Humans first developed complex, information-rich writing around 3000 BC, when the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) invented cuneiform. But new research suggests that precursors to writing can be found tens of thousands of years ago in carvings and tools made by Paleolithic hunter-gatherers in central Europe.
When modern humans (Homo sapiens) first arrived in Europe about 55,000 years ago, they brought with them a culture of sophisticated tools such as projectile points and drilling tools. Humans began decorating cave walls with geometric shapes, hand stencils, and animal representations, and adorned their tools and carvings with geometric symbols, the meanings of which have puzzled archaeologists for decades.
you may like
“Our research helps reveal the unique statistical properties, or statistical fingerprints, of these symbol systems, which are the earliest predecessors of writing,” Benz said in a statement.
The researchers cataloged intentional symbols such as lines, dots, crosses, stars, grids and zigzags carved into various tools and figurines, most of which had been discovered during previous archaeological excavations at cave sites in the Swabian Jura mountains of southern Germany. They then used computational techniques to examine the statistical properties of the symbols and found that the Paleolithic arrangement was comparable to protocuneiform in its potential to encode information.
Benz’s research deals with measurable aspects of frequency trends and symptoms. (In linguistics, a symbol is a physical representation of a concept or meaning.) Benz compared symbol systems and discovered similarities and differences by statistically examining two sets of symbols, in this case the Paleolithic system and Protocuneiform.
“Our analysis shows that these symbol arrangements have nothing to do with today’s writing systems,” Benz said. “Symbols in archaeological artifacts are frequently repeated: cross, cross, cross, line, line, line. This kind of repetition is a feature not found in spoken language.”
Paleolithic hunter-gatherers instead developed a symbol system comparable to early proto-cuneiform, created tens of thousands of years later. “In terms of complexity, the code arrays are comparable,” Benz says.
But while cuneiform evolved rapidly over 1,000 years in Mesopotamia, the Paleolithic symbol system researchers discovered remained consistent for nearly 10,000 years.
“Humans’ ability to encode information in signs and symbols has developed over thousands of years,” Benz said. “Writing is just one particular form in a long series of symbol systems.”
you may like
Although the statistical analysis did not reveal what the carved signs meant, the researchers found that the figurines had a higher “information density” than the utensils.
This is not the first study to propose that human writing systems date back to the Paleolithic period. In a 2023 study, researchers examined dots and lines in 20,000-year-old cave drawings of animals and concluded that they formed an early calendar. And paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger claimed that 30 symbols found in caves around the world indicate that humans developed an early form of writing at least 40,000 years ago.
The new study includes “two good approaches to at least try to confirm that these marks have meaning beyond decorative doodles,” von Petzinger, who was not involved in the study, told Scientific American. “The more you learn about the choice of ‘writing’ surfaces and the selection of specific images and symbols, the more you will learn about this period.”
Researchers continue to search for intentionally marked objects to further our understanding of early human communication.
“Innumerable tools and carvings from the Paleolithic and Paleolithic periods are inscribed with an array of deliberate symbols,” Dutkiewicz said in a statement. “There are many symbolic sequences found in artifacts. We’ve only scratched the surface.”
Bentz, C., Dutkiewicz, E. (2026). Humans developed a traditional symbol system 40,000 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(9), e2520385123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2520385123
Stone Age Quiz: What do you know about the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods?
Source link
