Long before alphabets or formal writing systems existed, early humans may already have been experimenting with structured visual communication. A new scientific study suggests that markings found on 40,000-year-old artifacts from Germany show surprising similarities to much later proto-writing systems.
At the centre of the research is a small ivory figurine discovered decades ago in a cave in southwestern Germany. The object, carved from mammoth tusk, depicts a lion-human hybrid and is covered with carefully arranged notches and dots — markings that appear repeatedly on other artifacts from the same period.
Scientists stress that these marks do not qualify as written language. However, when examined collectively, the sequences show patterns that resemble early scripts developed tens of thousands of years later in ancient Mesopotamia.
The artifacts were produced by people belonging to the Aurignacian culture, one of the earliest cultural groups established in Europe by Homo sapiens after their migration out of Africa. This was also a time when modern humans encountered Neanderthals across the continent.
Researchers catalogued more than 200 artifacts dated between roughly 43,000 and 34,000 years ago. These objects included animal figurines, tools, ornaments and musical instruments, many of them bearing recurring symbols such as dots, lines, crosses and star-like shapes.
Rather than treating the marks as decoration, the team applied computational analysis to measure how much information the symbol sequences carried. The results showed that the symbols were not random — certain signs appeared only on specific types of objects, suggesting shared conventions passed down across generations.
According to lead author Christian Bentz of Saarland University, this selective usage indicates intentional communication rather than artistic habit. For example, some symbols appeared exclusively on animal figurines, while others were never used on human forms.
When compared with known writing systems, the Aurignacian markings differed clearly from modern scripts. Yet their information density closely matched that of proto-cuneiform, an early accounting system that later evolved into full writing in ancient Mesopotamia.
Despite these similarities, the symbols lack a clear connection to spoken language — a core feature of true writing. Researchers say the markings likely served symbolic, cultural or mnemonic purposes rather than recording speech.
Even so, the findings point to advanced cognitive abilities among early European humans. They suggest that long before writing emerged, people were already experimenting with structured visual systems to convey meaning, identity or shared knowledge.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offering fresh insight into how the roots of written communication may stretch far deeper into human history than previously believed.
