Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe?
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0:01 - 0:03There's something about caves --
-
0:05 - 0:09a shadowy opening in a limestone
cliff that draws you in. -
0:10 - 0:13As you pass through the portal
between light and dark, -
0:13 - 0:16you enter a subterranean world --
-
0:16 - 0:22a place of perpetual gloom,
of earthy smells, of hushed silence. -
0:23 - 0:24Long ago in Europe,
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0:24 - 0:28ancient people also entered
these underground worlds. -
0:28 - 0:29As witness to their passage,
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0:29 - 0:33they left behind mysterious
engravings and paintings, -
0:33 - 0:39like this panel of humans, triangles
and zigzags from Ojo Guareña in Spain. -
0:40 - 0:43You now walk the same path
as these early artists. -
0:44 - 0:47And in this surreal, otherworldly place,
-
0:47 - 0:49it's almost possible to imagine
-
0:49 - 0:53that you hear the muffled footfall
of skin boots on soft earth, -
0:53 - 0:56or that you see the flickering of a torch
around the next bend. -
0:58 - 0:59When I'm in a cave,
-
0:59 - 1:05I often find myself wondering
what drove these people to go so deep -
1:05 - 1:09to brave dangerous and narrow
passageways to leave their mark? -
1:09 - 1:10In this video clip,
-
1:10 - 1:13that was shot half a kilometer,
or about a third of a mile, underground, -
1:13 - 1:16in the cave of Cudon in Spain,
-
1:16 - 1:18we found a series
of red paintings on a ceiling -
1:18 - 1:21in a previously unexplored
section of the cave. -
1:21 - 1:26As we crawled forward, military-style,
with the ceiling getting ever lower, -
1:26 - 1:29we finally got to a point
where the ceiling was so low -
1:29 - 1:31that my husband
and project photographer, Dylan, -
1:31 - 1:35could no longer achieve focus
on the ceiling with his DSLR camera. -
1:35 - 1:37So while he filmed me,
-
1:37 - 1:40I kept following the trail of red paint
with a single light -
1:40 - 1:44and a point-and-shoot camera
that we kept for that type of occasion. -
1:46 - 1:47Half a kilometer underground.
-
1:48 - 1:50Seriously.
-
1:50 - 1:53What was somebody doing down there
with a torch or a stone lamp? -
1:53 - 1:54(Laughter)
-
1:54 - 1:56I mean -- me, it makes sense, right?
-
1:56 - 1:57But you know,
-
1:57 - 2:01this is the kind of question that
I'm trying to answer with my research. -
2:01 - 2:04I study some of the oldest
art in the world. -
2:05 - 2:07It was created by these
early artists in Europe, -
2:07 - 2:10between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago.
-
2:11 - 2:13And the thing is
-
2:13 - 2:15that I'm not just studying it
because it's beautiful, -
2:15 - 2:17though some of it certainly is.
-
2:18 - 2:21But what I'm interested in
is the development of the modern mind, -
2:22 - 2:26of the evolution of creativity,
of imagination, of abstract thought, -
2:26 - 2:29about what it means to be human.
-
2:31 - 2:34While all species communicate
in one way or another, -
2:34 - 2:38only we humans have really
taken it to another level. -
2:38 - 2:40Our desire and ability
to share and collaborate -
2:41 - 2:43has been a huge part of our success story.
-
2:43 - 2:48Our modern world is based on a global
network of information exchange -
2:48 - 2:52made possible, in large part,
by our ability to communicate -- -
2:52 - 2:56in particular, using graphic
or written forms of communication. -
2:57 - 2:58The thing is, though,
-
2:58 - 3:00that we've been building
on the mental achievements -
3:00 - 3:03of those that came before us for so long
-
3:03 - 3:08that it's easy to forget that certain
abilities haven't already existed. -
3:09 - 3:11It's one of the things
I find most fascinating -
3:11 - 3:14about studying our deep history.
-
3:14 - 3:18Those people didn't have the shoulders
of any giants to stand on. -
3:18 - 3:20They were the original shoulders.
-
3:20 - 3:23And while a surprising number
of important inventions -
3:23 - 3:25come out of that distant time,
-
3:25 - 3:30what I want to talk to you about today
is the invention of graphic communication. -
3:31 - 3:33There are three
main types of communication, -
3:33 - 3:36spoken, gestural --
so things like sign language -- -
3:36 - 3:39and graphic communication.
-
3:39 - 3:42Spoken and gestural are
by their very nature ephemeral. -
3:42 - 3:46It requires close contact
for a message to be sent and received. -
3:46 - 3:50And after the moment
of transmission, it's gone forever. -
3:50 - 3:54Graphic communication, on the other hand,
decouples that relationship. -
3:54 - 3:58And with its invention,
it became possible for the first time -
3:58 - 4:01for a message to be
transmitted and preserved -
4:01 - 4:05beyond a single moment in place and time.
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4:05 - 4:07Europe is one of the first places
-
4:07 - 4:09that we start to see graphic marks
regularly appearing -
4:09 - 4:14in caves, rock shelters
and even a few surviving open-air sites. -
4:14 - 4:17But this is not the Europe we know today.
