Long before the first known writing systems appeared in ancient Mesopotamia, early humans were already carving mysterious symbols into tools, ornaments, and sculptures.
A new study suggests that these Stone Age markings were not random decorations but part of a meaningful system for recording information—possibly paving the way for writing tens of thousands of years later.
Researchers led by linguist Christian Bentz from Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin analyzed more than 3,000 engraved signs found on about 260 ancient objects.
These artifacts date back between 34,000 and 45,000 years and were made by early Homo sapiens living in Europe during the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age.
Their findings, published in the journal PNAS, reveal that the symbols share surprising similarities with the earliest known writing-like system, proto-cuneiform, which emerged around 3,000 B.C.E.
Many of the objects studied were discovered in caves in southwestern Germany’s Swabian Jura region. One famous example is a small mammoth figurine carved from ivory, covered in carefully arranged rows of crosses and dots.
Another is a carved ivory plate known as the “Adorant,” depicting a mythical human-lion figure decorated with sequences of notches and marks. A similar lion-human sculpture from a nearby cave also shows evenly spaced carvings along its arm.
At first glance, these repeated lines, dots, and crosses may seem simple. However, the researchers used computer analysis to examine how often the signs appeared and how they were arranged. They found that the sequences were not random. Instead, they followed patterns that suggest Stone Age people were using them to store or communicate information.
The team focused on measuring the “information density” of the symbols, which refers to how much information can be conveyed within a sequence. Surprisingly, the results showed that these ancient markings were statistically as complex as proto-cuneiform tablets created about 40,000 years later. Both systems rely heavily on repetition, such as repeating the same symbol several times in a row. This differs from modern writing, which represents spoken language and uses a wider variety of symbols.
The findings suggest that humans developed the ability to encode information visually long before true writing appeared. Writing systems that represent speech seem to have emerged much later, around 5,000 years ago, and have very different patterns. In other words, the road to writing was long and gradual, beginning with simpler symbolic systems like those carved by Paleolithic hunters and gatherers.
Researchers still do not know exactly what the symbols meant. They could have recorded practical information, such as counting animals, marking ownership, or coordinating group activities. What is clear is that the people who made them had cognitive abilities similar to modern humans and were capable of abstract thinking.
Many of the engraved objects are small enough to fit in a hand, suggesting they were carried around and used in daily life. This portability is similar to early clay tablets used in Mesopotamia thousands of years later.
The study highlights that writing did not suddenly appear out of nowhere. Instead, it likely evolved from earlier systems of symbols that humans used for communication and memory.
These ancient carvings show that our ancestors were already experimenting with ways to record knowledge and share ideas tens of thousands of years before the first written words.
