These baked clay tablets apparently containing codes have been found across central Europe, from northern Italy to Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Romania. They were transported across long distances in the early bronze age and are probably connected with trade, maybe serving as a form of credit or receipt. It has also been speculated that they had some sort of religious purpose. They're referred to as 'enigmatic tablets', or 'brotlaibidole' in Germany (meaning 'bread loaf idols'). Coordinated international research on these objects has increased recently and the general view appears to be that they are indeed a systematic form of communication, i.e. an early form of writing, accounting or exchange token. They ceased to be used at around the same time that the first Linear B inscriptions first appear in Mycenaean Greece (1400 BC).
Translated from Italian:
THE ENIGMATIC TABLETS - A CODE IN COMMON
Four thousand years ago, in the middle of the Bronze Age, the populations of central-northern Italy and those of a large area of central-eastern Europe had a common code that was imprinted on small terracotta artifacts. About 300 of them have been found, but their meaning and their function are still unknown, making them known among the scholars as "enigmatic tablets”.
"Checks" or "bills" used in prehistoric trades, talismans, elements included in some recording system, objects with a ritual meaning: there are many different hypotheses about the function of these tablets covered with signs of various kinds, like stripes, circles, points or crosses. What is certain is that they were used as non-perishable support to store information and that were known between distant and different communities, united only by frequent contacts and commercial exchanges: we find them in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, but above all northern Italy. The "enigmatic tablets" are also called " Brotlaibidole " (in German "loaf-shaped idols").
To unveil the meaning of the mysterious "Brotlaibidole", a catalog was created on the website www.tavoletteenigmatiche.it, on which all available data are updated and entered. Not only that, web pages are also used to collect information from individuals: there is in fact also the possibility to fill in a notification form, also anonymously.
Perhaps it is too early to understand this form of pre-writing, but the direction in which studies are being directed is precisely that of considering it as a form of writing: and this is an already important starting point. Spread between 2100 and 1400 BC, these tablets "suddenly" disappear with the Late Bronze Age, and perhaps not by chance: in that period contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean intensified and the meeting with the system of codified and consolidated signs of the Mycenaean civilization may have decreed the disappearance of the "mysterious" code imprinted on the "enigmatic tablets".
The definition "enigmatic tablet" is used to indicate archaeological finds of difficult functional interpretation, which we find widespread throughout Europe: they are objects of terracotta, more rarely in stone, of a length of between 3 and 12 cm, of an ellipsoidal, ovoidal and rectangular shape, but also trapezoidal or circular specimens are known. The unifying trait is the presence of signs made on one or both sides: geometric elements such as points, cupels or circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, grooves, cruciform motifs, rhombuses, spirals; sometimes they are subjected to minor signs (dots, dashes, small cups) and variously associated to determine a rich sample of abstract signs, to which are added on the Danubian tablets naturalistic signs in the shape of a flower, produced using the fruit of the Malvaceae as a mold .
The "enigmatic tablets" are a European phenomenon: they have been found from Corsica to central-northern Italy to Germany, and towards the east they reach Poland to the north and to the south-east they are distributed along the Danube to Romania. In some regions the findings are particularly numerous, such as. in the territory of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Even more rich in finds are in Italy the Po Valley area: outside these areas very few specimens are known, some of which come also from central Italy (Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio). As for the chronological horizon, the latest developments in archaeological research tend to place the Tablets in the Early Bronze Age and in the early stages of the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1300 BC).
The element that appears most significant for the purpose of an interpretation is the presence of abstract signs: this has led to the thinking of proprietary brands. One proposal is to recognize a sort of calendar or accounting notes.
In recent times, a very accurate typological survey has shown that recurring symbols are often combined in repeated sequences and syntax, reinforced by the presence of the lines along which the signs are distributed. In this sense very important for the deciphering of the phenomenon is the presence of equal signs on tablets found even in sites far from each other: an example for all are very similar concentric circles on the Corsa di Monte Ortu tablet, on the Trentino tablets of Borgo Sacco and S.Mauro di Saline, on a specimen from the Venetian site of Canar and finally on tablets from Monkodonja in Istria, a distribution therefore documenting the spread of a sign even over long distances.
This led to the hypothesis of the existence of a known code, interpretable with precision by the ancient communities.
So the fact that substantially homogeneous objects are located in regions so far from each other seems to indicate that the tablets "travel" covering even long distances. In this sense, some scholars have hypothesized that the tablets were part of a communication system as signs of legitimation of oral messages or to accompany exchange goods, and once this function was exhausted they were broken. Two Slovakian tablets have in fact given very interesting results: one, from Budmerice, presents the same mixture of some ceramic fragments from the same site, the other, from Dvorniki-Posadka, is made with material unrelated to local availability and therefore could document just the origin from another region.
