They took on the cultures of the Aegean, the Balkans, Pannonia, and Mediterranean to create their distinctive lifestyle. This would mean that Bosnia & Herzegovina from an early time was taking in ideas from far flung regions that in today's terms we would describe as Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Mainland Greece, the Greek isles, including Crete and Italy to create a style that was all their own. This is why history fascinates me so much!