Klára Friedrich

THE MYSTERY OF TATÁRLAKA

Part 2.

László Gyula, Professor of Archeology, in his book, “Vértesszőlőstől Pusztaszerig” ("From Vértesszőlős to Pusztaszer”) (Gondolat Kiadó Budapest. 1974) following the opinion of Nándor  Kalicz mentions these finds and adds: "...we were on the right path when we discussed the Neolithic Era and started with the observation that, from the area from where the ice was retreating, not only  plant and animal life moved up from the South to reestablish themselves, but they were accompanied by humans who lived on them".

Kornél Bakay, in his work entitled:  “Őstörténetünk régészeti forrásai” (Archeological Sources of our Ancient History) (Miskolci Bölcsész Egyesület, 1997) gives an overview of the time-frame of cultural history of Europe and Asia from 10,000 B.C. to the beginning of our era. He dates the  finds of Tordos and Tatárlaka to 8-6000 B.C.  At that same time,  ceramics appear in Jericho, houses made out of dried mud-bricks in Anatolia, the first agricultural villages in China and in Southern Europe, and pigs,  sheep, and goats are domesticated in Mesopotamia.

In 1975, in Buenos Aires, Anna Walter Fehér, published the total of her enormous research, under the title of: „Az ékírástól a rovásírásig” („From  Cuneiform  to Runic Writing”). It is to the greatest disgrace of the Hungarian Publishing Industry that, in the last 29 years, this work has not been published in Hungary.  Even if I risk being stoned for it, I have to say that this book should be among the books carried by our national bookstores rather than the Arvisura, the Young Shaman of the Mansi. Anna Walter Feher believes that, based on the research of Zsófia Torma, the knowledge of writing originated in the Carpathian Basin and was carried to Mesopotamia. She shows pieces related to the tablets of Tatárlaka: Székely-Magyar Runic Script from the collection of Zsófia Torma, the disks from Tordos and the Olt Valley, runic signs from Karanovo and Gradesnica as well as the disk of Phaistos, which was decoded by Lizette Kabay, folklorist, as a Hymn to the Sun.

Mrs. Fehér published from her own meager resources Zsófia Torma’s Ethographische Analogien, which had been readable only in German up to this point, and entitled it Sumér Nyomok Erdélyben, (Traces of Sumer in Translyvania). This is currently available only in a very poor quality photocopy. This was augmented by Gábor Jáki with the carefully and lovingly-written biography of the lady archeologist.   Moreover, he added a chapter with the title:  “What has Transpired Since then”,  in which we can read a splendid description of the tablets of Tatárlaka. We learn from him that, according to Professor János Harmatta, the two tablets with the runic script contain a list of votive gifts to the four Sumerian gods: Enlil, Palil, Usmu and Samas.  It is interesting to note that, beside dishes, horses and barley, the list also contains spelt wheat. After the discovery at Tatárlaka, Anna Walter Fehér sent a letter to Vlassza, bringing to his attention Zsófia Torma’s unpublished collection of signs. The Torma manuscript was in the hands of Vlassza at this point, who replied that the manuscript was in very poor condition, falling apart, the pencil-drawn illustrations were fading and the University of Kolozsvár (Cluj) was intending to publish the whole work.

Since then, unfortunately, both Anna Walter Fehér and Vlassza have passed away and who knows under what unmerited conditions  this most important proof of our early culture further deteriorates.  This was the life-work of the self-sacrificing scholar, even genius, Zsofia Torma.  It was with great pleasure that, while I was working on this manuscript, I was able to buy at the Fehérlófia book store the book Sumér nyomok Erdélyben (Sumerian Traces in Transylvania), well edited and easy to read  (Published by Magyar Őskutatás, Buenos Aires, 1972)

The cover of the book by Sándor Forrai: Az ősi magyar rovásírás az ókortól napjainkig (The Ancient Hungarian Runic Writing from the Ancient Era to Today)  is decorated with our disk (Antologia Kiadó, 1994). The professor states that three signs correspond to the Z, NY and GY of the Székely Magyar Runic Script. He considers them to be ligatures of  the pictographs (ND) and (BP).

He mentions the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Cretan and Phoenician parallels. His standing as a serious scientist and researcher is made more credible by the fact that he doesn't make dogmatic statements but emphasizes the necessity of further research and, in connection with the find of Tatárlaka, he recognizes the work of Zsófia Torma and laments the disregard for her work. We learn from Sándor Forrai that János Harmatta also reminds us that Zsófia Torma, already in 1879, brought the relationship between the Torda and the Mesopotamian Runic Script to the attention of the world.

János Makkai, Professor of Ancient History, wrote an excellent comprehensive summary, more than  two hundred pages long, entitled A tartariai leletek (The Finds of Tatárlaka Akadémiai Kiadó, 1990)  In this work, we can finally read a factual and professional description instead of the second or third hand information we have had up to now. He met Vlassza several times and visited the site of the excavation.  He illustrated his account with the help of cross sections and collections of signs. The book is dedicated to Vlassza, who died young, before the age of 50.  Unfortunately, he does not include Vlassza’s  actual descriptions of the excavation site and the exact  list of artifacts found there.

