# The signs are proto-writing, a notation without language

> Still possible: The Vinča signs are proto-writing: a conventional notation that conveyed meanings such as ownership, quantity or ritual category without…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/answers/ANS0DEDY3VM7CCE/the-signs-are-proto-writing-a-notation-without-language  
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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Vinča signs](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs)[Do the Vinča signs record language, a conventional notation, or neither?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/questions/QST0DEDW2Y5RPT1/do-the-vinca-signs-record-language-a-conventional-notation)Answer

Answer · Vinča signs

# The signs are proto-writing, a notation without language

The Vinča signs are proto-writing: a conventional notation that conveyed meanings such as ownership, quantity or ritual category without encoding speech.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- A subset of signs, mostly compounds and the signs on figurines and tablets, shows repetition and co-occurrence structure, while the base marks do not.
- The comb and brush motifs behave as counts, with values that vary and combine with other signs.
- Sign meaning is tied to object type: the same sign does not appear on both pot bases and figurines.

## What would rule it out

- No subset of the corpus shows more structure than the pottery marks when tested against a null model.
- A phonetic reading of a Vinča sequence predicts the content of another sequence before it is checked.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[Comb and brush motifs make up about a sixth of all signs and are plausibly tallies, and Mäder leaves 29.5 per cent of…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/evidence/EVD0DEE9BH2JY3Y/comb-and-brush-motifs-make-up-about-a-sixth-of-all-signs-and)

Suggestive

FOR

[Proto-cuneiform, the one well-studied proto-writing, is an administrative system of numerals, commodity signs and…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/evidence/EVD0DEE9BZ5YRZX/proto-cuneiform-the-one-well-studied-proto-writing-is-an)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[Do the Vinča signs record language, a conventional notation, or neither?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/questions/QST0DEDW2Y5RPT1/do-the-vinca-signs-record-language-a-conventional-notation)

Open6 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The signs are proto-writing, a notation without language [Answer ANS0DEDY3VM7CCE]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDY3VM7CCE
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDY3VM7CCE

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Version

1

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