Evolution of Writing and Symbols by Our Human Ancestors | Early European History And Religion

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120,000-YEAR-OLD CATTLE BONE CARVINGS — THE WORLD’S OLDEST SYMBOLS?

120,000-year-old cattle bone engraving

In 2021 archaeologists announced they had found a 120,000-year-old bone fragment — engraved with six lines — at the site of Nesher Ramla in Israel. The researchers determined that a right-handed craftsperson created the markings in a single session and suggested in may be a work of art of least a symbol of some sort., The discovery was made by scholars from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haifa University and Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and published the journal Quaternary International in February 2021. “It is fair to say that we have discovered one of the oldest symbolic engravings ever found on Earth, and certainly the oldest in the Levant,” says study co-author Yossi Zaidner of the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology. “This discovery has very important implications for understanding of how symbolic expression developed in humans.”[Source: Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post, Isis Davis-Marks, Smithsonianmag.com, February 8, 2021]

Rossella Tercatin wrote in the Jerusalem Post: “Because the markings were carved on the same side of a relatively undamaged bone, the researchers speculate that the engravings may have held some symbolic or spiritual meaning. Per the statement, the site where researchers uncovered the fragment was most likely a meeting place for Paleolithic hunters who convened there to slaughter animals. [Source: Rossella Tercatin,Isis Davis-Marks, Smithsonianmag.com, February 8, 2021]

Isis Davis-Marks wrote in Smithsonianmag.com, “The bone in question probably came from an auroch, a large ancestor of cows and oxen that went extinct about 500 years ago. Hunters may have used flint tools — some of which were found alongside the fragment — to fashion the engravings. Researchers used three-dimensional imaging and microscopic analysis to examine the bone and verify that its curved engravings were man-made, reports the Times of Israel. The analysis suggested that a right-handed artisan created the marks in a single session. “Based on our laboratory analysis and discovery of microscopic elements, we were able to surmise that people in prehistoric times used a sharp tool fashioned from flint rock to make the engravings,” says study co-author Iris Groman-Yaroslavski in the statement. [Source: Isis Davis-Marks, Smithsonianmag.com, February 8, 2021]

Scholars are unsure of the carvings’ meaning. Though it’s possible that prehistoric hunters inadvertently made them while butchering an auroch, this explanation is unlikely, as the markings on the bone are roughly parallel — a methodical feature not often observed in butchery marks, per Haaretz’s Ruth Schuster. The lines range in length from 1.5 to 1.7 inches long. “Making it took a lot of investment,” Zaidner tells Haaretz. “Etching [a bone] is a lot of work.”

“Archaeologists found the bone facing upward, which could also imply that it held some special significance. Since the carver made the lines at the same time with the same tool, they probably didn’t use the bone to count events or mark the passage of time. Instead, Zaidner says, the markings are probably a form of art or symbolism. “This engraving is very likely an example of symbolic activity and is the oldest known example of this form of messaging that was used in the Levant,” write the authors in the study. “We hypothesize that the choice of this particular bone was related to the status of that animal in that hunting community and is indicative of the spiritual connection that the hunters had with the animals they killed.”

“Scholars generally posit that stone or bone etchings have served as a form of symbolism since the Middle Paleolithic period (250,000 — 45,000 B.C.). But as the Times of Israel notes, physical evidence supporting this theory is rare. Still, the newly discovered lines aren’t the only contenders for the world’s earliest recorded symbols. In the 1890s, for instance Dutch scholar Eugene Dubois found a human-etched Indonesian clam shell buried between 430,000 and 540,000 years ago. Regardless of whether the carvings are the first of their kind, the study’s authors argue that the fragment has “major implications for our knowledge concerning the emergence and early stages of the development of hominin symbolic behavior.”

Are Engravings Attributed to Homo Naledi Symbols

engraving in Rising Star Cave

Homo naledi lived between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago, about the same time that modern humans first appeared. Discovered by a team led by paleontologist Lee Berger and regarded as one of the most primitive Homo species, as its brain was only about the size of an orange, it possessed an unusual mix of human-like and non-human-like features such as a human-like skull, slender legs and feet suited for a life on the ground but shoulders, hands and curved fingers adapted for a life in the trees.

