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