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February 23, 2026<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Ancient art could hold clues to the origins of written language<\/p>\n Thousands of markings on objects made around 40,000 years ago may have been more than just doodles, a new analysis suggests<\/p>\n By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n A 40,000-year-old mammoth figurine from Vogelherd Cave in Germany.<\/p>\n Universit\u00e4t T\u00fcbingen\/Hildegard Jensen<\/p>\n One of the oldest known pieces of art on the planet is a figurine of a mammoth that was carved in ivory by a Stone Age artisan some 40,000 years ago. Found in what is now Germany, it is marked with crosses and dots. The meaning of these markings is a mystery\u2014but a new analysis of the object and hundreds of others found in the same region reveal that the markings may have meant something specific to their ancient creators.<\/p>\n Researchers analyzed more than 3,000 markings on 260 objects, including the mammoth, that were found in caves in Germany. They determined that the markings\u2019 patterns are as statistically complex as protocuneiform, an early form of writing that was found on tablets from ancient Mesopotamia that were dated to around 3,500 B.C.E.<\/p>\n The findings, which published Monday in PNAS, could shed light on why ancient humans made art and what purpose it served.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n A 38,000-year-old figurine from Gei\u00dfenkl\u00f6sterle Cave in Germany.<\/p>\n Landesmuseum W\u00fcrttemberg\/Hendrik Zwietasch<\/p>\n This type of work can be \u201cchallenging,\u201d in part because such ancient markings are practically impossible to interpret, explains Genevieve von Petzinger, a paleoanthropologist and National Geographic emerging explorer, who studies the origin of writing and wasn\u2019t involved in the new study. But looking for patterns in the symbols, such as intentionality and repetition, \u201care two excellent approaches for at least trying to confirm that these marks were meaningful beyond being decorative doodles.\u201d<\/p>\n The analysis was based on a trove of Stone Age objects, from the mammoth to a mysterious lion-human hybrid to lesser-known tools and musical instruments, explains Ewa Dutkiewicz, a research associate at the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin. Many of the objects were covered with markings, but the reason why was a mystery. Were they decorations, tallies of hunting kills or something else?<\/p>\n Dutkiewicz worked with linguist Christian Bentz, an associate professor who studies the history of language at Saarland University in Germany, to digitize the markings on the objects. They compared features of the markings\u2014sign diversity and repetition, for example\u2014to those of other, more recent sign systems, including modern writing.<\/p>\n The markings don\u2019t resemble modern-day writing. But when Bentz compared the marks to early protocuneiform, the similarity was unmistakable, Bentz says.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn’t believe it. I went through the data again and again,\u201d he says. The Stone Age markings and protocuneiform appear to be similarly complex, despite being separated by some tens of thousands of years and considerable distance.<\/p>\n Across the 260 objects, ivory figurines such as the mammoth carried more information-dense markings than those on the tools, the researchers say. Crosslike marks don\u2019t appear on objects depicting humans, while dots don\u2019t appear on tools\u2014indicating that the markings must have had some sort of symbolic meaning to the Stone Age humans who made them, Bentz says.<\/p>\n Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum\/Olaf M. Tesmer<\/p>\n \u201cThe organization [of the markings] points to the transmission of more complex ideas,\u201d von Petzinger says.<\/p>\n Decoding what they meant is an exceptionally difficult\u2014if not impossible\u2014task. But Bentz and Dutkiewicz\u2019s methods could help other researchers analyze what similar markings on other ancient objects from elsewhere around the world may signify\u2014even though they cannot read them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more we can learn about the selection of \u2018writing\u2019 surfaces and choices about specific images and signs, the more we will be able to learn about this period from which [writing] later emerged,\u201d von Petzinger says.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 23, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Ancient art could hold clues to the origins of written language Thousands of markings on objects made around 40,000 years ago may have been more than just doodles, a new analysis suggests By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron A 40,000-year-old mammoth figurine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[23262,2822,3153,23263,1507,9302,3407],"class_list":{"0":"post-45053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-40000yearold","9":"tag-age","10":"tag-art","11":"tag-precursor","12":"tag-reveal","13":"tag-stone","14":"tag-writing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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