Berger’s team discovered a number of engravings in Rising Star Cave in July 22. Alison George wrote in New Scientist: The team only discovered engravings when Berger entered them for the first time. He had to lose 25 kilograms of weight in order to squeeze through passages in the rock as narrow as 17.5 centimetres wide. “It was incredibly hard to get in, and I wasn’t sure I could get back out,” he says. To his amazement, Berger spotted some engravings on a natural pillar that forms the entrance to a passage connecting the Dinaledi chamber – where H. naledi fossils were first discovered – and the Hill antechamber, where other remains had been found. [Source: Alison George, New Scientist, June 5, 2023]

In three different areas of the walls, he saw geometric shapes, mainly composed of lines 5 to 15 centimetres long, deeply engraved into the dolomite stone. This is an incredibly hard rock, so the engravings would have taken considerable effort to make. Many of these lines intersect to form geometric patterns, such as squares, triangles, crosses and ladder shapes. “There was this moment of awe and surprise in seeing these highly recognisable symbols carved into the wall,” says Berger. “Seeing these symbols was entirely unexpected.”

We know that Neanderthals created similar symbols more than 64,000 years ago, as did modern humans in southern Africa from around 80,000 years ago. If the symbols in the Rising Star caves were indeed made by H. naledi, they could be far older. Berger argues that to go to the effort of engraving this incredibly hard rock “in what appear to be important positions within these extraordinarily remote places, the interpretation is that they must have some meaning”. Others are more cautious. “It is premature to conclude that symbolic markings were made by small-brained hominins, specifically H. naledi,” says Emma Pomeroy at the University of Cambridge. “While intriguing, exciting and suggestive, these findings require more evidence and analysis to support the substantial claims being made about them.”

55,700-Year-Old Neanderthal Engravings and Symbols

Neanderthal engravings

In a study published in June 2023 in PLOS One, Jean-Claude Marquet of France's University of Tours and his colleagues asserted that Neanderthals used complex combinations of lines, dots and swirls in soft rock to create detailed images at the cave of La Roche-Cotard in Indre et Loire, France around 57,000 years ago. Matthew Rozsa wrote in Salon: Although some experts speculated that the symbols could have been made accidentally, by animals or by humans after the cave's excavation in 1912, Marquet and his team conducted experiments to determine whether they were made with actual artistic intention. To demonstrate this, they created 3D models of the caves using a technology known as photogrammetry, attempted to recreate symbols in similar parts of the caves using instruments available to Neanderthals, and ran through every conceivable scenario that could have led to those markings appearing in those caves. [Source: Matthew Rozsa, Salon, June 27, 2023]

Their conclusion? At least eight panels in the caves contain markings with intentional patterns and shapes, and were clearly created by human or human-like hands. Given the careful and precise nature of how they were created, they could not have been put there for some utilitarian purpose, such as scooping out large quantities of rock. Examples of engravings discovered in the Roche-Cotard cave include: 1) the "circular panel" (ogive-shaped tracings) and 2) the "wavy panel" (two contiguous tracings forming sinuous lines).

This means that those eight panels were "a seemingly organized set on the longest and most regular wall away from the cave entrance" and a "deliberate composition, and is the result of a thought process giving rise to conscious design and intent." Additionally, they found that some of the stone tools in the cave were Mousterian, a Middle Paleolithic culture that is known for its skillfully crafted flake tools. Although the researchers could not directly date the engravings (or finger flutings, as "engraving" here means rock manually removed by fingers), they used optically stimulated luminescence dating to determine that the minerals in the sediment were at least 57,000 years ago before the cave was sealed off, give or take 3,000 years.

44,000-Year-Old Sulawesi Cave Art — The World’s Oldest Story?

