Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave artwork might have been historic data

Way back to roughly 25,000 years in the past, Ice Age hunter-gatherers might have jotted down markings to speak details about the conduct of their prey, a brand new examine finds.

These markings embody dots, strains and the image “Y,” and sometimes accompany photos of animals. During the last 150 years, the mysterious depictions, some relationship again practically 40,000 years, have been present in a whole bunch of caves throughout Europe.

Some archaeologists have speculated that the markings would possibly relate to maintaining monitor of time, however the particular objective has remained elusive (SN: 7/9/19). Now, a statistical evaluation, printed January 5 in Cambridge Archeological Journal, presents proof that previous individuals might have been recording the mating and birthing schedule of native fauna.

By evaluating the marks to the animals’ life cycles, researchers confirmed that the variety of dots or strains in a given picture strongly correlates to the month of mating throughout all of the analyzed examples, which included aurochs (an extinct species of untamed cattle), bison, horses, mammoth and fish. What’s extra, the place of the image “Y” in a sequence was predictive of delivery month, suggesting that “Y” signifies “to present delivery.”

The discovering is among the earliest data of a coherent notational system, the researchers say. It signifies that folks on the time have been capable of interpret the that means of an merchandise’s place in a sequence and plan forward for the distant future utilizing a calendar of kinds — reinforcing the suggestion that they have been able to advanced cognition.

“It is a actually huge deal cognitively,” says Ben Bacon, an unbiased researcher based mostly in London. “We’re coping with a system that has intense group, intense logic to it.”

A furnishings conservator by day, Bacon spent years poring by scientific articles to compile over 800 situations of those cave markings. From his analysis and studying the literature, he reasoned that the dots corresponded to the 13 lunar cycles in a 12 months. However he thought that the hunter-gatherers would’ve been extra involved with seasonal modifications than the moon.

Within the new paper, he and colleagues argue that moderately than pinning a calendar to astronomical occasions just like the equinox, the hunter-gatherers began their calendar 12 months with the snowmelt within the spring. Not solely would the snowmelt be a transparent level of origin, however the meteorological calendar would additionally account for variations in timing throughout places.

For instance, although snowmelt would begin on totally different dates in several latitudes, bison would all the time mate roughly 4 lunar cycles — or months — after that area’s snowmelt, as indicated by 4 dots or strains.

“Because of this it’s such a intelligent system, as a result of it’s based mostly on the common,” Bacon says. “Which suggests for those who migrate from the Pyrenees to Belgium, you’ll be able to simply use the identical calendar.”

He wanted information to show his concept. After compiling the markings, he labored with tutorial researchers to establish the timing of migration, mating and delivery for frequent Ice Age animals focused by hunter-gatherers through the use of archaeological information or evaluating with comparable trendy animals. Subsequent, the researchers decided if the marks aligned considerably with vital life occasions based mostly on this calendar. When the crew ran the statistical evaluation, the outcomes strongly supported Bacon’s idea.

When explaining the markings, “we’ve argued for notational techniques earlier than, however it’s all the time been pretty speculative as to what the individuals have been counting and why they have been counting,” says Brian Hayden, an archaeologist at Simon Fraser College in Burnaby, British Columbia, who peer-reviewed the paper. “This provides much more depth and specificity to why individuals have been maintaining calendars and the way they have been utilizing them.”

Linguistic consultants argue that, given the shortage of typical syntax and grammar, the marks wouldn’t be thought-about writing. However that doesn’t make the discovering inherently much less thrilling, says paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar in Portugal, who wasn’t concerned within the examine. Writing techniques are sometimes mistakenly thought-about a pinnacle of accomplishment, when the truth is writing can be developed solely in cultural contexts the place it’s helpful, she says. As an alternative, it’s vital that the marks present a solution to hold data exterior of the thoughts.

“In a manner, that was the massive cognitive leap,” she says. “Abruptly, we’ve got the power to protect [information] past the second. We have now the power to transmit it throughout house and time. All the things begins to alter.”

The controversy over these marks’ meanings continues. Archaeologist April Nowell doesn’t purchase most of the crew’s assumptions. “It boggles my thoughts why one would want a calendar … to foretell that animals have been going to have offspring within the spring,” says Nowell, of the College of Victoria in British Columbia. “The quantity of knowledge that this calendar is offering, if it truly is a calendar, is kind of minimal.”

Hayden provides that, whereas the fundamental sample would nonetheless maintain, a few of the cave marks had “wiggle room for interpretation.” The subsequent step, he says, can be to assessment and confirm the interpretations of the marks.