Get the latest tech news

40k-Year-Old Symbols in Caves Worldwide May Be the Earliest Written Language


We may take it for granted that the earliest writing systems developed with the Sumerians around 3400 B.C.E. The archaeological evidence so far supports the theory. But it may also be possible that the earliest writing systems predate 5000-year-old cuneiform tablets by several thousand years.

Von Pet­zinger spent years cat­a­logu­ing these sym­bols in Europe, vis­it­ing “52 caves,” reports New Scientist’s Ali­son George, “in France, Spain, Italy and Por­tu­gal. In her TED Talk at the top, von Pet­zinger describes this ear­ly sys­tem of com­mu­ni­ca­tion through abstract signs as a pre­cur­sor to the “glob­al net­work of infor­ma­tion exchange” in the mod­ern world. Cave art might show ear­ly humans “con­vert­ing acoustic sounds into draw­ings,” notes Sarah Gibbens at Nation­al Geo­graph­ic.

Get the Android app

Or read this on Hacker News

Read more on:

Photo of Year

Year

Photo of caves

caves

Photo of old symbols

old symbols

Related news:

News photo

Next year’s new foldable iPhone may have a lot in common with iPhone Air: report

News photo

400-Year-Old Cosmic Mystery Solved: New Class of Ancient Star System Discovered Hiding in Our Galaxy

News photo

Trump administration to impose a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, but now says it'll be a one-time charge