Hi everyone
Are any of you familiar with Genevieve von Petzinger?
Petzinger's a Canadian paleoanthropologist who studies cave art from the European Ice Age. And she identified a consistent set of 32 symbols that are found in caves across Europe.
Some of these symbols date back as far as 40,000 years They were used basically unchanged for around 30,000 years. And many of these symbols are also found in caves throughout the world. Which suggests a common origin.
These symbols are probably not a formal writing system, but they might be the earliest (known) root of human writing. And the existence of these symbols suggest that Ice Age humans already shared a common system of communication across vast distances, and a very long period of time.
If you want to know more about Petzinger's research, she wrote a book - 'The First Signs' - and she also did a TED talk on her dicovery.
Are any of you familiar with Genevieve von Petzinger?
Petzinger's a Canadian paleoanthropologist who studies cave art from the European Ice Age. And she identified a consistent set of 32 symbols that are found in caves across Europe.
Some of these symbols date back as far as 40,000 years They were used basically unchanged for around 30,000 years. And many of these symbols are also found in caves throughout the world. Which suggests a common origin.
These symbols are probably not a formal writing system, but they might be the earliest (known) root of human writing. And the existence of these symbols suggest that Ice Age humans already shared a common system of communication across vast distances, and a very long period of time.
If you want to know more about Petzinger's research, she wrote a book - 'The First Signs' - and she also did a TED talk on her dicovery.