Stone Age Symbols: 40,000-Year-Old Signs May Be Early Writing

For decades, the story of writing began in Mesopotamia, with the Sumerians and their cuneiform scripts around 3000 B.C. But emerging research suggests the impulse to record information—to create systems of symbols representing thought—is far older, stretching back tens of thousands of years to the Paleolithic era. A new statistical analysis of markings on ancient tools and sculptures from Central Europe indicates that hunter-gatherers some 40,000 years ago developed a sophisticated system of signs that, while not writing as we know it, represents a crucial predecessor to it.

The study, published February 23 in the journal PNAS, focuses on artifacts discovered primarily in the Swabian Jura mountains of southern Germany. These objects—often crafted from ivory, bone, or stone—bear intentional markings: lines, dots, crosses and geometric patterns. Researchers, linguist Christian Bentz of Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin, analyzed over 3,000 of these markings across 260 artifacts. Their analysis reveals these aren’t random doodles, but rather “sign sequences” exhibiting statistical properties comparable to early forms of cuneiform.

Early Symbolism and the Paleolithic Mind

The arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe around 55,000 years ago brought with it not only advanced toolmaking techniques—projectile points and drilling implements—but also a burgeoning artistic expression. Paleolithic humans decorated cave walls with depictions of animals, geometric shapes, and hand stencils. They also adorned their tools and sculptures with these enigmatic geometric signs, the meaning of which has long puzzled archaeologists. These weren’t simply decorative; the new research suggests they served a communicative function.

Bentz and Dutkiewicz employed computational techniques to examine the statistical properties of these Paleolithic sign sequences. Their work builds on the understanding that language, at its core, is a system of patterned information. By analyzing the frequency and arrangement of the signs, they sought to determine if these patterns were structured in a way that could encode information. The results indicate a level of complexity comparable to that found in proto-cuneiform, the earliest stages of the Mesopotamian writing system.

“Our research is helping us uncover the unique statistical properties—or statistical fingerprint—of these sign systems, which are an early predecessor to writing,” Bentz explained in a statement. This doesn’t imply Paleolithic humans were writing novels, but it does suggest they were developing a capacity for symbolic thought and externalizing it in a structured way.

What the Statistical Analysis Reveals

The researchers emphasize that these Paleolithic sign sequences are distinct from modern writing systems. The repetition of elements—a series of crosses, or lines—is a key characteristic. “This type of repetition is not a feature found in spoken language,” Bentz notes. Instead, the system appears to operate on a different principle, perhaps closer to a system of tallies, mnemonic devices, or a way of representing concepts rather than specific words.

Interestingly, the study also found that figurines tended to have a higher “information density” than tools—meaning more signs were carved onto them. This suggests that the signs may have been used to record more complex information related to beliefs, rituals, or social structures. The Swabian Jura, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has proven to be a particularly rich source of these artifacts, providing a crucial dataset for the analysis.

A Long History of Symbolic Thought

This isn’t the first time researchers have proposed a deep history of symbolic communication. In 2023, a study of dots and lines in 20,000-year-old cave paintings suggested these markings may have constituted an early calendar system. Paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger has also argued that a set of 32 recurring symbols found in caves across Europe represent an early form of writing dating back as far as 40,000 years ago. (See her TED Talk for more on this research.)

The current study adds to this growing body of evidence, providing a new statistical approach to understanding the meaning of these Paleolithic markings. As von Petzinger, who was not involved in the PNAS study, told Scientific American, the research offers “two excellent approaches for at least trying to confirm that these marks were meaningful beyond being decorative doodles.”

The Evolution of Communication

The Paleolithic sign system, unlike cuneiform, remained remarkably stable for nearly 10,000 years. Cuneiform, in contrast, underwent rapid evolution over a millennium. This suggests that the Paleolithic system served a different purpose, perhaps focused on preserving core cultural knowledge or transmitting information across generations in a relatively unchanging way. “The human ability to encode information in signs and symbols was developed over many thousands of years,” Bentz concludes. “Writing is only one specific form in a long series of sign systems.”

The researchers are continuing to analyze artifacts with intentional markings to further refine their understanding of early human communication. “Countless tools and sculptures from the Paleolithic… bear intentional sign sequences,” Dutkiewicz notes. “There are many sign sequences to be found on artefacts. We’ve only just scratched the surface.”

This research doesn’t unlock the specific meaning of these ancient signs, but it does offer a compelling glimpse into the cognitive abilities of our Paleolithic ancestors and the long, complex journey that ultimately led to the development of writing. It underscores that the impulse to record and share information is deeply rooted in the human experience, predating civilization by tens of thousands of years.