The Anomalous Dispilio Tablet 5000 and 500 BCE

Deconstructing the myth of the Dispilio Tablet and Early Writing by The Prehistory Guys

(November 30, 2024) In this video The Prehistory Guys expose the fakery behind the above popular photograph which is actually a very poor reproduction of the original which is dense with random scratchings. The two are nothing alike.

Tablet Dispilio is a cedar wood tablet discovered by Giorgios Hourmouziadis, a professor in archaeology at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, in 1993 during excavations made in the Neolithic settlement on the shores of Lake Kastoria (Oorestiada) near the city of Emonim Kastoria, near the village of Dispilio in northern Greece. Giorgios Hourmouziadis announced the discovery of the tablet in February 1994 at a symposium held at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki.

Real Dispilio Tablet

This seems to be the earliest photo of the real Dispilio Tablet online. It is from 2016. From https://limbatracaprotoromana.blogspot.com/2016/02/xvii-inscriptia-in-limba-traca.html

Other artifacts found at Dispilio during excavation are found in their local museum. Photo from: https://archaeologicalmuseums.gr/en/museum/5df34af3deca5e2d79e8c1ae/archaeological-collection-of-dispilio

The Dispilio Tablet

(April 6, 2024) Quote from the description of the book: Radiocarbon Dating of the Neolithic Lakeside Settlement of Dispilio, Kastoria, Northern Greece published online by Cambridge University Press February 9, 2016:

Dispilio is the only excavated Neolithic lakeside settlement in Greece. Archaeological research provided evidence that the site was continuously used from the Early Neolithic (∼6000 BC) to the Late Chalcolithic period (∼1200 BC, Mycenaean period). During several archaeological campaigns, a portion of the settlement has been excavated that enabled a sufficient understanding of the architectural layout of homes, the building materials, and the organization of space, while the finds (fragments of pottery, stone and bone tools, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay figurines, miniature representations of objects also on clay, animal and fish bones, charred cereal grains, and other fruits) provided information on the everyday lives of the Neolithic inhabitants. A series of charcoal and wood samples, originating mostly from the Middle and Late Neolithic layers of the site, were radiocarbon dated and their dates range from ∼5470 to 4850 BC. The most unexpected of the finds, a wooden tablet from the lake bearing engraved symbols, was 14C dated to 5260 ± 40 BC. In addition, clay tablets and pottery vessels engraved with similar symbols were also unearthed from layers dated to the same period. If this proves to be a primary source of written communication, the history of writing should be reconsidered and Neolithic societies should not be considered “societies without writing.”

Reference

Facorellis Y, Sofronidou M, Hourmouziadis G. Radiocarbon (2014) Dating of the Neolithic Lakeside Settlement of Dispilio, Kastoria, Northern Greece. Radiocarbon. 2014;56(2):511-528. https://doi.org/10.2458/56.17456

The Dispilio Tablet and the Real Origins of Writing

(April 6, 2024) Good video by CivilisatoPedia.

Discovered back in 1993 by George Xourmouziadis, a professor of prehistoric archaeology, the Dispilio tablet was unearthed during excavations of a Neolithic lake settlement near the city of Kastoria in northern Greece. This ancient settlement was actually discovered back in 1932 during a dry winter when the water levels of Lake Kastoria were particularly low.

Prehistoric Settlement Of Dispilio – Kastoria | Greece [4K]

(April 6, 2024) Airial drone film of the existing tourist site at Dispilio in Greece by Point Of View GR.

The was a long lived Neolithic farmer village located in a marsh.