"Oldest 'Writing' Found on 60,000-Year-Old Eggshells?"
by Kate Ravilious
The eggshells were probably used as containers, and the markings may have indicated either the shells' contents or their owner. Texier points out that until recently, bushmen in the region carved geometric motifs on ostrich eggshells as a mark of ownership. If the symbols do signify ownership, it could have implications for the evolution of human cognition. Iain Davidson, an Australian rock art specialist at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, has suggested that marking ownership must have come after humans became self-aware. The eggshells could help to illuminate when this happened in this part of the world, he says.
Written language may have evolved more than once in human history. "Judging from what we know about the evolution of art all over the world, there may have been many traditions that were born, lasted for some time and then vanished," says Jean Clottes, former director of research at the Chauvet caves in southern France. "This may be one of them, most probably not the first and certainly not the last."
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