DID WRITING ORIGINATE IN THE VALE OF GLAMORGAN?

It is a bold question, and it deserves a careful answer. Conventional history places the origin of writing in Mesopotamia, some five thousand years ago. Yet the builders of Tinkinswood were measuring, planning and recording relationships in the landscape well before that. Could they also have developed a systematic way of recording information – a form of writing – here in the Vale of Glamorgan? This article sets out the case, the serious objections to it, and how to weigh such a claim without either dismissing it or overstating it.

What would count as writing

Before arguing about origins we need a working definition. Not every mark is writing. True writing, or at least proto-writing, implies a system: a limited set of signs, used repeatedly, arranged in a consistent way to record meaning that can be read back. Tallies and calendars sit on the boundary; decoration usually does not qualify. Holding the claim to this standard is what keeps the discussion honest.

The case in favour

• The builders clearly handled number, measure and geometry with skill.
• Recording alignments and units would be far easier with some notation.
• Repeated, ordered marks do appear in Neolithic contexts.
• A society that standardised measurement had the habits of mind that writing needs.

The objections

The sceptical case is strong and must be met, not brushed aside. Marks can be ornament, tallies or the by-product of working the stone. Patterns can be read into them by a modern eye hungry for meaning. And the absence of anything we can actually decipher means that, so far, no Neolithic “text” can be read. These are reasonable objections, and a fair presentation keeps them in view.

Weighing the two sides

Setting the arguments side by side.

Question	Supports writing	Against writing
Are the signs limited and repeated?	Sometimes, yes	Often too varied to tell
Are they ordered consistently?	Some sequences look ordered	Ordering can be decorative
Can anything be read?	Not yet	Nothing deciphered
Is there a plausible need?	Measurement and alignment	Oral memory may have sufficed

How to approach the question

1. Fix a clear definition of writing before looking at the marks.
2. Catalogue the signs and see whether a small, repeating set emerges.
3. Test whether their arrangement is consistent enough to carry meaning.
4. Compare with known tallies, calendars and ornament.
5. Report honestly what the evidence will, and will not, support.

An open question, taken seriously

The honest conclusion is that the question remains open. There is, as yet, no decipherable Neolithic script from the Vale of Glamorgan, and anyone who claims otherwise is going beyond the evidence. But to assume in advance that these capable, measuring, planning people could not have recorded information is its own kind of prejudice. The people who placed a forty-tonne capstone with precision, and tied their monuments to the sun and the land, were not simple. Keeping the question open, and holding it to a high standard of proof, is the properly scientific response.

If the companion articles on measurement and alignment have persuaded you that the builders of Tinkinswood thought carefully and systematically, then the possibility that they also kept records is at least worth examining – with curiosity on one side and rigour on the other.

Drawings, text and photographs copyright Peter Sain ley Berry. Contact: [email protected]

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