If writing developed in the Near East, why do most notable evidence of proto-writing come from elsewhere?

Question

Anthropologists today all but universally agree that Old World writing systems developed out of the Near East from neolithic proto-writing systems via 1) abstraction of proto-writing pictograms into universally agreed forms; 2) employment of the rebus principle which led to the development of logoabjads; and 3) subsequent reduction in the number of graphemes used. They provide 2 model cases-in-point: Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

One would thus expect the most notable evidence of proto-writing to have been concentrated in the Near East where writing developed. Yet, the most famous types of 'proto-writing' -- the Vinca signs and Tartaria tablets (Balkans), the Dispilio tablet (Aegean), and the Jiahu scripts of Huanghe Valley -- were found in all but the Near East.

1) What became of the successors of these forms of proto-writing? Did they not ever get to become true writing?

2) Where is the vast amount of proto-writing expected to be found in the Near East?

Answer 1

Because most "scribes" wrote for their own casual enjoyment, rather than to be found by posterity!

Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, carved in stone, and built structures to last for eternity...

Cuneiform writing on baked mud was found accidentally!

Answer 2

Proto-cuneiform is commonly found in the Near East and did develop into Cuneiform writing.

Proto-elamite has a similar history.

It is not that the most notable evidence comes from elsewhere as much as who is presenting the evidence and how much of the proto-writing can be translated or deciphered.  Proto-languages and their scripts which can be understood receive more attention than those which cannot.

Answer 3

because the writing that is first seen used by the sumerians was not the first writing but acquired through an outside source such as tartaria and other vinca sites where writing actually began. the vinca writing is not pre-writing or proto-writing but a fully developed system. this writing system also existed in the neolithic city of catal hoyuk in anatolia. the earliest sumerian writing is comparable to the vinca script.