09 ritual graffiti 1..

It is claimed that the action of tracing repeatedly the pattern “works as a transmission device for sending 

positive thoughts and energies to the Planet”. Therefore, it "opens up an energetic and harmonious channel 

with the live and intelligent energy of the Earth”. The cultic action “has beneficial effects on the person 

marking it, is inherently therapeutic making easier to attain higher levels of awareness, and stimulates 

psychic function”. It is believed that the networking of all participants in the Dandelion Operation should 

work as an energy enhancer. 

Fig. 5.43 - The Dandelion Pattern from Damanhur. 

5.D.c.3 Inspirational linear marks to be repeatedly scratched (crosses or “Maltese” crosses) 

Some signs based on the cross motif which also may have served the same purpose of repetition to induce 

transcendence were displayed in the exhibition “Signs of civilization” (Novi Sad 2004). A “Maltese” cross 

was repeatedly scratched on a little cup of 7.1 cm. in height from Vinča-Belo Brdo (Late Vinča culture) 

(Starović 2004: 56). An incomplete “Maltese” cross was repeatedly scratched on the fragment of a base of a 

bowl that was found at the settlement of Petnica at front of the Small Cave (Late Vinča culture) (Starović 

2004: 62). The fact that these marks have been vibrantly re-traced three times (a magic number) confirms 

that one is in presence of transformative tools for reiterated outlining. 

Fig. 5.44 - A repeated Maltese 

cross graffito on a cup from 

Vinča-Belo Brdo 

(Late Vinča culture). 

(Photo Merlini 2004). 

Fig. 5.45 - An incomplete “Maltese” 

cross was replicated on a bowlfragment 

from Petnica (Late Vinča 

culture). 


202 

Fig. 5.46 - The Maltese cross 

as script sign on a Vinča D 

mignon altar from Vinča. 

(After Vasić Hanschrift 1911: 

09 01 str120-2).

In order to record for evidence the differences in rendering, outline and semiotic context, I have juxtaposed 

the “Maltese” cross as a repeated graffito with the “Maltese Cross” as a sign within an inscription of the 

Danube script. In the latter instance, it is inscribed on a miniature Vinča D 1 altar 2 from the eponymous 

settlement (Vasić Hanschrift 1911: 09 01 str120-2; Todorović 1969: Pl. V, 18; Winn 1981: 305, fig. 167). 

In the history, there are several instances of inspirational repeatedly scratched linear marks. Consider for 

example the supposed tomb of Magdalene at Saint Maximin-la-Sainte (Provence, France). On the walls 

around it there are hundreds of turned upside down “U” (many with a cross inside). In a graphical obsession, 

pilgrims multiplied the sacred sign of the uterus 3 one over the other and re-incised many times any inverted 

“U”. The depth of each graffito denotes a repeated ritual over a long time span. 

It is an issue for a future research to verify if and when the Neolithic and Copper Age tools for reiterated 

outlining are centered on harmonic proportions based on the principles of a sacred geometry, e.g. a series of 

regular spaces around a central node, or the geometrical form of the nautilus, et cetera. 

5.D.c.4 Devices to produce waves of sacred patterns in the air (spindle-whorls) 

If the ritual repetition of the sacred spiral pathway on the Linienbandkeramik vase from Sondershausen or 

the transformative labyrinths in rock art has counterparts in retracing similar geometric patterns on finger 

labyrinths or the computerized Dandelion, the circular motion of the inspirational patterns on the Neolithic 

and Copper Age spindle whorls recalls that one of the Tibetan prayer wheels, although it loses some 

genuineness in the digital form of the latter. It is not more the case by which the adept or his/her finger walk 

sacred geometries on a fixed device. Now the worshipper put in motion the device, which revolves the 

transformative marks multiplying them in the air. 

The traditional Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheel is an instrument constituted by rolls of thin paper, imprinted 

with countless copies of the six syllables mantra, wound around an axle in a protective container generally 

made of a cylindrical body of repoussé metal penetrated along its axis by a wooden or metal handle, and 

spun around and around by the devotees (Ladner 2000). 

The Dalai Lama has asserted that if your computer bears the mantra (mystical prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum 

[Om the Jewel in the Lotus Hum], it works the same as a traditional Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheel. Since a 

computer's hard disk spins hundreds of thousands of times per hour and can contain innumerable copies of 

the Om mantra, anyone can turn his/her computer into a prayer wheel and as the digital image spins around 

on the hard drive, it sends the peaceful prayer of compassion to all directions and purifies the area. 

On the Internet, there are plenty of animated images associated with the mantra sound track, which are 

considered a contemporary form of digital prayer wheel and can be placed on Web pages or on screen savers 

(http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/digital-wheels.htm). In one instance, the message spurs “Praying with 

electrons you already have around the house”. 

Fig. 5.47 – Tibetan Buddhist digital prayer wheels made with animated images can be placed on Web 

pages or on screen savers. 

1 It was unearthed at 3.9-4.2 meters. 

2 Winn unexplainably assigned it once to the category of spindle whorls (Winn 1981: 169 subsequent) and once to the 

category of the unusual objects (Winn 1981: 305, fig. 167). 

3 For an interpretation of the sign, see Shaffar (1990) and Chebel (1997: 108). 

203

As in the Tibetan device, in the spinning tool iterated testimonies take advantage of repeating again and 

again transformative patterns in the air perhaps to achieve a trance-well state. It is the air and not merely a 

finger, a point, or the mind of the believer that outlines repeatedly the magic blueprint. 

It is a painstaking effort to explain the marks on spindle whorls as simple practical uses like accounting 

numerations or cyclic records (Gimbutas 1974, 1989, 1991). In the Danube civilization, it is not infrequent to 

recover spindle whorls less than 2 cm. in diameter, but according to ethnographic parallels they cannot 

function as a spindle device (A. Christopoulou personal communication 2005). Since the different passages 

of textile cycles were intensely associated with myths and religious liturgies, and since the act of unraveling 

the threads was both allegorical and sacred, the main purpose of the spindle whorl was to increase the 

spinning. The repeated spiritual journey and witness though the rotating device might have given strength to 

the invocation of the worshipping weaver through the recurring circular movement conceived as a 

transcendent path. They might have charged the signs and the spell formulas with energy guaranteeing a 

successful production of the thread, the favorable outcome of the finished product (a dress, a blanket, a 

basket), or the lucky star of the person who is weaving fabric. The spindle whorls, embedding repeated 

spiritual and transformative witness, might be interpreted as devices to spread blessings and magic wellbeing. 

The comparison with Tibetan Buddhist digital prayer wheels is more appropriate when the spindle whorl 

bars written texts that rotate on themselves while it spins. In this case, the faithful (viewing from the edge of 

the spindle) and/or the divinity (viewing from the center) could read the expression of cyclical, periodical 

concepts or devotional formulas together with the swirling of the votive offering. The signs could also 

elevate an invocation to the divinity exploiting the centrifugal force triggered by the rotary motion, and 

spinning faster to increase the benefit. 

This spiritual mechanics is similar to the mentioned sacred texts put in motion on the Tibetan Buddhist 

“prayer wheel”. Following the parallel with the Tibetan device, written versions of Neolithic and Copper 

Age mantras might be carved on the spindle whorls and possibly the worshipper believed that saying this 

mantra, out loud or silently to oneself, while spinning invoked powerful supernatural benevolent attention 

and blessings. The more repetition of the mantra, the more is the benefit. A Tibetan Buddhist “prayer wheel” 

is always spun clockwise, rotating the syllables of the mantra in order to be read by viewer. So did the 

Neolithic and Copper Age spindle whorls that spin toward the left or the right? 

A Late Copper Age (4500-3300 BC) 4 clay spindle whorl from the settlement of Dimini (Thessaly, Greece) 

now kept at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens 5 bears a deep, clear-cut incision that encircles 

the edge and then converges toward the centre. The discoid object is 5.2 cm. in diameter and the spiral 

journey runs filling it. The engraving is a typical tool for reiterated outlining and has been carved on the 

entire round surface of the device before baking. At a first glimpse, it gives the impression of a clumsy 

scratching without any specific design. Upon closer inspection, the marks might be interpreted as two 

abstract human figures (A. Christopoulou personal communication 2005). If so, these would be human 

silhouettes with magic-religious significance. The same pattern occurs on a contemporaneous spindle whorl 

from Dimini. 6 

Iterated testimonies of faith are engraved on two spindle whorls from Sitagroi III. 7 The first is an incised 

cone; the second is flat and shallow faced, characterized by a pattern which compounds a circular line along 

the edge with radiating ladder-like incisions placed at the interstices (Ester and Renfrew 2003: 235, fig. 6.6b; 

237, fig. 6.11-b). 

Recurring spirals are incised on a denticular spindle whorl with biconic cross-section and on a miniature disc 

of uncertain function from the Early Copper Age Slatino (Bulgaria) (Chohadzhiev S. 2006: 141, fig.60.5, 

ibidem 266, fig.198.1). 8 

4 

Final Neolithic, in Greek terminology. 

5 

Inventory number: 6005.1. 

6 

Concerning the script at Dimini on spindle-whorls, see 8.B.c.9 “Literacy within heavily socialized environments such 

as Classical Dimini and Paradimi III”. 

7 

For the utilization of the script at Sitagroi III, see § 8.B.c.6 “Multiple inscriptions at Sitagroi III”. 

8 

For the employment of the script at Slatino, see § 9.D.b Consistent ars scribendi examples from the Gradešnica – 

Brenica culture and § 9.D.c “Inscribed figurines of the Gradešnica-Slatino I-III and Slatino IV assemblage”. 

204

Fig. 5.48 - A tool for reiterated outlining on a 

spindle whorl from Dimini (Thessaly, Greece). 


Fig. 5.50 - A tool for reiterated outlining on a 

spindle whorl from Sitagroi (Thrace, Greece). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Ester and 

Renfrew 2003: 235, fig. 6.6-b). 

Fig.5.52 - A recurring spiral is incised on an 

Early Copper Age denticular spindle whorl from 

Slatino (Bulgaria). 

(After Chohadzhiev S. 2006: 141, fig.60.5). 

205 

Fig. 5.49 - A tool for reiterated outlining on another 

spindle whorl from Dimini (Thessaly, Greece). 


Fig. 5.51 - Another tool for reiterated outlining on a 

spindle whorl from Sitagroi (Thrace, Greece). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Ester and 

Renfrew 2003: 237, fig. 6.11-b). 

Fig.5.53 - A recurring spiral is incised on an Early 

Copper Age miniature disc from Slatino (Bulgaria). 

