40,000-Year-Old German Figurines Hint at Early Sign System Preceding Writing
A study of about 3,000 geometric signs carved on 260 Stone Age artifacts from the Swabian Alps in southwestern Germany (roughly 34,000–45,000 years old) finds patterns that resemble proto-cuneiform, suggesting an early sign system that could encode information long before writing. The markings appear on mammoth and horse figurines as well as tools, indicating sophisticated cognitive behavior, though researchers caution that the exact meanings remain unknown.