More than 40,000 years ago, long before cities or formal scripts existed, early humans were already using structured systems of signs to record information. A new study suggests these signs functioned as a primitive form of information encoding — a system that shares key features with the earliest known writing, despite being tens of thousands of years older.
The research challenges the long-held belief that writing emerged suddenly in complex societies. Instead, it points to deep prehistoric roots of symbolic communication.
Ancient signs, modern analysis
The study was led by linguist Christian Bentz of Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz from Berlin’s Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte.
Researchers analyzed more than 3,000 geometric signs carved onto about 260 prehistoric objects. The artefacts date from roughly 34,000 to 45,000 years ago. Many were discovered in caves in southern Germany and other parts of Europe.
Rather than trying to interpret what the signs meant, the team focused on how the systems worked. Using computational tools, they examined repetition, structure, and predictability. These features allow researchers to measure information density using entropy, a standard statistical metric.
A surprising comparison with early writing
The results surprised the research team. The Ice Age sign systems showed levels of complexity comparable to proto-cuneiform, one of the earliest writing systems, which emerged around 3,000 B.C.E. in ancient Mesopotamia.
Proto-cuneiform is often viewed as a direct ancestor of writing. Researchers expected it to resemble modern scripts more closely. Instead, statistical analysis showed it shared more in common with much older Palaeolithic sign systems.
Both relied heavily on repetition. Signs often appeared in simple sequences such as repeated lines, dots, or crosses. This pattern differs sharply from modern writing, which represents spoken language and carries dense information with less repetition.
According to Bentz, this suggests that symbolic information systems remained largely stable for tens of thousands of years. A major shift occurred only about 5,000 years ago, when writing systems began to encode speech directly.
Evidence carved in ivory and stone
Many of the objects studied come from the Swabian Jura, a region known for its rich Ice Age archaeology. One example is a small mammoth figurine from Vogelherd Cave, carved from mammoth ivory and engraved with rows of dots and crosses.
Another is the Lion-Human sculpture from Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave, which bears evenly spaced notches along one arm. Other artefacts include ivory plates and tools etched with similar sign sequences.
Dutkiewicz noted that many objects are small and portable, fitting easily into the palm of a hand. This suggests they were meant to be carried, not displayed. Early proto-cuneiform tablets were also small and practical, reinforcing the comparison.
Communication before writing
The study does not reveal what information early humans recorded using these signs. The meanings remain unknown. Still, the findings help narrow possible interpretations.
Anatomically, early Homo sapiens were similar to modern humans and likely shared comparable cognitive abilities. Researchers say the ability to store and transmit information would have been vital for Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. It may have helped coordinate groups, preserve knowledge, or improve survival in harsh environments.
The project is funded by the European Research Council. Researchers continue to digitize and analyze new sign sequences from museums and archaeological sites across Europe.
Bentz said writing represents only one phase in a much longer human tradition of encoding information. That tradition continues today. Modern computing and artificial intelligence still rely on predictable symbolic patterns.
The findings suggest that the foundations of writing were laid far earlier than once believed — not in cities or states, but among Ice Age humans carving meaning into ivory and stone.