(After Chohadzhiev S. 2006: 266, fig.198.1).

5.D.c.5 A semiotic Matrix to distinguish between script signs and tools for reiterated outlining 

Consequent to the investigation of the Neolithic and Copper Age “magic” mazes incised on vases, “Maltese” 

crosses vibrantly re-traced on pottery, and spiral patterns put in motions by spindle whorls, the distinction 

between ritual marks that are tools for reiterated outlining and signs of the Danube script becomes 

discernable. Briefly: 

i. Signs of the Danube script can be collected in a precise and systematic inventory, whereas tools for 

reiterated outlining of Southeastern Europe in Neolithic and Copper Age time-scale do not follow 

the principles of organization as a set of marks. 

ii. Signs of the Danube script can be written in mignon size. Repeated testimonies of faith never have a 

diminutive size. 

iii. Inscriptions can be inaccurate, unclear, carelessly and made in a rush. Sometimes texts have been 

corrected while they were in progress. Tools for reiterated outlining are always accurate, definite and 

carefully made. Since they were sacred, potent marks, adepts were careful and precise in planning 

and executing them. 

iv. Even if an inscription were made recklessly, its signs are generally incised with homogeneous depth 

and their eventual inconsistency in depth is a result of the need to underline a concept, e.g. a pivotal 

idea, a mythological hero, or a divinity. Tools for reiterated outlining are incised deeply, with 

intention and precision. 

v. Signs of the Danube script can be modified by applying diacritical markers to them, duplicatingmultiplying 

them, or reversing them as in a mirror, inverting them, reversing and inverting them at 

the same time. Tools for reiterated outlining are not subjected to such multiple variations. 

vi. Signs of writing occur in groups as well as singly. Tools for reiterated outlining are generally onesign 

marks. 

vii. When in groups, distinct and individually identifiable signs of writing in an inscription occur in an 

asymmetric co-ordination and a preferential linear alignment even if a linear alignment is not a fixed 

prerequisite of a writing system. When a tool for reiterated outlining is complex and articulated, it is 

based not on the assemblage of recognizably different signs but on a visible pathway, a course 

suitable for repeated tracing (a circular, meandering, spiral, or curved circuit) and which sometimes 

is highly symbolic (a vulva, a human or divine silhouette, waves to represent sacrificial blood, moon 

and sun, crosses…). In a ritual context, the repeatedly traced marks might represent the name or the 

symbolic identifier of the divinity. In the first case and if the divinity identifier is enough 

widespread, we return to the script framework for the producer of the message and the divinity even 

if not necessary for the pious believer. In fact, the sacred pattern acts on the state of the mind of the 

practitioner without any need to be “read”. 

viii. Signs of writing can be combined by ligatures. A tool for reiterated outlining is never based on 

marks joined by ligatures. 

ix. An inscription can mix both abstract and naturalistic signs. Tools for reiterated outlining never depict 

motifs derived from or imitating real life or nature, however they can be symbolic. 

x. An inscription can be found on any part of an object, although some kinds of inscriptions are 

restricted to some specific areas. A tool for reiterated outlining is in many situations positioned 

prominently: on a particular column or a wall of a sanctuary, and/or on strategic parts of the anatomy 

of a figurine, and so on. 

xi. A tool for reiterated outlining is in general preserved from superimposed scratches made during the 

rituals or by accident, whereas writing is not. 

I have pointed on the tools for reiterated outlining as patterns fixed on matter or in the air. This ritual can be 

performed in other modes that it is not unreasonable to refer also to the Danube civilization, such as hand 

gestures or body motion. 

Retracing the same magic pattern on a sick person simultaneously with a repeated verbal declamation of a 

ritual formula by a practitioner believed in posses of supernatural powers could have been performed in 

prehistoric times on the human body or on a statuette. This remarkable practice is indicated by some 

anthropological examples from the first decades of the last century. They are gathered from semi-illiterate 

societies with roots embedded in ancestral times according to which symbols, marks and alphabet-letters 

206

were potent signs of specific ritual purposes that referred to the divine in its many aspects. In a specific 

ceremony against the “evil eye”, at Colobrano (Basilicata, Italy) a sorceress performed a series of actions 

tracing cross patterns repetitively with her fingers on the forehead of a patient, three times pronouncing the 

appropriate spell (de Martino 1959: 17). A sublingual cyst was magically healed at Pisticci (Basilicata, Italy) 

by such tracing - coupled to other transformative actions – such as signs of the cross on the tongue and 

mouth of an infant. The original ceremony probably contemplated the double recitation of the sequence of 

the last letters of the alphabet employed as a magic formula: “pi esse ti vi zer” (de Martino 1959: 52). 

A love enchantment was made at Gròttole as well as at Viggiano (Basilicata, Italy) combining, three times, 

the recitation of a spell and the tying of a knot in a ribbon "without any measure" (de Martino 1959: 22). In 

this case, the creation of a ligament was actualized as a loop of a strip of fabric. In order to fight a case of 

jaundice, the whole body of the infirm repeated the magic action. It was believed that such illness originated 

from having urinated against the rainbow, at Pisticci, and as put of the healing it was mandatory that the 

sufferer went out from home before the sunrise and, without talking to anybody, passed under three masonry 

arches while repeating each time a spell against "the evil of the arc" (de Martino 1959: 37). Since the 

rainbow is rather rare and passing under it is not very simple, the magic sickness was returned to the 

masonry arches. 

Contraposition Signs of writing Tools for reiterated outlining 

Inventory of the script 

vs. absence for the tools 

for reiterated outlining 

Signs of writing can be collected in a 

precise and systematic inventory. 

Size Signs of writing can have a mignon 

size. 

Poorly marked vs. clearcut 

Poorly marked vs. deepcut 

and repeatedly went 

back over 

Techniques and 

restrictions in 

modifications 

Grouping vs. 

individuality 

Space organizational 

principles 

An inscription might be imprecise in 

signs and carelessly made. 

Signs of writing could be incised 

with a variable grade of pressure. 

Signs of writing can be modified 

applying to them diacritical markers 

as well as duplicating-multiplying 

them or reversing them as in a 

mirror, inverting them, reversing and 

inverting them at the same time. 

Signs of writing occur in groups as 

well as singly. 

When in groups, distinct script signs 

compose an inscription by the means 

of an asymmetric co-ordination and 

preferential linear alignment even if 

a linear alignment is not an absolute 

prerequisite of the Danube script as 

well as any writing system. 

207 

Tools for reiterated outlining do not 

follow the principles of organization 

as a set of marks. 

Repeated testimonies of faith never 

have a mignon size. 

The scribe is careful and precise in 

drawing a tool for reiterated outlining. 

Tools for reiterated outlining are 

incised deeply or painted with robust 

and determined hand and their outline 

is marked by the believer over and 

over. 

Tools for reiterated outlining are not 

subjected to the technique of the 

multiple variations. 

Tools for reiterated outlining are in 

general mono-sign. 

When a tool for reiterated outlining is 

complex and articulated is based on a 

route, which is suitable for repeated 

traces and sometimes has a highly 

symbolic shape.

Ligatures vs. absence of 

ligatures 

Abstract and naturalistic 

mix 

Occurring on many 

parts of an object vs. on 

restricted areas of it 

Superimposed scratches 

vs. preservation of the 

signs 

Signs of writing can be combined by 

ligatures. 

An inscription can mix both abstract 

and naturalistic signs. 

An inscription can be disposed on 

any part of an object, although some 

kinds of religious inscriptions are 

restricted to some specific areas of it. 

Inscriptions are sometimes 

superimposed by scratches or 

scribe’s imprints. 

208 

If a tool for reiterated outlining is 

composed by a number of marks, they 

are never connected by ligatures. 

Tools for reiterated outlining have 

never naturalistic roots; however they 

can have a symbolic nature. 

A tool for reiterated outlining is in 

many cases positioned prominently. 

A tool for reiterated outlining is 

preserved from superimposed 

scratches made during the rituals or by 

accident. 

In conclusion, one is coping with a tool for reiterated outlining and not with a sign of the Danube script, 

when one is in front of a single, complex, deeply engraved, prominent mark made carefully and distinctly, 

with a shape predisposed to be a pathway for circular iteration (a close meander, a close spiral, or a labyrinth, 

etc.) or for repeated scratched linear marks (such as a cross or a “Maltese” cross), and with a size large 

enough to allow the retracing. In many instances, it is easy to verify that a graphic witness of faith has been 

repeatedly incised or traced a number of times. 

More rarely, the tool for reiterated outlining may be practiced not within a magical path, but on signs of 

writing. In this case, it is not the “lettered” aspect of the signs to “make the difference”, but the gestures 

carried out upon them. Single signs or inscriptions of the Danube script are not read by the worshipper, but 

stimulate her/him by their inherent potency which is awaken when they are traced and retraced, perhaps in a 

specific magic number of times (in general 3, 7, 9 or their multiples). The initiate may have invoked primal 

force that are actually signs of writing, but that she/he may not have been able to read. Out of a literate 

framework, signs of writing were believed to embody or evoke miraculous powers. The devotee neither 

“wrote” the text of a message even if retraced the text of a message. She/he merely retraced sacred patterns. 

It may have been the belief that the divinity could “read” the invocation, the pain or the hope expressed by 

the written scripts (V or X themes, parallel lines, mazes, cruciform or square forms…). If so, we have to 

cope with the fourth type of ritualistic mark: the writing-like copy, i.e. script signs copied by someone who 

may be ignorant of their literal meaning, but who was convinced that they carried spiritual potency. 

5.D.d Writing-like copying 

5.D.d.1 Inscriptions copied by illiterates confident in the magic potency of the script signs 

In the Danube civilization, the fourth type of ritual graffito is connected to the apotropaic power of literacy 

specially felt among those who did not handle it. Many believers had the commitment to copy the sacred 

signs, but without any ability to read them and sometimes even without any comprehension of their meaning. 

They were simply convinced to engrave or paint marks of great power able to transform reality and/or 

establish a contact with the divine sphere. As result, when parroted the inscriptions reveal numerous 

mistakes. 

