Did a Furniture Carver in Crouch End Crack the Code to Early Human Writing?
16th October 2025
Between 35,000 and 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers, sheltering on the fringes of the frigid mammoth steppe that shrouded much of the European landmass, entered limestone cave networks, such as Altamira in northern Spain and Chauvet and Lascaux in southern France, carrying pigments. Yellow and red ochres, black manganese oxides, white kaolin clay. On the walls, they rendered images of the beasts that filled their world. Mammoths and bison in heart-thumping lifelikeness. Aurochs and horses. Reindeer and salmon.
Since the 19th century, archaeologists have been fighting over what the pictures might have meant. Initially, priests and gentleman scholars believed they might be a sort of magic for supercharging hunts. Later, some researchers believed they related to shamanic rituals; trances performed in the flickers of animal-grease lamplight. Others argue that whatever meaning there might have been will remain inaccessible to us for ever, holed up in the dark.
October 17th, 2025 at 16:06
This is fascinating!