The Dispilio tablet is a wooden artefact bearing linear marks, unearthed in 1993 during George Hourmouziadis's excavations of the Neolithic site of Dispilio in Greece. A single radiocarbon date from the artefact has yielded a radiocarbon age of 6270±38 radiocarbon years, which when calibrated corresponds to the calendar age range of 5324–5079 cal BC (at 95.4% probability). The lakeshore settlement occupied an artificial island near the modern village of Dispilio on Lake Kastoria in Kastoria, Western Macedonia, Greece.
Discovery
The tablet is one of numerous items found during the excavations of the Neolithic layers at Dispilio. Most abundant objects were pottery fragments and wooden structural elements, followed by many seeds, bones, figurines, personal ornaments, and flutes. The site's paleoenvironment, botany, fishing techniques, tools and ceramics were described informally in a magazine article in 2000 and by Hourmouziadis in 2002 and 2006.
The archaeological context of the tablet is not known, as it was found floating on the water that was filling the excavation trench. The only publicly available photograph of the original artefact is contained in the article by Yorgos Facorellis et al. from 2014.