According to some scholars, the category of the writing-like mark explains all the occurrences of script signs 

from the Neolithic and Copper Age in Southeastern Europe. They have suggested that the magician-priests 

of the Danube civilization, having contact with the Sumerian script without understanding its real 

significance, interpreted the Near Eastern pictograms as “deposits” of superhuman power and then adopted 

and copied them for magical liturgies. Correlating the signs from Tărtăria and the signs from Uruk IV and 

Jemdet Nasr on the basis of this preconceived opinion, they hypothesized that the Transylvanian tablets do 

not bear a real text, but merely writing-like design. They “in all probability, are mere imitation of original

Mesopotamian ones, made with a magic purpose without any real understanding, possibly by a person who 

saw the usage of such tablets somewhere, between Southern Mesopotamia and Southeastern Europe, without 

a real knowledge, however, of the art of writing” (Makkay 1974/5: 24). According to this interpretation, 

proof of the illiterate copy made at Tărtăria is constituted by two signs that are joined together on some 

tablets from Jemdet Nasr to compose the name of a god (EN-GI) but that occur separated, although in 

adjacent groups, on the Transylvanian discoid tablet. It is the application of what Kroeber called “stimulus 

diffusion”, the copy of signs from existing systems without knowledge of their semantic meaning of phonetic 

value (Kroeber 1940). 

However, the Balkan-Danube signs are more than a millennium older than the Sumerian script and thus they 

cannot refer to it. If the writing-like graphism presupposes the existence of an ars scribendi, the drift of 

literacy from East to West is not demonstrable. It is more reasonable to state that the manifestations of this 

pseudo-script may be intended by their producers to form texts corresponding to inscriptions of the Danube 

script. The existence of writing technology as precondition of texts copied by illiterates differs the pseudowritten 

references from the personal markings such as the divinity identifiers, ownership or manufacturer 

marks, family identification marks, lineage recognition or community affiliation marks, glyphic monograms 

on seals, and tags. 9 

One can easily imagine a situation in which a worshipper engaged in an ancient mystery liturgy concerning, 

among other actions, the drawing of Proto-European sacred “hieroglyphics” is aware that they are sources of 

supernatural power, but is unaware of their actual literal meaning. Therefore, it is essential to distinguish 

between signs of the Danube script and writing-like copies of them according to semiotic rules and 

indicators. From a theoretical and abstract point of view, it is an obvious distinction. A text is correctly 

executed in term of signs outline and their composition techniques as well as in the convention of making up 

an inscription. A writing-like copy of a text moreover, in general, does not reveal the “illiterate hand”. 

Distinguishing the level of literacy of the scribe is quite impossible at the present. The knowledge about the 

internal structure of the Danube script is too limited to investigate the possible existence of “illiterate copies”. 

Second, the main part of the signs of the Danube script is carelessly made, poorly marked, and is not 

consistent in following a standard model. Third, a writing-like copy could be perfectly and carefully made, 

without any mistake in the silhouette or spatial organization of the signs. 

5.D.d.2 Mammoths playing with signs on the Prut river 

An example illustrates the challenge of differentiating between signs of the Danube script and their writinglike 

copies. It comes from one of the two Precucuteni II inscribed fragmented tablets found in 2000 in a cult 

building at the Isaiia settlement, near the town of Huşi, in Moldavia, Romania (Ursulescu, Merlan 2002: 73- 

76), The plate under analysis is fragmented, made by local clay, and fired at a high temperature. 10 

The signs are etched. At the first glance, they present some characteristics typical of a sort of writing. The 

few detectable signs are writing-like signs, being geometric, abstract, high schematic, linear and not very 

complex. Some signs can be set under the category of “writing”, for example a y and an inverted y. 

However, their outline is not always so clear. The indistinctness is not caused only by the consumption of the 

plates for time and use or due to the fact that they are just scratches. It is manly due to the unskilled hand that 

traced the signs. Therefore, it is possible that we are in presence of pseudo-writing played by someone who 

copied the marks for magical purposes ignoring their literate meaning and proper use. 

The inscriptions at a whole on this plate from Isaiia may represent a mythogram: chains of writing (or 

pseudo-writing) signs and symbols capable to induce the spectator to recall and orally express a myth, a story 

or an epopee, as well as to perform the related ritual practices. In fact, some signs are actually identifiable on 

the left area of the tablet and the main space is filled by a drawing comprised of silhouettes of elephants or 

mammoths. Profiles of large animals are associated with signs according to features that are typical of 

prehistoric rock art (Merlini 2008c). At Isaiia, the mythogram served probably to record (fix), preserve, and 

transmit portions of spiritual knowledge. 

9 Semiotic indicators to recognize divinity identifiers and to discern between them and the Danube script signs are 

discussed in the chapter 5.G “Guidelines to recognize the Danube script signs and the divinity marks”. 

10 For the semiotic analysis of these two Precucuteni II plates, see § 9.D.d.1 “Divine hierarchical pantheon and Rain 

divinity in the Precucuteni - Trypillia A phase”. 

209

Fig. 5.54 - Silhouettes of elephants or mammoths are associated with signs of writing on a Precucuteni II 

tablet from Isaiia (Moldavia, Romania). 

(Concept Lazarovici Gh., graphic elaboration by Merlini 2006). 

In the history, there are several instances of this kind of pseudo-writing, including phenomena like children’s 

scribbles, “tourist hieroglyphs”, deformed “exotic” characters as decoration of fashionable articles, or Luigi 

Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus. 

In the Canaanite Middle Bronze Age, scarabs are for the most part locally made to imitate Egyptian Middle 

Kingdom scarabs and frequently display signs and combinations of signs inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

The Egyptian prototypes show a variety of symmetric hieroglyphic designs, which although not adding up to 

meaningful inscriptions, include primarily good-luck signs and royal symbols that endow the scarabs with 

apotropaic potential. Most Middle Bronze Age Canaanite scarabs were found among burial gifts in local 

tombs, and it would thus seem that like their Egyptian samples they were used primarily as amulets. Yet, 

unlike in the case of Egyptian Middle Kingdom scarabs, the meaning of most signs appearing on Canaanite 

artifacts is far from clear, even when correctly rendered Egyptian hieroglyphs are concerned. Analyzing the 

distribution of the signs on the scarabs’ plinth and the lack of consistency in their grouping, Ben-Tor 

established that the Canaanites who produced these scarabs were in most cases unaware of the original 

meaning of the signs, reflecting a superficial adoption of Egyptian cultural traits in southern Canaan (Ben- 

Tor 2007). 

It is the case of some New Kingdom ostraca from Western Thebes. If countless pieces of pottery are 

engraved with hieratic and hieroglyphic texts, many of them are inscribed with marks that are clearly 

simulating hieroglyphic or hieratic characters, others seem to represent objects without reference to writing, 

or belong to a class of abstract or geometric signs, or are difficult to determine. Although these script-like 

marks can never be regarded as entirely unrelated to real writing, the ostraca do show a growing influence of 

writing and scribal habits in the course of the New Kingdom (Haring 2007). 

Probably the most famous pseudo-hieroglyphs come from Imperial Rome. The obelisk surmounts the cavern 

of the arcana mundi in the centre of the famous Fountain of the Rivers in Piazza Navona is almost 17 meters 

high and rich in hieroglyphics. This monumental pillar is not from the ancient Egypt, but this was created at 

Aswan by the order of Roman Emperor Domitianus in 1st Century. The hieroglyphs running along its shaft 

are not really Egyptian, but bad-made copies of the original ones engraved by Roman stonecutters not aware 

of their meaning. They misinterpreted them and did many grammar mistakes. 

210

5.E Contrasting the Danube script signs with ornamental motifs 

5.E.a Artistic adornments 

The key to the complex aesthetics of the Danube civilization is a knowledgeable and skillful depiction of 

decorative shapes, mostly as symbol, in the art. However, a semiotic-archaeological research on Neolithic 

and Copper Age aesthetics in Southeastern Europe is more than a study of marks, patterns and design of 

ancient ornamentation on pottery. Significant was the artistic talent in the fashion of architecture, the 

experiments in beauty with stone axe shapes, or the aesthetics of deposition with the deliberate burial of 

artifacts and other materials. 

The decorative marks/patterns/design appear dissimilar from the signs/inscriptions/organization of writing. 

These two codes appear to have been quite distinct in the minds of those utilizing them, as one can notice 

inspecting numerous artifacts. Decoration developed unique techniques (e.g. polychromy, graphite...) and 

styles, exhibited regional variations and followed chronological – although not linear - sequences. Ars 

scribendi followed a distinct organizational infrastructure. However, determining the mobile boundary 

between ornament, symbol and graphemes is one of the most arduous tasks for any culture (Riegl 1893) and 

the Danube civilization is not an exception. Most scholars agree that a pivotal role was acted by the 

“emblematic (symbolic) decoration”, rather than the “pure decoration”. 11 Echoing Haddon, one can state that 

in the Danube civilization almost every line or dot, from any ornamentation, possessed a meaning, but in 

many instances we do not understand it. We have eyes, but we do not see (Haddon 1895). 

I am not dealing in the present work with the whole range of decoration employed by the Danube 

civilization, but only with the distinct ornamental motifs (mainly abstract ones) that could be misunderstood 

as script signs as well as with decorative patterns that could be misinterpreted as inscriptions. In a number of 

instances, art employed geometric elements, linear marks, and an abstract rhythm that might come into sight 

as writing-like. In many other cases, its pure or emblematic decorative nature is evident. For example, the 

design based on alternate upward and downward chevrons on a Neolithic vessel found in 1912 at Vinča 

(Republic of Serbia) by Miloje Vasić (Vasić Handscrift 1912: 09 04str89) is unmistakably ornamental. 

Fig. 5.55 – An ornamental design based on the 

chevron motif occurs on a Neolithic vessel from 

Vinča (Republic of Serbia). 

(After Vasić Handscrift 1912: 09 04str89). 

Fig. 5.56 – The meander motif drawn by Vasić when 

reconstructing in 1912 a Vinča offering table in style 

of a Greek altar is decorative, although with spiritual 

significance. 

(After Vasić Handscrift 1912: 09 05str91-2). 

11 This does not indicate (unlike Riegl 1893) either that all the decorative motifs were originally conceived as symbols 

carrying a significance which has been lost during the history, or that every symbol with an appealing shape was 

transformed, in time, into a prevalently ornamental motif. It does not mean either that the success of a decorative motif 

with an emblematic root has to be explained only at the formal level (as opposed to functional or meaning level). 

211

Decorative, although with deep spiritual significance, is the abstract meander motif drawn by Vasić when, in 

the same year, he recreated a Vinča altar in the style of a Greek one, inclusive of a double axe erected 

between an idol for worship and a fireplace for offerings (Vasić Handscrift 1912: 09 05str91-2). Indeed, 

numbers of unearthed altars, statuettes, and vessels bearing linear geometric motifs reminded him of 

inscriptions found on archaic Greek vessels from Lesbos, Troy, and Melos. This led him to the assumption 

that the Vinča settlement belonged to an early Greek colony of the 7 th and 6 th centuries BC, such as those in 

southern Italy (Vasić 1910). 

