YEREVAN, JANUARY 6, ARMENPRES. Strains, dots, and different symbols painted on caves over the last Ice Age could be the earliest instance of proto-writing, symbols that convey little info, akin to emoji, in line with a examine printed Thursday within the Cambridge Journal of Archeology.

The examine exhibits that 20,000-year-old marks made by hunter-gatherers, in addition to drawings of sport animals, file animal conduct “crucial” to human survival. CNN reported.

In response to a examine from Durham College in England, traces, dots and “Y” markings have been discovered in additional than 600 Ice Age photographs on cave partitions and transportable objects in Europe.

“We had lengthy suspected that these sequences of marks subsequent to the depictions of sport animals stated one thing about these animals, however we had no thought what they have been saying,” stated co-author Paul Pettitt, professor of paleolithic archeology at Durham College. He instructed CNN on Thursday.

“(Recording conduct) was crucial for paleolithic hunter-gatherers, who trusted them for survival, that’s, for mating and giving beginning, each when animals have been present in massive numbers in clusters,” he added.

The findings additionally reveal that individuals in Ice Age Europe used a calendar based mostly on lunar cycles based mostly on seasonal observations.

In response to Pettitt, there are greater than 30 non-figurative marks in paleolithic artwork, however examine co-author Bennett Bacon — a furnishings conservator and unbiased researcher who made the preliminary speculation and discovery — regarded on the three commonest indicators.

Statistical evaluation of a giant dataset of information of animals that lived on the time, together with aurochs (now extinct cattle species), salmon, and horses allowed the researchers to match the months of the yr when the species was preoccupied with explicit species. conduct akin to mating, beginning or migration.

The crew believes that the image “Y” stands for giving beginning, and mating durations are indicated by the lengths of traces and dots that don’t include the letter “Y”. They didn’t discover any predictors for durations of migration.

Alistair Pike, a professor of archaeological science on the College of Southampton in England, instructed CNN that discovering sturdy proof of what European paleolithic cave artwork meant “is at all times like in search of a needle in a haystack.”

“(This) examine is essentially the most compelling proof but of the systematic which means of the connection of dots, traces, and symbols to animals,” stated Pike, who was not concerned within the examine. He added that the examine confirmed how the quantity and site of the markings “correlated” nicely with the variety of months between the beginning and mating seasons of various species.

Pettitt stated different researchers have questioned why the examine solely examined three kinds of indicators.

Nonetheless, he stated this was “a really strong begin” for unlocking extra info, and utilizing the Rosetta Stone “nobody wrote[Jean-François]Champollion as a result of he did not decipher all of the hieroglyphs in a single go.”

The oldest typeface on the earth was the Sumerian script, designed by folks in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq, Turkey, and Syria) relationship again to eight,000 BC.