Klára Friedrich
THE MYSTERY OF TATÁRLAKA
Part 1.
Twenty three years ago, one of my colleagues, who knew about my deep interest in the Székely Magyar Runic Script and the Sumerian-Hungarian connection, with obvious pleasure gave me a publication, in which for the first time I saw the disk and the two inscribed tablets from Tatárlaka. Since that time, I have been collecting the various opinions and decipherments of the inscriptions on these objects. This comprehensive overview is the result of this collection and, at the end, I offer my own opinion.
We can write with greater credibility about the object of our research if we can examine the original in detail, even handle it. In the case of the runic stone of Margaret Island and the shaman stones of Ferenc Csepregi, which were declared unseen to be forgeries, upon actual examination, I was convinced of their antiquity, originality and importance. It seems as if the spirit of the long-gone master of runic- writing is still waiting in the tablets for someone to understand the message they contain.
Barta Gábor : Erdély (Progresszió GT. 1989)
For a long time, Gabor and I had been anxious to actually examine the Tatárlaka disk which, according to the books written by László Götz and Lizett Kabay, was at the Transylvanian Historical Museum in the city of Kolozsvár (Cluj). In December, 2003, in Kolozsvár, Gábor was informed by the employees of the museum, who only spoke Rumanian, that the disk and the tablets were being examined in Germany. When we returned home, Gábor wrote the following letter in Rumanian to the curator of the museum:
Catre: Dl.Piso Ioan
directorului al Muzeul National de Istorie din Ardeal
str.Constantin Daicoviciu Nr.2 400020 Cluj-Napoca
Stimate Director!
Ca presedintele al Asociatiei de Scriere Runica si Crestatura Maghiara as – avea rugamintea catre dvs.
În anul 1961renumitul arheolog Nicolae Vlassa în apropierea Tartariei (Tatárlaka) a descoperit obiecte cu importata de istorie al scrisului,din care pe una stiinta istoriei,de atunci o numeste amuletul din Tartaria (Tatálakai amulett). Obiectele gasite atunci au fost duse în muzeul condus de dvs.
În 2003 decembrie cînd am fost în Cluj as-fi vrut sa-le vad în original,dar cînd m-am interesat ca unde le pot vedea am primit raspunsul ca în prezent se aflu în Germania pentru cercetare.
În viitorul apropiat mai multe membrii al asociatiei noastre vrea sa viziteze muzeul dvs. pentru a vedea obiectele cu scriere runica gasite în apropierea Tartariei,as vrea sa ma informati despre urmatoarele:
– Din ce scop,unde si de cînd se aflu discurile ceramice în cercetare? (Informatiile de mai sus sunt necesare pentru scrierea unei carti despre discurile ceramice cu scris runica gasite în Tartaria.)
– Cînd sunt duse înapoi obiectele în muzeul dvs.?
Va mai cerem ajutorul sa ne informati despre descoperirile a d-nei arheolog Torma Zsofia,daca se aflu cîteva dintre ele în muzeul condus de dvs.?
Ajutorul si colaborarea va multumesc anticipat si va rog ca raspunsul dvs. sa fie trimis pe adresa asociatiei:
Cu stima Szakács Gábor elnök
1163 Budapest, Sasvár utca 52. Magyarország
sau pe adresa e-mail: szakacsgabor@axelero.hu
Budapest 12.01.2004
Dear Piso Joan, Director of the Museum of History:
As President of the National Society of Hungarian Runes and Runic Writers, I am
turning to you with a request.
In 1961, the well known Rumanian archeologist, N. Vlassza, while excavating in
the Transylvanian region of Rumania, near the village of Tatárlaka (Tartaria)
found significant artifacts pertaining to the history of writing, one of which
historiography calls the Tatárlaka amulet. These finds ended up in the
Historical Museum of Transylvania, which is under your directorship. I was in
Cluj in December, 2003, and would have loved to see the original artifacts. When
I was inquiring about these artifacts, the employees replied that they were not
there but were being studied in Germany. Since, in the near future, several
members of the National Society of Hungarian Runes and Runic Writers would like
to see the objects from Tatárlaka, I am turning to you with the following
sincere request for information:
-- Where, since when and for what reason are the disks being examined? (We would like to know this because we are writing a book about the objects, the results of their examination and the places where they have been exhibited.)
-- When can we expect the artifacts to be returned to your museum?
If it is at all possible, please let us know if there are any artifacts in your museum from the excavations of the archeologist, Zsófia Torma.
We thank you in advance for your cooperation and your help. Please send your reply to the following address:
Szakács Gábor elnök
1163 Budapest, Sasvár u. 52. Magyarország,
e-mail:
szakacsgabor@axelero.hu
Budapest, 2003. december 29
*********************************************************************
We have not yet received an answer. In July, 2004, Gábor and I again went to
the museum where seven months ago we had received information about the tablets.
The employees, who spoke only Rumanian and who, by the way were very courteous,
told us again that the tablets were still being studied in Germany. We were
told that, instead of examining the original objects, we could see exact
replicas displayed in the display cases and we were offered copies which we
could purchase. The disk cost 25,000 lei and the tablets cost 20,000 lei each,
which is a total of 500 Hungarian forints.
