Posted on 11/12/2016 9:06:16 AM PST by JimSEA
cave paintings Spot the signs: geometric forms can be found in paintings, as at Marsoulas in France Philippe Blanchot / hemis.fr / Hemis/AFP By Alison George
When she first saw the necklace, Genevieve von Petzinger feared the trip halfway around the globe to the French village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac had been in vain. The dozens of ancient deer teeth laid out before her, each one pierced like a bead, looked roughly the same. It was only when she flipped one over that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. On the reverse were three etched symbols: a line, an X and another line.
Von Petzinger, a palaeoanthropologist from the University of Victoria in Canada, is spearheading an unusual study of cave art. Her interest lies not in the breathtaking paintings of bulls, horses and bison that usually spring to mind, but in the smaller, geometric symbols frequently found alongside them. Her work has convinced her that far from being random doodles, the simple shapes represent a fundamental shift in our ancestors’ mental skills.
The first formal writing system that we know of is the 5000-year-old cuneiform script of the ancient city of Uruk in what is now Iraq. But it and other systems like it – such as Egyptian hieroglyphs – are complex and didn’t emerge from a vacuum. There must have been an earlier time when people first started playing with simple abstract signs. For years, von Petzinger has wondered if the circles, triangles and squiggles that humans began leaving on cave walls 40,000 years ago represent that special time in our history – the creation of the first human code.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
If the world began again, it would go through the exact same pattern of growth through the ages. Just give a child a crayon....and watch what happens...
To me, this makes a lot of sense. It’s hard for me to believe that writing suddenly appeared.
The interesting one for me are hieroglyphs. A phonetic system, but one which looked logogrammatic. A phonetic system of writing is abstract; breaking down the sounds of a word into sound components and representing the components with a symbol is not how one would envision a language evolving.
I’ve never read of a precursor to Egyptian hieroglyphs being discovered. It’s as if that language just appears fully formed. What are its origins? Is it from an older undiscovered precursor civilization?
Very interesting. Somewhat like the new movie The Arrival.
It’s a subscription site, so we can’t see the whole article, but it looks very interesting.
” On the reverse were three etched symbols: a line, an X and another line. “
Urg and Thag BFF.
Translated, the code read: Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.
There are lots of interesting articles in New Scientist but seldom post them because of the restrictions. However, I couldn’t find an alternate source for this and it was a good concept. Sorry.
I love it!!
Thanks for the humor break. lol
Did Stone Age cavemen talk to each other in symbols?
The Observer | Saturday, March 10, 2012 | Robin McKie
Posted on 03/12/2012 9:25:34 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2857949/posts
The writing on the wall: Symbols from the Palaeolithic
Past Horizons | 3-12-2012
Posted on 03/22/2012 5:23:51 AM PDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2862273/posts
Note: this topic is from . Thanks JimSEA.
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.
Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe | Genevieve von Petzinger | TED | Published on December 18, 2015
Early Emoji
To her right, you see the universal symbol for bacon.
The map showing where the various symbols are found could play hob with theories on Clovis origins.
Moss media!
Interesting, and very perceptive. Still, linguists have argued that commonality across continents of artistic symbols does not prove commonality of origin.
For more extensive discussion on this subject in the New World you might like to read James Bailey, The God Kings and Titans.
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