Sulawesi hunting scene

An Indonesian cave painting that depicts a prehistoric hunting scene could be the world's oldest human figurative artwork and the world’s oldest narrative scene, or story. Found in a cave called Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 in southern Sulawesi, the painting is nearly 44,000 years old and indicates how advanced artistic culture was at that time. AFP reported: “Spotted in 2017 on Sulawesi, the 4.5 metre (13 foot) wide painting features wild animals being chased by half-human hunters wielding what appear to be spears and ropes, the study published in the journal Nature reported. [Source: AFP, December 12, 2019]

AFP reported: “Using dating technology, the team at Australia's Griffith University said it had confirmed that the limestone cave painting dated back at least 43,900 years during the Upper Palaeolithic period. "This hunting scene is — to our knowledge — currently the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world," researchers said. The discovery comes after a painting of an animal in a cave on the Indonesian island of Borneo was earlier determined to have been at least 40,000 years old, while in 2014, researchers dated figurative art on Sulawesi to 35,000 years ago. "I've never seen anything like this before," Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm told Nature. "I mean, we've seen hundreds of rock art sites in this region, but we've never seen anything like a hunting scene," he added.

“There are at least 242 caves or shelters with ancient imagery on Sulawesi alone, and new sites are being discovered annually, the team said. In the latest dated scene, the animals appear to be wild pigs and small buffalo, while the hunters are depicted in reddish-brown colours with human bodies and the heads of animals including birds and reptiles. The human-animal figures, known in mythology as therianthropes, suggested that early humans in the region were able to imagine things that did not exist in the world, the researchers said. "We don't know what it means, but it seems to be about hunting and it seems to maybe have mythological or supernatural connotations," Brumm was quoted as saying. A half-lion, half-human ivory figure found in Germany that was estimated to be some 40,000 years old was thought to be the oldest example of therianthropy, the article said.

Are 20,000-Year-Old Dots in a Cave Painting the World’s Earliest Writing

In a study published in January 2023 in the Cambridge Archaeology Journal, a team of scholars suggested that some 20,000-year-old lines, dots and Y-shaped symbols places near animal images in cave paintings were the world’s first symbols and writing — used to describe the mating and birthing seasons of important local species. Other researchers are skeptical of the claims. Melanie Chang, a paleoanthropologist at Portland State University, told Live Science that she agrees with the researchers' assessment that "Upper Palaeolithic people had the cognitive capacity to write and to keep records of time." However, she cautioned that the researchers' "hypotheses are not well-supported by their results, and they also do not address alternative interpretations of the marks they analyzed." [Source: Kristina Killgrove, Live Science, January 5, 2023]

23,000-year old dots made of red ochre next to an image of an auroch in La Pasiega cave in Cantabria, Spain

Early humans in Europe were hunter-gatherers who ate a lot of meat from species such as horses, deer and bison. When those animals came together seasonally in herds, they would have been vulnerable to slaughter by humans. "It follows that knowledge of the timing of migrations, mating and birthing would be a central concern to Upper Paleolithic behaviour," study first author Bennett Bacon, an independent researcher and furniture conservator based in London, and colleagues wrote in their study.

Looking at the total number of marks — either dots or lines — found in sequences across hundreds of caves, the researchers discovered that none of the series contained more than 13 marks, consistent with the 13 lunar months in each year. "We hypothesize that sequences are conveying information about their associated animal taxa in units of months," they wrote, noting that spring, "with its obvious signals of the end of winter and corresponding faunal migrations to breeding grounds, would have provided an obvious, if regionally differing, point of origin for the lunar calendar." The researchers' statistical analysis of more than 800 sequences of marks associated with animals supports their idea — they found strong correlations between the number of marks and the lunar months in which the specific animal is known to mate.

Taking their hypothesis a step further, Bacon and colleagues focused on a Y-shaped sign that they think refers to a particular event in an animal's life cycle. Similar statistical analysis supports their conclusion that the placement of the Y-shaped sign within a series of marks signals an animal species' birthing season. "The ability to assign abstract signs to phenomena in the world," they wote, "to record past events and predict future events, was a profound intellectual achievement."

But is this the earliest known writing? Bacon and colleagues demur, suggesting that "it is best described as a proto-writing system, an intermediary step between a simpler notation/convention and full-blown writing."April Nowell, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria in Canada who was not involved in this study, told Live Science by email that "any study that explores non-figurative signs in more detail is welcome, but I think there are a number of assumptions being made here that have yet to be proven." Nowell questioned the Y sign, in particular. "The majority of animals considered in this study are quadrupeds, and humans normally squat giving birth," she said. "If this sign is supposed to be iconic of the birth process, it is not obvious to me."

