a scientist decodes a 20,000-year-old writing system
The signs are 20,000 years old
An amateur archaeologist has discovered a primitive Ice Age writing system, concluding that the 20,000-year-old signs were a form of the lunar calendar.
Ben Bacon's research indicates that cave paintings were not only a form of artistic expression but were also used to record complex information about the timing of animal reproductive cycles.
Professor Paul Pettit, an archaeologist at Durham University, said he was "glad to have taken the matter seriously" when Bacon contacted him . main calendar.
Bacon set out to decipher these codes, accessing previous research and photographs of cave art at the British Library and searching for recurring patterns, saying it was "surreal" to know what people were saying 20,000 years ago.
Using today's equivalent animal birth cycles as a reference point, Bacon's team deduced that the number of signs associated with Ice Age animals was a record number, by lunar month, for mating time, and thought the inclusion of a "Y" signified birth.
"We are able to show that these people, who left a legacy of amazing art in the caves of Lascaux and Altamira, also left a record of early timekeeping that would eventually become common among our species," Pettitt said.
Since signs are believed to record information digitally rather than recording speech, they are not considered writing in the sense of the pictographic and cuneiform systems that appeared in Sumer from 3400 BC onwards but are classified as a proto-writing system.
"As we delve into their world, what we discover is that these ancient ancestors are a lot more like us than we previously thought," Bacon said.
The findings encouraged the team to research further into the meaning of other markings found in the cave drawings .
"What we hope is that opening up more parts of the proto-writing system will allow us to gain an understanding of the information that our ancestors valued," Bacon said.
Source: websites