CROPfm Forum

Einem Londoner Möbelrestaurator wurde eine entscheidende Entdeckung zugeschrieben, die geholfen hat zu verstehen, warum eiszeitliche Jäger und Sammler Höhlenmalereien zeichneten.

Ben Bacon analysierte 20.000 Jahre alte Markierungen auf den Zeichnungen und kam zu dem Schluss, dass sie sich auf einen Mondkalender beziehen könnten.

Es führte zu einem Spezialistenteam, das bewies, dass frühe Europäer Notizen über den Zeitpunkt der Reproduktionszyklen von Tieren gemacht haben.

Herr Bacon sagte, es sei „surreal“, zum ersten Mal herauszufinden, was Jäger und Sammler sagten.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64162799

20,000-year-old cave painting 'dots' are the earliest written language, study claims. But not everyone agrees.

Stone Age dots, lines and Y-shaped marks might represent a type of proto-writing created by hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe at least 20,000 years ago.

https://www.livescience.com/ice-age-cave-art-proto-writing-claim

An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar

Abstract
In at least 400 European caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet and Altamira, Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens groups drew, painted and engraved non-figurative signs from at least ~42,000 BP and figurative images (notably animals) from at least 37,000 BP. Since their discovery ~150 years ago, the purpose or meaning of European Upper Palaeolithic non-figurative signs has eluded researchers. Despite this, specialists assume that they were notational in some way. Using a database of images spanning the European Upper Palaeolithic, we suggest how three of the most frequently occurring signs—the line <|>, the dot <•>, and the <Y>—functioned as units of communication. We demonstrate that when found in close association with images of animals the line <|> and dot <•> constitute numbers denoting months, and form constituent parts of a local phenological/meteorological calendar beginning in spring and recording time from this point in lunar months. We also demonstrate that the <Y> sign, one of the most frequently occurring signs in Palaeolithic non-figurative art, has the meaning <To Give Birth>. The position of the <Y> within a sequence of marks denotes month of parturition, an ordinal representation of number in contrast to the cardinal representation used in tallies. Our data indicate that the purpose of this system of associating animals with calendar information was to record and convey seasonal behavioural information about specific prey taxa in the geographical regions of concern. We suggest a specific way in which the pairing of numbers with animal subjects constituted a complete unit of meaning—a notational system combined with its subject—that provides us with a specific insight into what one set of notational marks means. It gives us our first specific reading of European Upper Palaeolithic communication, the first known writing in the history of Homo sapiens.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/an-upper-palaeolithic-protowriting-system-and-phenological-calendar/6F2AD8A705888F2226FE857840B4FE19

Eiszeitliche „Schrift“ entziffert
Bei vielen steinzeitlichen Höhlenmalereien findet man auch Linien und Punkte. Schon länger vermuten Fachleuten, dass die Zeichen etwas bedeuten. Ein Team um einen britischen Hobbyarchäologen dürfte nun den Code geknackt haben.

https://science.orf.at/stories/3216981

Written language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing systems, our ancestors scrawled geometric signs across the walls of the caves they sheltered in. Paleoanthropologist and rock art researcher Genevieve von Petzinger has studied and codified these ancient markings in caves across Europe. The uniformity of her findings suggest that graphic communication, and the ability to preserve and transmit messages beyond a single moment in time, may be much older than we think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJnEQCMA5Sg

SCRIBO - Upper Paleolithic Art & the Origins of Graphic Communication - Genevieve von Petzinger

"SCRIBO: Seminars on Scripts in Bologna" is a series broadcast live via streaming with Guest Speakers from all over the world, who talk about the invention of writing, the relationship between scripts and icons, and current progress in the understanding of undeciphered scripts. Its scope is enriched by contributions from fields such as archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, cognitive studies, and semiotics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC-x8ZQyKJ4

Most of us will have seen the many examples of Palaeolithic cave art, beautifully drawn and coloured and dominated by animal imagery. Ice Age humans were so much more than mere survival specialists; they were so much more than nomadic hunter gatherers.

Our ancient ancestors were not simple people. They could build intricate houses from the bones of mammoths, they created and perfected the art of stone tool making, they accurately shaped animals from stone, they had a culture, burial rites and belief systems and yes, from Europe to Siberia and beyond, they were able to survive the harsh conditions of the Ice Age.

Their paintings though are truly incredible and this stone canvas in the Lascaux Cave is arguably one of humanity’s greatest artistic achievements.

Having a personal interest in Ice Age cultures meant I was fascinated to read the news this week, that a furniture conservator, an amateur called Ben Bacon may have solved a truly ancient mystery – the meaning behind seemingly random, markings – lines, dots and shapes – that were painted next to or onto animals by Ice Age artists.

Mr Bacon suspected that these markings had a specific meaning, an idea shared by many archaeologists, but amazingly, it’s an amateur that may have solved it. They're charting the mating seasons of various animals according to an ancient lunar calendar!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Iwzt4dLDAI