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Writing May Have Begun 40,000 Years Ago
Over 3,000 Paleolithic symbols on 260 artifacts show statistical patterns akin to early proto-cuneiform, suggesting symbolic encoding 40,000 years ago, researchers said.
- On Monday, research associate Ewa Dutkiewicz and linguist Christian Bentz published findings in PNAS on 40,000-year-old symbol sequences on artefacts from Germany's Swabian Jura.
- Between 43,000 and 34,000 years ago, artefacts made during the Aurignacian period by Homo sapiens were studied to test if repeated marks encoded information, building on 2023 research of cave art codes.
- Using computational tools, the team digitized over 3,000 signs in the dataset and applied entropy measures and quantitative linguistics, revealing frequent repetition and varied sign use across figurines and tools.
- Analysts found statistical parallels with proto-cuneiform, but researchers emphasise the marks do not represent spoken language and decoding remains exceptionally difficult without a Rosetta stone.
- The team says their approach could help analyze similar markings, as sign choices remained stable over roughly 40,000 years, indicating intergenerational transmission, with some artefacts showing rows of 12 or 13 dots suggesting calendric observations.
26 Articles
26 Articles
40,000-Year-Old Signs Found in Europe Could Be Humanity’s First Language
Proto-cuneiform tablet, Uruk IV period. Credit: Olaf M. Tesmer / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Universität Tübingen / CC BY-SA 4.0 More than 40,000 years ago, long before cities or formal scripts existed, early humans were already using structured systems of signs to record information. A new study suggests these signs functioned as a primitive form of information encoding — a system that shares key features with the earliest known writing, desp…
Lines, notches, dots or crosses – researchers reveal mysterious strings from objects of the Old Stone Age.
Drawings on objects more than 40,000 years old, long considered decoration, could represent an early form of recording information
Using a computational approach, the team examined more than 3,000 signs found in 260 objects to reveal information about the origins of...
der Standard AT
der Standard DEThe analysis of 3000 characters on 260 artifacts shows: Paleolithic sequences are statistically similar complex to early proto cuneiforms
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