Science reports:

In a series of caves at the base of the Swabian Alps in southwestern Germany, archaeologists have uncovered bone flutes, tools to make rope and clothes, the oldest known Venus figurines, and hundreds of handheld objects etched with intricate geometric designs. These engraved items, first discovered in the 1860s, were carved from mammoth ivory and bones of cave lions, cave bears, and other animals now long extinct. According to an analysis published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the artifacts, which are between 43,000 and 34,000 years old, might contain the earliest known symbolic precursors to writing.

“I loved this paper,” says Huw Groucutt, an archaeologist at the University of Malta who was not involved with the research. “It clearly shows that the kinds of signs found in [this time period] share some features with writing systems in a broad sense.”

Sumerian, the first documented written language, appeared in Mesopotamia in an area that is today Iraq about 5500 years ago. Writing later evolved independently in Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. But how written language developed is more mysterious. “Writing is often heralded as a great leap—a key marker for the origin of ‘civilization,’” Groucutt says. But “at the beginning of things were pictures and signs of shared meanings, most probably on perishable materials now lost.” [Continue reading…]