In the scientific world, there are constant disputes regarding the existence of writing among a particular people at a certain period of history. For example, it is not known whether the Slavs had it long before the adoption of Christianity. But what to do when it comes to writing at a time when, in principle, it could not exist?
It was in 1924 in the small town of Glosel (France). A young guy Emil Fradel accidentally discovered a hole that looked like a hiding place. It contained many interesting finds for archaeologists: ceramics, bones with drawings engraved on them, stone tools and clay tablets with incomprehensible signs.
The material culture of the people who created all this indicated that they had not yet reached the civilizational level. The images of the reindeer found led the researchers to assume that they are in front of the finds of the late Stone Age - the Neolithic. Considering that this animal became extinct about 12,000 years ago, a minimum age for the finds can be established.
An engraved reindeer and incomprehensible signs on one of the Glozel finds.
Alas, the first to be excavated were non-professionals: a teacher and a prosecutor. Everyone who has come across archeology knows that the place of each find must be accurately recorded. It is important to study and photograph the territory where these excavations are to take place. It is for this that specialists in this field are required. It is strange why the professionals were not invited to Glozel from the very beginning? In the future, this could reduce the amount of talk about forging finds.
Excavations at Glozel.
The first specialist, whose attention was attracted by the discovered artifacts, was the archaeologist Antonin Morlet. The most interesting were the signs on which, presumably, something was written. Did they really appear in the Neolithic times, millennia before the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian writing? The assumption looks incredible for several reasons.
- Writing arises when it is necessary to convey a large amount of information. It becomes more and more difficult to do it verbally, and then people begin to exchange signs, the meaning of which has been previously agreed upon between members of one society. In the Neolithic, there is practically no such need.
- Writing appeared in a society that had reached high material and cultural development. Its representatives have already created their cities or large villages (like the Trypillians, who, by the way, did not have their own letter). And what do we see in the excavated pit? Just objects from the Stone Age. No evidence has yet been found that a developed civilization existed here.
- Glozel tablets are a single find, indicating that in France (and the rest of the world) people wrote in 10,000 BC. e. This is probably the main argument against the authenticity of this find.
Today, scientists have not made a general decision regarding these artifacts. Even a center was created in which they are studied. Experts divided into “Glozelites” and “antigloselites”. Disputes about the authenticity, interpretation and dating of the tablets continue.
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Anyone wishing to see the artifacts found in Glosel can come to this small French town. They are in the local museum. Perhaps one of its visitors will someday be able to find a clue to the mystery!