Scientists have discovered what they are calling an “ancient proto-graphic system” in 20,000-year-old cave paintings. It is considered the oldest written language ever found!
See also: Nuclear fusion: Scientists achieve major milestone
Upper Paleolithic hunters used petroglyphs to convey basic survival knowledge. Researchers suggest they have uncovered a record of animal mating practices organized around the moon.
This astonishing discovery pushes back the oldest known example of Homo sapiens by 14,000 years.
While symbols rather than letters and words are used to convey meaning, the researchers argue in their paper that these representations constitute “a complete unit of meaning.”
To gain a better picture of the Ice Age, a team of experts carefully examined over 800 patterns consisting of dots, lines and Y-shapes found in European cave paintings.
These notes were regularly placed next to depictions of animals, making them essential for their decipherment.
See also: Scientists develop a plan to study interstellar objects
By analyzing the extensive library of painting examples and cross-referencing them with modern animal birth cycles, the researchers were able to reveal that the symbols on these paintings actually indicated when each creature entered the mating season.
They believed that the Y symbol seen in these artworks meant “birth,” providing people of the time with valuable knowledge about creatures such as wild horses, deer, cattle, and mammoths.
This discovery proves that Ice Age hunters not only survived, but also recorded their experiences from the past – even though their specific calendar system is no longer used.
The research conducted by these experts involves a lot of speculation, with the result that not everyone agrees with the final conclusion that this could be considered an annual mating calendar or even a form of written communication.
The researchers in the new study suggest that these symbols should be understood as an intermediate stage between simple markings and an advanced writing system, and that this concept should be explored further.
See also: Scientists discovered a new set of blood groups
Writing as we know it today began in the Sumerian region of Mesopotamia, around 3,300 BC. This early form of writing involved pictographic shapes that served as letters. Surprisingly, it appears that the tradition of engraving on stone may date back much further than previously thought.
The Cambridge Archaeological Journal recently published the findings of this research.
