Researchers in Germany posit that markings and etchings on Stone Age relics signify a rudimentary form of written communication. Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark
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A novel study of great import suggests that an initial type of script surfaced millennia before experts formerly believed. The patterns of enigmatic marks and figures inscribed on items unearthed in Germany prompted scholars to dispute the notion that writing originated in Mesopotamia circa 3,000 BCE.
Their investigations indicate that our Stone Age forebears were imprinting signs on statuettes, carvings, and implements approximately 40,000 years in the past, according to recent scrutiny by linguist Christian Bentz from Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin. The research team proposes that the signs exhibit a similar degree of intricacy as the most ancient acknowledged proto-cuneiform writing, which appeared tens of thousands of years afterward.
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For the study, an international group of researchers scrutinized over 3,000 marks etched onto 260 prehistoric objects, discovering lines, indentations, dots, and crosses carved onto these items, many of which were located within caves in the Swabian Jura area.
This includes an engraving of a miniature mammoth discovered in the Vogelherd Cave, nestled in the Lone Valley of south-west Germany.
The researchers stated that the figure was fashioned by a Stone Age person from the tusk of a mammoth and adorned with rows of spots and crosses.
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A slab crafted from mammoth ivory, found in a cave within the Ach Valley, features a depiction of a human-like lion creature, similarly adorned with engravings.
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Professor Bentz informed Eureka Alert: “Our work is enabling us to reveal the specific statistical traits – or statistical signature – of these sign structures, which stand as an early forerunner to written communication.”
Archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz commented: “Innumerable instruments and effigies from the Palaeolithic era, or the Old Stone Age, display deliberate sequences of signs.”
She implied that researchers are only beginning to explore the vast arrays of signs present on Stone Age artefacts.
Ms Dutkiewicz suggested that the artefacts trace back to the period when Homo sapiens ventured out from Africa and established themselves in Europe, encountering Neanderthals along the way.
Professor Bentz clarified that the signs bear no relation to contemporary writing schemes and do not symbolize spoken languages.
He explained that the research team’s findings demonstrate that Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers formulated a system of symbols possessing an information density on par with the most rudimentary proto-cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia, which surfaced 40,000 years afterwards.
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The specialist elaborated: “Sign patterns in proto-cuneiform writing also exhibit repetition, with individual signs recurring at a comparable rate. In terms of complexity, the sign patterns are akin.”
Notably, the study refrains from disclosing what Stone Age individuals were aiming to document within these markings.