Some spindle-whorls from Turdaş (Transylvania, Romania) bear obviously ornamental marks, even if Winn 

ascribed them – e.g. the spindle V.9277 - to the category of the inscribed objects due to the presence of a 

chevron and a “meander symbol” (Winn 1981: 376, note 10). 12 

Ornamental – although highly emblematic - is the incised "M"-shaped line framing the face on a 

Transdanubian Linear Pottery bottle-shaped vessel that forms a stylized human figure. It is from the Zselíz 

phase (5200-4900 BC) and was discovered at Biatorbágy-Tyúkberek (Pest county, Hungary). Nose and 

eyebrows above the eyes are in relief. Eyes and mouth are incised with short lines. On the lower part of the 

cylindrical neck, a characteristic “M”-like line, with the stems running outwards, frames the triangular face. 

Below, the neck was decorated with interchanging red and yellow painted zigzag stripes. Three deeply 

incised parallel line-patterns run on the shoulders, above the knob-decoration representing hands. They 

portray a necklace. The centre of the body is decorated with a spiralling bunch of lines, enfolded by two 

bunches forming two concentric circles. This motif is reminiscent of a stylized representation of the embryo 

within the womb. The vessel, originally placed in the cult corner of a dwelling and utilized during fecundity 

and fertility rituals, was deliberately broken into fragments after it had fulfilled its function. The decorative 

“M”-like motif framing the face is widespread from the southern area of the Carpathian Basin until Central 

and Western Germany. It might have been used simply to underline face and neck or to render an extremely 

stylized human figure, emphasizing the anthropomorphic features of the vessel (Kalicz 1998; Raczky, 

Anders 2003; Virág 1998; ibidem 2000). 

Fig.5.57 – Chevrons and meanders ornate the 

spindle V.9277 from Turdaş (Transylvania, 

Romania). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Winn 

1981: 268, fig. 10). 

Fig.5.58 – Ornamental – although highly emblematic 

- is the incised "M"-shaped line framing the face on a 

Transdanubian Linear Pottery bottle-shaped vessel 

that forms a stylized human figure. The vessel was 

discovered at Biatorbágy-Tyúkberek (Hungary). 


12 For the utilization of the Danube script at Turdaş, see chapter 9.C.c “The inventory of the signs from the Turdaş 

culture”. 

212

The chevrons on the top of a mask from Turdaş, which is indeed a fragment of a vessel, have a clearly 

decorative nature although they may also carry a symbolic meaning (Roska 1941: 247, tab. CII, fig. 18). 

Below one can notice a crossband. 

Such may also be the case in the five-lined chevrons as mouth, the four-parallel lines as tears, the bi-lined 

curves as eyelashes, and the four-parallel lines as hair on the lid P 2827 from Parţa (Banat, Romania). 

Fig. 5.59 – Ornamental emblematic chevrons 

on a gray mask from a vessel found at Turdaş 

(Transylvania, Romania). 

(After Roska 1941: 247, tab. CII, fig. 18). 

Fig. 5.60 – Ornamental emblematic geometries on a lid 

from Parţa (Banat, Romania). 


Obviously decorative are the parallel lines on the exterior and the net-shape on the interior of an unpublished 

zoomorphic altar found at Tărtăria (Transylvania, Romania) at a deep of 1.2 meters. 

Fig. 5.61 – A decorative design characterizes the exterior and the interior of an unpublished zoomorphic 

from Tărtăria (Transylvania, Romania). 

(Photo Merlini M. 2006). 

Common sense would indicate objects above are “obviously” decorated with abstract-geometric patterns. 

They can easily be distinguished from the artifacts bearing signs of the Danube script. 

Unfortunately, in the Danube civilization the decorative nature of an abstract-geometric mark or a 

combination of this kind of marks is not always discernible as in the case of the examples above. How does 

one plausibly distinguish between signs/inscriptions of the Danube script and ornaments/decorative patterns? 

213

5.E.b Messages embedded in decorations 

Even if in the Danube civilization the decorative framework and the system of writing appear to have been 

quite distinct in the mind of those utilizing them - being signs of literacy and artistic motifs quite dissimilar 

in shape and spatial organization - they were not completely separate without any connection in some way, 

as we will analyze. If signs and inscriptions of the Danube script possess concept and peculiarities that 

differentiate them from decorative motifs and patterns, working on the field the dividing line is not always 

confident. If it is a complex distinction, it is easy to explain the reason why, as follows in the next 

paragraphs. A promising direction for further research is investigate if, throughout millennia of literacy, ars 

scribendi was responsible for fundamental changes in art motifs and the way they were organized, as it 

happened in the ancient Near East (Schmandt-Besserat 2007). Writing is a mechanism that pushes to change 

the format of creative endeavors. Did a mutual exchange between the two media take place, in the Danube 

civilization? Did writing have an impact of great consequence on art, and, reciprocally, did art have an 

impact of no less significance on writing? Did both writing and art multiply their capacity to communicate 

information through this exchange? In particular, did art become narrative and writing go beyond the sacral 

sphere to become a comprehensive medium of communication? 

5.E.b.1 Writing and ornament can both be utilized to transmit packages of information 

In the Danube civilization, the decorative canon did not function as pure aesthetic ornament, but carried a 

symbolic meaning and transmitted messages. “In the time before the alphabet, the pottery ornamentation was 

a main visual channel to hand out the tradition (specially speaking)” (Nikolov V. and Karastoyanova 2004: 

174). “The whole world outlook of prehistoric farmers was expressed in the ornament: the Land and 

Underground World, the Sky, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Plants, Animals and People… Observant 

people can see complete ‘texts’ composed in ornaments: it is raining, the grain is falling on the ground, it is 

sprouting...” (Videiko 2003). The significant and often sacred communicative role played by the 

ornamentation is outlined by the fact that sometimes it was located on an invisible part of the vessel or the 

object (Nikolova online). 

Investigating the structure of the geometrical decorations utilized in the Danube civilization, one can exploit 

the conventional three hierarchical levels: composition, motif, and element. The composition consists of 

motives (or groups of motives) and elements which are arranged according to geometrical patterns with a 

meaning. Therefore, the composition itself cannot be meaningless. The elements, by which the motifs are 

composed, are represented by basic geometrical figures with a symbolic significance. An attempt to 

subdivide the elements into further parts leads to appearing meaningless strokes and curves. It verifies that 

there is a threshold level under which an image is not any more capable to transmit coded messages. 

The basic raising questions are three. What is the meaning of the wide range of decorations on the Neolithic 

and Copper Age artifacts? How can one analyze it? Moreover, how can one find inside the decorative 

patterns evidence about the nature of a prehistoric cognitive system regarding the belief systems and the 

relationship of people with natural and supernatural world? 

According to this challenges and taking into account that many of the artifacts, e.g. the vast majority of the 

figurines, are without any context in which one can neatly set them having been found isolated, some authors 

make an effort to understand the significance of the figurines with an interpretation of the figurines 

themselves (Ucko 1968: xvi). In other words, they try to examine them as a whole: a combination of 

different attributes of form, content, and context. Furthermore, during this auto-reverse decoding process 

they consider typology and interpretation of the decoration as a key for the analysis, the reconstruction, and 

the ‘reading’ of the symbolic meaning of the statuettes how it was understood by the prehistoric makers and 

users. In this case, ornament can be used as an efficient regional and chronologic indicator (Biehl 1996: 154- 

155). In order to test this point of view regarding a systematic code system embedded in figurines, Biehl 

analyzed 381 statuettes from 33 settlements in North-western Bulgaria belonging to the Gradešnica-Krivodol 

culture complex and inscribed into a time span from Late Neolithic to Early Copper Age (Biehl 1996). 

Unfortunately, Biehl’s contribution was mainly methodological. 

Emblematic decorations expressing meaning and message occur on a number of figurines. Typical is the “V” 

motif occurring as single, double, triple, or quadruple mark on the neck and evoking either a necklace or a 

piece of attire. A simple V characterizes the necklace worn by the so-called “Lady Vinča” found at Vinča- 

214

Belo Brdo (Republic of Serbia). Very well refined, the statuette is also adorned by alternated reddish and 

brown painted strips. According to Gimbutas, the V jewel has an evident decorative function, but expresses 

also the key symbol of the Bird Goddess (Gimbutas 1989). A “V” motif on the neck characterizes a Copper 

Age clay female figurine from Sipinci (Ukraine). The double “V” motif on the neck of one of the Vinča B 

divine couple from Zorlenţu Mare (Caraş Severin County, Romania) suggests either a necklace or an element 

of garment. The anthropomorphic clay statuette belongs to c. 4200-4000 BC, is fragmentary, has triangular 

shaped faces, eyes marked by two horizontal lines, a prominent nose, and barely suggested breasts 

(Draşovean 2001: 14). The female divinity was found by Gheorghe Lazarovici (Lazarovici Gh. 1979: 98 and 

Pl. XX/D 9); the male divinity is reconstruction Lazarovici Gh. (I present in the version published by Fl. 

Draşovean 2001). Similar representations occur also in the Gumelniţa culture. (For the Danube script at the 

Vinča B Zorlenţu Mare, see § 9.B.b.4 “Vinča B: the crucial culture of the Accumulative stage of the script”). 

Fig. 5.62 - A V necklace on the so-called “Lady 

Vinča” from Vinča - Belo Brdo (Republic of Serbia). 

(After Bulgarelli D. Prehistory Knowledge Project). 

Fig. 5.64 – The double “V” incised on the neck of one 

of the Vinča B divine couple: from Zorlenţu Mare 

(Caraş Severin county, Romania). 

(After Draşovean 2001: fig 14). 

215 

Fig. 5.63 - A “V” motif on the neck of a Copper 

Age clay female figurine from Sipinci (Ukraine). 


Fig. 5.65 - A Lengyel figurine from Tešetice- 

Kyjovice (Czech Republic) wears a triplechevron. 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Gimbutas 

1998: 8, fig. 9.2).

