Dispilio Tablet
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The Dispilio Tablet (also known as the Dispilio Scripture or the Dispilio Disk) is a wooden tablet bearing inscribed markings (charagmata), unearthed during George Hourmouziadis's excavations of Dispilio in Greece and Carbon 14-dated to about 7300 years b.p. (5260 BC). It was discovered in 1993 in a Neolithic lakeshore settlement that occupied an artificial island[1] near the modern village of Dispilio on Lake Kastoria in Kastoria Prefecture, Greece.
The lake settlement itself was excavated starting in 1992. The site appears to have been occupied from the final stages of the Middle Neolithic (5600-5000 BC) to the Final Neolithic (3000 BC). A number of items were found, including ceramics, wooden structural elements, seeds, bones, figurines, personal ornaments, flutes, and the inscribed tablet.
The tablet's discovery was announced at a symposium in February 1994 at the University of Thessaloniki. The site's paleoenvironment, botany, fishing techniques, tools and ceramics were published informally in the June 2000 issue of Επτάκυκλος, a Greek archaeology magazine and by Hourmouziadis in 2002.
The tablet itself was partially damaged when it was exposed to the oxygen-rich environment outside of the mud and water it was immersed in for a long period of time, and it is under conservation. The full academic publication of the tablet apparently awaits the completion of conservation work.
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[edit] References
- ^ James Whitley, " Archaeology in Greece 2003-2004" Archaeological Reports No. 50 (2003, pp 1-92) p. 43.
[edit] Sources
- G. H. Hourmouziadis, ed., Dispilio, 7500 Years After. Thessaloniki, 2002.
- G. H. Hourmouziadis, Ανασκαφής Εγκόλπιον. Athens, 2006.
[edit] See also
- Vinca culture
- Old European script (Sometimes called "the Vinča alphabet".)
- Tartaria tablets
- Neolithic Europe
