The Vinčа Symbols

The oldest culture on the Serbian soil and in Europe is that of the Danubian peoples, whose remains have been found on two archaeological sites – the Lеpеnski Vir (near Мајdаnpеk) and Vinčа (near Belgrade). The Danubian people lived in the area between 6,500 and 4,000 BC. There are some assumptions that they were actually the Etruscans, an old people who came to Italy from the East. Many pottery fragments contain signs and symbols for which some researchers suggest they may be a type of letters, even similar to the Etruscan ones. If the scientific research confirm the assumption, that would be the oldest alphabet known to man, even older than the Sumerian and the Phoenician one, from which the Greek, and the Cyrillic, derived.  According to the theory, the Vinčа symbols are the source of literacy in the world. That would further mean that literacy, if not originated, at least existed before any other, on the Serbian soil!

HISTORY

Significant similarities may be detected when we compare the Vinčа symbols with the Phoenician, Latin and Greek, and the Cyrillic, alphabets.

OUTSTANDING FIGURES

Мilоје Vаsić, an archaeologist, who started extensive excavations of the prehistoric Vinča.