London, Mar 16: A series of parallel lines engraved in an animal bone between 1.4 and 1.2 million years ago may be the earliest example of human symbolic behaviour. University of Bordeaux experts say no practical process, such as butchering a carcass, can explain the markings. But many researchers believe the capacity for true symbolic thinking arose much later with the emergence of modern humans, Homo sapiens. The 8cm-long bone was unearthed at the Kozarnika cave in north-west Bulgaria. Another animal bone found at the site is incised with 27 marks along its edge. "These lines were not from butchering; in this place (on the animal) there is nothing to cut. It can't be anything else than symbolism," Dr Jean-Luc Guadelli, of the University of Bordeaux, France, told newspersons When early humans butchered animal carcasses for meat, they left cut marks on the bones made by the stone tools they used to scrape away the flesh. But the French and Bulgarian researchers who have been excavating at Kozarnika claim the parallel cuts on the bones are too precise to be the result of hacking at the animal to strip away meat. Many researchers see the capacity for symbolism in humans as something that only became widespread after about 50,000 years ago in our own species. Therefore, evidence of this capacity in an earlier species of human is highly controversial. "There's no precedent for this at all - if in fact they are incised markings rather than butchery marks. This would be a very welcome thing if it's confirmed," Paul Bahn, an expert in ancient art, told newspersons "I see a very long evolution for art and I see absolutely no credence in the view whatsoever that it magically appears with our sub-species through a genetic mutation," he added.
Bureau Report