Ancient art may hint at the origins of written language
Thousands of markings on objects made about 40,000 years ago may have been more than just doodles, a new analysis suggests.
A 40,000-year-old giant statue from the Vogelhard Cave in Germany.
Universität Tübingen/Hildegard Jensen
One of the oldest known pieces of art on the planet is a colossal statue that was carved in ivory by a Stone Age artisan about 40,000 years ago. Now found in Germany, it is marked with crosses and dots. The meaning of these signs is a mystery – but a new analysis The object and hundreds of other objects found in the same area suggest that the marks may have had some special meaning to their ancient creators.
Researchers analyzed more than 3,000 markings on 260 objects, including mammoths, found in caves in Germany. They determined that the patterns of markings were statistically as complex as those of protocuneiform, an early form of writing found on ancient Mesopotamian tablets that date back to about 3,500 BC.
The findings, which were published on Monday PNASMay shed light on why ancient humans made art and what its purpose was.
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A 38,000-year-old statue from the Geisenklosterle cave in Germany.
Landesmuseum Wurttemberg/Hendrik Zwietasch
This type of work can be somewhat “challenging” because such ancient markings are practically impossible to interpret, explains Genevieve von Petzinger, a paleontologist. National Geographic The emerging researcher, who studies the origins of writing and was not involved in the new study. But looking for patterns in symbols, such as intentionality and repetition, “are two excellent approaches to at least trying to confirm that these marks were meaningful beyond being decorative doodles.”
Ewa Dutkiewicz, a research associate at the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin, explains that the analysis was based on a range of Stone Age objects, ranging from mammoths to mysterious lion-human hybrids to lesser-known tools and musical instruments. Many objects were covered with marks, but the reason for this was a mystery. Were they decorations, hunting figures or something else?
Dutkiewicz worked with linguist Christian Bentz, an associate professor who studies the history of language at Saarland University in Germany, to digitize the markings on the objects. He compared the characteristics of signs – for example sign diversity and repetition – with those of other recent sign systems, including modern writing.
These symbols do not match modern writing. But when Bentz compared the marks to those of early protocuneiform, the similarity was obvious, Bentz says.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “I looked at the data over and over again.” Stone Age signs and protocuneiform appear to be equally complex despite being separated by thousands of years and considerable distance.
Of the 260 objects, mammoth-like ivory figurines had more information-dense markings than tools, the researchers say. Cross-like marks do not appear on objects depicting humans, Bentz says, while points do not appear on tools — indicating that the marks must have had some kind of symbolic meaning for the Stone Age humans who made them.
Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum/Olaf M. Tessmer
Von Petzinger says, “The organization (of the signs) points to the transmission of more complex ideas.”
Understanding what they mean is an extremely difficult – if not impossible – task. But Bentz and Dutkiewicz’s methods could help other researchers analyze what similar markings on other ancient objects around the world might indicate – even if they can’t read them.
Von Petzinger says, “The more we can know about the selection of ‘writing’ surfaces and the choices regarding specific images and signs, the more we will be able to learn about the period from which[writing]later emerged.”
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