-
4:17 - 4:20This was a world dominated
by towering ice sheets, -
4:20 - 4:22three to four kilometers high,
-
4:22 - 4:25with sweeping grass plains
and frozen tundra. -
4:25 - 4:27This was the Ice Age.
-
4:28 - 4:29Over the last century,
-
4:29 - 4:35more than 350 Ice Age rock art sites
have been found across the continent, -
4:35 - 4:39decorated with animals, abstract shapes
and even the occasional human -
4:39 - 4:43like these engraved figures
from Grotta dell'Addaura in Sicily. -
4:43 - 4:45They provide us with a rare glimpse
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4:45 - 4:49into the creative world and imagination
of these early artists. -
4:50 - 4:51Since their discovery,
-
4:51 - 4:55it's been the animals that have received
the majority of the study -
4:55 - 4:58like this black horse
from Cullalvera in Spain, -
4:58 - 5:02or this unusual purple bison
from La Pasiega. -
5:03 - 5:08But for me, it was the abstract shapes,
what we call geometric signs, -
5:08 - 5:10that drew me to study the art.
-
5:11 - 5:14The funny this is that at most sites
-
5:14 - 5:18the geometric signs far outnumber
the animal and human images. -
5:18 - 5:21But when I started on this back in 2007,
-
5:21 - 5:25there wasn't even a definitive list
of how many shapes there were, -
5:25 - 5:27nor was there a strong sense
-
5:27 - 5:30of whether the same ones
appeared across space or time. -
5:32 - 5:35Before I could even
get started on my questions, -
5:35 - 5:37my first step was to compile a database
-
5:37 - 5:41of all known geometric signs
from all of the rock art sites. -
5:41 - 5:45The problem was that while they were
well documented at some sites, -
5:45 - 5:47usually the ones
with the very nice animals, -
5:47 - 5:51there was also a large number of them
where it was very vague -- -
5:51 - 5:53there wasn't a lot
of description or detail. -
5:53 - 5:56Some of them hadn't been visited
in half a century or more. -
5:57 - 6:00These were the ones
that I targeted for my field work. -
6:00 - 6:02Over the course of two years,
-
6:02 - 6:07my faithful husband Dylan and I
each spent over 300 hours underground, -
6:07 - 6:11hiking, crawling and wriggling
around 52 sites -
6:11 - 6:14in France, Spain, Portugal and Sicily.
-
6:14 - 6:16And it was totally worth it.
-
6:16 - 6:23We found new, undocumented geometric signs
at 75 percent of the sites we visited. -
6:23 - 6:25This is the level of accuracy
I knew I was going to need -
6:26 - 6:29if I wanted to start answering
those larger questions. -
6:29 - 6:31So let's get to those answers.
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6:31 - 6:36Barring a handful of outliers,
there are only 32 geometric signs. -
6:36 - 6:38Only 32 signs
-
6:38 - 6:43across a 30,000-year time span
and the entire continent of Europe. -
6:44 - 6:46That is a very small number.
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6:46 - 6:49Now, if these were random
doodles or decorations, -
6:49 - 6:51we would expect to see
a lot more variation, -
6:51 - 6:54but instead what we find
are the same signs -
6:54 - 6:56repeating across both space and time.
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6:57 - 7:01Some signs start out strong,
before losing popularity and vanishing, -
7:01 - 7:03while other signs are later inventions.
-
7:03 - 7:09But 65 percent of those signs stayed
in use during that entire time period -- -
7:09 - 7:13things like lines, rectangles
triangles, ovals and circles -
7:13 - 7:15like we see here
from the end of the Ice Age, -
7:15 - 7:19at a 10,000-year-old site
high in the Pyrenees Mountains. -
7:19 - 7:22And while certain signs
span thousands of kilometers, -
7:23 - 7:25other signs had much more
restricted distribution patterns, -
7:26 - 7:28with some being limited
to a single territory, -
7:28 - 7:30like we see here
with these divided rectangles -
7:30 - 7:32that are only found in northern Spain,
-
7:32 - 7:34and which some researchers have speculated
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7:34 - 7:37could be some sort
of family or clan signs. -
7:38 - 7:39On a side note,
-
7:39 - 7:43there is surprising degree
of similarity in the earliest rock art -
7:43 - 7:47found all the way from France and Spain
to Indonesia and Australia. -
7:47 - 7:52With many of the same signs
appearing in such far-flung places, -
7:52 - 7:55especially in that 30,000
to 40,000-year range, -
7:55 - 7:57it's starting to seem increasingly likely
-
7:58 - 8:02that this invention actually traces back
to a common point of origin in Africa. -
8:02 - 8:05But that I'm afraid,
is a subject for a future talk. -
8:05 - 8:07So back to the matter at hand.
-
8:07 - 8:11There could be no doubt that these signs
were meaningful to their creators, -
8:11 - 8:14like these 25,000-year-old
bas-relief sculptures -
8:14 - 8:16from La Roque de Venasque in France.
