page_title: Proto-writing
section_title: Neolithic Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Proto-writing / Neolithic / Neolithic Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: Neolithic clay amulet (retouched), part of the Tărtăria tablets set, dated to 5500-5300 BC and associated with the Turdaş-Vinča culture. The Vinča symbols on it predate the proto-Sumerian pictographic script. Discovered in 1961 at Tărtăria, Alba County, Romania by the archaeologist Nicolae Vlassa. Drawing by Nikola Smolenski, 2003. Français&#160;: L'amulette (photo retouchée). Magyar: Az amulett retusált képe. Italiano: L'amuleto (ritoccato). Română: Amulet din Neolitic, făcând parte din cele trei tăbliţe de la Tărtăria descoperite de arheologul Nicolae Vlassa in 1961 la Tărtăria, judeţul Alba Русский: Тэртэрийские таблички. Українська: Амулет. Walon: The amulet (retouched).
context_page_description: Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC. They used ideographic or early mnemonic symbols or both to represent a limited number of concepts, in contrast to true writing systems, which record the language of the writer.
context_section_description: The Vinča symbols (6th to 5th millennia BC, present-day Serbia) are an evolution of simple symbols beginning in the 7th millennium BC, gradually increasing in complexity throughout the 6th millennium and culminating in the Tărtăria tablets of c. 5300 BC.
  The hieroglyphic scripts of the Ancient Near East (Egyptian, Sumerian proto-Cuneiform and Cretan) seamlessly emerge from such symbol systems, so that it is difficult to say at what point precisely writing emerges from proto-writing. Adding to this difficulty is the fact that very little is known about the symbols' meanings.
caption: Clay amulet, one of the Tărtăria tablets, dated to c. 5300 BC
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