quote:However, subsequent radiocarbon dating on the Tartaria finds pushed the date of the tablets (and therefore of the whole Vina culture) much further back, to as long ago as 5500 BC, well before the Sumerian era [2] (although this is disputed in the light of apparently contradictory stratigraphic evidence [3]).
If the symbols are indeed a form of writing, then writing in the Danubian culture would far predate the earliest Sumerian cuneiform script or Egyptian [1]. They would thus be the world's earliest known form of writing. This claim remains controversial.