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

Written language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing systems, our ancestors scrawled geometric signs across the walls of the caves they sheltered in. Paleoanthropologist and rock art researcher Genevieve von Petzinger has studied and codified these ancient markings in caves across Europe. The uniformity of her findings suggest that graphic communication, and the ability to preserve and transmit messages beyond a single moment in time, may be much older than we think.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

[matthewtopping]

One major problem with our interpretation of this cave art is the way that we are lighting them when we take pictures or other recordings of them. Ancient hominins from the period would have had some kind of open flame lantern. It has been demonstrated by other scholars that the combination of an open flame light source, the art, and the contours of the rock on which they are written produced a kind of rudimentary animation, or 3D storyboard. To fully understand the purpose of ancient cave markings requires more culturally and materially relativistic investigation.

[Opceedee]

What if they were just the first tripadvisor reviews? “Great cave - bad wifi - good ventilation - stayed for 3 nights - i’ll rate it 5 fingers”

[MCJSA]

I read her book, First Signs. It's really fascinating and worth looking at. Her idea to catalog abstract markings in ancient inscriptions across Europe to try to assign meaning is unique and gives evidence of very extensive social organization among people in the remote past.

[CrowdContrl]

Not only are the 32 symbols barely discussed, but the question about why they are so widespread is only addressed as “that is a story for another lecture”. C-

[johnking]

That green door the cavemen installed was functional, yet festive.

[ingebrecht]

The caves were the closest things that early man had to a refrigerator. The kids drawings always end up in the refrigerator.

[chetisanhart]

I'm imagining that these symbols were written all over the place but they only survived in caves.

[himoffthequakeroatbox]

Imagine thousands of years into the future. An alien archaeologist (or perhaps a creature evolved from meerkats) is trying to work out what "keep left", "hard hat mandatory" and "no tumble dry" symbols mean.
The word "ritual" will no doubt occur.

[robweeks]

When I'm in a cave I often find myself wondering wtf am I doing in a cave?

[cholesterolkilla]

Geez people, often the presenters here aren't professional speakers, they're specialists in their respective fields. Cut them some slack, they're brave for speaking in front of a room full of people, not as easy as it looks.

[keithmcauslan]

I would like to pose the possibility that they were the map of the cave system. Cave systems can be very confusing but a mark that says that way to the opening would be essential.

[boomdawg]

I have seen petroglyphs from the Arizona and New Mexico deserts that is incredibly similar. Tick marks, deer and bison, spirals, rectangles. No cave involved and carved not painted but the symbols are the same.

[strongerandwiser]

Why did this ted talk seem like the entire thing was an introduction then, when you think she is going to start talking about it in detail, the talk ends....

[benjammin]

"Why always in cave?"

Simple answer: The others outside where washed away by rain!

[christopherbowen]

The caves in SW France were like condominiums. Warm secure with high ceilings and walls to paint on the way we hang pictures. I visited Peche-Merle and was amazed by the beautiful paintings of fish horses ‘bison’ and hand prints like signatures and a river running through. A true underworld and the origin of later Styx and Homeric underworld of Classical mythology.

[censorbleep]

It is possible that this is something like convergence. The symbols are often quite basic . . . triangles, circles, zigzag. These can represent mountains, the sun or moon, and lightning. These could have arisen in isolated, groups that did not contact each other. Given the limited media available, there may well be an element of inherent symbology in us . . . particularly drawing from the natural world.

[zaman]

The emotion she is going through the talk shows how passionate she is about her work!

Love and respect. ❤

[TheWarriorSongProject]

maybe the cave floors weren't so high 40k years ago. lotsa water could have flowed through since then and added dirt to the cave....

[deeliciousplum]

Even during the opening few lines, I cannot but smile at the TED-like manner of presenting an interesting topic. TED Talks may have fed our hunger for exploring and for learning. The cost for this was the TED-ification of its speakers.

[barneysdad]

Fascinating. Great to hear someone speak so knowledgeably and with such enthusiasm. Great talk. Thank you.