At the museum, the information accompanying the exhibits is in the Rumanian
language only. The artifacts in the Neolithic section come from the excavations
of Zsófia Torma (1840-1899), yet her name is not mentioned anywhere. We were
happy to discover, in one of the display cases, her finds from the crumbling
bank of the River Maros. They were broken clay pitchers with runic script on
the bottom, among them 6,500 year-old interesting runic letters, e.g (H. Zs. )
So, let us take a look at what is contained in these finds, which attracted the interest of the world's most famous archeologists and Sumerologists.
In 1961, Nicolae Vlassza, an archeologist from Kolozsvár (Cluj), opened up an
ash- filled grave in Tatárlaka in Transylvania, in which he found the broken and
burned bones of a man, approximately 40 years old. Beside him, there were 26
clay figures, two stone figures, one bracelet made out of seashells, one
fired-clay disk and two rectangular clay tablets. According to carbon-dating of
the bones, the find is 6-6500 years old.
Runic script and pictographs are found on the disk, pictographs only on one of the tablets. Both of these have a hole in the upper one third. On the other tablet there is the image of two animals that look like goats and a plant. The signs on the disk and pictographs on the tablets are 1000-1500 years older than the pictographs on the first Sumerian finds. The Tatárlaka finds are made out of local clay. Let us see what conclusion the researchers reached from these dry facts.
According to Nicolae Vlassza, the archeologist who excavated the grave, the
inscriptions on the Tatárlaka tablets are not unique but are closely related to
the signs on the pottery of Tordos and of the Vinca culture near Belgrade. He
thinks it possible that between 4000 and 3000 B.C., groups of Sumerians from
Mesopotamia settled in the northern part of the Balkans and in Transylvania and
the runic script of Tatárlaka was developed under their influence.
In line with Vlassza’s opinion, the publication mentioned in the introduction of
this study, the Forrás, published in Kecskemét, in its November 1981 issue,
allowed the publication of articles about our true ancient history by writers
such as Ferenc Kunszabó, György Vértessy and K. Endre
Grandpierre.
On page 59, is the beginning of the study by Boris Perlov entitled: “The Message of Tatárlaka”. From this article we learn that, in 1961, the scientific world was surprised by the sensational archeological news that, in a small Rumanian (!!!) settlement of Tatárlaka in Transylvania, runic script had been excavated, which was a thousand years older than the oldest Sumerian writing. Perlov lists the opinion of the following scientists:
-- Falkenstein, a German Sumerologist, who states that the writing found in
Tatárlaka was developed under Sumerian influence.
-- M.S. Hood, an English archeologist, who states that the disk and tablets were carried by Sumerian merchants to Tatárlaka, where the native inhabitants did not understand the written signs but copied them and used them for religious purposes.
-- Perlov does not name the Soviet Academy of Sciences Archeological Institute's Sumerologist, only gave his opinion: In the grave at Tatárlaka a man’s bones were found. The tablets were locally made, part of a widespread writing-system and can be connected to Mesopotamia and the Hungarian Kőrös Culture. In my opinion, this is very nice, however, the writing on the disk is blood-curdling. Word for word it says: "In the fortieth year of the reign of the God Saue, we ritually burned the clan-chief in his mouth. He is the tenth".
According to the unnamed expert, the people of Tatárlaka roasted their retired clan- chiefs and ate them. They must have enjoyed this because they were devouring the tenth. Perlov doesn't agree with this interpretation implying cannibalism. On the contrary, following a clockwise direction, he offers the following decipherment, using the Sumerian signs of the Jamdet-Nasr culture: “The four(th) governor God Saue, in honor of the wise head of the nation, burned one.” The signs of Jamdet Nasr, which were used to help in the decipherment, also indicated that there were priestesses, therefore Perlov does not deny the presence of women among the religious leaders. He poses an important question: “Who then were the ancient inhabitants of Tatárlaka who, in the 5th millennium before Christ, wrote in Sumerian before Sumer even existed?” Can we even expect that our name (Hungarian) would be mentioned? After Perlov comes another Soviet Sumerologist’s decipherment, who writes about the “ancient Slavs” whom the Celts worshipped as gods.
In his book: “Keleten kél a Nap” (The Sun Rises in the East) (Püski, 1994), the very knowledgeable László Götz writes that the theories of Perlov and Kifisin are “the Sumerologist’s fairy-tales of ancient history and nauseating effusiveness of Slavic chauvinism” which fabricate the theory that the ancient Slavs invented writing and that they were the ancient populace of Transylvania. László Götz connects the Tatárlaka tablets with the groups of Mesopotamian-Sumerian metallurgists and metal-workers, who arrived in large numbers by sea, protected by bodyguards and who spent a long time in Transylvania.
Nándor Kalicz, in his book entitled “Agyagistenek” (Clay Gods) (Corvina
Publishing, 1970) writes an overview of Hungary's Neolithic and Bronze Age
artifacts. I quote: "In Alsótatárlaka (Tartaria) in Transylvania, in a cultic
pit, beside 26 idols were found one fired clay tablet and two fired clay disks.
The signs on these are almost identical to those found in Mesopotamia".