Linear A script from the Eastern Rhodopes —- Is this Genuine or Hoax?

The English-language novinite.com and other Bulgarian newspapers in their editions from May 18-20th 2005 report that “German scholars from the University of Heidelberg” have confirmed that the two fragments discovered by the archaeologist N. Ovcharov in the Eastern Rhodopes mountains, southern Bulgaria, are written in the Linear A script. (The news was initially broken by Ovcharov to the Bulgarian media in August 2004.) The first is a stone tablet from Perperek – a rock sanctuary which had functioned since the late Bronze Age. The marks on the tablet, found in 1982 during the first excavations at Perperek, were recognised as (probably) important only in 2003, during a drawing up an inventory of the archaeological collection of the Kurdzhali’s Museum of history. The second is a clay fragment from a late Bronze age (XV-XIV cc. BC) found by tourists in the cave Utroba (‘womb’) near the village of Nenkovo. The two symbols were drawn on a clay medallion which was stuck to the wall of a hand-made clay vessel before it was fired up. A piece of ceramics from the same period (XV c BC) with a five-point star. (V.K. It is unclear whether this pottery piece is from Perperek or from the cave Utroba). The cave Utroba is 25 km NW of the town of Kurdzhali, in a region rich with remains of Thracian sanctuaries and rock niches: ((MAY 2005)) Ancient tablets found in South Bulgaria are written in the oldest European script found ever, German scientists say. The tablets, unearthed near the Southern town of Kardzhali, are over 35-centuries old, and bear the ancient script of the Cretan (Minoan) civilization, according to scientists from the University of Heidelberg, who examined the foundings. This is the Cretan writing, also known as Linear A script, which dates back to XV-XIV century B.C. The discovery proves the theory of the Bulgarian archaeologists that the script on the foundings is one of the oldest known to humankind, the archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov announced Wednesday. Ovcharov, who is heading the archaeological expedition in the ancient Perperikon complex near Kardzhali, called the discovery “revolutionary”. It throws a completely different light on Bulgaria’s history, he said in an interview for the National Television. ((18 MAY 2005))

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