Video argues Iliad lot emblems may be proto-writing

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Key facts

• Iliad Book 7 describes nine Achaean leaders casting marked lots to choose a fighter for Hector; Homer says each man knew his own mark.
• The passage does not say the emblems were created without coordination or explain how the tokens were made.
• The listed emblems are a handled vessel, serpent's head, bull's horn, club, dove, fish, helmet, hilted sword and large stone; the passage does not identify them as circles, crosses and lines.
• The video interprets the emblems as an identity system and possible proto-writing; this is not demonstrated by the passage or established by the cited sources.
• The Iliad, traditionally dated to about 750 BCE, is a literary account of the Trojan War, not direct archaeological evidence of prehistoric Greek writing.
• Vinča symbols, generally dated to about 5300–4500 BCE, and marked Göbekli Tepe pillars, dated to about 9600–8200 BCE, remain debated as possible writing.
• Chinese characters represent words or morphemes rather than individual sounds, but that general feature of script does not make the Homeric emblems writing.
• A continuous European proto-writing tradition extending 40,000 years has not been demonstrated.

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