A figurine considered by Gimbutas a “beaked and winged Goddess” wears a triple-chevron in order to 

“identify her” (Gimbutas 1998: 8). The artifact belongs to the Lengyel culture (early 5 th millennium BC). It 

was discovered at Tešetice-Kyjovice (Moravia, Czech Republic). In the part regarding the schematic but 

naturalistic representations of objects, structures, natural events I will present other elements of clothing as 

shoulder belts, belts, scallops, necklaces, and so on which, having a design composed with geometrical, 

schematic and linear marks, could be confused with signs of writing. Below I will present a decorative 

quadruple chevron on the neck of a figurine from Turdaş (Transylvania, Romania). 13 

The rich and packed decoration incised on the front side of a vaulted oven belonging to the Early Neolithic 

gives us evidence of how articulate could be the message embedded within an ornament. The oven was 

recovered in the northern room of a dwelling at Slatina-Sofia (Bulgaria). The decoration consists of five 

zigzag horizontal lines that are 22-30 cm. high and 1.90 m. long because they go along the wall from one end 

to the other. The upper three lines are running horizontally close to one another and in parallel zigzags. The 

lower two lines are positioned at a larger distance from each other and their zigzag is made in a manner that 

forms rhombuses in-between. According to V. Nikolov: “Structure and iconography of the entire 

composition remind in a way the painted ornamentation on the Early Neolithic pottery from the Central and 

East Balkans, and do allow an interpretation alike the one already suggested for that ornamentation” 

(Nikolov 1981). The consequent interpretation is that “the upper part of the ornamental composition (the 

zigzag lines)…probably represents the upper sky with its fertilizing moisture, and the lower belt (of rhomblike 

shapes)… should be a symbol for the fertile earth”. From the viewpoint of the religious and 

mythological system of the early farming, “the oven that terminated the way of the wheat by baking the 

bread, presents a logically chosen place for performing the composition as it was described. The analysis has 

attested the indivisible connection of a household assemblage of utilitarian functions with the cyclic 

character of cosmic phenomena as it used to be regarded in prehistoric attitude. The transformation of row 

material into a baked product inside the oven undoubtedly converted this assemblage into an isomorphic 

image of a womb (of the Mother Goddess) in the prehistoric thought and in that way the oven gained a 

higher semantics” (Nikolov V. 2001: 25). 

Fig. 5.66 – A decoration finalized to convey a message from a vaulted oven was recovered at Slatina-Sofia 

(Bulgaria) and belongs to the Early Neolithic. 

(After Nikolov V. 2001: 30, fig. 3). 

The communicative capability of decorative patterns is evidenced by a bowl that was deposited in the burial 

SO/17 at the LBK IIA cemetery of Sondershausen (in Thuringia, Central Germany) (Kahlke 2004: Pl. 7.1). 

Here the intent of the ornamental design is to narrate a complex tripartite cyclical story (Merlini 2007a). To 

achieve the storytelling result, the potter utilized the expressive potentiality of abstract geometric patterns 

combined with iconic elements (as for example dwellings or other structures) that were arranged according 

to a composite and rhythmically developing design. The story is not narrated according to a recurrent closed 

ring design, but a spiral progression. The development of the narration is fluently articulated by the evolution 

in shape of the intermediate and low area of the composite key figure that, in the upper part, resembles a 

dwelling. The rhythmically developing story has the seasonally tripartite agricultural year as timeframe and 

possibly deals with crops growing in fields according to the sequence seed-plant-harvesting, or indicates 

scheduled daily life tasks to perform in the proper period. It may also indicate cyclic ceremonial moments to 

13 See § 5.E.b.6 “Script signs and decorations may be represented together on the same object”. 

216

celebrate at the shift of seasons or scheduled movements of people to landed and mobile resources with 

changing seasons. 14 

The farming calendar was based on the chronographic division of the year into four seasons that resembled 

the fourfold cycle of the Moon: Waxing (Spring), Full (Summer), Waning (Autumn) and Dark Moon 

(Winter), and therefore considered Winter as an empty time. Winter was the interlude dominated by dead. It 

was the season when fields were bare, nothing grew up and land resources were not available. On the bowl 

from Sondershausen, wintertime is not represented among the constant change of seasons. Sondershausen 

chronography is consistent with the calendar depicted on the Kadjadermen - Gumelniţa - Karanovo VI cult 

scene from Ovcharovo (Bulgaria) (Todorova 1973; 1978). On miniaturized altars dedicated to the natural 

forces and the Sun, a solar calendar is depicted with 365 days. It is formed from two basic portions of time: a 

281-day period, made up of the farming seasons of the year (spring, summer, and autumn), and an 84-day 

period comprising winter. Every 4 years, an additional day is supplemented in order to preserve conformity 

between the particular signs in the series of the short lines-days and the astronomical cycle. As a result of 

this synchronization, the average calendar year is equal to 365.25000 days (Koleva 1986). 

A B 

Fig. 5.67– A rhythmic decoration is finalized to transmit a package of information on a Linienbandkeramik 

IIA bowl from the cemetery of Sondershausen (Thuringia in central Germany). A) bowl and frieze; B) The 

evolution in shape of the intermediate and low area of the key figure. 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Kahlke 2004: Pl. 7.1). 

A Late Neolithic clay altar 15 from Hotnitsa-Orkovka (District of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria) bears a 

decoration that expresses the idea of the coupling between the female and male origin in the mythologization 

of the Nature, according to Ilcheva. The Orlovka site is situated on a large area in the northeastern side of the 

village of Hotnitsa. The miniaturized altar has oval shape, smoothed surface, and gray-black color. Incised 

decorations cover all sides. The front side is divided in three zones by two double parallel lines that continue 

towards the narrow lateral side. In the middle are depicted zigzags. The upper and lower parts are filled with 

spiral ornament. The parallel lines, the spirals and the zigzags represent a single ornamental composition 

covering the face side, the two lateral sides and the upper and bottom sides. The back surface is decorated 

with a composition that can be resembled to the Latin letter “N”, or the sign of a thunderbolt (lightning). The 

size of the altar is length – 11.4 cm; width – 7.5 cm (Ilcheva 2002a: 68-69, 71, fig. 1, 72, fig. 2; ibidem 

2002b: 141, fig. 23-19). However, the double spiral might indicate the motion of the Sun in the sky, 

connecting time and cycle. The swirling clockwise and anticlockwise spirals specify the positions of the Sun 

at the horizon after year-round observation with stop points constituted by the double parallels. According to 

a geocentric perspective, from the winter solstice to the summer solstice the arches depicted by the Sun in the 

sky increase, in parallel the rising and setting points widen. The apparent spiral opens in the sky day-by-day. 

14 For the development of the script in LBK, see § 9.B.e “Assessing the script in the other cultures of Developed and 

Middle Neolithic”. 

15 Inv. № 745 П/Xот. 

217

Vice versa, from the summer solstice to the winter solstice the apparent spiral encloses. The solstices are the 

turning points of the Sun motion, which can be depicted as a spiral inverting the direction. Both the spirals 

turn from left to right, but the first enlarges whereas the second diminishes. Having not the possibility to 

incise two overlapping spirals, the motion of the Sun in the sky was represented as a double spiral, which 

turning points where the summer solstice and the winter solstice (Viz. Newgrange where there are several 

sets of superbly executed double spirals in the chambers and passage of the mound. The pattern of the beam 

on the floor of the central chamber is graphically represented by the change of direction of the spirals on the 

stones around the site: the beam increases in a clockwise direction before the solstice and decreases in a 

clockwise direction after the solstice. The spirals on the kerb-stone directly in front of the passage appear to 

rotate clockwise on the left side and anticlockwise on the right). 

Fig. 5.68 – The motion of the Sun in the sky is 

possibly represented on a Late Neolithic clay 

altar from Hotnitsa-Orkovka (Bulgaria). 

(After Ilcheva 2002: 72, fig. 2). 

Fig. 5.69 – The double spiral at Newgrange (Ireland). 


According to the “Matrix of semiotic markers and rules” the decorative aim, although emblematic, of the 

below presented Tisza-Herpály-Csöszhalom vessel from Jaksopart (Szentes, Hungary) (Kalicz and Makkay 

1972: 10) is evident as well as the presence of a complex message. Illustrating the typology of these large 

vases Gimbutas stated that “The goddess’ face floats above an M sign (representing a frog or frog-leg 

glyph)... these glyphs signify that the water vessels were sacred to the goddess as life source and regenerator. 

Meanders and running spirals reinforce this implication. The handles of the vessels might represent the frog 

goddess’ upraised legs” (Gimbutas 1999: 28). 16 

Fig. 5.70 – A complex emblematic message is embedded inside the decoration of a large vase from 

Jaksopart (Szentes, Hungary). It belongs to the Tisza-Herpály-Csöszhalom complex, c. end of sixth 

millennium BC. The two different utilization of Ms and have to e noticed. 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Kalicz and Makkay 1972: 12, fig. 8.2). 

16 For the development of script in the Tisza-Herpály-Csöszhalom cultural complex, see § 9.C.e “The employment of 

ambivalent marks in the Tisza-Herpály-Csöszhalom cultural complex”. 

218

A vessel from Slatino (Bulgaria) belonging to the Early Copper Age horizon 6 has a very striking and 

unusual ornamentation. “Perhaps it conveys concrete information and has nothing to do with the traditional 

decoration” (Čohadžiev S. 2006: 71). 17 

Fig. 5.71 – A complex decoration is transmitting concrete information on an Early Copper Age vessel from 

Slatino (Bulgaria). 

(After Čohadžiev S. 2006: 227, fig. 158/ 1). 

5.E.b.2 A number of script signs and decorative motifs share the same geometrical roots 

Difficulties arise from certain common elements between signs of writing and decorative motifs (Čohadžiev 

S. 2006: 71). 

Deriving many signs of the Danube script and ornamental motifs from the alike abstract graphic source, the 

outline of some signs of writing appears to be a development of the schematic decorations ( e.g. on Lepenski 

Vir and Vlasac boulders) or an evolution of the linear ornamentations on Starčevo-Criş (Körös). As example, 

I present some Romanian decorated shards from each phase of Starčevo-Criş (Körös): from Cluj - Gura 

Baciului (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IIA); Gornea - Căuniţa de Sus (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IIB); Bucova III 

(Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IIIB); Cenad (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IVA); Ostrovu Golu (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) 

IVB). 18 

A 

B 

C 

Fig. 5.72 - Decorations from Romanian Starčevo-Criş (Körös) vessels that are bearing linear and 

schematic motifs, after Lazarovici Gh. 1979. A) from Cluj - Gura Baciului (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IIA) 

after Pl. lII, 16; B) from Gornea-Căuniţa de Sus (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IIB) after Pl. VB, 9; C) from 

Bucova III (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IIIB) after Pl. VIIE, 43; D) from Cenad (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IVA) 

after Pl. VIIIF, 42; E) from Ostrovu Golu (Starčevo-Criş (Körös) IVB) after Pl. IXD, 30. 

