Earliest "Writing" On 60,000-Year-Old Eggshells

New Scientist reports on research published in PNAS (abstract here) about what may be the earliest writing yet discovered, on eggshells dated to 60,000 years ago. "Since 1999, Pierre-Jean Texier of the University of Bordeaux, France, and his colleagues have uncovered 270 fragments of shell at the Diepkloof Rock Shelter in the Western Cape, South Africa. They show the same symbols are used over and over again, and the team say there are signs that the symbols evolved over 5,000 years. This long-term repetition is a hallmark of symbolic communication and a sign of modern human thinking, say the team. [Another researcher is quoted:] 'Judging from what we know about the evolution of art all over the world, there may have been many [written language] traditions that were born, lasted for some time, and then vanished. This may be one of them, most probably not the first and certainly not the last.'"

Comments

Re:I saw a study on this...

[dargaud]

The thought that humans 60 000 years ago may be smarter than us today amused me

Well, I have some doubts. At the start of agriculture you'd starve on the 1st winter if you were stupid. Or as a hunter you'd get torn to pieces pretty fast if you were stupid. Now if you are stupid you can still find a good lawyer to help you get rich by spilling hot coffee on yourself. Idiocracy indeed.