# The Tărtăria tablets

> Three small clay tablets, two rectangular and one round (6 cm across), two of them pierced, with signs on one face only, found by Nicolae Vlassa in 1961…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs/artifacts/ART0DEDTJ8GEDK4/the-tartaria-tablets  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Mysteries](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries)[Vinča signs](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs)[Artifacts](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs#artifacts)The Tărtăria tablets

**ART** 0DEDTJ8GEDK4·Artifact · tablet

# The Tărtăria tablets

TabletCC BY-SA 3.0 (uploader's licence; original photographer not recorded on Commons)C. 5300 BC by association with the pit bones (disputed); Hood argued c. 3000 BC

[Cite]

**Not kept here.** This copy isn't ours to show. [See it where it's published](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tartaria_amulet_retouched.PNG).

Three small clay tablets, two rectangular and one round (6 cm across), two of them pierced, with signs on one face only, found by Nicolae Vlassa in 1961 in a pit at Tărtăria with 26 figurines, a shell bracelet and the bones of a woman aged about 50. The pit's bones date to 5370 to 5140 cal BC; the tablets themselves have never been dated directly and their stratigraphy was never published. The best-known and most disputed objects in the Vinča sign debate.

Unknown (Wikimedia Commons upload, retouched 2007). CC BY-SA 3.0 (uploader's licence; original photographer not recorded on Commons)

## Copies 1

**Photograph of the round tablet** Unknown (Wikimedia Commons upload, retouched 2007) · commons.wikimedia.org · CC BY-SA 3.0 (uploader's licence; original photographer not recorded on Commons)1 step from the original

[Where it's published](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tartaria_amulet_retouched.PNG)

## Where it is kept

[National Museum of Transylvanian History, Cluj-Napoca](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0DEDPGD365N2/national-museum-of-transylvanian-history-cluj-napoca) · Museum

## Sources 4

- [Chronology of the Neolithic in Transylvania, in the Light of the Tărtăria Settlement's Stratigraphy](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDM5CFZHSM/chronology-of-the-neolithic-in-transylvania-in-the-light-of)_SRC_
- [New Archaeological Data Refering to Tărtăria Tablets](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDKQ0N6N8Z/new-archaeological-data-refering-to-tartaria-tablets)_SRC_
- [Settling Discovery Circumstances, Dating and Utilization of the Tărtăria Tablets](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDM5J1BK82/settling-discovery-circumstances-dating-and-utilization-of)_SRC_
- [The Tartaria Tablets](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDKPNTQADM/the-tartaria-tablets)_SRC_

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The Tărtăria tablets [Artifact ART0DEDTJ8GEDK4]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ART0DEDTJ8GEDK4
```

Key

**ART** 0DEDTJ8GEDK4

Kind

Tablet

Held by

National Museum of Transylvanian History, Cluj-Napoca

Dated

c. 5300 BC by association with the pit bones (disputed); Hood argued c. 3000 BC

Licence

CC BY-SA 3.0 (uploader's licence; original photographer not recorded on Commons)

Place

[National Museum of Transylvanian History, Cluj-Napoca](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0DEDPGD365N2/national-museum-of-transylvanian-history-cluj-napoca)

Part of

[Vinča signs](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/vinca-signs)

The record

Every record is open data. Take this one as JSON, with its links and its history.

[JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/api/v1/records/ART0DEDTJ8GEDK4)