The ark known in the Ice Age caves may have been ancient records

As far back as about 25,000 years ago, Ice Age hunters, though using record cards to share information about the behavior of their prey, found a new interest.

These markings include dots, lines, and the “Y” symbol, and are often accompanied by images of animals. In the past 150 years, mysterious paintings, some dating back nearly 40,000 years, have been found in hundreds of caves across Europe.

Some archaeologists have thought that the markings may refer to observing the traces of time, but the specific purpose has remained elusive.SN: 7/9/19). Now, the statistical analysis, published on January 5 Cambridge Archaeological journalIt provides evidence that past humans may have marked the mating and reproduction schedule of local fauna.

By comparing the characteristics to the life cycles of the animals, the researchers showed that the number of dots or lines in the given image strongly correlated to the month of mating across all the samples analyzed, which included males (an extinct species of wild cattle), bison. horses, mammoths and fish. What’s more, the position of the symbol “Y” consequently predicted the month of birth, indicating that “Y” means “part”.

The discovery is one of the first records of a coherent notational system, the researchers say. It suggests that people at that time interpreted the meaning of his position in the hierarchy and made plans for the distant future using a calendar trick – reinforcing the suggestion that they were capable of complex cognition.

“This is a really big deal,” says Ben Bacon, an independent researcher based in London. “We are dealing with a system that has intense organization, intense logic.”

A furniture conservator by day, Hacon spent years sifting through scientific materials to compile over 800 instances of these cave records. From research and reading literature, he thought the points corresponded to 13 lunar cycles in a year. But he thought the hunters were more worried about the changes in the seasons than the moon.

In the new paper, he and his colleagues argue that rather than fixing astronomical festivals to equinox events, hunters should start their calendar year with a snowy spring. Not only would the clear snow be the point of origin, but the meteorological calendar also accounted for the differences in cross-sectional areas.

For example, when the snow begins at different times in different latitudes, the bison will always connect about four lunar cycles or months after the snow of that region, as indicated by four dots or lines.

“Why reason is clever, because it is founded on the universal,” says Bacon. “That if you move from the Pyrenees to Belgium, you can use the same calendar.”

He needs data to prove his idea. Compiling the data, he worked with academic researchers to determine the timing of migration, mating and birth for common Ice Age animals targeted by hunters, using archaeological data or comparing them with similar modern animals. Next, the researchers determined if the characters were significantly associated with major life events based on this calendar. When the team ran a statistical analysis, the results strongly supported Bacon’s theory.

When it comes to developing notations, “we’ve discussed notational systems before, but it’s always been pretty speculative about what people were counting and why they were counting,” says Brian Hayden, an archaeologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. who reviewed the paper. “This adds a lot of depth and specificity to why people were observing calendars and how they were using them.”

Linguistic experts argue that, in the absence of conventional syntax and grammar, the characters of the writing should not be considered. But that doesn’t make the discovery any less exciting in itself, says paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar in Portugal, who was not involved in the study. Writing systems are often mistakenly thought to be the pinnacle of achievement, when writing is only developed in a cultural context where it is useful, he says. But it means that notes provide a way to keep records out of mind.

“On the road, that it was a huge cognitive leap,” he said. “Suddenly we have the ability to save” [information] beyond time We have the ability to travel through space and time. Everything begins to change.”

The debate over these features continues. Archaeologist April Nowell doesn’t buy many of the group’s principles. “It boggles my mind why we would need a calendar … to predict that animals will give birth in the spring,” said Nowell, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. “The amount of information that this calendar provides, if it really is a calendar, is absolutely minimal.”

Hayden adds that, while he still held the basic model, he had some cave features to interpret the place. The next step, he says, will be to review and verify the interpretations of the notes.