I have been working an alternative thesis to the established narrative as per the evolution of the Northern Runes.
The established hypothesis is that the Northern Runes are themselves imports to Northern Europe via cultural drift from the Meditteranean ;
" The runes developed centuries after the Mediterranean alphabets from which they are potentially descended. There are some similarities to alphabets of Phoenician origin (Latin, Greek, Italic) that cannot possibly all be due to chance; an Old Italic alphabet, more particularly the Raetic alphabet of Bolzano, is often advanced as a candidate for the origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes ( ᛖ e, ᛇ ï, ᛃ j, ᛜ ŋ, ᛈ p) having no counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet (Mees 2000). This hypothesis is often denied by Scandinavian scholars, who usually favour a Latin origin for most or all of the runic letters (Odenstedt 1990; Williams 1996).[7] An Old Italic or "North Etruscan" thesis is supported by the inscription on the Negau helmet dating to the 2nd century BC (Markey 2001). This is in a northern Etruscan alphabet, but features a Germanic name, Harigast. New archaeological evidence came from Monte Calvario (Auronzo di Cadore). "
This is completely fallacious.
The Runes are themselves symbols passed down in Europe from the indigenous Francocantabrian art of the Upper Palelothic.
Take a look at the symbols used by the Francocantabrians in the book ' Lost Civilisations of the Stone Age ' by Richard Rudgley on page 78 of his book.
The same symbols were then passed on and used in the Balkans - Danube Script ;
http://www.prehistory.it/mappadeisegni1i.htm
http://www.prehistory.it/oldeuropeanscripti.htm
http://www.prehistory.it/3i.htm
http://www.prehistory.it/7i.htm
The Balkan- Danube Script symbols were then passed on to the Vinca Culture group ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_European_script
The discovery of the Tartaria tablets in Romania by Nicolae Vlassa in 1961 reignited the debate. Vlassa believed the inscriptions to be pictograms and the finds were subsequently carbon-dated to before 4000 BC, thirteen hundred years earlier than the date he expected, and earlier even than the writing systems of the Sumerians and Minoans. To date, more than a thousand fragments with similar inscriptions have been found on various archaeological sites throughout south-eastern Europe, notably in Greece (Dispilio Tablet), Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, Romania, eastern Hungary, Moldova, and southern Ukraine.
The importance of these findings lies in the fact that the oldest of them are dated around 4000 BC, around a thousand years before the proto-Sumerian pictographic script from Uruk (modern Iraq), which is usually considered as the oldest known script. Analyses of the symbols showed that they had little similarity with Near Eastern writing, leading to the view that these symbols and the Sumerian script probably arose independently. There are some similarities between the symbols and other Neolithic symbologies found elsewhere, as far afield as Egypt, Crete and even China. However, Chinese scholars have suggested that such signs were produced by a convergent development of what might be called a precursor to writing which evolved independently in a number of societies. Indeed, there are some similarities between Sumerian cuneiform script and stone markings from Çatalhöyük in Turkey and Kamyana Mohyla in Southern Ukraine, both predating the Vinča culture by several millennia[citation needed].
In other words writing developed in the Vinca script and this script was then usedas the basis of Neolitihic language from Europe to China.
The Vinca runes were used as the basis of the Northern Runes.
The Northern Runes are part of an symbolic language whose lineage is direct from the Paleolithic to the Northern Rune stage.
The Northern Runes were used only by the elite preist Druid caste in Celtic society, which used and inherited the Vinca script, and as such were used solely for esoteric reasons relating to astronomy and magic were not used for writing or commerce. If language and writing was required then Greek, Roman or Latin was used.
The fact is that the symbols of writing and runes relate to natural functions such as astronomical representations. This is why their use was limited to an elite, not the ordinary people.
The Meditteranean runes are descendants of the Vinca script with Sumerian, Etruscan and Meditteranean influences - but the Northern Runes are also direct descendants of the Vinca script and hence share a unity of symbolism with the meditteranean runes.
But the Northern Runes are not descendants of the Meditteranean Runes - they are themselves unique outgrowths of the same root vinca script.
The Northern Runes are not contaminated in any way with Meditteranean influences.
As for the origin of the Francocantabrian symbols themselves - they are representations of the constellations, stars and sun.
Writing in its archaic form is simply the representation of the cosmos on the ground with a stick in the dust or on paper etc.
For example - the sign of the sun is a solar symbol.
The W symbol of Ehwaz is a symbol of Cassiopea.
Lightning as a flash of the Sowilo rune , the sun , the movement of the sun as a Swastika etc
O as the moon or sun.
The Ingwaz rune as a symbol of Bootes.
Writing is the language of the stars.
I suggest that this is the basis of written language - an attempt to plot the movement of the heavens in relation to farming and also for magical reasons to link and control the heaven and earth.
The Phoenician script derives directly from the Vinca script - read the Wikkipedia listing on the Vinca script which states that the Phoenician runes were developed AFTER the Vinca script, and that the Vinca script was the precurser for all written language - INCLUDING PHOENICIAN.
It appears that the present 'consensus' is based on archaic beliefs that are unable, or unwilling too, incorporate the latest scientific research into the carbon dating results on the Vinca Tartaria artefacts.
The discovery of the age of the Vinca script artefacts in 2008 destroys the ENTIRE basis of all previous research into the evolution of the Runic script.
Ignoring the discovery of the Vinca script, and the fact that it rewrites the entire history not just of written language but the runes themselves, is idiotic.
VINCA SCRIPT IS 6000 YEARS OLD.
It is the oldest written language in the world and subverts the entire established thesis on the evlution of language.
The Proto-Sinaitic script was in use from ca. 1500 BC in the Sinai and the Levant, probably by early West Semitic speakers. In Canaan it developed into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet from ca. 1400 BC, adapted to writing a Canaanite (Northwest Semitic) language.
The Phoenician alphabet seamlessly continues the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention called Phoenician from the mid 11th century, where it is first attested on inscribed bronze arrowheads.[4] Phoenician became the widespread form of Proto-Canaanite; previously, the script had been restricted to recording only Canaanite languages.
Phoenician differed in only letterform and time period from the Proto-Canaanite script, so it is therefore difficult to attest a specific beginning of the alphabet. However, the oldest known inscription of Phoenician is known as the Ahiram epitaph, and is engraved on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram (circa 1200 BC).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet
So the earliest Phoenician script is dated to 1200 BC.
SO VINCA SCRIPT - the precurser of Phoenician - IS 3000 YEARS OLDER THAN PHOENICIAN.
Vinca script then became Balkans Danube Script which then became THE BASIS OF THE RUNES.
The Italic script is a derivative of Phoenician - and phoenician is a derivative of Vinca.
Therefore the proto-script was vinca sript, which is a European script.
The Vinca script split into two lines - one line led to Phoenician and Italic whilst the other led to the Balkans Danube script which then led to the Northern runes.