17 For the employment of the script at Slatino, see § 9.D.b Consistent ars scribendi examples from the Gradešnica – 

Brenica culture and § 9.D.c “Inscribed figurines of the Gradešnica-Slatino I-III and Slatino IV assemblage”. 

18 For the development of the Danube script at these Starčevo-Criş (Körös) settlements, see § 9.A.b “The origin of the 

script from the Starčevo-Criş (Körös) cultural complex”. 

219 

D 

E

Meanders as coiffure stretching across the forehead, triangles as magical eyes, arches as lashes, repeated 

parallel lines and Vs as eyelids, bi- and tri-parallel lines as streams from the eyes: the geometry is on work in 

order to depict the features of a mid Vinča masked and beaked head dated 5000-4500 BC and found at 

Potporani (Serbia) (Gimbutas 1987: 105, fig. 2; 1989: 54, fig. 90). The V and parallel lines as decorative 

motifs (and not as significant root-signs of the Danube script) are well illustrated by a female figurine from 

northern Moldavia and dated around the end of the fifth millennium BC. It is completely bandaged by 

multiplex V and parallel lines. Having a head without face, truncated winged arms, and a leaned forward 

posture, it reminds a mummy ready to jump or to wriggle like a flash of lightning thanks to a kidney blow. 

The decoration is marked deeply and re-traced with a white paste. According to Gimbutas, the figurine might 

represent a Bird Goddess or a Snake Goddess (Gimbutas 1991: 110). 

Fig. 5.73 – Geometry is on work in order to 

depict the features of a masked and beaked head 

found at Potporanj. 

(After Gimbutas 1987: 105, fig. 2). 

5.E.b.3 Decoration, just as writing, can follow rules of shape standardization 

Fig. 5.74 - Decorations that share the same 

geometrical root with script signs (Vs, chevrons, 

parallel lines) on a figurine with featureless head and 

wing-stumps (Moldavia, Romania). 


Not only the scribe or the magic-religious adept focusing attention on the act of writing messages, but also 

the decorator was not entirely free to create or even select patterns and their variants as she/he wished. The 

decorator had to follow the rule of standardization within the framework of the above-mentioned geometrical 

matrix that was established according to a distinct style and conforming to a shared belief system. The 

reproduction on painted pottery of the iconographic and abstract information together with the semantic, 

which is hidden within and behind it, according to the stylistic features of motifs and compositions required 

special training concerning the expertise to apply specific set of rules (Nikolov V. and Karastoyanova 2004: 

174). Contrariwise, to the opinion of some authors (Biehl 1996: 155), it is reasonable to assume that in most 

of the cases the person who decorated was not free to choice the aesthetic decoration. The restriction is 

evident even in the instances where the presence of a great variety of ornaments is for the reason that they 

were made not by specialized potters, but by a number of “normal” people in the same village. 

Observing that the red-slipped pottery with white-painted ornamentation is an essential element of the 

material culture of the early agricultural communities in Thrace and a main source of information about their 

220

eligious-mythological system (Nikolov V. 2002), V. Nikolov and Karastoyanova noticed that it represents a 

complex ornamental scheme depending on certain principles (Nikolov V. 1983). They also remarked that the 

shape of the ceramic vessel and the sacred symbolism, encoded in its ornamentation, were both reasons for 

which this information was handed down from generation to generation answering certain rules and not 

arbitrary. Therefore they used the evidence of Tell Kazanlak to follow the tradition of handing down rules 

and standards of the painted ornamentation iconography in Early and Middle Neolithic (from Karanovo I to 

Karanovo III culture), i.e. within nine villages in sequence corresponding to a period of ca. 400-500 years 

and 27-30 generations. 

V. Nikolov and Karastoyanova concluded that: “The presentation of the painted ornamentation from Tell 

Kazanlak earliest horizons from a diachronic point of view evidences the considerable conservatism of its 

main parameters and enables the assumption of an artistic rule”. All these generations reproduced the whitepainted 

pottery together with all the elements of their everyday and spiritual life. Therefore, the replication of 

the artistic rule by the inhabitants of nine successive Neolithic villages is “an important indication for the 

stability of the communication system between the generations; it is a mark for a stability of the reproduction 

of the entire culture regarded as a functioning information system”. The communities of the Danube 

civilization paid special attention to the ancestral memory and, in this regard, the artistic culture is extremely 

important. The constant reproduction of the initial artistic text turns it into a symbol or even into an 

archetype; that is why special requirements are necessary for the way this reproduction is put into practice to 

keep a sustainable artistic tradition. “The type of the artistic sense is not natural to the human being and is 

not genetically inherited and that is why there is a necessity of handing down the culture from generation to 

generation by special training. It is especially related to the Neolithic painted ornamentation, which 

obviously has been the only way of visual reproduction of the religious-mythological system. The ceramic 

vessels with painted ornamentation have been an artistic form to keep and hand down information from 

generation to generation; being used everyday they served as a means of handing down an accumulated 

ideological tradition” (Nikolov and Karastoyanova 2004: 179). 

One can appreciate the high-standardized pattern of a complex decoration on an early Vinča clay seal from 

Predionica (Kosovo) (Galovìć 1959: Pl. 79 1.2). Although Gimbutas stated that it represents “an ideogram of 

a Bird Goddess” made of crossed chest bands and chevrons (Gimbutas 1982: 117) and in fact it is composed 

of marks resembling signs of the Danube script, its decorative nature, even if emblematic, is revealed by the 

symmetric design. The seal is made of brick-red fine fabric and is dated at the end of sixth millennium BC 

according to Gimbutas.In addition, the standardized and five-time repeated chevrons on a lid have a clear 

decorative nature (Roska 1941: 247, tab. CI, fig. 9). Within other semiotic contexts, the chevron is a sign of 

the Danube script. 

Fig. 5.75 – Standardized decorations form 

a symmetric and complex decoration on a 

Vinča clay seal from Predionica (Kosovo). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after 

Galovìć 1959: Pl. 79 1.2). 

Fig. 5.76 – Standardized and repeated chevrons ornate a lid 

from Turdaş (Transylvania, Romania). 

(After Roska1941: 247, tab. CI, fig. 9). 

221

5.E.b.4 Some marks, depending on their context, may be either script signs or ornaments 

As seen above in case of the chevron, a number of marks such as “Λ“,“V“,“M“,“X“,“+“ and some 

naturalistic motifs as sun, rain, bird, tree can be, depending on the circumstances, either signs of writing or 

decorative elements (Gimbutas 1991). 

Fig. 5.77 – Some decorative motifs on figurines from Sitagroi III have the same abstract, linear, and 

geometric outline of signs that belong to the Danube script. 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Gimbutas 1982: 116, fig. 75, 76). 

Typical signs of the Danube script such as “ “, parallel tri-lines, “ “, “+“, “ “, “ “, and “ ” are 

employed as decorative motifs on some female figurines from Sitagroi III belonging to 4000 BC (Gimbutas 

1982: 116). Inverted Vs over the breasts, triple vertical parallels between the breasts, and a chevron on the 

pubic area characterize the front of the first torso. On the back, there are three horizontal lines across the 

shoulders and five vertical lines over the dorsal area. Around the neck, horizontal lines occur. There are 

traces of white paint infill and red ocher (Renfrew, Gimbutas, Elster 1986: plate LI, fig. 4; Gimbutas 1986: 

243, fig. 9.35, 294). 

The second upper half of a female figurine is made of black baked clay and has head, arms, and base broken 

off. The incisions are filled with white paint. On the front, they comprise crosses above the breasts - “The 

cross... is a breast-associated symbol” (Gimbutas 1986: 240) -, a tri-parallel line joint at bottom by a bar 

which is positioned between the breasts, and a horizontal series of >s motifs on the pubic area. On the back, 

two short and three long lines are engraved. Spatial organization and regular distance among the marks, 

symmetry in design, size and position of the central mark comparing to the other marks reveal in both the 

cases the decorative as well as symbolic nature of the complex composition made of geometric linear 

elements (Gimbutas 1982: 116, fig. 76; Gimbutas 1986: 241, fig. 9.31, 294). Two signs are on the shoulders, 

a “D” on its left paralleled by a “)” on the right. A tri-line is incised on the left side and a bi-line over the 

right hip. 

5.E.b.5 Artistic patterns can be arranged in a way similar to the textual organization of signs 

The Danube script aligns the signs mainly in (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) linear rows. Sometimes the 

decorations can do the same as regards their marks. Artistic patterns might be misunderstood for signs of 

writing in the exceptional but not infrequent case of ambivalent marks that can be signs of the Danube script 

or decorations depending on the semiotic context. In a subsequent part, I will give some information how to 

deal with this complex situation. 

The spin of the spindle-whorl evokes associations with time. It is not for a coincidence that in some Slavic 

languages the words for “spindle” (vreteno, vretmeno) and for “time” (vreme) have the same linguistic root 

222

connected with spinning. It is even not for a case that in prehistoric times spindle-whorls embedded 

calendars. On a Late Neolithic conical spindle-whorl from Dikili Tash (Greece) (Treuil 1992: Pl. 150/c), 

chevrons are depicted in radiant arrangement and a series of short lines in rays are incised between the ring 

and the edge. The chevrons have to been detected as a progressive horizontal sequence of paired chevrons: 

two Λ, two , and two . Each chevron points to a notch on the circumference and encompasses a distinct 

number of them. The tallies are 27. However, two tallies are shared by four chevrons. It means that the linear 

counters on play are 29. Here it is the sequence: first Λ = 3 notches, second Λ = 3 notches, first = 3+1, 

second = 4+1, first = 8+1, second = 4+1. The possible functions of this rotating object include 

usage for keeping records relating to cyclical events. It is difficult do not infer a scheduled synodical Moon 

calendar based on 14 days of Crescent Moon, a day Full Moon and 14 days of Decrescent Moon. A similar 

lunar calendar is incised on a Baden-Coţofeni vessel from Moldova Veche (Romania). 19 

The spindle from Dikili Tash divides the cycle of the Moon into six phases as Lithuanian folk traditions did. 

Here, very often the two main lunar phases were divided into further parts, defining six periods: Tuščias 

‘empty’ (New Moon); Jaunas ‘young’ (the Moon before the first quarter, Waxing Crescent); Priešpilnis 

‘almost full’ (Moon after the first quarter, Waxing Gibbous); Pilnas ‘full’ (Full Moon); Senas ‘old’ (the 

Moon before the last quarter, Waning Gibbous); and Senagalys ‘old-end’ or Delčiagalys ‘wane-end’ (Moon 

after the last quarter, Waning Crescent) (Vaiškūnas 2006). 

