Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe | Genevieve von Petzinger

It is very likely that these ancient artists were making tally marks, perhaps like these lines from the Riparo di Za Miniche in Sicily, as well as creating stenciled images of objects around them. Could some signs be a symbol of weapons or housing? Or what about celestial bodies like a star cluster? Or maybe even rivers, mountains and trees: landscape features, perhaps like this black plumage surrounded by strange bell-shaped markings from the Castillo site in Spain. The term feather means "feather-shaped" in Latin, but could it be a drawing of a plant or tree? Some researchers have begun to ask these questions about specific signals in specific locations, but I think it's time to review this category as a whole.

The irony of all this, of course, is that just because there is a clear classification of tags into one category, I have a feeling that my next destination will involve splitting them up as the different types of images have been identified and separated. Don't get me wrong, creating fully advanced writing recently was a notable achievement in itself. But it's important to remember that those ancient writing systems didn't emerge out of nowhere. And that even 5,000 years ago, people were already seeking to build something much larger, with lineages stretching back tens of thousands of years, to geometric markers of the Ice Age in Europe and beyond, to that point, deep of our shared history. when someone first came with the idea of ​​adopting the sign and the forms, and changing the quality of communication between us forever.

Thank you all. (applause)