Abstract
Pictographs on European Prehistoric Pottery.—We have received from Dr. L. A. Waddell a questionary on the Sumerian markings upon prehistoric pottery found in the Danube and associated valleys of Middle Europe. In an explanatory note Dr. Waddell appeals to archaologists and historians in middle and southeastern and northern Europe, and particularly to prehistorians in the British Isles, to examine all examples of prehistoric pottery from the area mentioned to which they have access for markings, apart from the decorative element, in the nature of ‘owner's’ or makers marks. The object of the search, it is explained, is to demonstrate that these markings are analogous, to the owners marks inscribed on the pottery of the Predynastic and First Dynastic periods in ancient Egypt. The latter, Dr. Waddell maintains, can be shown to be Sumerian pictographic writing and presumably bear their phonetic values. By means of a comparative table of marks, Dr. Waddell seeks to demonstrate their identity in Sumerian, Egyptian, and Danubian pottery marks, giving their phonetic equivalent in each case. Dr. Waddell also holds that he has demonstrated that all the ancient civilisations of the world—Mesopotamian and Elamite, Egyptian, Minoan, Hittite, Graco-Roman, Indo-Persian, and presumably also Chinese, were derived from Sumeria. By a synchronism of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Menes is identified as a son of Sargon of Akkad and his date fixed at about 2703 B.C., while for the Danubian pottery from the prehistoric strata at Vinča, a date of about 3300 to 2700 B.C. is suggested on palæographic grounds.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Research Items. Nature 125, 392–393 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/125392a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/125392a0