Due to the resonance between lunar cycle and human menstrual cycle, the signs depicted on the spindle 

provided a metaphor and a description of reproductive experience common to women. The cycle of the 

Moon corresponds to the female reproductive cycle in duration and the spindle whorl divides both into six 

phases, giving the possibility to use it as a keeper track of the procreative succession. This lunar menstrual 

calendar was a potent visual reminder: looking at it, one can notice which phase of the moon she is 

menstruating, estimate the fertile times, and so on. The follicular phase (days 1 through 14, half the lunar 

cycle) is the time from the first day of menstruation until ovulation. It is picked out on the spindle calendar 

through the first four chevrons. The relatively infertile days during and following menstruation are depicted 

by chevrons 1-3. Ovulation (when the oocyte is released) occurs around day 14 of the cycle, occurring 

almost 14 days before the next menstruation. In is marked day 15 in the spindle calendar. The luteal phase 

(days 14 through 28) is the time from ovulation until the first day of menstruation. The fertile phase occurs at 

either side of ovulation, because sperm can survive in fertile mucus awaiting the discharge of an ovum from 

a mature ovarian follicle. The fourth and fifth chevrons mark the period considered most fertile. The last 

chevron indicates the post-ovulatory infertile phase. The information recorded in the spindle goes deeper to 

determine the phase of the menstrual cycle, distinguishing six phases of it – very close to what we do 

nowadays - as follows. 1) The menses phase: days 1-5 of the menstrual cycle; n = 3 + 3 notches under the 

two Λ, which divides menses 1, when menstrual discomfort is maximums, and menses 2, with remaining 

days of menses. 2) The early proliferative phase: days 6-10; n = 3+1 notches controlled by the first . 3) 

The late proliferative phase: days 10-14; n = 4+1 notches encompassed by the second . 4-5) The early 

secretory phase and the midsecretory phase (days 15-24; n = 8+1 notches). 20 6) The late secretory phase or 

pre-menstrual phase: days 24-29; n = 4+1 notches. 

All over the ancient world, the fertilizing and fecundating light of the moon was regarded as favorable to the 

vegetal grow and animal reproduction, as reassumed by Plutarch. According to Eliade, the connection 

between moon, rain and plant life was realized before the discovery of agriculture (Eliade 1978: 161). The 

knowledge embedded on the spindle from Dikili Tash is hinged on the Full Moon as crucial point of the 

lunar cycle, considering it as the trigger of the reproductive process. This approach is shared by other coeval 

artifacts of the Danube civilization such as the Gradešnica shallow receptacle depicting the Full Moon in 

form of a female “dancing orant” and a coeval Sălcuţa-Krivodol pintadera. 21 During its synodic cycle, the 

Moon increases and decreases as a metaphoric pregnancy. Ovulating with the Full Moon was considered the 

best chance of fertility, as the Full Moon accentuates the time of production and emission of an oocyte from 

the ovary for potential fertilization. In farming, it was the time considered appropriate to seed or to transplant 

the plants because they root well. European peasants, quite recently, preferred to sow in the moonlight 

(Golan 2003: 142). As incarnation of reproductive power, people believed that a woman could conceive from 

19 

See § 5.E.c.1 “Inventory of the Danube script vs. corpus of the artistic motifs”. 

20 

The early secretory phase and the midsecretory phase are actually separated (ES; days 15-20; n = 5 and S; days 21- 

24; n = 6). 

21 

See § 5.H “Testing the matrix: the Gradešnica script debugged”. 

223

intercourse in the light of the full moon or that she might become pregnant by just looking at the moon. 

Golan associates this feature with his persuasion that a Moon God occurred, quoting an inscription in the 

temple of the Moon at Thebes “through his agency women conceive” (Golan 2003: 142). However, the 

credence fixed on the artifacts of the Danube civilization represents the Moon as associated to the female 

principle and mirrors its fecundity with the fecundity of Earth. 

After the state of greatest fullness, the moon progressively wanes. However, it was believed that it does not 

slice the relationship with the new embryonic life. If as Full Moon it provides maximum procreative force, 

enhancing the fertility necessary to create a new being, during the waning period it nourishes the embryo or 

the seed. Providing them with the substances necessary for growth and health, they germinate and bloom, 

whereas it reduces. The parallel with a pregnant woman is appropriate, because she puts on weight and fat 

only as receptacle of a growing fetus. She actually loses weight and becomes lean. In the Waxing Crescent, 

the key day signaling the end of menstrual period was the sixth. It is not for a case that in the classical epoch, 

it was the day sacred to Artemis in the Athenian calendar, which considered it a moon goddess as 

complement to the twin Apollo. 

The lunar menstrual calendar from Dikili Tash associates the Black Moon with the start of menstruation. It is 

confirmed by the mythological thinking that the moon caused the monthly indisposition in women. It is 

called among different peoples equally: “moon sickness”, “moon change”, or simply “the moon”. (Golan 

2003: 142). We do not know if in the Danube civilization menstruating women were considered ritually 

unclean and subjected to strict taboos as in other ancient civilizations. However, if one does not glimpse 

superstitious fear of menstruation depicted on artifacts, one can infer easily the rendering of the conviction 

that they were in an infertile period. 

Fig. 5.78 – A progressive sequence of paired 

chevron defines a lunar menstrual calendar on 

a spindle from Dikili Tash (Greece). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Treuil 

1992: Pl. 150/c), 

Fig. 5.79 – Decorative Ms, Xs, lozenges, triangles, and 

parallel lines adorn lining up on a Tisza-Herpály- 

Csöszhalom vase shaped as an enthroned female divinity. 

It is from Kökénydomb (Hungary). 


224

To sum up, the lunar cycle based on the Full Moon on the spindle from Dikili Tash was not only a time 

marker or even a time factor but also as quality mark for procreation. The general symbolism of growing in 

the nature was accordant with the visible aspect of the Moon and the Moon had a growing quality scheduled 

during its entire cycle. Harmonizing the menstrual cycle with the lunar cycle was the procedure believed 

most appropriate to enhance the fecundating power at greatest extent. 

The spindle whorl had not mere practical uses like accounting cyclic records. As nowadays, most of the 

woman suffered from an irregular menstrual cycle. The periodical and regular events from the lunar calendar 

embedded on the artifact might be a benchmark, a point of reference against which the cycle may be 

compared and assessed. Having in mind that the Moon naturally rules the menstrual cycle, if a woman 

suffered from an irregular cycle, tuning into the moon periodical regularity could help to make it conform to 

a normal 29 days. In addition to indicate and map the road, the spindle might have been a magic facilitator to 

follow it it. Chevrons and tallies might have composed a magic regulation formula. The device might have 

given strength to the sacred signs exploiting the centrifugal force triggered by the rotary motion as the Moon 

in the sky, and spinning faster to increase the benefit. 

The Ms, Xs, lozenges, triangles and parallel lines incised and encrusted in white in order to adorn a vase 

shaped as an enthroned female divinity document appropriately the possibility to line up linear, abstract, 

schematic, and high standardized ornaments along registers (Banner 1942: pl. I,1-4; 1959: 16, fig. 5; Angeli 

et al. 1972: 36, fig. 16; Kalicz and Raczky 1987; Gimbutas 1991: 71, fig. 3.23.3; Virág 1998). The vase 

comes from Kökénydomb (Hungary) and belongs to the Tisza-Herpály-Csöszhalom complex - early 5th 

millennium, according to Gimbutas (1999: 76). 22 

5.E.b.6 Script signs and decorations may be represented together on the same object 

On a Middle Vinča prosopomorphic lid 9 cm. in height and 15 cm. in diameter unearthed from a garbage pit 

at Petnica at front of Small Cave (Republic of Serbia), a F-sign and a T-sign occur prominently on the front 

as well as in the centre of a decoration (Starović 2004: 35). 23 

Fig. 5.80 - Signs of the Danube script and decorations live together on this Middle Vinča prosopomorphic 

lid from Petnica (Republic of Serbia). 


Another apparent case of the blurring of the line between signs of writing and artistic motifs occurs on the 

above mentioned typology of figurines wearing a chevron as a “necklace” or a piece of attire. On a statuette 

from Turdaş (Transylvania, Romania), signs of the Danube script cohabit with an evident decorative 

22 See also § 5.H.b “A pregnant anthropomorph”. In contrast to these emblematic decorations, see the utilization of the 

script at the Tisza Kökénydomb in § 9.C.e “The employment of ambivalent marks in the Tisza-Herpály-Csöszhalom 

cultural complex”. 

23 For the Danube script at the Vinča B Petnica, see § 9.B.b.4 “Vinča B: the crucial culture of the Accumulative stage of 

the script”. 

225

quadruple chevron on the neck. In addition, a bear figurine from Priština (Kosovo) combines a chevron 

“necklace” (triple in this case) and signs of the Danube script (Winn 1981: 365, fig. 1). 

Fig. 5.81 - On a figurine from Turdaş 

(Transylvania, Romania), signs of writing cohabit 

with a decorative quadruple chevron on the neck. 


Fig.5.82 - A bear figurine from Priština (Kosovo) 

incorporates a triple chevron “necklace” on the neck 

and signs of the Danube script on the garment. 

(After Winn 1981: 365, fig. 1). 

On the one hand, the chevron is one of the most important signs of the Danube script; on the other hand, 

however, double-triple-quadruple rendition of the V flourished in the art of the Danube civilization carrying 

the symbolism of divine power and reverence. Indeed, in all the above presented cases the chevron never 

occurs as a sign of writing but is an emblematic decoration associated to signs of writing. 

Fig. 5.83 – A text inscribed within a metope cohabit with decorative triple chevrons and parallel lines on a 

Vinča zoomorphic offering vessel found at Priština (Kosovo). 


226

On each of the four stylized rams composing a Vinča zoomorphic offering vessel found at Priština (Kosovo) 

(Gimbutas 1989: 76, fig. 117 3a-3b; 1991: 315, fig. 8.16), triple emblematic chevrons ornate the neck and 

triple circles occur on the legs, whereas a Danube script inscription is marked within a rectangular 

“cartouche” positioned on the haunch: , , . 

Interpreting this and similar vessel and figurines, Gimbutas associated the ram and Bird Goddess, being the 

former “incised with her insignia – chevrons, tri-lines, and parallel lines” (Gimbutas 1989: 76). According to 

her, the vessel is dated 5200-5000 BC. 

