It was discovered in 1961 and studied by the team of archaeologist Bogdan Nikolov. Three residential horizons were discovered on the site, the superstructure of a new settlement over the remains of the old one, located on 2,800 square meters. The finds consist of an extremely rich domestic and cult inventory of great scientific and cultural value, which leads scientists to make the assumption that here there was a religious center. Whole or broken vessels were found in all three layers of the settlement, on the bottoms of which pictographs were found. About 40 different characters are registered. A large part of the signs are of a cult-magical nature.

In 1969, the so-called tile from Gradeshnica, dated to the 5th millennium BC, was also discovered. It is a clay vessel in the shape of a square flat plate, with 2 holes pierced, apparently to be hung. The subject in question is written on all sides with pictograms. Of course, many attempts have been made to decipher the message encoded on it. The first hypothesis is that of its discoverer - Bogdan Nikolov, who believes that the Great Mother Goddess is depicted on the tile and the lunar cycle is represented. In the middle of the tile is a schematically depicted female figure, with raised hands, surrounded by various signs. A comparison between the Karanov seal and the tile from the village of Gradeshnitsa was also made by Academician Vladimir Georgiev and Prof. Vasil Nikolov. And Doctor Stephan Hyde even claims in his works that he found matches with Egyptian hieroglyphs and that he read and translated the text of the inscription on the find.

The pictographic writing on the tile from the village of Gradeshnitsa is older than the earliest Egyptian writing by about 2000 years. This would mean that a much older civilization existed in the Balkans, several millennia before the first great civilizations in the world. It is also hypothesized that this Balkan civilization may have had an influence on the Egyptian one, and the boldest claims are that it may have been the cause of their birth.

The tile from Gradeshnitsa was discovered in 1969 in northwestern Bulgaria. It is an important source for the history of Europe at the end of the Neolithic and for the proto-script known as the Danube proto-literature.

The find is dated around the 5th millennium BC. and is kept in the Regional History Museum in the city of Vratsa. It was discovered during archaeological excavations led by Bogdan Nikolov, who published the first report about it.[2] The signs on it are accepted as writing by paleo-linguist Vladimir Georgiev. From the outset, it has been hypothesized that the symbolism of the reverse is related to the moon and its changes, and this has driven much of the attempted interpretation. In 2005, the expert Marco Merlini, who is the creator of the Danubian script database DatDas, published a comprehensive article with various arguments for readings in this direction.

Discovery and cultural context The prehistoric settlement, in which the clay tile with written signs was discovered, was discovered in 1961 by a scientific team led by Associate Professor Bogdan Nikolov. His research lasted from 1963 to 1969. The settlement is one of the most original representatives of cultures with an incised geometric ornament. It is synchronous with the sites of Karanovo V (Maritsa) from southern Bulgaria, with the Vinca - Turdash culture from Serbia, the Boyan - Vidra and Gumelnitsa cultures in Romania, dating from the first half of the Eneolithic era.

The first inhabitants of the settlement settled on the site during the first half of the Eneolithic - towards the second half of the 4th millennium BC, inhabiting the settlement for a relatively short period of time, after which they left the settlement forever. This population was a settled agricultural and cattle-breeding population, having a well-developed pottery and vividly manifesting its spiritual life in ornamentation, idol sculpture and various objects related to cult practices.

The clay tile with written characters was discovered during excavations in 1969 on the floor of dwelling #1 on the building horizon, dated to the early Eneolithic. The dwelling is distinguished by its size and distribution from the other known dwellings within the settlement. It is divided into two rooms of identical size, connected to each other by an entrance. In the northern room, a furnace, chromel and about ten clay vessels of different shapes and decorations were discovered. Two shallow pans were found in the southern room, one with a human figure incised on the bottom and the other with written characters. In the southeastern part of the same room, a well-preserved clay idol and the clay tile with written characters were found on the floor. According to Bogdan Nikolov, this room probably had a cult purpose.

The reverse side of the tile, on which, according to the Bulgarian archaeologist Bogdan Nikolov, a human figure is depicted with hands pointing upwards, probably performing a ritual of the placed photograph, the tile is turned sideways The clay tile with written characters is more like a shallow vessel with a rectangular base, with low, thin and outward sloping walls. It is made of clay mixed with finely crushed pieces of used pottery and plants.

The Tablet from Gradeshnitsa contains 4 rows of pictographic signs, which are quite clearly visible upon the tablet’s photograph (exhibit A). They are presented in a computer enhanced version and in a schematic drawing, respectively in exhibits B and C. (N.B. If there have been any other additional signs on the artifact, that are presently not visible or discernable, these have not been taken into consideration for the purposes of our present reading of the text). The above identified pictographic signs look exactly like the Hieroglyphic Inscription presented as exhibit D, when they are transcribed using the stylized later version of the pictographic script, known to us from the pyramid texts of Ancient Egypt, beautifully rendered here in its computerized calligraphic print.

Upon comparison, it becomes evident that the text displayed on exhibit B, exhibit C and exhibit D, is absolutely one and the same identical text, and that the two calligraphic styles (respectively – the early Thracian, and the late Egyptian), represent one and the same identical pictographic script, which has come to us down the ages in its condition and appearance as seen on Exhibit A.

The evident conclusions are as follows:
The Script used in the engravings upon the Tablet of Gradeshnitsa, found in the land of Ancient Thrace (present-day Bulgaria) and the Scripts used in similar tablets and in the pyramid texts, found in Ancient Egypt, represent one and the same IDENTICAL Hieroglyphic Script! The Tablet from Gradeshnitsa, found in the land of Ancient Thrace, predates similar artifacts found in Egypt by at least two millennia. Apparently, this particular type of Hieroglyphic Script had originated and was first used in Ancient Thrace, and it was later transferred and introduced in Ancient Egypt. The Early-Thracian version of this Hieroglyphic Script was evidently used quite sparingly – predominantly as the Sacred Language of the Initiated Elite. It doesn’t appear from the findings so far, that it ever reached the levels of wide spread utilization, which it found thousands of years later in its Late-Egyptian version.

The hieroglyphic text upon the Tablet from Gradeshnitsa (as transcribed in Exhibit D) can be read in the right-to-left direction and its translation (following the well-established rules for translating Egyptian hieroglyphic writing) has the following or similar meaning, verse by verse:
The Three-One God (Trinity, or gods) encompasses (dwells in) Thrace, or O God, who are dwelling in the territory of Thrace
I witness to the truth, I give offerings to the great Son of God, or I promise to give offerings to the great Son of God
I glorify the Great God, or and I will praise you, O Great God
The Temple of God is a great fortress and a secret defended place, or O God, who are in your temple, be my fortress and defend me (deliver me from the enemy)!