• Over 40,000 years ago, our early ancestors were already carving signs into tools and sculptures. • According to a new analysis by linguist Christian Bentz at Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz at the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Early History) in Berlin, these sign sequences have the same level of complexity and information density as the earliest proto-cuneiform script that emerged tens of thousands of years later, around 3,000 B.C.E.
Article Summaries:
- A new study suggests that symbolic communication began far earlier than the rise of Mesopotamian writing. Linguist Christian Bentz of Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz examined 40,000‑year‑old carvings on tools and sculptures from the Upper Paleolithic. Their analysis shows that the sequences of signs display a level of complexity and information density comparable to the earliest proto‑cuneiform script that appeared around 3,000 B.C.E. The findings imply that our ancestors were already experimenting with a form of symbolic representation that could have laid the groundwork for later written systems.
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