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.
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Discovery
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.
References
- ^ Whitley, James. "Archaeology in Greece 2003-2004". Archaeological Reports, No. 50 (2003, pp. 1-92), p. 43.
Sources
- G. H. Hourmouziadis, ed., Dispilio, 7500 Years After. Thessaloniki, 2002.
- G. H. Hourmouziadis, Ανασκαφής Εγκόλπιον. Athens, 2006.
See also
- Vinca culture
- Old European script (Sometimes called "the Vinča alphabet".)
- Tartaria tablets
- Neolithic Europe
External links
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