Amateur archaeologist uncovers earliest 'writing' system used by Ice Age hunter-gatherers in cave paintings

Amazing stuff! After all, perhaps cave men were not so stupid!

"... Cave paintings of species such as fish and bison have been found across Europe. Alongside these images, mysterious dots and other marks have been found in over 600 Ice Age images on cave walls and portable objects. Archaeologists have long suspected these markings had a meaning but no one had solved the puzzle ..."

From the abstract:

"In at least 400 European caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet and Altamira, Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens groups drew, painted and engraved non-figurative signs from at least ~42,000 BP and figurative images (notably animals) from at least 37,000 BP. Since their discovery ~150 years ago, the purpose or meaning of European Upper Palaeolithic non-figurative signs has eluded researchers. Despite this, specialists assume that they were notational in some way. Using a database of images spanning the European Upper Palaeolithic, we suggest how three of the most frequently occurring signs—the line <|>, the dot <•>, and the <Y>—functioned as units of communication. We demonstrate that when found in close association with images of animals the line <|> and dot <•> constitute numbers denoting months, and form constituent parts of a local phenological/meteorological calendar beginning in spring and recording time from this point in lunar months. We also demonstrate that the <Y> sign, one of the most frequently occurring signs in Palaeolithic non-figurative art, has the meaning <To Give Birth>. The position of the <Y> within a sequence of marks denotes month of parturition, an ordinal representation of number in contrast to the cardinal representation used in tallies. Our data indicate that the purpose of this system of associating animals with calendar information was to record and convey seasonal behavioural information about specific prey taxa in the geographical regions of concern. We suggest a specific way in which the pairing of numbers with animal subjects constituted a complete unit of meaning—a notational system combined with its subject—that provides us with a specific insight into what one set of notational marks means. It gives us our first specific reading of European Upper Palaeolithic communication, the first known writing in the history of Homo sapiens."

Amateur archaeologist uncovers 'writing' system used by Ice Age hunter-gatherers in cave paintings After countless hours of study, the furniture conservator found hunter-gathers used dots and dashes to record the reproductive cycles of animals.

An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar (open access)

Figure 1 Examples of animal depictions associated with sequences of dots/lines.

Stone Age culture bloomed inland, not just along Africa’s coasts

Recommendable! Amazing stuff!

"... Africa’s southern Kalahari Desert is not typically regarded as a hotbed of Stone Age innovations. And yet human culture blossomed there around 105,000 years ago, back when it was green, researchers say.

Calcite crystals and other finds at a South African rock-shelter more than 600 kilometers from the nearest shoreline reflect cultural behaviors on a par with those previously reported for ancient humans living on or near South Africa’s coast ...

Crystals have been linked to spiritual beliefs and rituals in many parts of the world. Until now, the oldest set of crystals dated to around 80,000 years ago at another South African rock-shelter located about 130 kilometers from the coast, Wilkins says.

Other GHN finds included hundreds of stone tools, prepared rock chunks from which tools were struck and a piece of red pigment bearing scrape marks. ..."

"... However, stratified Late Pleistocene sites with good preservation and robust chronologies are rare in the interior of southern Africa, and the coastal hypothesis therefore remains untested. Here we show that early human innovations that are similar to those dated to around 105 thousand years ago (ka) in coastal southern Africa existed at around the same time among humans who lived over 600 km inland. We report evidence for the intentional collection of non-utilitarian objects (calcite crystals) and ostrich eggshell from excavations of a stratified rockshelter deposit in the southern Kalahari Basin ..."

Stone Age culture bloomed inland, not just along Africa’s coasts | Science News Excavations at a rock-shelter inhabited 105,000 years ago turned up possibly symbolic crystals

Here is the link to the underlying research article:

Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari