Paleolithic Notation

Definition: Paleolithic notation is the term used by archaeologists for deliberate markings made by our ancestors to count objects or remember events in a sequence. The earliest known to date is from the Middle Paleolithic levels at Blombos Cave in South Africa, about 77,000 years ago, where ochre fragments have been identified with geometric carvings on them.

As you might guess, this is a highly controversial interpretation; researchers who have grappled and/or continue to grapple with this include Eduard Lartet, Alexander Marshack, Francisco d'Errico and Judith Robinson.

Source

D'Errico, Francesco 2003 The invisible frontier. A multiple species model for the origin of behavioral modernity. Evolutionary Anthropology 12(4):188-202.

D'Errico, Francesco, Christopher S. Henshilwood, and Peter. Nilssen 2001 An engraved bone fragment from c. 70,000 year-old Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa; Implications for the origin of symbolism and language. Antiquity 75:309-318.

Marshack, Alexander 1985 A lunar-solar year calendar stick from North America. American Antiquity 50(1):27-51.

Mellars, Paul 2005 The impossible coincidence. A single-species model for the origins of modern human behavior in Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology 14(1):12-27.

This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.