Approximately 700 different characters, around the same numbers of symbols used in Egyptian hieroglyphs, found in the Balkan region of Europe, but they predate the Egyptian hieroglyphs by 2000 years? Looking at the picture it sure does look like some sort of writing but scholars and archaeologist will tell you its only decoration. Vinča civilization flourished from 5,550BC (7,500years) to 3,500BC (5,500years) in modern day Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. This might be one of the oldest written systems in the world, they have been found on many of the artifacts excavated from sites in south/east Europe, One of the biggest discoveries was found in town Vinča near the Serbian modern day capital Belgrade. TWO millennium (2,000 years) before the Dynastic Egypt and Mesopotamia Civilization, Vinča culture was flourishing. A typical town consisted of houses with complex architectural layouts and several rooms, built of wood that was covered in mud. The houses sat along streets, thus making Vinca the first urban settlement in Europe. And the town of Vinca itself was just one of several metropolises, with others at Divostin, Potporanj, Selevac, Plocnik and Predionica. While the rest of Europe was in the middle of the Stone Age, Vinča culture had advance architecture such as temples several stories high, spacious two story houses, professional ceramicists, weavers, copper and gold metallurgists. So why was the this culture so advance while the rest of the world was still going though the stone age? It might have to do something with some 2000 figurines they left behind. Which we will go into more detail in future posts.