| SACRED SYMBOLS ON NEOLITHIC CULT OBJECTS FROM THE BALKANS Gheorghe Lazarovici |
| Table of contents |
| Brief history of the problem Approaching method Excerpts from the information database Bibliography |
| BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM General studies S. Winn has collected thousands of signs from the Balkans, especially from the Vinca area. Unfortunately, because of the limited book circulation, his contribution is not very popular. M. Gimbutas has conceptualized this subject, introducing new arguments and interpretations. Her conceptions have become widely popular. She has made the first catalogue of over 100 sacred signs, but it was without numeration. Other signs have been arranged according their design only (Gimbutas.gif). We have used these signs when we made our own catalogue for our data-base. Special studies B. Nikolov has published some pieces from the Bulgarian Chalcolithic period, some of them being interpreted as ideograms, pictograms, signs of very stylized human representations (e.g. signs from Brenitsa). I. Paul has discovered a stone idol and a triangular clay altar, both with sacred signs, arranged on registers and ordered in a special structure. He has interpreted this very early discovery from the Romanian Neolithic (the seventh - sixth millennium BC) as a "mythogram". Another piece (the fourth-third millennium BC), a pot base fragment from Daia Romana, has sacred signs on its base and on the lip. Such kind of signs is presented on different altars, idols, pot bases or cult pots from Romanian prehistoric inventory. Gh. Lazarovici being interested in the meaning of older agrarian myths, connected with the resurrection, sacred numbers, cultic milling, or the sacred bread, has given new significations for the symbols M and W, related to their position on the cult pieces or in the sanctuary. E. Masson has published some objects from the Danube area. She had believed that the "Danubean" writing is stressing only to its formal stage. She also published other 2 tablets from Tangaru and 3 from Rast. In our opinion, some of them were sacred breads. I. Vajsov and H. Todorova published a catalogue and table with sacred signs, which was seriated (see below). This process gives some very interesting cultural correlations that can be further researched. Magda Lazarovici (Mantu) has been working on the symbol database. Her special research interest are the altarpieces, and she has made a synthetic presentation of the meaning of these symbols. Tartaria and other tablets N. Vlassa (1962, 1964, 1976) interprets the Tartaria tablets as following: a hunting scene and the other two with signs, a kind of primitive writing which sustains the connections with Near East. He also wrote about the sacred signs and their connection with the Blau and Kiss tablet (1970; 1971, 1976, fig. 10-15). His Ph. D. subject was also related to the sacred signs (1977, unpublished). J. Makkay (1969, 1984) made the first synthesis related to the sacred signs, gathering hundred of such signs, starting with those from Turdas and establishing genetic and cultural connections with the Near East. He is the author of a monograph about the seals and of an another one, about sacred signs. E. Masson (1977, 1984), analyzing tablet 2 and 3 from Tartaria, believed that they represent a writing system in a primary developing stage, expressed in a descriptive and symbolic manner. Many other studies and references are related to the Tartaria tablets, but they do not relate directly to the subject presented here. |
| Copyrights 2002 © International Institute of Anthropology and Prehistory Foundation Copyrights 2002 © Gheorghe Lazarovici Editor: Lolita NIkolova Published by Reports of Prehistoric Research Projects Web June 2002 |
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