-
8:16 - 8:21We might not know what they meant,
but the people of the time certainly did. -
8:22 - 8:28The repetition of the same signs,
for so long, and at so many sites -
8:28 - 8:31tells us that the artists
were making intentional choices. -
8:32 - 8:34If we're talking about geometric shapes,
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8:34 - 8:39with specific, culturally recognized,
agreed-upon meanings, -
8:39 - 8:41than we could very well be looking
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8:41 - 8:45at one of the oldest systems
of graphic communication in the world. -
8:45 - 8:47I'm not talking about writing yet.
-
8:47 - 8:49There's just not enough
characters at this point -
8:49 - 8:52to have represented all of the words
in the spoken language, -
8:52 - 8:55something which is a requirement
for a full writing system. -
8:55 - 8:58Nor do we see the signs
repeating regularly enough -
8:58 - 9:00to suggest that they were
some sort of alphabet. -
9:00 - 9:03But what we do have
are some intriguing one-offs, -
9:03 - 9:08like this panel from La Pasiega in Spain,
known as "The Inscription," -
9:08 - 9:10with its symmetrical markings on the left,
-
9:10 - 9:13possible stylized representations
of hands in the middle, -
9:14 - 9:16and what looks a bit
like a bracket on the right. -
9:17 - 9:20The oldest systems of graphic
communication in the world -- -
9:20 - 9:25Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs,
the earliest Chinese script, -
9:25 - 9:28all emerged between 4,000
and 5,000 years ago, -
9:29 - 9:32with each coming into existence
from an earlier protosystem -
9:32 - 9:35made up of counting marks
and pictographic representations, -
9:35 - 9:38where the meaning
and the image were the same. -
9:38 - 9:42So a picture of a bird would really
have represented that animal. -
9:42 - 9:47It's only later that we start to see
these pictographs become more stylized, -
9:47 - 9:49until they almost become unrecognizable
-
9:49 - 9:52and that we also start to see
more symbols being invented -
9:52 - 9:55to represent all those other
missing words in language -- -
9:55 - 9:57things like pronouns, adverbs, adjectives.
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9:58 - 10:00So knowing all this,
-
10:00 - 10:04it seems highly unlikely that
the geometric signs from Ice Age Europe -
10:04 - 10:06were truly abstract written characters.
-
10:06 - 10:09Instead, what's much more likely
-
10:09 - 10:13is that these early artists
were also making counting marks, -
10:13 - 10:17maybe like this row of lines
from Riparo di Za Minic in Sicily, -
10:17 - 10:19as well as creating
stylized representations -
10:19 - 10:22of things from the world around them.
-
10:22 - 10:24Could some of the signs
be weaponry or housing? -
10:24 - 10:29Or what about celestial objects
like star constellations? -
10:29 - 10:33Or maybe even rivers, mountains,
trees -- landscape features, -
10:33 - 10:38possibly like this black penniform
surrounded by strange bell-shaped signs -
10:38 - 10:40from the site of El Castillo in Spain.
-
10:40 - 10:43The term penniform
means "feather-shaped" in Latin, -
10:44 - 10:47but could this actually be
a depiction of a plant or a tree? -
10:48 - 10:51Some researchers have begun
to ask these questions -
10:51 - 10:54about certain signs at specific sites,
-
10:54 - 10:59but I believe the time has come
to revisit this category as a whole. -
10:59 - 11:00The irony in all of this, of course,
-
11:00 - 11:05is that having just carefully classified
all of the signs into a single category, -
11:05 - 11:08I have a feeling that my next step
will involve breaking it back apart -
11:08 - 11:12as different types of imagery
are identified and separated off. -
11:12 - 11:14Now don't get me wrong,
-
11:14 - 11:16the later creation
of fully developed writing -
11:16 - 11:19was an impressive feat in its own right.
-
11:19 - 11:20But it's important to remember
-
11:20 - 11:24that those early writing systems
didn't come out of a vacuum. -
11:24 - 11:26And that even 5,000 years ago,
-
11:26 - 11:29people were already building
on something much older, -
11:29 - 11:33with its origins stretching back
tens of thousands of years -- -
11:33 - 11:37to the geometric signs
of Ice Age Europe and far beyond, -
11:37 - 11:40to that point, deep
in our collective history, -
11:40 - 11:44when someone first came up with the idea
of making a graphic mark, -
11:44 - 11:47and forever changed the nature
of how we communicate. -
11:47 - 11:49Thank you.
-
11:49 - 11:52(Applause)
- Title:
- Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe?
- Speaker:
- Genevieve von Petzinger
- Description:
-
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, rock art researcher and TED Senior Fellow 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.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:05
Emi Kamiya commented on English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? |
Emi Kamiya
Corrections:
5:11 - 5:14
The funny this is that at most sites --> The funny "thing" is that
8:39 - 8:41
than we could very well be looking --> "then"
10:13 - 10:17
maybe like this row of lines
from Riparo di Za Minic in Sicily, --> "Za Minica"
http://www.mammasicily.com/za-minica-cave.html
Thanks!