The tablets in fact retain significant values that relate them to the category of tokens, systems of annotation and registration."
https://archeotime.com/2015/03/17/la-tavoletta-enigmatica-del-museo-della-preistoria-di-valentano/
Symbols found on the tablets:
Distribution of finds:
Other links:
https://www.lda-lsa.de/aktuelles/meldung/datum/2016/08/24/eine_verschluesselte_botschaft_aus_der_fruehbronzezeit/
http://www.tavoletteenigmatiche.it/index.html
More images:
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Translated from Italian:
THE ENIGMATIC TABLETS - A CODE IN COMMON
Four thousand years ago, in the middle of the Bronze Age, the populations of central-northern Italy and those of a large area of central-eastern Europe had a common code that was imprinted on small terracotta artifacts. About 300 of them have been found, but their meaning and their function are still unknown, making them known among the scholars as "enigmatic tablets”."Checks" or "bills" used in prehistoric trades, talismans, elements included in some recording system, objects with a ritual meaning: there are many different hypotheses about the function of these tablets covered with signs of various kinds, like stripes, circles, points or crosses. What is certain is that they were used as non-perishable support to store information and that were known between distant and different communities, united only by frequent contacts and commercial exchanges: we find them in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, but above all northern Italy. The "enigmatic tablets" are also called " Brotlaibidole " (in German "loaf-shaped idols").To unveil the meaning of the mysterious "Brotlaibidole", a catalog was created on the website www.tavoletteenigmatiche.it, on which all available data are updated and entered. Not only that, web pages are also used to collect information from individuals: there is in fact also the possibility to fill in a notification form, also anonymously.Perhaps it is too early to understand this form of pre-writing, but the direction in which studies are being directed is precisely that of considering it as a form of writing: and this is an already important starting point. Spread between 2100 and 1400 BC, these tablets "suddenly" disappear with the Late Bronze Age, and perhaps not by chance: in that period contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean intensified and the meeting with the system of codified and consolidated signs of the Mycenaean civilization may have decreed the disappearance of the "mysterious" code imprinted on the "enigmatic tablets".The definition "enigmatic tablet" is used to indicate archaeological finds of difficult functional interpretation, which we find widespread throughout Europe: they are objects of terracotta, more rarely in stone, of a length of between 3 and 12 cm, of an ellipsoidal, ovoidal and rectangular shape, but also trapezoidal or circular specimens are known. The unifying trait is the presence of signs made on one or both sides: geometric elements such as points, cupels or circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, grooves, cruciform motifs, rhombuses, spirals; sometimes they are subjected to minor signs (dots, dashes, small cups) and variously associated to determine a rich sample of abstract signs, to which are added on the Danubian tablets naturalistic signs in the shape of a flower, produced using the fruit of the Malvaceae as a mold .The "enigmatic tablets" are a European phenomenon: they have been found from Corsica to central-northern Italy to Germany, and towards the east they reach Poland to the north and to the south-east they are distributed along the Danube to Romania. In some regions the findings are particularly numerous, such as. in the territory of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Even more rich in finds are in Italy the Po Valley area: outside these areas very few specimens are known, some of which come also from central Italy (Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio). As for the chronological horizon, the latest developments in archaeological research tend to place the Tablets in the Early Bronze Age and in the early stages of the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1300 BC).
The element that appears most significant for the purpose of an interpretation is the presence of abstract signs: this has led to the thinking of proprietary brands. One proposal is to recognize a sort of calendar or accounting notes.
In recent times, a very accurate typological survey has shown that recurring symbols are often combined in repeated sequences and syntax, reinforced by the presence of the lines along which the signs are distributed. In this sense very important for the deciphering of the phenomenon is the presence of equal signs on tablets found even in sites far from each other: an example for all are very similar concentric circles on the Corsa di Monte Ortu tablet, on the Trentino tablets of Borgo Sacco and S.Mauro di Saline, on a specimen from the Venetian site of Canar and finally on tablets from Monkodonja in Istria, a distribution therefore documenting the spread of a sign even over long distances.
This led to the hypothesis of the existence of a known code, interpretable with precision by the ancient communities.
So the fact that substantially homogeneous objects are located in regions so far from each other seems to indicate that the tablets "travel" covering even long distances. In this sense, some scholars have hypothesized that the tablets were part of a communication system as signs of legitimation of oral messages or to accompany exchange goods, and once this function was exhausted they were broken. Two Slovakian tablets have in fact given very interesting results: one, from Budmerice, presents the same mixture of some ceramic fragments from the same site, the other, from Dvorniki-Posadka, is made with material unrelated to local availability and therefore could document just the origin from another region.
The tablets in fact retain significant values that relate them to the category of tokens, systems of annotation and registration."
https://archeotime.com/2015/03/17/la-tavoletta-enigmatica-del-museo-della-preistoria-di-valentano/
Symbols found on the tablets:
Distribution of finds:
Other links:
https://www.lda-lsa.de/aktuelles/meldung/datum/2016/08/24/eine_verschluesselte_botschaft_aus_der_fruehbronzezeit/
http://www.tavoletteenigmatiche.it/index.html
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