5.E.b.7 Signs can also fulfill an aesthetic satisfaction 

Decorations and signs of writing could both have been conceived to fulfill an aesthetic satisfaction, although 

it is the usual purpose in the first instance and a rare intent in the second one. Even if in the Danube script the 

design is devoted to functionality, in some infrequent instances the positioning of its sign groups seems to 

have some aesthetic intention. The artistic rendering could be either in the calligraphic silhouette of the signs 

or in the spatial organization of the text. Haarmann restricts the aesthetic rendering of the script to 

inscriptions that consist of only a single sign. According to him, the one-sign inscriptions of Danube literacy 

may be seen as a bridging link between the practical purposes of writing and the aesthetic requirements of 

ornamentation. Then he identifies their aesthetic implications as a rudimentary form of calligraphy. 

However, when explicating the statement, he listed parameters that are typical of the symbolic channel 

(divinity identifiers included) and not the writing channel: prominent position on the objects and increased 

weight of the symbolic meaning of the sign in focus by its visual centricity (Haarmann 2008a: 37). 

I am going to pose another question: was there an aesthetic sense at work in the positioning of sign groups on 

some inscribed objects of the Danube area? I am presenting some inscription of the Danube script that may 

evoke an aesthetic impression, although their priority is to addressing messages. In the first instance, one is 

in presence of an aesthetic variation of signs (sign calligraphy). The second inscription is characterized by 

the calligraphic architecture of the text (text calligraphy). The third case describes esthetic rendering together 

in sign shape, text architecture and positional. 

On a Late Vinča stylized head or mask of a bear from Pločnik (Republic of Serbia), in the position of the 

eyebrows there is a sign of the Danube script on the right-hand side and the same sign, but backwards, on the 

left-hand one (Winn 1981: 360, fig. 2). The rendition of the same sign is calligraphic, being artistically 

executed to follow the contours of the figurine. Its back-to-back positioning may have an artistic intent as 

well as a religious significance (Griffin 2004a: 16; 2006). The animal mask is also marked by triple lines 

under the eyes (Gimbutas 1982: 59, fig. 32). 

The design encrusted in white on the front of a black polished figurine is dominated by a labyrinthine and 

meandering symbol twisting from the vulva toward the heart region up to encircling the breasts (Nikolov 

1974; Gimbutas 1989: 194, fig. 300). The symbol is a tattoo or marks the upper part of the overcoat, which is 

probably a shirt with long sleeves. The statuette wears an owl mask and has arms-wings ready to fly (folded 

in the elbows with a right angle and pointing downwards). It symbolizes “the Goddess’ regenerative power”, 

according to Gimbutas (1990: 231, fig. 11.13). Nevertheless, one can observe an inscription under the right 

armpit made up of a four-parallel line, a V, and a six-parallel line as well as another inscription under the left 

armpit consisting of a bi-line, a three-stroke, and a five-line sign. The accompaniment of the text to the 

curved contour of the armpits, and the highly symmetric left-right location of the inscriptions, reveal that 

they also had an ornamental function. The figurine is dated 5000-4500 BC by Gimbutas. It was found at 

Gradešnica (Northwestern Bulgaria). 24 

Contemporaneous aesthetic rendering in sign shape, text architecture and inscription positional centering 

characterizes a Vinča D fragment of a miniature altar from the eponymous settlement (Vasić PV III, 1932- 

36: 112, fig. 534; Winn 81: 305, fig. 167). The aesthetic sense at work is on tune with a “pompa magna” 

writing style. The same choice characterizes a spindle-whorl from Dikili Tash (Greece) (Merlini 2004e; see 

in fig. 5.278 a partial reproduction of the spindle in the present text). 

24 For the significant contribution of the Gradešnica – Brenica culture to the development of the Danube script see § 

9.D.b “Consistent ars scribendi examples from the Gradešnica – Brenica culture”. 

227

Fig. 5.84 – The curved shape following the 

silhouette of the forehead and the rendition backto-back 

of the same sign of the Danube script in 

the position of the eyebrows is artistically executed 

on a head or mask of a bear from Pločnik 

(Republic of Serbia). 

(After Winn 1981: 360, fig. 2). 

228 

Fig. 5.85 – Decorative function of two inscriptions 

positioned under the armpits on a black polished 

figurine dominated by a symbolic, meandering 

composition (Gradešnica, Northwestern Bulgaria). 

(After Gimbutas 1989: 194, fig. 300). 

Fig. 5.86– Aesthetic rendering in sign shape, text architecture and inscription positional centering on a 

Vinča D fragment of a miniature altar from the eponymous settlement. 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Winn 81: 305, fig. 167). 

Highly decorative is the long inscription running in horizontal on the lower area of the garment worn by a 

Vadastra female figurine from Hotarani (Olt, Romania) (Nica 1980: 37, fig. 7/1). The reading space is 

clearly delimitated in horizontal and vertical. For style, the text is on tune with the emblematic ornament 

depicted on the upper part of the dress. However, it is not a simulated inscription (with decorative purpose).

The figurine is pregnant. It recalls a Vinča C figurine with a special cloth for childbirth. If the hypothesis is 

correct, the text might be a formula to facilitate the delivery process. 25 

Fig. 5.87 – A highly decorative inscription occurs on the garment worn by a Vadastra female figurine from 

Hotarani (Olt, Romania). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Nica 1980: 37, fig. 7/1). 

According to the “Matrix of semiotic markers and rules”, the mark occurring on the spindle-whorl V9275 

from Turdaş and presented below is neither a schematic drawing nor a compound and complex sign of 

writing composed by the combination of elementary geometric signs as stated by Winn, who considered the 

image as conbination of the signs 31-32-45 from his inventory 1981 (Winn 1981: 139, tab. III). 

Fig. 5.88 – A pictogram of a flying bird occurs as 

unit of a complex inscription on the spindle whorl 

V9275 from Turdaş. 

(After Winn 81: 269, fig. 16). 

25 See § 9.C.b “The Vinča C as the culture of the greatest sign production”. 

229 

Fig. 5.89 – The same pictogram occurs as mono-sign 

on another spindle from the same settlement. 

(After Winn 81: 269, fig. 13).

The Turdaş mark under scrutiny is a pictogram of a flying bird as part of an inscription composed of six 

units. The same sign occurs also as mono-sign on another spindle from the same settlement. If one rotates the 

whorl one-quarter turn either clockwise or counter-clockwise, the result does not change: the figure on the 

right or left respectively can be interpreted artistically as the side view of a bird. 26 

5.E.b.8 Abrasions, corrosion and damage can create confusion between decorations and signs of writing 

At times ornamental motifs seem to be strange linear marks without any aesthetic value or to be 

asymmetrically positioned simply because they are incised on a surface of clay that now is ruined. 

On a Middle Neolithic vessel from Deckel (Albania) belonging to Podgorie II culture, the ornamental design 

composed by chevrons oriented towards the four directions could be confused for an assemblage of signs of 

writing being injured (Korkuti 1995: Pl. 66/16). On a vessel from Orăştie-Broos (Romania), linear and 

abstract decorations from Turdaş culture can give the illusion of a written text simply because they are ruined 

by abrasions (Luca, Pinter 2001). 

Fig. 5.90 – A ruined ornamental design could be 

confused for an assemblage of signs of writing on 

a Middle Neolithic vessel from Deckel (Albania). 

(After Korkuti 1995: Pl. 66/16). 

Fig. 5.91 - On a vessel from Orăştie-Broos 

(Romania), linear Turdaş decorative elements injured 

by abrasions could be confused with a written text. 

(After Luca, Pinter 2001: Pl. 21/3). 

At first glance and without making a direct control on the patterns incised on the chest of a Vinča C 

fragmented statuette from Rast (Romania), could be easy to misinterpret the incomplete, injured and 

asymmetric meandering decoration for an inscription ( , , , , , ). The female bust is 7.6 cm. in 

height, made of very fine dark-red clay and decorated only by the incisions on the breasts that have been 

eroded by water. The face is moderately rhomboidal and the top of the head is well rounded, curving to the 

nape where some straight vertical grooves could indicate hair. The eyes are in relief, crescent-shaped, and 

slashed horizontally (Dumitrescu1980: 64). The same mistake could be made for a similar Vinča C female 

bust from the same settlement, where the incomplete, hurt and asymmetric decoration could be wrongly 

identified for a linear text made of the following signs of the Danube script: , , , , , , . 27 

In addition, meandering decoration and round breasts have been eroded by water. The rhomboidal face has 

the peculiarity to display dissimilar eyes: the right is semi-circular whereas the left is oblong (Dumitrescu 

1980: 64). 

26 

For the utilization of the Danube script in the Turdaş culture, see § 9.C.c “The inventory of the signs from the Turdaş 

culture”. 

27 

For the development of the Danube script in the Vinča C Rast, see § 9.C.b “The Vinča C as the culture of the greatest 

sign production”. 

230

Fig. 5.92 - Incomplete and asymmetric decoration 

could be mistaken for an inscription on a Vinča C 

fragmented statuette from Rast (Romania). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Dumitrescu 

1980: PI. LVIII/4). 

231 

Fig. 5.93 - At first sight, the partial and asymmetric 

decoration could be mistaken for an inscription on a 

Vinča C fragmented figurine from Rast (Romania). 

(Graphic elaboration by Merlini after Dumitrescu 

1980: PI. LVIII/5). 

On a fragmented Precucuteni stool from the ritual assembly found at Isaiia sanctuary (Moldavia, Romania) 

one can catch a glimpse of a “Y”, but it is possibly a merely result of a process of abrading. On a female 

figurine from Djadovo (Bulgaria) nowadays in the repository of the Archaeological Institute with Museum at 

Sofia (Nikolov V. 2005: 218, fig. 8-20), the symmetry of the decoration on abdomen and thigh is missed 

because an abrasion cancelled part of the marks. Belonging to Karanovo VI culture (late Eneolithic), it is 8.4 

cm. high and is made of clay. The head is missing and the arms are crossed over the belly. Other white 

incrusted decorations depict pubic triangle, fingers, and toes. 

Fig. 5.94 - On a fragmented Precucuteni stool 

from Isaiia (Moldavia, Romania), one could se a 

“Y”, but it is possibly only an abrasion. 

(After Ursulescu 2005). 

Fig. 5.95 - The symmetry of the emblematic decoration 

is missed due to abrasions on a figurine from Djakovo 

(Bulgaria). 

(After Nikolov V. 2005: 218, fig. 8-20).

09 ritual graffiti 1..

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