Finally, from János Makkay we learn about a collection of artifacts that  Vlassza called  magical/ritual, religious complex materials: a grave containing the bones of a 30-40 year-old person -- sex unknown! -- beside the broken and scorched  bones, 26 clay and 2 alabaster figurines, a bracelet made out of spondylus shells and three tablets. Six years later, in 1967, Vlassza stated that the objects were in the broken pieces of  a  pipe-footed vessel and part of the top of a larger vase was also found.

During her archeological excavations in Tordos, Zsófia Torma also found clay urns filled with ashes, some containing human bones. Professor Makkai knows nothing about the anatomical examination of the  scorched bones.  He mentions several possibilities about the person who made the clay tablets. He considers it most probable that somewhere around the  Aegean Sea region, a Sumerian, possibly a scribe, taught a native of Transylvania, or a merchant, the runic writing which was taken to Transylvania in person, otherwise the tablets could not have been made from local clay.  He also mentions other possibilities.  He definitely distances himself from the proponents of the Sumerian-Hungarian relationship and, in this matter, he is  unfortunately a follower of  Géza Komoróczy.

Our book publishers did us a disservice in that this book is almost impossible to access. Finally, I was able to read a copy, which was kindly loaned to me by Csaba Varga, for which I thank him.

Tibor Baráth, former Professor of the University of Kolozsvár, later emigrant historian, represents on the cover of his book: A magyar népek őstörténete  (The Ancient History of the Hungarian People, published by Zoltán Somogyi, USA, 1997) an accurate depiction of the  disk. Inside, the three tablets are also accurately depicted.

A similarly faithful reproduction can be found in the first part of the book by Gábor Bartha: Erdély (Transylvania, Progresszio Gt. 1989)  and also in the magazine, Forrás. I note here, that those decipherments based on inexact drawings of the tablets have no credibility.

Inaccurate drawings

Most often, the small V sign on the left horizontal line of the disk, which is divided into four by a cross, is omitted from the upper left quadrant, yet this is an important sign. It is heartening that more and more people wear a copy of the Tatárlaka disk around their neck, although, because of the manufacturers’  irresponsibility and carelessness, these are not accurately made and the secret message of our ancestors of 8-9000 years ago is erroneously communicated and, if we attribute to it some magical protection,  it does not accomplish its goal.

According to Tibor Baráth, in 2000 B.C.,  similar disks were  manufactured and used in Crete and he includes drawings of these.

Two disks from Knossos

(from Baráth Tibor: A magyar népek őstörténete)

            Tibor Baráth dates the finds to the Bronze Age (2000-500 B.C.). His opinion is that a “sun-waiter, a person who awaits the sun” or “star observer” might have stood at the place of the finds and the disks may have been used by an astronomer to help to prepare  a calendar. The holes on the two disks were not used to hang the disks but rather to observe the appearance of the first rays of the sun. He proves this with the observation that, on the rectangular tablet, there are rays drawn radiating  from the hole used to observe the sun. He thinks that the Cretan disks served a similar purpose. He states that the runic signs on the Tatárlaka disks correspond to the Scythian-Hun-Magyar runic script. The meaning of the runic text is as follows: “In this direction God comes at 4:00 o’clock, in the sign of Cancer after ten periods.” So the astronomer was observing during the period between June 11 and June 20, when the sun rises on the Tatárlaka meridian a few minutes after four in the morning.

The decipherment of the second tablet with a hole.

”The Sun (the Lord of the Sky) shines through the hole of the sun rays in the constellation of Cancer.”  So this tablet is also used to observe the summer Solstice.

There is no hole in the third tablet, the Sun, because the tablet signifies the Winter Solstice.  It is an important observation that the “Sunwaiter” of Tatárlaka is being compared to the great Western European megalithic observatories and brings to our attention the monolith on Somló Mountain above Csíksomlyó. The pictographs on the top of this block of stone can be connected to the signs of the Zodiac. This calendar stone was removed by the Franciscans because they considered it a relic of pagan origin, used for sacrifices.  It was removed from its original place but was not destroyed because the Székelys  demanded that their ancestral monument be preserved.

Finally, a beautiful patriotic sentence from Tibor Barath’s book is appropriate here:    “... on the the disk of Tatárlaka, which caused a world sensation, appear not senseless scratches, as Professor Hood theorized,  but a perfect Hungarian text.”

László Ruzsinszky accepts Tibor Barath’s interpretation and opinion about the disk and mentions it in his book:  A ragozó ősnyelv írásának világtörténete (The World History of the Written Ancient Agglutinative Language) (Komló 2000).

Egyptologist, László Kákosy in his great comprehensive book:  Ré fiai (The Sons of Re) (Gondolat 1979) also mentions Tatárlaka: “It is characteristic of the connection between the  two cultures that writing appeared in  Mesopotamia and Egypt at almost the same time, in the former, somewhat earlier. The oldest relics of the Mesopotamian pictographic writing are known from Iran (Tepe Jahia), indeed from Transylvania too (Tartaria)... The outside influence explains the fact that, while in Mesopotamia, in the Uruk Culture, the stage preceding the writing of sounds, pictographic writing, can be shown, in Egypt we suddenly see an already complicated writing system.”