32 Symbols Found in 30,000 Years of European Cave Art

Heather Pringle wrote in National Geographic: “For decades, archaeologists have pored over the spectacular images of stampeding horses and charging bison left by Ice Age artists on European cave walls more than 10,000 years ago. But few researchers have paid much attention to the simple geometric signs that often accompany the art. Unable to interpret or decipher these markings, many archaeologists dismissed them as mere decorations. [Source: Heather Pringle, National Geographic, May 29, 2016]

In her book “The First Signs,”paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger, a Ph.D. student at the University of Victoria in Canada, reported that Ice Age Europeans used just 32 distinct types of geometric symbols over a period of 30,000 years, suggesting that the markings were “meant to transmit information” — an early step on humanity’s long road to developing writing. “I was interested in finding patterns in the signs across time and space,” she says. France’s well-dated Ice Age rock art sites seemed the best place to start, so she combed through inventories of the cave paintings and engravings for records of geometric signs. Then she classified the markings by type, entered them in a relational database, and looked for patterns in the data.

The preliminary findings took her by surprise. She thought that the Ice Age artists would begin with just a few sign types and gradually add more symbols to their repertoire over time — a trend towards complexity that other researchers observed in the development of tools. But that didn’t happen in France. Instead, the Canadian researcher found that nearly three-quarters of the sign types were already in use during the Aurignacian period, which lasted from 40,000 to 28,000 years ago. This early complexity didn’t look like the start of a tradition. It suggested instead that the signs’ origins lay somewhere else.

“Intrigued, von Petzinger expanded her study to all of Europe, scouring reports of 367 Upper Paleolithic rock art sites from northern Spain to the Ural Mountains in Russia. In addition, she looked for mentions of markings on portable art, such as a deer-tooth necklace found in the grave of an Ice Age woman known as the Lady of St. Germaine-la-Rivière.

The resulting study was an eye-opener: She found just 32 types of signs in use across the entire continent during the Upper Paleolithic period. “For there to be this much continuity between sites, I realized that our ancient ancestors had to have a system in place,” she writes. Moreover, the early diversity of geometric signs she had discovered in France was repeated across Europe. This suggested that modern humans had invented these signs long before they arrived in Europe — mostly likely in their African homeland.

Do the 32 Symbols Constitute Written Language

Heather Pringle wrote in National Geographic: “But what exactly was the point of the markings? At a decorated cave known as La Pasiega in Spain, early cave-art researchers discovered a rare sequence of Ice Age signs painted about 12 feet (3.6 meters) above the floor. Arranged in three groups separated by spaces, the markings in La Pasiega resembled a short written message, prompting speculation that the signs formed an early writing system. [Source: Heather Pringle, National Geographic, May 29, 2016]

“Von Petzinger, however, found little evidence to support that idea. By definition, a writing system, she notes, “is the systematic representation of spoken language.” Any idea or thought that a speaker can express verbally can be jotted down or inscribed. But Europe’s cave artists did not have a sufficient number of geometric signs, or did not combine them in the right way, to represent all the words that would have occurred in their language. “We don’t seem to have all the complexities to write a paragraph or a sonnet,” von Petzinger says.

“Even so, the Ice Age signs were far from meaningless, she says. Some markings, such as the meandering lines that von Petzinger spotted at a site in Portugal’s Côa Valley region, may have been maplike representations of a river or other landscape features. Other signs, such as the lines inscribed on the deer-tooth necklace, could have served as memory aids for ceremonialists presiding over important rituals or recounting a tribe’s origin stories. Such markings, says von Petzinger, seem to be a way of storing information externally — a form of graphic communication that eventually led to writing.

“Paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall, a curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, finds much value in the new study. “It’s really nice to see the abstract symbolism brought to the fore,” he says. “We have these wonderful animal images in caves like Chauvet and so forth, but that is just the tip of it. The symbolic stuff clearly had meaning.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except 120,000-year-old cattle bone engraving from the Smithsonian and 20,000 year old dots from by Durham University

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Ancient Foods ancientfoods.wordpress.com ; Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2024