# The signs are marks and ornament, not a system

> Still possible: The Vinča signs are potters' and owners' marks, decoration and occasional tallies with no shared system beyond local convention.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/answers/ANS0DEDY4RKS918/the-signs-are-marks-and-ornament-not-a-system  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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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 marks and ornament, not a system

The Vinča signs are potters' and owners' marks, decoration and occasional tallies with no shared system beyond local convention.

**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

- Sign type is predicted by object class and position (base, body, whorl) and by site, not by neighbouring signs.
- The same sign recurs on several pots within one house or one site but sign combinations do not recur across sites.
- Sign inventories at two sites overlap only in the simplest shapes.

## What would rule it out

- Multi-sign sequences recur across sites more often than chance and site-level convention can explain.
- An excavated text of tens of signs in registers, securely dated to the Vinča culture, is found.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[Most signs sit alone on vessel bases or bodies in domestic contexts, where potters' and owners' marks are found in…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/evidence/EVD0DEE9CJ9X51M/most-signs-sit-alone-on-vessel-bases-or-bodies-in-domestic)

Supported

FOR

[A few objects carry grouped signs in registers (the Tărtăria tablets, the Gradešnica plaque) that no mark-and-ornament…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/evidence/EVD0DEE9DTFE58M/a-few-objects-carry-grouped-signs-in-registers-the-tartaria)

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 marks and ornament, not a system [Answer ANS0DEDY4RKS918]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDY4RKS918
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDY4RKS918

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Version

1

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