The Lesser-Known Civilization Which May Have Invented Writing Before Mesopotamia
The story of the Vinča culture, Europe’s first civilization
In 2004, linguists, historians, and archaeologists gathered in Novi Sad, Serbia, for an international conference. Among the speakers was Shan M.M. Winn, a former Professor of Anthropology at the University of Southern Mississippi. In 1981, he published a landmark study, Pre-Writing in Southeastern Europe: The Sign System of the Vinča Culture, which earned him fame in academia.
Winn made a startling revelation to the audience.
He knew a script existed in Europe two thousand years before writing appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, the academic climate in the 1970s wouldn’t allow a shift away from the widely held belief that Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization. He had to compromise and carefully word his thesis, terming the script as “pre-writing,” or it would be rejected.
Fortunately, researchers no longer have to walk on eggshells. Most historians and archaeologists now believe that civilizations developed independently across the world. However, a European civilization thousands of years before the Minoans, with a written script and advanced metallurgy, is still controversial. Even among academics, those who study…
